Yesterday …

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(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – Oct. 2, 1998

BANGOR – A week after its grand opening at the Airport Mall, Ames Department Store is planning to close its doors at the Broadway Shopping Center.

TJ Maxx, currently located in a smaller facility at the Broadway location, confirmed it has signed a lease to move into the Ames site.

Last week, Ames district manager Bob Noonan said company demographics warranted opening the second store.

Some 100 part- and full-time employees were hired for the new location.

There is no word as to how many people will lose their jobs at the Bangor Shopping Center store next spring.

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VEAZIE – Groundbreakings are traditionally large on symbolism, and for the Maine Independence Station, the $221 million gas-fired power plant, the symbolism emphasized the word “independence:”

. Independence for the state’s natural resource economy, long reliant on oil. The Veazie station will be one of the first to use the Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline, which promises a cheaper, cleaner-burning fuel for the region.

. Independence for Veazie’s economy. The huge investment in the town – one of the largest eastern Maine has seen in three decades – will allow Veazie to build a business park, a project that had been on the back burner for 20 years.

25 years ago – Oct. 2, 1983

BUCKSPORT – Like many distinguished photographers, Anne Elzas-O’Keefe came to photography by way of art.

Photography students 15 years ago had to pick up technique on their own initiative.

Elzas-O’Keefe, who uses a career in commercial photography as a foundation for her artistic photographs, was born in Algeria and spent her early childhood in Paris.

While she was pursuing her interest in art, her grandfather presented her and her sister with Kodak Brownie cameras.

After getting a bachelor’s degree in design from the University of Illinois at Chicago, she and her husband, John, an architect, “drifted to Maine” in 1970.

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BANGOR – A good month was reported for business in the Bangor area, according to a survey conducted by the College of Business Administration of the University of Maine.

Hotel and motel operators reported that August was the best month in five years, with an average occupancy rate of 93 percent – a substantial increase from the 82 percent rate of July. A 6-percent increase in restaurant sales and a 2-percent increase in personal bank loans from the previous month was further evidence of an increase in consumer spending in the area.

50 years ago – Oct. 2, 1958

October 6-13 has been proclaimed National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, according to Ray F. Sherman of the Maine Employment Security Commission in an address to the Brewer Kiwanis Club at the Penobscot Hotel.

It is an effort to bring home to the public in general and to local employers the ability of handicapped persons to provide faithful service in industry and to take part in community activities, Sherman stated.

He explained how the Maine Employment Security Commission gives extensive tests and tries to adapt the disabled person to the job, because experience has proven this to be the right approach.

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BANGOR – The luncheon and fashion show held by the Eastern Maine General Hospital Auxiliary in the Rococo Room at the Pilots Grill was attended by more than 300.

Rose King of the Rose King Distinctive Apparel Shop, commentator for the fashion show, was a good example of the fashionable woman and what she will wear for the coming season. She was charming in a black dress of exquisite design and black hat.

In the suits and coats category, mohair reigned supreme from the full coat to the slim or flared skirt which skips the natural waistline. Shown in this line was a coat with a cocoon back and belted front in black velvet, complemented with a squashy hat; and a jaunty brown suit with a beaver collar.

The most delightful fashions shown were the after-dark dresses and evening wear. In the former was the velvet dress with the vanishing waistline, blue wool jersey taffeta, a cognac with a scoop neck, French chantilly lace over peau de soie, a pure silk satin in sapphire blue and a black sheath with a black overskirt.

100 years ago – Oct. 2, 1908

EAST CORINTH – Earl Williams has returned from an extended trip through the great Northwest and the Province of Manitoba. He much prefers the Maine climate and people to any other he encountered on his journey.

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WINTERPORT – It seems as if summer is planning to come again since fruit plants are sending forth a second crop. C.S. Nason recently discovered a raspberry branch which had several large ripe berries, also a few green ones.

Mrs. Fairfield Cole one day last week picked three ripe strawberries from her cultivated plants and has a number of green ones and a few blossoms, something quite rare in these parts.

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BUCKSPORT – Wilmot Lockwood Greenleaf, who has resigned his position as superintendent and electrical engineer of the Penobscot Bay Electric Co., leaves for a short visit to his home in Boston. Mr. Greenleaf is a tech graduate and one of the youngest men to pass the rigid examination necessary to become a member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.

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CASTINE – S.D. Gray of Harborside rowed to Castine a few days ago, put a barrel of sugar in his boat and rowed back again, a distance of about two miles each way, which was a pretty fair stunt for a man of 86. It is just such work that has kept Mr. Gray young.

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CASTINE – Steamer Sieur de Monts made her farewell by numerous salutes of the whistle when she made her last trip of the season. Captain Foss has added many friends to his already long list by his courtesy. He has the reputation of always being on time and no accidents. This is his seventh season.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlink