Students named to the University of Vermont dean’s list

The following students have been named to the dean’s list at the University of Vermont, in Burlington Vermont:

Devin Beckim and Melissa Petersen, both of Augusta; Kayla Christopher, of Oakland; and Delaney Curran, of Skowhegan.

Growing up in Augusta: Priceless

Pages In Timeby Milt Huntington

Our family moved from Belfast to Augusta when I was a mere 10 years old. I knew Augusta was the capital of Maine, because every time we drove through town to visit out-of-state relatives, my parents would wake me up to see the State House dome.

The only other thing I knew about Augusta was the fact that it was the home of a mental hospital which, back then, was commonly called an insane asylum. I experienced a few nightmares before moving here about crazy people walking the streets. When our moving truck pulled up at our new home on Swan Street, my bicycle was the first thing to be unloaded. That drew the attention of the kids in the new neighborhood who would soon become my childhood friends.

I was small. My bike was a 22-inch affair compared with the 31-inch bikes most kids had. That seemed to fascinate the Swan Street gang with the exception of one guy who didn’t accept this new kid on the block. That was OK with me. I didn’t accept him either. He was a grammar school football hero who became bigger than life when he broke his nose. We got into a fight over some exchange of words, and a lot of fists were flying back and forth. I don’t remember any of them making a serious connection, and we never fought again. He became my closest friend from that day on.

What a neighborhood! A family with five kids lived next door. Down on nearby Gage Street, there was another family with five, plus another Gage Street boy who would also become a life-long friend. We played street hockey using a tin can for a puck; All-y, All-y Over, which involved throwing a ball over the roof of a house and Ring-A-Lebo which was sort of like hide-and-seek. We also played Mother, May I, which involved taking giant strides or baby steps when you remembered to ask: “May I?” and Red Light, a game where the person who was “it” shut their eyes and counted to ten while the others tried to sneak up and tag him before the “it” person said: “Red Light”.

We stole apples, broke a few street lights on Halloween and played football on the approach road to the new Memorial Bridge before it got paved. As a matter of fact, while the bridge was under construction, a few of us walked out on the steel work one night and made our way across the river. After making it safely to the other side, I remember remarking to my friends: “Hey! We beat the governor across!” A KJ reporter heard the remark and printed it in the next day’s news.

Swan Street was located right behind the Hartford Fire Station, and provided a neat short cut through its alley on the way downtown. The fire whistle sounded loudly every night at 9 p.m. to signify curfew time for the younger set. There were times when we would be cutting through the alley way when the whistle would blow and frighten us about ten feet off the ground. There’s no curfew anymore. I wonder why the 9:00 whistle continues to blow? Right beside the fire station, two nice men named Frank and Howard worked at a small shoe repair shop. We hung out there because we liked it when they teased us half to death. We thought we were kind of tough. They laughed and called us “pansies.” We were also firemen wanna-be’s, and pestered them a lot.
I always liked walking down Rines Hill when the trains passed under the bridge. Once, we stood there as a smoke-spewing locomotive went underneath. We were covered with black soot as we leaned on the soot-smudged railing, and we had to go home to get cleaned up. The marvelous old brick railroad station at the bottom of the hill would see some of us come and go from the Korean War. The next place down Water Street was Frank Turcotte’s shoe repair and shoe shine parlor where “Our Gang” would go on Sunday mornings after getting all gussied up for church or some such thing. Next to the shoe shine shop was the coolest store in town–the Depot News. A really nice guy named Joe Kaplan ran the place and provided a second home for all us kids who played his pin ball machine for a nickel a game. All the downtown merchants were good to us kids.

We always stopped at Joe’s on the way to the movies at the Capital or the Colonial theater to load up on candy bars. It was also the place to buy comic books. Between the Depot News and the Capital Theater was a nice little store that sold fruits and vegetables. When I was flush, I used to buy a quarter pound of cherries there to eat in the movie theater.

Next to the fruit store was Partridge’s drug store, where we pigged out on ice cream sodas and chocolate malts or milk shakes, often referred to as chocolate velvets. In my high school days, I would work there as a soda jerk. I even took two years of Latin at Cony High in preparation for a career as a pharmacist. Didn’t happen! My high school year book prophesized that my writing would take me far in the literary world. Yeah, right! All the Way to the Capital Weekly and Kennebec Journal, in Augusta.

Getting back to the movie theaters, the Capital provided all the B-Class movies, westerns and such in black and white. It did have a weekly serial, however, which drew us in every weekend without fail. The serials ranged from Superman to Flash Gordon to Tom Mix and The Shadow. The feature was often Gene Autry, Roy Rogers or the Three Musketeers, starring John Wayne as Stony Brooks and Bob Steele as Tucson. I forget who the third one was – somebody very funny, but forgettable. My first ticket at the Capital cost me 12 cents. What a shock one day when it jumped all the way to 20 cents. We used to horse around noisily a lot at the movie theaters, and it was something to brag about to get ejected at least once during our young lives.

Down at the other end of the street was the old Colonial Theater where Class-A pictures were shown. On Sunday, after week-long previews of coming attractions, we would be rewarded with musical extravaganzas starring Esther Williams, Bing Crosby or Jane Powell in living color or flicks like Casablanca, The Wolfman or war movies like Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. The Colonial played their movies continuously so we could sit through a good movie twice for the price of a single ticket.

Once in a cowboy thriller, an Indian chief, played by blue-eyed Jeff Chandler, stood in the middle of a pow-wow session, folded his arms and dramatically declared: “I walk away!” “Our Gang” had seen the movie once, but we stayed for a second showing to get back to that pow-wow scene again, when we stood in the theater, one by one, folded our arms and declared to the rest of the audience: “We walk away. People call them punks today. We were harmless “hooligans” then.”

On the way home from the Colonial was Ed Houdlette”s Drug Store which was known to have a particularly vulnerable pin ball machine. We hung out there a lot because Mr. Houdlette was also nice to us.

Water Street is what I like to call a street of dreams because it conjures up so many memories of shops and businesses that vanished with our youth. Remember the five- and ten-cent stores that anchored the center of down town Augusta – McLellan’s, Kresge’s and Woolworth’s. We had ‘em all. I was a stock boy and soda jerk for the Kresge operation, but it suvived anyhow for awhile.

Then of course, we had JCPenny, D.W. Adams, Chernowsky’s, the Army-Navy Store, Lamey-Wellahan, Montgomery-Ward and Sears & Roebuck. A jewelry store graced the corner of Water Street and Bridge Street – A.J. Bilodeau’s. Another one sat on the corner between Farrell’s Clothing Store and the post office. It displayed a sign with a picture of a diamond ring. The caption stated: “I came here to talk for Joe,” a popular World War II love song. Speaking of Farrell’s, it once boasted just a single aisle between two counters with a little space downstairs where I bought all my Boy Scout gear and a tux for the senior prom. Nicholson & Ryan Jewelers was always there, it seems.

Near the botom of Rines Hill was a liquor store where my father and grandfather liked to surreptitiously shop. They would always leave their change with the Salvation Army lassie who parked out front. Once, running an errand for my mother, I dropped some change into the lassie’s tambourine. When my mother questioned me about that, I replied: “That’s what Papa and Grampy always do.”

On the other end of Water Street were the beer parlors which gave the neighborhoods a shoddy reputation. Across the street was Allen’s Grocery Store. a fish market and Berry’s Cleaners. Depositor’s Trust Co. on Haymarket Square was on the ground floor of a six-story affair which is now the site of the Key Bank building. We’re talking ancient history, I know, but who can ever forget Stan Foster’s Smoke Shop next to the old Hotel North. He specialized in meals, smokes and some real great pin ball machines. Near the Depot News was Al’s Barber Shop which took care of ducktail haircuts and crew cuts in the early years. His partner and relative bought him out and opened Pat’s Barber Shop at the other end of Water Street near the lights.

Swan Street and Water Street have undergone a lot of change in the last 60-plus years or so. Downtown was the main thoroughfare to all those movies, and it was the pathway to Cony High before the new bridge opened up. Most of those downtown places are now long gone, but the memories (some a little fuzzy now) will remain forever. I wouldn’t swap those memories for anything. Growing up in Augusta was as good as it gets.

Read Part 2 here: Growing up in Augusta: Priceless (Conclusion)

Milt Huntington is the author of “A Lifetime of Laughter” and “Things That Make You Grin.”

Lasell College announces dean’s List for fall 2016

Lasell College, in Newton, Massachusetts, has announced that Benjamin Allen, of Augusta, and Vincent Marchesi, of Waterville, have been named to the dean’s list for outstanding academic achievement during the Fall semester of the 2016-17 academic year.

Owen named to fall dean’s list at ENMU

Brittanie Owen, of Augusta, has been named to Eastern New Mexico University’s dean’s list for the fall 2016 semester, in Portales, New Mexico.

 

KHS January program on researching house history

Did you ever wonder about the history of your house? When was it built and by whom? Did George Washington or Abraham Lincoln sleep there? We will discuss how to utilize existing land and other records to reconstruct the past of your house and learn about past occupants. Included will be an overview of the registry of deeds and other sources, strategies for identifying and extracting pertinent information and tips for dealing with “stone walls” and other problems.

Our speaker, Richard Bridges, is a Maine native and a graduate of the University of Maine and the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law. He has been a practicing attorney since 1983, concentrating on real estate and probate law. He also serves as an Adjunct Instructor at Central Maine Community College and as a research consultant for the Augusta Historic Preservation Commission.

The Kennebec Historical Society January Presentation is free to the public (donations gladly accepted) and will take place on Wednesday, January 18, 2017, at 6:30 p.m. at the Lithgow Public Library, Community Meeting Room, located at 45 Winthrop Street in Augusta.

Richard Bridges homestead. Contributed photo

Kennebec Behavioral Health cited

CARF International announced that Kennebec Behavioral Health has been accredited for a period of three years for all of its programs and services including the agency’s newest service – Behavioral Health Homes. The latest accreditation is the fifth consecutive Three-Year Accreditation that the international accrediting body, CARF, has awarded to Kennebec Behavioral Health.

This accreditation decision represents the highest level of accreditation that can be awarded to an organization and shows the organization’s substantial conformance to the CARF standards. An organization receiving a Three-Year Accreditation has put itself through a rigorous peer review process. It has demonstrated to a team of surveyors during an on-site visit its commitment to offering programs and services that are measurable, accountable, and of the highest quality.

CARF is an independent, nonprofit accrediting body whose mission is to promote the quality, value, and optimal outcomes of services through a consultative accreditation process that centers on enhancing the lives of the persons served.

“We are extremely pleased with our survey results,” said Thomas J. McAdam, chief executive officer of Kennebec Behavioral Health. “It is an indication of our commitment to excellence in all areas of KBH, including care delivery, operations and finance.”

Kennebec Behavioral Health is a non-profit health-care organization that has provided mental health and substance abuse services and supports in central Maine since 1960. KBH operates clinics in Waterville, Skowhegan, Winthrop and Augusta and has three vocational clubhouses located in Waterville, Augusta and Lewiston. For more information, or to schedule an appointment for any KBH service, call 1-888-322-2136. Information can also be found at www.kbhmaine.org.

KHS December program features trees

Most of our birds are migratory. They come and go and you must be on the alert to see them at the right time and place. Most of our flowers have only a brief blooming period. You must look for them at a certain time of year if you wish to find them in all their beauty and fragrance. But the trees we always have with us. With them there is no hurry. They stand there summer and winter, year in and out, in all kinds of weather. Many have been standing for more than a century. This presentation is to introduce them and rouse the observer’s interest to the large, breathtaking trees around us. We are fortunate to have two “National Champions,” the largest of a particular species in all the United States. Maine has more than 160 different kinds of trees.

If you look at a group of 100 trees in a small area, you will see at least 10 different species.

The presenter, Duane Prugh, graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a degree in electrical engineering. He is now a semi-retired computer consultant. For the past 15 years, he has been teaching at several of Maine’s Senior Colleges, taking local seniors on field trips to explore dozens of these sites. There is so much to see in our own state, and his goal is to get our senior students out of their homes for day trips to explore sites in Maine that most people don’t know exist.

The Kennebec Historical Society December presentation is free to the public (donations gladly accepted) and will take place on Wednesday, December 14, at 6:30 p.m., at the Augusta City Center, located at 16 Cony Street in Augusta.

Nadeau Chiropractic welcomes Dr. Tyler Barnes

Nadeau Chiropractic & Wellness Center announces the hiring of Dr. Tyler Barnes as of September 26. Dr. Barnes is currently accepting new patients.

Dr. Barnes received his degree in biology from the University of Maine at Orono and obtained his doctorate in chiropractic from New York Chiropractic College. Dr. Barnes provides safe and effective chiropractic care that is individualized and patient-centered. He has worked extensively with collegiate athletes and has a special interest in the treatment and management of sports-related injuries. Dr. Barnes is a participating member of the Maine Chiropractic Association as well as the American Chiropractic Association. He has experience working collaboratively with other health care professionals in effort to provide integrated care resulting in the best possible outcome.

Dr. Barnes is a Maine native and has spent the last four years practicing in Farmington. He resides in Belgrade, with his partner Jenna and is excited to transition to the Kennebec Valley area. His hobbies include snowboarding, hiking, fishing, and exploring the great outdoors. Additionally, Dr. Barnes is an active board of director for L.E.A.P, a local nonprofit that assists people with intellectual, physical and emotional disabilities.

Nadeau Chiropractic & Wellness Center is located at 3 Health Dr., in Augusta. For more information or to schedule an appointment with Dr. Barnes please call our office at (207) 623-0720.

Smith to address KHS

This talk will focus on a new book, Maine Sporting Camps, written by George Smith and published by Down East Books, including a history of the camps. Maine once had over 300 sporting camps. Nearly all are only memories today. Yet, at the remaining camps, as Smith explains, “History meets hospitality at Maine sporting camps today.

George Smith

George Smith

While they were once rustic and remote, today’s camps offer more comfort and convenience, but it is still the wild Maine outside the cabin door that attracts many of us.” Smith will also talk about his book, A Life Lived Outdoors.
George A. Smith, of Mount Vernon, has done a lot of things in his life, from writing comprehensive plans for rural Maine towns to managing statewide referendum campaigns. He served as executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine for 18 years, growing the membership from 4,000 to 14,000 and making it one of the state’s most influential organization. For 13 years, George hosted, with his friend Harry Vanderweide, a unique television talk show called Wildfire.

The Kennebec Historical Society November Presentation is free to the public (donations gladly accepted) and will take place on Wednesday, November 16, at 6:30 p.m., at the Maine State Library, located at 230 State Street in Augusta.

Kaplan University’s nursing students stage mock casualty training exercise with local police, fire

Local police and fire departments, in collaboration with students from Kaplan Univer­sity’s  bachelor’s in nursing program, participated in a mock mass casualty training exercise late last month on the University’s Augusta campus.

The day-long event provided an opportunity for emergency personnel to evaluate response time and effectiveness when dealing with similar situations and allowed them to identify areas for improvement in their approach.  The mock scene involved evaluating preparedness, responsiveness, and community coordination while helping students achieve course objectives in community and public health nursing.

Fire and rescue personnel participate in a mock disaster response. Internet photo

Fire and rescue personnel participate in a mock disaster response.
Internet photo

Nearly 100 participants played important supporting roles in the training, but only a handful of leaders knew of the details providing a very realistic experience.

Lieutenant Kevin Lully of the Augusta Police Department said, “On behalf of the Augusta Police Department and City of Augusta, we are pleased to be able to share in this type of proactive and team-oriented networking.  The utilization of police and fire services, incorporated with the eagerness and energy of Kaplan University students resulted in a very dynamic and diverse training.  Although this particular training event has been in the planning stages for the past couple months; given recent national events, the timing could not be more appropriate. We look forward to our on-going partnership with Kaplan in the future.”

As part of the Community Health Nursing course at Kaplan, students learn the various roles nurses play in the community including collaborating with community partners, evaluating processes/procedures relating to community needs, and educating based on needs of individuals as well as communities.

Dr. Shannon Packard, director of nursing for Kaplan University’s Maine BSN program, added “The amount of planning and collaboration that goes into an event like this really affords students an opportunity to implement the nursing process from a different perspect­ive.  Collaborating with community partners, planning and implementing within a group also strengthens teamwork skills, leadership skills, and communication skills.  All necessary skills within the nursing profession.”