10 years ago – March 6, 1998

(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

ORONO – Lapses – offensive, defensive, long, short – have been a fact of life this season for the University of Maine women’s basketball team.

When the Black Bears went scoreless for nearly five minutes to open the second half of the America East quarterfinal against Drexel, there was no panic.

Cindy Blodgett made sure the lull didn’t last. Blodgett scored 12 points in a three-minute span, sending the Bears on their way to an 84-59 rout in front of an announced crowd of 2,817 at Alfond Arena.

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BANGOR – When Karen McCall talks about “Gypsy” being performed by Bangor Community Theatre, she gets right to the point.

“I’m playing Momma Rose,” she said. “And I can really relate to the character. You spend your life being a good daughter, a good wife, a good mother and then you wake up and you’re 40. Your parents are gone and your husband has left you for his old girlfriend and the kids are grown up and you think, well, what’ll I do with me? Rose is the same way.”

McCall is an extraordinary woman. Simply put, she has grit.

25 years ago – March 6, 1983

EDDINGTON – If there are any special qualities that a town meeting moderator should have, they include a keen interest in parliamentary procedure and an innate sense of order. If most town meeting moderators did not possess those attributes, then annual town meetings, held in March in most communities, would turn into marathons of boredom and inefficiency. Norman Drew, 59, of East Eddington has the necessary qualities.

Drew has been his town’s moderator for so long that he has lost track of the time, saying his tenure has lasted somewhere between 15 and 20 years. He says he holds his town meetings to one and one-half hours, which may be a record in the state.

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NEWBURGH – Detective work is as vital as carpentry skill in restoring old buildings, according to a Newburgh carpenter and house restorer.

Heeding the clues of an old house can mean discovering original architectural features, said Robert Croul, who restored a 1790 house in Plymouth and helped dismantle and construct the 1834 Northern Light Grange Hall in Winterport.

Stripping layers of wallpaper might reveal the silhouette of a closet or the outline of molding, said Croul. Untouched attics or ells could provide clues about construction and yield a trove of original moldings, hinges or latches, removed but saved by thrifty previous owners.

50 years ago – March 6, 1958

HAMPDEN – Fire, of origin which was not immediately determined, leveled a large broiler house and claimed some 7,200 week-old chicks on the Kennebec Road.

Prompt arrival of Hampden firemen who used water from three trucks and also pumped from a nearby farm pond, enabled them to save the house and a nearby garage. The home sustained several cracked windows from the heat and was scorched on one end.

Fire Chief Clair Trask said that he had not determined what started the blaze. The Libby home is about two miles from Hampden.

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BUCKSPORT – Mrs. Dallas Green, who with her husband, the Rev. Dallas Green, has been a missionary in Southern Sudan under the African Inland Mission, was the guest speaker at a meeting of the Women’s Missionary Society of the Evangelical Baptist Church.

Mrs. Green spoke of their work in Southern Sudan, the people, beliefs, customs, women’s work and the medical work at their mission. She showed some curios brought from that country.

100 years ago – March 6, 1908

BANGOR – A five-story spring-bed and mattress factory is to be erected on Front Street opposite the lower end of the wharf of the Eastern Steamship Co. near South Street. A lot of land, 104 by 168 feet, has been purchased from Thomas Flannigan.

The high bank at this point, between Pleasant and Summer streets, will be taken away. There is considerable loam on top, which will be sold, and then the ledge will be blasted away to a level about the height of the floor of a freight car standing on Front Street tracks.

The concern at present has a factory on Linden Street, but is too far removed from shipping facilities to be comfortable, and the change will be most advantageous.

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CASTINE – W.S. Brown has dismantled the interior of his store and is hard at work changing it over to a dining hall. The back room has been fitted up as a kitchen and cook room while the commodious front room has been changed to an up-to-date dining room. Mr. Brown expects to fill these tables the coming spring with boarders from among the students at the Normal School, reserving one table for the use of transients.

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DIXMONT – Mr. Ben Simpson of Boston is in town this week loading a car with pressed hay to ship to Boston parties.

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OLD TOWN – Alexander Chamberlain will leave for Breslau, Canada, where he is to open a nickel theater. Mr. Chamberlain has two new machines for showing moving pictures and a large number of reels with films.

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SOUTH BREWER – Mr. and Mrs. George Powers of South Orrington are in this city and will spend several weeks with their daughters, Mrs. Florence Brown and Mrs. Harry Smith.

Capt. Frank Powers, a retired sea captain of the same town, accompanied them. Captain Powers was an able captain, much loved by all his employers. He has followed the sea all his life.

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BANGOR – The Utterback Brothers Co., carriage dealers, have taken the agency for the Invincible Schacht, a new model of motor runabout that is proving very popular west of here.

The model is a modification of a handsome buggy and a small runabout. The wheels are 36 inches and 40 inches, of hickory, with cushion tires. This feature saves a great expense in running as against pneumatic tires.

The manufacturers claim that it is the simplest, most practical, most efficient and most economical car in the world. It is now on exhibition at the spacious salesrooms of the company at 44-46 Broad Street. The car can attain speeds of from one to 30 miles per hour.

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BANGOR – These pictures, which were a hit in Lewiston, will be shown at the Nickel Theatre:

. “Caught at High Tide,” a beautiful story of the sea. The water effects will be remembered.

. “Willie’s Last Celebration,” an amusing sketch in which a precocious child prominently figures.

. “Papa Takes Up Physical Culture,” a take-off on a popular fad of the day.

. “An Excursion to the Moon,” one of the most elaborate, varied and richly colored pictures in modern magic ever devised. Bewildering transformations add to its beauty.

There were more people on Thursday than seats.

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BANGOR – Pictures at The Gem will give patrons a good long run for their money. All are worth seeing: “A Modern Hercules,” “Ups and Downs of a Hat,” “Your Wife is Unfaithful to Us,” “Tommy in Society,” “An Unpleasant Legacy” and “Crime in the Snow.”

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin