Yesterday…

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10 years ago – Nov. 13, 1998

(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

VEAZIE – For the second time in a week, a resident has reported seeing an animal fitting the description of a mountain lion outside his front window in a small field off Route 2. But with no snapshots or tracks to help identify the elusive beast, officials remained wary of jumping to conclusions.

The animal was described as “good-sized,” around 100 pounds, with butterscotch-colored fur and a long tail.

25 years ago – Nov. 13, 1983

ORONO – John E. Mills of Eddington, a student in the College of Forest Resources management program, has been selected to receive the 1983-1984 Dwight B. Demerritt Forestry Award at the University of Maine.

The Demerritt scholarship is presented annually to an outstanding student in forestry or wildlife. A senior this year, Mills is coordinator of the college’s Forest Action Program, a student group in charge of arranging hands-on field experiences for undergraduates in the college.

He is a member of Xi Sigma Pi, the forestry honor society, the UM Forest Fire Attack Team and the student chapter of the Society of American Foresters.

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BANGOR – What started out as a long shot to attract people to the Bangor Civic Center appears in just four years to have become a tradition with a statewide reputation.

At least that is the feeling that Joseph Pate, executive director of Bass Park Corp., had about the Cavalcade of Crafts show.

Pate said the idea for the show had faced three obstacles. First, city councilors were “apprehensive of a city operation being involved in entrepreneurial activity and the attendant risk.” Second, there was concern by area crafts organizations that the show might glut the market. And finally, individuals with crafts seemed hesitant to exhibit at the new show.

When the doors opened on the new show, 1,000 people were waiting to enter, Pate recalled. By the end of the weekend, 12,000 had visited the show.

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NEWBURGH – A hundred years ago letters were the way people talked long-distance.

Weekly letters were like a continuing conversation, said Robert Croul of Newburgh, an avid letter writer. Letters also were used to express artistic and literary talent.

Croul said penmanship was important and letters often were decorated with romantic calligraphy.

Virginia Nees-Hatlen uses letter writing in both composition and literature classes at the University of Maine. She finds than it is easier for students to relax when writing a letter. Writing letters makes students focus on their audience, which is necessary for success, she said.

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BANGOR – Religious people from the area, the state and elsewhere are registering for Tikkun Olam – To Mend the World – a conference to explore Christian-Jewish relations.

Participants will hear from two men with worldwide reputations. Dr. Emil Fackenheim is a Judaic scholar who has written on Jewish-Christian relations since the Holocaust, and Dr. Jurgen Moltmann is a German scholar of Christian theology.

“We feel that the issues are really important for society at large,” said Rabbi Joseph Schonberger of Congregation Beth Israel of Bangor.

The workshop leaders will be Warren Green, director of the St. Louis Center for Holocaust Studies; and Douglas Walrath, a professor of Christian education and church consultant at Bangor Theological Seminary.

50 years ago – Nov. 13, 1958

BANGOR – The Bangor Figure Skating Club will present a half-hour ice show, “An Exhibition in Waltz Time,” at the Bangor Auditorium.

The show will open with a group ensemble skating to the beautiful rhythms of “The Merry Widow Waltz.”

A duet, Rose Blake and Dixie Howell, will provide more entertainment as they leap and glide to the enchanting “Waltz of the Flowers” from “The Nutcracker Suite.”

Katie Rice and James Osgood will waltz to “The Emperor Waltz.”

Chick Baker and his daughter, Betty Gray, will do their interpretation of the “Skaters’ Waltz.”

Fred Lawrence and Harry Folster, the Mad-Caps of the Ice, will really tear up the ice as they perform to “Dolores.”

The popular “Blue Danube” will be the background music for solo performances by Leo Nadeau, Rose Blake, Harry Folster and Peter Slager.

100 years ago – Nov. 13, 1908

BUCKSPORT – The tug Sommers M. Smith, Capt. Dobbin of Rockland, arrived in port having in tow the sloop C.H. Edwards.

They will commence the work for laying the cable for the Penobscot Bay Electric Light Co. across the Penobscot River from Verona campground to Prospect, by which they will transmit electric power from the plant at East Orland to Frankfort and Stockton Springs. They have a diver with them to see that the cable has a proper resting place. He also will make the proper connections on the shores.

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BREWER – A most amusing incident occurred recently in one of Brewer’s school rooms when a pupil had been kept after hours to write a composition of 450 words.

He wrote as follows: “My uncle had an automobile,” and continuing, he used about 50 words ending with, “Going out into the garage one day, my uncle could not get the machine to go. This makes 50 words – the other 400 words are those my uncle used in describing the automobile and are not fit to put into this composition.”

The boy was allowed to depart to the football field.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin