Yesterday…

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10 years ago – Aug. 14, 1998

(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

BANGOR – Dan Cashman, Old Town’s only 20-year-old talk show host and a student at the University of Maine, has scored another programming coup.

Vince Bevacqua, (WYTV personality) whom Cashman has been trying to get on “The Nite Show” from the time it debuted last year, has finally consented to appear on WBGR-TV Channel 33, an independent UHF station which is broadcast on FrontierVision and State Cable.

Described by some as “Letterman Meets Wayne’s World,” Cashman’s half-hour program features mostly home-grown talent; however, he has pulled off such programming triumphs as landing basketball great Cindy Blodgett, Congressman John Baldacci and singer Don McLean as guests.

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BANGOR – Brenda Varney of Bangor and her 8-year-old Morgan mare, DM Fortune Cookie, competed in the fourth annual Paul Bunyan Summer Classic Horse Show at Bass Park in Bangor.

25 years ago – Aug. 14, 1983

BANGOR – The parsonage of Hampden Congregational Church is undergoing extensive renovations, both inside and out, in preparation for the arrival of the church’s new minister, who will assume pastoral duties in the fall.

Workmen who recently lifted the house and poured a new foundation are Josh Peppard, Earl Baker and Irving Stone. After the foundation is poured, the inside of the parsonage will be renovated.

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HAMPDEN – Lois Barclay and Kris McBean of Hampden never fancied themselves track coaches, but they are in their second year with what is now the Hampden Track and Field team, and they are meeting with a great deal of success.

The team members, ranging in age from 5 to 14, have been competing in weekly meets throughout Maine since June 29. Team members are Tammy Tripp, Sara Haggerty, Kim Pierce, Sue Bishop, Natalie McBean, Tonya Hamel, Carey Fisher, Lori Schacht, Ben Sherwood, Craig McBean, Scott St. Louis, Zack Connover, John Kinz, Tiffany Hamel, Joel Kamm, Karyn St. Louis, Jenny Winslow, Tamai Alpander, Gabby Kamm, Kim Kamm, Joel Ellis, Noel Jackson, Jay Smith, Brian Pierce, Leigh Ann Barclay, Erin Crowley, Jenny Williamson, Erika Johnson, Mike Williamson, Pat Kamm, Brent Leighton and Rob Blackmer.

50 years ago – Aug. 14, 1958

BANGOR – “The Naked and the Dead,” the film version of Norman Mailer’s novel of World War II, opens at the Bijou Theatre.

Heading the cast are Aldo Ray, Cliff Robertson, Raymond Massey, Lili St. Cyr and Barbara Nichols. The troupe from Hollywood spent two months shooting in the green jungles and mountains and on river and beach settings in Panama with the all-male company. Scenes with famed stripper St. Cyr and Barbara Nichols were done at the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, Calif.

Gravel-voiced Ray, who frequently has played soldier roles, believes his Sergeant Croft role to be the most forceful of any he has done.

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BANGOR – The formal opening and dedication of the new chapel at Dow Air Force Base will be held Sunday with the principal address given by Maj. Gen. Terrence P. Finnegan, chief of Air Force chaplains.

Special music will be supplied by Wilfrid Tremblay, formerly organist with the world famous Boston Pops Orchestra, now organist at All Souls Church in Bangor.

The benediction will be given by Rabbi Avraham Freedman of Congregation Beth Israel in Bangor.

The chapel is situated in one of the most beautiful locations on top of the hill overlooking the entire base.

As you walk through the front doors of the chapel, which seats 350, you enter the narthex leading into the chapel proper.

The massive cedar ceiling is supported by huge laminated trusses shipped to Dow from Oregon. The floor, carpeted in gray wool, accents the beautiful oak interior in driftwood gray.

100 years ago – Aug. 14, 1908

BANGOR – The most violent electrical storm to hit Bangor since the memorable early morning of June 8, 1892, swept the entire Penobscot valley between 4 and 9 o’clock Thursday evening.

Lightning struck eight times in Bangor, once in Brewer, and fragmentary reports, coming in as fast as crippled wires will permit, show the storm to have been equally severe from the western to the eastern boundary of the state.

From a high point, the storm’s near approach was magnificent. The sky, up to the zenith, was packed with a solid mass of ink-black clouds rent constantly by lightning, and at the immediate moment of the storm, a thick haze settled over the city. The atmosphere was absolutely flat. It was hard to breathe and nobody knew exactly what to expect.

Everybody waited for a fire alarm – and it came. At 6:36 p.m., box 53 at the corner of Somerset and Center streets began to ring, followed at 6:39 by box 75 at the corner of Stillwater Avenue and Grove Street. The storm was at its height, flash following flash without interruption, and the thunder crashing and roaring in one long peal.

The alarm from box 53 was for a brisk fire in the substation of the Bangor Railway and Electric Co., the “brains” of the whole electric system in Bangor, Old Town, Brewer, Charleston, Corinth and Hampden.

Three lightning bolts came in, one after the other; the third wrecked the wiring leading to the switchboard. Lightning arresters held the first two bolts, but no safe-guards were ever invented that could hold the bolts of a storm like the one that was raging. The room was afire and the crew raced for assistance. When the firemen arrived, electricians would not let them in until the current had been turned off from Veazie station, as death was lurking in every nook and corner. No one at the substation was burned or seriously hurt.

Almost at the same instant the power station was struck, a bolt hit the house of Augustus Smith on Elm Street near Mount Hope Avenue, setting it on fire. It was put out with small damage.

The heaviest loss falls to Charles O. Richardson, who owned a splendid set of buildings about four miles out on Broadway. Lightning hit the barn, set it afire and burned the buildings flat, together with 10 cows, four horses and 75 tons of hay.

A barn belonging to Murtagh Hughes on Third Street was struck, the bolt tearing out a big door, but not setting a fire. Martin Hughes, Roy Turner and George Cobb were sitting near the door and all were slightly dazed, Cobb knocked speechless for 10 minutes.

The First Congregational Church in Brewer was struck, the bolt tearing off a few shingles and running down a gutter pipe into the ground.

It didn’t clear until 11 o’clock, but at that hour the moon was sparkling from an atmosphere that was clean as a hound’s tooth. The air was cool and sweet and we seemed to be living in a new world.

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OLD TOWN – Old Town was visited by a electric storm that has seldom been equaled in violence. Big banks of black clouds commenced to gather early in the afternoon and around 5 o’clock there was a brilliant display of lightning followed by resonant thunder claps. The rain came down in torrents. The lightning was sharper and more vivid than ever was seen around this neck of the woods and little girlies were hiding their heads and screaming for mother.

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BUCKSPORT – The lawn party given by the ladies of the Benevolent Society of the Elm Street church was a great success. The grounds were beautifully decorated with many electric lights placed throughout the grounds, making scene in the evening a brilliant one.

In a prettily decorated booth, the young ladies served lemonade to a large number.

At a real campfire, a picturesque addition to the pleasing scene, Capt. Alvah Dow served steamed clams.

The Bucksport Band, ever popular from their station on the side of the grounds, made things merry in the evening with their music.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin