(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – May 29, 1998

ORONO – Cindy Blodgett hasn’t spent much time in her 21st floor downtown apartment since arriving in Cleveland earlier this month.

The former University of Maine basketball star has toiled for up to six hours per day during two weeks of double sessions as she battles for a spot in the lineup of the WNBA’s Cleveland Rockers.

Projected as a shooting guard when taken sixth overall by the Rockers in last month’s WNBA draft, Blodgett has quickly returned to point guard.

Cleveland Rockers coach Linda Hill-MacDonald has discovered Blodgett is not only a prolific scorer, but a heady point guard. She almost seems surprised at the level of Blodgett’s floor generalship.

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OLD TOWN – Dr. Mark McCullough keeps pickled frogs in his office. A biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, he’s usually in charge of protecting endangered species. However, he is helping to document nationwide the phenomenon of the appearance of malformations in amphibians, or deformed frogs.

While the state has no plans to conduct a study or survey of the deformed frog phenomenon, the Sunkhaze National Wildlife Refuge in Old Town will be part of a study being conducted by the National Wildlife Health Center, based in Madison, Wis.

25 years ago – May 29, 1983

WINTERPORT – Billy Whittaker, 12, and Rene Higgins, 12, both of Winterport, got a look at newspapering as they put the finishing touches on their respective reviews of the new movie, “The Return of the Jedi.” Higgins is the editor of the Smith School Times. Whittaker writes for the school paper.

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BANGOR – One day in the summer of 1982, Carolyn Mooney, a Bangor homemaker, hairdresser, musician and mother of three adult sons, took stock of her life and decided she wanted to do something more.

She was interested in journalism, but when she found out the University of Maine couldn’t offer her the night courses she wanted, she applied to the New England School of Broadcasting in Bangor.

Convinced the school was exactly what she wanted, she began attending classes there three nights a week during the winter. In the spring, she interned for 12 weeks as a news writer and reporter for the Bangor television station, WABI-TV Channel 5.

Mooney does not fit the stereotype of the middle-aged woman going through empty-nest syndrome. If she fits any image, it is that of the sophisticated newswoman-on-the-go – and on the rise.

Mooney’s internship with WABI brought her under the wing of Gordon Manuel, news director. She spent her required 96 hours of internship, eight hours per week, learning how to write television news.

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ORONO – An exercise in improving reading skills has developed into an experience in theater for a dozen third-graders at Asa Adams School.

Using a method of encouraging reading skills by having children first dictate stories and then read their own words, Bob King, a student teacher working at the school, suggested that reading students dictate parts of a play to him.

The script, “The Mouse and the Alligator,” came out so well that King had the youngsters learn their parts, design sets and costumes, and print programs and invitations for a performance.

Participating in the fantasy about a magic mouse, a storm, a brave alligator and a community that recognizes a hero too late were Paul Devoe, Joy Ruth Brown, Larry Burningham, Chip Frey, Tring Dang, Oliver Lucia, Chouan Strongin, Wayne Robertson, Ricky Taylor, John Grindle, Valerie Barrow and Lori Denis.

50 years ago – May 29, 1958

BANGOR – Mrs. Ruth Olsen Dority, student health supervisor for the Eastern Maine General Hospital, who is retiring after 24 years of service at the hospital, was honored at a farewell tea at the Nurses’ Annex by her associates at the EMGH.

The affair was arranged by the faculty of the school of nursing at the hospital.

Mrs. Dority first came to the EMGH as an anesthetist in 1923 and served in that position until 1929 when she was appointed assistant superintendent of nurses, a post she held until 1937 when she left the hospital to be married. Mrs. Dority returned to the hospital in 1948 in her present capacity. She is planning to spend her retirement at her home in Sedgwick.

Miss Mary E. Ambrose, R.N., anesthetist at the EMGH, on behalf of the hospital personnel, presented Mrs. Dority with a purse of money to purchase a TV set for her home. Miss Claudia Blackstone of Caribou, in behalf of the student nurses, presented Mrs. Dority with a TV lamp.

100 years ago – May 29, 1908

PROSPECT – The marriage of George Crockett of Prospect and Mrs. Verala Campbell of Bangor was solemnized at high noon on May 20 at the home of the groom. The bride was attended by her sister, Miss Gilbertie Call of Bangor, and Maurice Ginn was best man.

The happy couple were the recipients of many pretty presents, among which was a fine piano from the bride’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. L. Alfred Call of Bangor, and a farm already stocked from the groom’s father, King Crockett.

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BUCKSPORT – The fishing fleet of T.M. Nicholson is about ready for the trip to the Grand Banks and all will clear within a few days. The schooners in the fleet are Hiram Lowell, Elizabeth N., M.B. Stetson and T.M. Nicholson.

Another addition to the motor boat fleet has been made by Clarence Trevett, who has recently purchased a beauty. She is 31 feet long, 6 feet in the beam and has a cabin long enough to accommodate a small party. She is fitted with an 18-horsepower Norfolk engine and can make 20 miles an hour, so it is claimed.

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ORONO – The lecture entertainment, “An Evening in Birdland,” illustrated by stereopticon views and bird calls, was enjoyed by an appreciative audience at the Orono Methodist Episcopal Church.

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CASTINE – Edward H. Carpenter’s dog, Rab, interviewed a hedgehog. It took two doctors two hours to relieve him of the many points he gathered.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin