(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – Sept. 23, 1994

BANGOR – It was out of the necessity of making a living that a young, ambitious artist named Martin Nodell created a larger-than-life hero for an America that was coming out of the Great Depression and would soon be entering into World War II.

The hero that would come from his imagination, the Green Lantern, would undergo many changes and incarnations over the decades. And although Green Lantern sometimes faded into the background as story lines were moved on and off the shelf, he has become one of the most enduring of America’s superheroes.

It is Green Lantern’s popularity that has kept Nodell, 79, and his wife, Carrie, busy beyond retirement, drawing and touring the country where he’s featured at conventions and book signings. Nodell will be one of a number of artists appearing at Nostalgia-Con at the Bangor Civic Center.

25 years ago – Sept. 23, 1979

ORONO – “You must recognize what you work is right now,” Audre Lorde, a well-published black poet from Staten Island, was telling a gathering in an afternoon session of the recent Women in the Arts symposium at the University of Maine.

With a fine confidence, an easy dignity and a certain authority, Ms. Lorde was sympathetic to the question of what one should do with his life.

“You must ask yourself,” she said, “where you feel the most power in your life you’re leading. Bread (practicality) and roses (spirituality) are equally necessary. What is needed is self-definition. The function of art is not to respond to a situation but to create division. If we do not dream, we do not move.”

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ORONO – In a society that is becoming increasingly technical, women are being kept out of many jobs and discouraged from pursuing many college majors because they lack adequate training and mathematics.

That was the problem presented at the University of Maine by an authority in the field, Dr. Elizabeth Fennema of the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

The problem women have learning math begins early, said the speaker at the research seminar. “Boys tend to be encouraged to be mechanics but the girls are encouraged to play in a dull corner.”

A dull corner is where women will remain unless things change because an adequate grasp of mathematics is essential today to qualify for many jobs, civil service work, the military, and to meet college entrance requirements, according to Fennema, an associate professor of mathematics education.

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BANGOR – What is an effective school?

Is size important? How much does spending matter? Should teachers be progressive or traditional? Is community involvement important?

Wayne Reilly, NEWS education writer, has received a two-month fellowship from George Washington University’s Institute for Educational Leadership in Washington, D.C., to examine the question of school effectiveness with special emphasis on rural education.

Reilly is one of seven education reporters nationally who will study and write articles on the subject as it relates to their states. The grant money is provided by the National Institute of Education.

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BANGOR – The four-day annual meeting of the Baptist Bible Fellowship, a coalition of Baptist preachers who have an impact on the lives of an estimated 100 million people, will get under way Monday night at the Bangor auditorium.

The Rev. Herman “Buddy” Frankland, pastor of the sponsoring Bancorp Baptist church, said the meeting is expected to attract upward of 3,000 ministers and laymen from throughout the country.

Preregistrations have been received from each of the 50 states, Mr. Frankland said. Never before in the history of the northeastern part of the United States have there been pastors and educators from the 50 states assembled together at one time in one place, he said.

50 years ago – Sept. 23, 1954

BANGOR – Students at the Fifth Street Junior High School who are taking algebra and Latin for the first time this fall will have help and understanding from their parents following a meeting held at the school.

Thirty-five parents attended the meeting which was addressed briefly by Miss Helen Rankin, teacher of Latin and H. True Trefethen, algebra teacher.

Parents of pupils taking Latin and algebra were advised that no student need spend more than a half-hour daily on either subject, since the work is begun in the classroom. Seven study periods also are given each week to every pupil.

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HAMPDEN – The cafeteria at the Hampden Consolidated school is completed and hot lunches are being served daily to more than 370 children.

To accommodate all the children three settings are necessary and lunches served from 11 to one o’clock.

Working in the kitchen where the meals are prepared by the following staff: Mrs. Olin Andrews, Mrs. Mary Murray, Mrs. Lillian Leeman and Mrs. Rachel Littlefield.

A typical meal consists of meat, mash potatoes, hot vegetable, bread and butter, fruit or dessert and milk. The cost to the children is 25 cents a day and the balances subsidized by the state.

Patricia McLeod, a first-grade pupil, was the first child to be served in the new cafeteria on opening day.

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BANGOR – The City of Bangor health and hospital advisory committee went on record as approving the principle of adding fluorine to the city water supply. The group met at City Hall with its chairman, Dr. Robert O. Kellogg, presiding.

The group issued the following formal statement at the conclusion of the sessions:

“This committee concurs with the American Medical Association and the United States public health service in endorsing fluoridation of public water supplies. Concentrations of fluorine in amounts up to one part of fluorine to one million parts of water has shown no adverse effects on anyone living in it aerial where such a supply is consumed. The fact that many people have lived for generations without ill effects in areas where fluoride naturally occur in amounts greater than the recommended concentration testifies to the safety of this dosage. The evidence that fluoride in the recommended concentrations is effective in preventing dental cavities is impressive. It is therefore recommended that the citizens of Bangor adopt the public health measure as a positive step in the prevention of chronic disease, dental cavities.”

Serving on this committee with Dr. Kellogg are: Dr. William A. Purinton, Dr. Eugene Brown, Dr. James A. Elliott, Alfred A. Frawley, Thomas Hersey, and Mrs. Rowland G. Dolley.

100 years ago – Sept. 23, 1904

BANGOR – “The way of the Transgressor” is a play that will do far more good than many a sermon, for it impresses all who see it with the truth of that adage, “People learn more in a minute from actual observation than they can from months of study,” and one act of a good melodrama like this will teach more than all the talking of preachers or moralists.

One of the powerful features of the play is the introduction of the quartet of dog actors that will play parts in a manner that will show they possess reasoning powers as well as the highest degree of education. They are the four Landseer dogs educated and developed by William T. Stephens, which made such a marvelous record in England playing a 12 weeks engagement in London. They are truly canine thespians and will astound people who do not know how highly a dog can be educated.

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ORONO – The senior class of Orono High School will hold one of their enjoyable dances at Monitor hall this evening. Edward Larson of Bangor, whose bright, spirited music would almost cause a table to prance, will furnish the dance music.

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BANGOR – Bangor music lovers will be pleased to learn that Alfred A. Farland, the most talented banjo player who has appeared in Bangor within recent years, will play a return engagement in the Memorial Parlors.

It is impossible to describe Farland’s art, for the reason that we are necessarily out of the pale of human standards. It is no longer the banjo that we hear in Farland’s hands, but the violin, the cello, the harp, and even the more mellow of the brasses and woodwinds. But more than this, we hear the human voice.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin