A highlight of my recent trip back home was a tour of the Thomas A. Hill Historic House of the Bangor Museum and Center for History.

I had called the museum earlier about a 1940s-era towel from the Penobscot Exchange Hotel, then located on Exchange Street. The museum curator, Dana Lippett, told me they would welcome the towel for their collection, as they had only a postcard of the hotel from 1935. The story of the towel’s discovery in my attic and how it came to be there now resides with the towel.

The tour provided for my Bangor cousin and me by Frank Appleby of the museum was extremely informative and entertaining. He brought the past to life so well that as we left the house and its past behind, we found ourselves reluctant to return to the present. I encourage anyone who has not visited the Thomas A. Hill House to call 942-5766 to arrange a tour.

Of all the clippings from the BDN I brought back, I have two favorites: the Aug. 20 editorial, “A Treasury End Run,” disparaging the Treasury Department’s “economic warfare” against Iraq as a deterrent to necessary diplomacy, and the Aug. 21 article by Nok-Noi Ricker, “Orrington planning board approves ‘green’ cemetery,” including the use of nontoxic embalming fluids and biodegradable caskets.

Both the editorial and the article present the only way to go. Thank you for all the pleasant and thought-provoking reading material.

Byrna Porter Weir

Rochester, N.Y.