75 Years Ago – August 21, 1947
Softball league tied entering final week – The Recreation Department’s softball league for men is entering the final week of play with the Dux Club tied with the VFW for the No. 1 position. The Dux lost a very close game, and one of the better ball games of the season, to the Odd Fellows and dropped out of the undefeated class into a tie with the Vets.
The absence of Jim Archibald, the catcher for the Dux Club made considerable difference in the play of that team. On the other hand the Odd Fellows had a check-up in their lineup and fielded one of the strongest teams to appear during the present league season. The game was a nip and tuck affair until the sixth inning when the Odd Fellows managed to bunch several hits which were enough to give them a victory.
Insurance salesman wins trip to Ottawa – Oakfield – Charles L. Sprague, special agent in Oakfield for the John Hancock Life Insurance company, is the winner of a trip to Ottawa, Ontario, to attend the company’s National Leaders’ Convention to be held there this month as a result of having paid for a quarter of a million dollars in life insurance in the past year. This is only his second year in the ordinary life insurance business.
Hodgdon Boy Scouts hold ceremony – Twenty-one Boy Scouts from Troop 163 were presented Tenderfoot pins and membership cards at a ceremony held Friday evening at Mayo Hall. Assisting with the award exercises was George Haskell of Houlton, who presented the pins to the parents of the boys, from whom the boys received them. Of special note was the large attendance of parents at this meeting.
50 Years Ago – August 23, 1972
Five from area earn degrees from UM-Orono – Five residents of the Southern Aroostook area received degrees during the 146th commencement of the University of Maine at Orono Friday. Among the candidates for bachelor’s degrees were Frederick W. Brown II and Marcia King Jordan of Houlton, and Margaret G. Hoyt and William H. Manuel of Littleton. Candidates for advanced degrees included Susan Ruth Dahlgren of Mars Hill.
Sgt. Suitter is in Turkey – U.S. Air Force Sergeant Kenneth L. Suitter Jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth L. Suitter Sr. of North Road, Houlton, has arrived for duty at Karamursel AB, Turkey. Sgt. Suitter, an administrative specialist, is assigned to an Air Force support unit. He previously served at Castle AFB, California. The sergeant is a 1970 graduate of Houlton High School.
25 Years Ago – September 3, 1997
Houlton hiker reports ‘mission accomplished’ – There is a Japanese saying that “a wise man climbs Mt. Fuji once, while a foolish man climbs Mt. Fuji twice.” If that saying is true, Houlton’s Torrey Sylvester is a wise man. Sylvester recently climbed the nearly 12,000-foot Japanese mountain, located just west of Tokyo. While serving in the Navy in 1963-64, Sylvester lived in Japan, but never had the occasion to climb the mountain. On Aug. 16 and 17, Sylvester and a friend he made while visiting Vietnam a few weeks prior, Kotaro Ichikawa, made the trek up the mountain, a feat which took a total of 10 hours. “With Mt. Fuji, you climb straight up, but you zigzag, back and forth. It does get very steep towards the top, but it’s not a technical climb,” Sylvester said.
Linneus basketmaker opens gallery – When Eliane Logie first began taking basket making lessons from her daughter-in-law more than two years ago, she approached the task with considerable ease. It would be a hobby, one that she could have all to herself, with results that she could share with others. She never imagined that, after just eight weeks of classes, she would become addicted to the craft and would profit from it, as well. Logie, a resident of Linneus, recently opened her gallery of handmade baskets to citizens in the surrounding communities. Her quaint, rustic shop located within her Linneus home, is called Mainly Baskets. Logie, who had been working diligently to produce her goods since last April, initially had no intention to sell her baskets to others.
