(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – July 19, 1997

BANGOR – After two days underwater, the crane that fell from the Joshua Chamberlain Bridge was lifted slowly out of the Penobscot River and gently lowered to a waiting barge.

As an audience of hundreds looked on, the top of the red and black cab of the Reed and Reed Inc. crane began to emerge. Scuba divers had removed the sunken crane’s boom before another crane was used to lift the cab from the river.

Crowds of people, most of them local but many here for vacations or business, gathered on the riverbank for two consecutive days in hopes of seeing a little history in the making.

A couple of men here on business from Kentucky were surprised that an industrial accident could draw so many spectators.

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BANGOR – Through summer and winter, spring and fall, Paul Bunyan stands just off Main Street, greeting gawkers and camera bugs from far and near. How about – just for a few days – covering up part of that plaid shirt with a T-shirt?

As you might have guessed, it’s not a plain T-shirt that’s being proposed. A white T-shirt proclaiming “Welcome to Bangor, Mr. Imus!” is what Martha T. Dudman has in mind.

Dudman, the president of Dudman Communications, which counts among its three radio stations WWMJ-FM 95.7, carrier of the nationally syndicated “Imus in the Morning,” is asking permission to dress up Paul.

The “I-Man” will be broadcast live over 100 stations nationwide from the Bangor Civic Center on Oct. 21.

25 years ago – July 19, 1982

“Just as finishing a stack of themes in English composition carries a certain satisfaction,” said Judith Hakola, a member of the University of Maine English Department, “so creating a wall hanging or even a sweater can be extremely satisfying.”

As chief organizer for a show at the University of Maine’s Carnegie Hall Gallery, Hakola was chiefly responsible for synthesizing the materials that comprise it.

A member of the Maine Guild of Spinners and Weavers for 10 years, Hakola emphasizes the fact that it is a largely amateur enterprise.

Although she decried somewhat the lack of variety, the exhibit runs from shawls, scarves, kimonos, sweaters and such to rugs, place mats and hangings. Anything that is not woven must be handspun. One knit sweater is made of the hair of a Malamute, a decided curiosity.

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ORONO – Alumni of the University of Maine, in record numbers, contributed $613,900 to the coffers of the General Alumni Association, according to national campaign chairman William Johnson.

At year’s end, the number of contributors stood at 9,777, the highest one-year surge in new givers since the start of the 21-year-old fundraising program. Each graduate sent an average $63 gift.

Johnson attributes the success of the campaign to more than 600 student and alumni volunteers who directed nationwide “phonathons” and a reunion fundraising program which collectively brought 1,956 new givers to the University through the annual alumni fund. When the campaign was established in 1961 to raise money for UM and for alumni programs, the first year-end total was $60,000.

50 years ago – July 19, 1957

BANGOR – June busted out all over with brides and bridegrooms in Bangor.

The City Clerk reported the second-highest number of marriage licenses issued in the history of the city, 76. That figure was exceeded in 1946, right after the end of World War II, when 96 licenses were applied for in June.

June is definitely the marryingest month of the year. No other month can hold a candle to it. Of course, the brides are as pretty in other months but there are just more of them in June. As for the bridegrooms, they are nervous at the time and are merely a statistic at any wedding just as they are to the City Clerk.

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BANGOR – For those of us who have often thought that we would be practically “speechless” if we ever managed to get onto one of the prevalent national TV quiz shows, we have the answer. We would be! The authority for the answer is none other than one of the former contestants on the “$64,000 Quiz Show,” Gino Prato, 58, of the Bronx, N.Y., who is stopping at the Bangor House here.

Thousands of people in Maine will remember Mr. Prato as the very handsome, peppy “cobbler” who knew so much about the subject “opera” and walked off the program in August 1955 with $32,000, and last November, when challenged on the same program, won himself $16,000 more.

While in Bangor, Mr. Prato, who started learning to be a cobbler at age 6 1/2, stopped in at Thomas Woods’ Shoe Fixery and showed folks that he hasn’t gotten rusty.

100 years ago – July 19, 1907

WINTERPORT – The severe thunderstorm of a week ago played many pranks without much damage. At the residence of Frank Cole, the charge of electricity entered through the telephone wires, pursuing a zigzag course around the room, tearing the wallpaper as with a blunt instrument.

In traveling across a curtain pole, it burnt a large hole in the curtain. Also, plaster was thrown to the opposite side of the room. The electricity followed down picture cords and again across the wallpaper until it finally stopped and disappeared as mysteriously as it came.

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ORONO – The first serious automobile mishap to occur in this vicinity happened in Orono Monday afternoon. The only news that Bangor received of it was a telephone message to the police station that Frank Sinclair of that town had been run down and his left leg had been broken by a car that was as big as a mountain and traveling like a shadow.

Whoever telephoned said that owing to the great speed at which the car was going, the cloud of dust that was following and the gases from the exhaust prevented the number from being taken, nor were any of the occupants recognized.

There have been several accidents since the automobile craze swept the town, causing teams to break away, but this is the first one in which anyone has been seriously injured.

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CASTINE – The tug Lottie & May, accompanied by several boats, has been at work for several days at the scene of the accident to the sloop Ruth Cumnock in Penobscot Bay, trying to find some trace of the boat or the bodies of the unfortunate boys who were lost, but as yet without success.

Notices have been posted here of a reward of $25 for the finding of each one of the bodies. Also, a notice that all information in regard to the finding of any traces of them be left with J.M. Vogell, here, as there have been so many conflicting rumors sent in, only news from this source will be noticed.

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ORONO – There were two runaways in Orono Monday noon. An aged woman, accompanied by a little girl, was driving up Main Street in front of J.H. Webster’s residence when the horse became frightened at the electric cars and started to run.

The car struck the carriage, taking one wheel off. The car stopped, the woman bravely held the lines, while the horse ran about 100 yards, overturning the carriage and throwing the occupants to the ground. Beyond a few bruises they were uninjured, but the carriage was demolished. It was fortunate that the accident was not more serious, as the woman and child were thrown heavily onto the car track.

Across the river near the Webster approach to the bridge, William Sinclair was driving to Orono and his horse was startled by a passing automobile. The horse was unmanageable and tipped the wagon over. Mr. Sinclair was thrown out and sustained a broken ankle.

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FRANKFORT – Work at the quarries remains about the same, only about 100 men are at work.

Robert McKay, who has been attending school at Andover, has gone to Europe for the summer. While there he will make a tour of Germany in an auto. He returns in September when he will attend Harvard.

George C. Alley claims to be the first one to cut a whole farm of hay and put it in the barn before July 12, of any of the farmers in the district.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin