(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – Feb. 16, 1996

BANGOR – Sean Faircloth, Bangor’s freshman state senator, said he has joined a crowded field of Democrats seeking their party’s U.S. Senate nomination.

The 35-year-old lawyer made no secret of his ambitions.

Known as an aggressive campaigner who spent one term in the House before moving on to the Senate, Faircloth becomes the fifth Democrat in the race. He joins former Gov. Joseph Brennan, Portland lawyer Richard Spencer, Falmouth businessman Jerald Leonard, and former journalist Jean Hay of Bangor.

Also competing for the seat that is being vacated by Republican U.S. Sen. William Cohen are three Republicans, a Green Party candidate and two independents.

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ORONO – They called themselves the Bad News Bears. It’s sort of a natural moniker. After all, they were representing the University of Maine.

Their mission? To design and build the fastest concrete toboggan. To eliminate the competition.

The race course? About 300 meters long, straight down the side of a capped landfill in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Their competition? Let’s see. There was the Batmobile which streamed smoke from its “exhaust pipes.” And the Loch Ness Monster piloted by a group of Highlanders in kilts. And the Thunderbird sled crewed by ’50s-era greasers.

The occasion? It was the 22nd annual Great Northern Concrete Sled Race. The competition between engineering students from universities in Canada and the United States is held each year in Canada at a different university.

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HERMON – Step by step, stride by stride, the “stranger” slowly followed the seventh-grade girl around, gently asking her questions in a masqueraded attempt to build trust.

With a wary look the girl kept backing off from the predator, staying one step away during the minute-long exhibition. Yet after a few moments of just talking, the “stranger” lashed out and grabbed her wrist.

Child safety and pedestrian safety were the topics of the day at the Hermon Middle School gymnasium as an estimated 200 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders got a refresher course in how to be safe in a volatile and sometimes dangerous world.

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BANGOR – Imagine being a conductor when most of the band isn’t even in the building with you. That analogy works for City Clerk Gail Campbell as she ponders the March 5 presidential primary.

“Orchestrating” is how she describes the task of city clerk on election days, as some 60 election workers are spread out among eight polling sites and City Hall.

This will be Campbell’s first election as city clerk, having been approved for the position by the City Council Monday evening. But the process is not new to her. She already has been through a number of elections as deputy clerk, and has the assistance of both the election workers and veteran staffers Mary Ellen Sullivan and Shelby Sutherburg in the city clerk’s office.

25 years ago – Feb. 16, 1981

BANGOR – Phil Emery’s Bangor High swimmers harnessed the water power in Penobscot Valley Saturday afternoon at Husson College and easily floated to the PVC championship by amassing 309 points to Old Town’s 2221/2.

While the first places were not plentiful for the Rams, winners in four events, the depth factor manifested itself in nearly all the events for Bangor as Emery’s boys scored abundantly.

50 years ago – Feb. 16, 1956

STATE OF MAINE – Very few of the 196 midshipmen aboard the Maine Maritime Academy training ship State of Maine had ever heard of the port of Oranjestad, Aruba, but after the three-day visit, it is safe to say that it will be difficult for any of them to ever forget it.

Activity during the three-day visit to this island of the Netherlands Antilles started on the arrival of the ship in port with a six-man press conference and lasted until the ship departed for Bridgetown, Barbados.

Receptions for the officers and midshipmen were held at the home of the American consul and the lieutenant governor of Aruba. Tours to the Lago refinery, a visit with the Royal Netherlands Marines, a dance at the Aruba Livoli Club, the crowning of the carnival queen at the Sports Stadium, basketball and baseball games, and the grand carnival parade through the streets of Oranjestad were among the activities.

Hundreds of people of Aruba visited the ship during her stay. Many businessmen visited the ship to view the display of Maine products.

Despite a frenzy of activity, ship’s work continued at a normal pace. A new coat of paint on the hull showed off the State of Maine at her best.

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BANGOR – “Give Me Tomorrow” was the subject of the Rev. E. Charles Dartnell as he spoke at the Class of 1956 capping ceremony at the Eastern Maine General Hospital School of Nursing. Thirty-five young women received their caps from Miss Mabel Booth, director of nursing.

“Tomorrow is a door,” Mr. Dartnell said, “but you will open it like a safety deposit vault, with two keys.” Mr. Dartnell said that in the nursing profession these two keys are education and service.

He told the girls that they should take their training in a manner to bring honor and respect to those who have been instrumental in the training, honor to the hospital, and honor to themselves and their profession.

The nursing profession, Mr. Dartnell said, is one which definitely characterizes usefulness. He said that man can be reduced to nothingness through uselessness.

100 years ago – Feb. 16, 1906

BANGOR – A largely attended and very enjoyable Valentine party was given by the Woman’s Relief Corps in the GAR Hall, Columbia Street. The affair was a decided novelty in many ways, all of the decorations being heart-shaped, and miniature hearts stamped on the tickets of admission.

A feature of the evening was a guessing contest for a handsome cake baked by Mrs. Langee of the New York Cooking School – the cake being awarded to the person coming the nearest in weight. Speculations were hazarded all the way from 3 pounds 6 ounces to 15 pounds, but the exact weight, 5 pounds 9 ounces, was told by Warren Jordan, who was declared the winner.

Another cake, heart-shaped, was sold at auction.

Preceding the guessing contest, there was a pleasing musical program in which Mrs. Felker and the Misses Flynn sang, and Mrs. Langee gave recitations.

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BUCKSPORT – Capt. William Riox who has been on duty on the steamer Penobscot is off duty for the next month, his place taken by Capt. Curtis. Capt. Riox is at George Eldridge’s for a visit.

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ORONO – One of the worst storms of the winter raged all day Thursday, and the no-school signal was blown in the morning and again at noon to the great relief of all concerned.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin