(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – Oct. 9, 1998

ORONO – You don’t have to cross oceans on wooden rafts as Thor Heyerdahl did 50 years ago to see how changes in climate caused early people to move about.

There’s evidence right here in Maine, anthropology professor David Sanger told a group of scientists gathered in Orono for the first official meeting of an international group founded by Heyerdahl to promote the discussion and research into cultural origins.

Heyerdahl gained international fame for sailing a raft made of balsa and dubbed Kon-Tiki across the Pacific to show that ancient people could have made the same voyage. He sat in the front row of Minsky Recital Hall at the University of Maine as Sanger described how changes in Maine’s forest helped determine how the state was settled.

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BANGOR – When American writer John Steinbeck drove 10,000 miles around America, the trip he described in “Travels with Charley,” he got lost and depressed in Bangor, found no words to describe Deer Isle and started west from Aroostook County because “it seemed to give the journey a design.”

Larry Woods, a CNN correspondent, came down out of The County and slept over at Bangor’s Fairfield Inn. Over a bowl of Apple Jacks and a banana, he talked about his efforts to retrace Steinbeck’s journey this fall, 38 years later.

Steinbeck was 58 when he made his trek to get back in touch with the heartland. Woods is 62. Steinbeck drove in a pickup truck with a camper top, called Rocinante, after Don Quixote’s horse. Woods and his three-member crew – producer, editor, cameraman – cruise in a larger, more eye-catching vehicle, a 32-foot Fleetwood RV painted red, white and blue.

25 years ago – Oct. 9, 1983

BANGOR – Special education is on the move – and some 1,000 educators, consultants and others converged on Bangor for the first Northeast International Symposium to prove it.

Encompassing the visually impaired, the hearing impaired, the mentally retarded, the emotionally disturbed, the learning disabled, the physically handicapped, the gifted and talented, the speech and language disordered and other health impairments, the conference at Bangor Civic Center has addressed itself largely to discussing and perhaps solving the problems confronting special education in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, and in Atlantic Canada.

The philosophy here and in Canada is that a child should remain in the proximity and influence of his own home if he or she is to function well. Only the radically handicapped should be institutionalized.

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OLD TOWN – When the worst of winter is upon us, boilers in Old Town’s school buildings will burn four gallons of fuel oil for every 10 they burned a decade ago.

Since the first Arab oil embargo, the Old Town school system cut its oil consumption by 58 percent, and there are no solar panels sunning themselves on school rooftops, no ground-water heat pumps churning away in the basements.

The strategy in Old Town is old-fashioned conservation.

In a recent report to the school board and city council, Superintendent John Grady credited the savings to more insulation, tight-fitting double pane windows, insulated window drapes, ceiling fans and boilers that extract more BTUs from every gallon of No. 6 heating oil.

Despite improvements, it is a lesson in economics that a system using 58 percent fewer gallons of fuel oil should spend three times more money on the bottom line. The 252,000 gallons burned in 1972 cost about $24,000; 105,000 gallons burned in 1982 cost about $75,000.

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BANGOR – As Beth Abraham Synagogue prepares to celebrate its 50th year on York Street, Rabbi Henry Isaacs believes that the community has exhibited a marked increase in members’ attempts to learn more about their faith.

A commemorative journal tracing the Jewish community in Bangor from the 1840s through the present has been published. For 23 of those 50 years, Isaacs has been the spiritual leader.

According to the journal, which was edited by Norma Weiner Berg, “In 1902, Eli Striar, David Pinchos Striar, Hyman Striar, Shel David Striar, Sam Taines, Sam Gass, Sam Bell, Harry Viner and Gimpel Morris were among the 10 men who felt it was time to start a new synagogue, which would be more analogous to their way of life. With nothing more than their beliefs, they rented several upstairs rooms in a house on Pine Street.”

There the seeds for the next generation of Orthodox Jews were sown.

According to the NEWS files and the journal, it was 1907 when the first shul, or synagogue, was established in a small building at 37 Carr St.

50 years ago – Oct. 9, 1958

ORONO – Town Manager Ronald Clifford said burning leaves along Main Street would be prohibited this year.

In the past, the practice has created a traffic hazard because of the amount of smoke along the elm-lined thoroughfare.

Police were asked to enforce the regulation. A permit is necessary from the Orono fire chief for burning leaves. The permit will not be issued for that purpose along the Main Street right-of-way.

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OLD TOWN – A second Old Town man has applied to the Zoning Board of Appeals for permission to operate a 100-unit mobile home park on College Avenue in Stillwater.

The board was notified last week of a Superior Court hearing to consider an appeal of their denial of a similar request made by Hildreth Nickerson.

The most recent request was made by Norman Brilliant, 350 South Main St., who is seeking to lay out and operate the park on land owned by Nickerson on the easterly side of College Avenue and adjacent northerly to Nickerson’s proposed mobile home park.

Brilliant’s proposed trailer park would be located 1,000 feet from the road on the former Cunningham Farm land.

100 years ago – Oct. 9, 1908

HOLDEN – Through the courtesy of Mr. Charles Hart, some 50 of his friends were permitted to enjoy a genuine, old-fashioned corn husking, an event very rare these days.

The long barn floor was filled on one side with corn and the merry party of huskers sat before it, throwing the husks to one side and the corn into crates. Lanterns were hung overhead and the scene was truly festive.

Red ears were frequently found and the penalty invariably exacted. [Ed. note: The red ear of corn entitled the finder to kiss a lady or gentleman of his or her choice.]

After the corn was finished, supper was served from tables set up in the spacious shed and all were loud in praise of Mrs. Lucy Hart’s culinary skill. Games followed, including the old “Copenhagen,” and the party broke up at a late hour.

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CASTINE – The Castine Water Co. still has a large crew of men and teams working on its reservoir and has laid pipe from High to Perkins street. This will afford a better supply of water for many of the cottages and will give a measure of fire protection.

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BREWER – Loren H. Thompson has leased the building on Wilson Street formerly used as a fish market and is preparing to move his printing office equipment from upper Wilson Street. Mr. Thompson has added to his presses, type, etc. in a manner enabling him to meet the demand of his rapidly increasing business.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin