(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – Oct. 4, 1997

BANGOR – Poppy Davis may wish she’d never gone to work that autumn morning 60 years ago. Safely home, she could have relaxed while others described the day gunfire rattled downtown and only have imagined the terrible excitement.

But there she was, ready or not, standing in the window of the Paramount Cafe with a ringside to Bangor history. It was Tuesday, Oct. 12, 1937. It was the day gangsters Al Brady and Clarence Lee Shaffer Jr. died in a shootout on Central Street in Bangor.

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BANGOR – Baldness.

Ever since members of the John Bapst Memorial High School soccer team shaved their heads two weeks ago, they have been 3-1 after opening their season with five straight losses. The Crusaders are now 3-6.

“This has really worked for the guys,” said John Bapst coach Louis Janicki, who also submitted to the electric razor. “We’ve turned things around since we shaved our heads.”

Aside from shaved heads, the Crusaders relied on dependable fullbacks Mike Lynch and Nate Waring to hold off the Hawks after John Bapst had a 1-0 advantage at the half.

25 years ago – Oct. 4, 1982

BANGOR – After a chase through a downtown neighborhood, Bangor police shot and killed an adult 350- to 400-pound black bear that had climbed an elm tree on First Street near Cedar Street.

The bear had frightened local residents and led the police on a chase in an area between Union and Cedar streets before being treed. The police attempted to contact the Maine Warden Service to acquire a tranquilizer gun but received no response from wardens.

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ORONO – Sheep from a farm in Mount Chase will go to college at the University of Maine.

Thomas and Susan Sheehan, who have been raising sheep for 10 years, recently sold 15 ewes and lambs to the university. The newly acquired sheep will serve as foundation stock for possible re-establishment of a commercial flock at the Orono campus.

The Sheehans have been raising sheep primarily to market the wool and meat, as well as for their own interests. According to Tom Sheehan, his wife, Susan, began crossbreeding sheep to develop a hybrid that was easier to keep and that showed a stronger resistance to disease.

The sheep will be used primarily for teaching purposes.

50 years ago – Oct. 4, 1957

BANGOR – Books for home use were issued at an average rate of 13 a minute during 288 business hours at the Bangor Public Library in September. Librarian L. Felix Ranlett said that a total of 23,071 books were issued during the 12-hour, six-day-a-week winter schedule in September.

This is an increase of 15 percent over September of last year and a 25 percent increase over September of 1955, he said.

Ranlett said that the Extension Department issued 964 books to patients at the Eastern Maine General Hospital and distributed 174 schoolroom boxes to various schools, each with 35 to 50 books.

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BANGOR – Dr. Burton H. Throckmorton Jr., newly installed Hayes Professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Bangor Theological Seminary, has made a unique contribution to the field of church literature in his new presentation of “Gospel Parallels,” a book widely used for the last eight years in colleges, universities and theological seminaries.

The book contains the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke in parallel columns according to the English translation of the Revised Standard version of the New Testament published in 1952, now in accepted use by most Protestant churches.

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HAMPDEN – Two workmen narrowly escaped death when buried under several tons of sliding sand at the city of Bangor asphalt plant in Hampden.

William D. Scovil, 32, and Richard Hay, 18, employees of the Bangor Public Works Department, spent nearly two hours entombed deep in the bottom of a sand chute while an estimated 19 tons of sand hung menacingly above their heads.

Both men escaped serious injury in the ordeal but were treated for shock and minor bruises at Eastern Maine General Hospital.

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BANGOR – The Bangor and Aroostook Railroad will be featured in the December issue of the nationally circulated Railroad Magazine. The story, written by well-known author Charles Morrow Wilson, is titled “Gateway to the North.”

Mr. Wilson’s article cites the fact that this railroad has the only woman dining car superintendent in the country, Mrs. Doris C. Rosen.

He also brings out the fact that it is the only Class I railroad entirely within a single state – and more than half its mileage within a single county.

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BANGOR – A Calypso theme was used for the fall membership dinner meeting of the YWCA. Calypso music from “Island in the Sun” was played and decorations for the tables and dining room were done in Calypso style. Dressed in the style of the theme for the evening and serving as waitresses were senior high Y-Teens Josephine Craig, Elizabeth Demmons, Joyce Lundgren, Barbara Bridgham and Judy Shaw.

100 years ago – Oct. 4, 1907

GLENBURN – Mrs. William Megguire has recently had a new piano placed in her home.

Melvin Megguire and son have recently purchased a new hay press.

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WEST WINTERPORT – Among those who recently have had telephones installed are Elmer H. Clement, line 38, ring 15; Charles Emerson, line 34, ring 16; Henry Larabee, line 34, ring 14; and Sears Littlefield, line 34, ring 3, all in the New England Co.

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ORONO – Mr. Cyrus Winch and family have moved from Bangor and taken up residence in Orono. Mr. Winch is a taxidermist and collector of specimens in the natural history department at the University of Maine.

During the past summer, Mr. Winch had been in the woods and fields a great part of the time. He secured many fine specimens of bird and animal life of Maine, which he will mount in his own inimitable style. They will be added to the museum of natural history, which the university hopes to equal that in any of the colleges in the country in a few years.

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BUCKSPORT – Arthur McCormick and John Bridges, accompanied by two Boston friends, were out in the back part of town after birds. They returned in the evening with a string of 11, four partridges and seven woodcock.

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BUCKSPORT – Walter R. Soper is having his boat building on Main Street put in thorough repair. He is having the outside painted, the roof repaired and is making many improvements and changes in his workshops. He is having new iron working machinery put in, and changed over his boiler and engine and wood-working machinery so as to give him more floor room in which he can set up his power boats, for which he now has a hand on a number of orders.

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BANGOR – Carl N. Dearborn and Miss Alice E. Black, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Black, were married at the home of the bride’s parents on Kenduskeag Avenue. The Rev. T.W. Fessenden was the officiating clergyman.

The bride was attended by her nieces, Misses Edith and Ruth Black, who acted as flower girls.

The bride was handsomely attired in a gown of white French organdie trimmed with Valenciennes lace. She carried a bouquet of bride’s roses.

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CASTINE – The local G.A.R. post, through the generosity of R.H. Carpenter, is in receipt of a set of books comprising 31 volumes and containing the complete records of the movements of the Union and Confederate forces during the War of the Rebellion. These books will be of inestimable value to the post as reference books.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin