1994 Children of the Athol Day Care program celebrated the 220th birthday of the legendary Johnny Appleseed at Red Apple Farm in Phillipston. Johnny Appleseed was born John Chapman in Leominster on Sept. 26, 1774.
Three weeks of learning and patient waiting paid off for Ellen Bigelow first graders as they had two Monarch butterflies emerge from their chrysalises this week. Students met the monarch caterpillars on the first day of school and watched them form cocoons about a week later.
For the third year in a row, Chris Mailloux has taken home the top prize at the Franklin County Fair in Greenfield for her blue ribbon winning afghan. It will be offered as a prize at Our Lady Immaculate Fair.
Firefighters from the Orange and Erving fire departments recently drilled on auto extrication at Brookside Auto Parts in Orange. Orange has had the Jaws Of Life hydraulic rescue tool for nearly 20 years while Erving just purchased their first set. The two departments shared knowledge and skills with each other during the training. The cars worked on were donated by Brookside Auto.
“Fluffy”, a long-haired brown and white hamster purchased the morning of the race by Laura Gates, was the first place winner of the first hamster race at Mount Tully Kennels. Out of 44 registered starters, 38 hamsters were accompanied by their hopeful owners. For her winning race, “Fluffy” now lives in the $350 Good Sam castle complex which she and Laura received for winning.
Alecia Drew of Tully and Jean Blackmer of Orange, presented bags of toiletry items and towels to Julie Hoover, director of personnel at the Protestant Youth Center in Baldwinville, a residential treatment center for emotionally troubled teenage girls. The items were donated by the Vacation Bible School at the Community Church of North Orange and Tully.
1969 A derailment in the Bearsden Woods area, a quarter mile east of the center of town, saw 11 cars of a westbound Boston & Maine train leave the track. No injuries to the four or five trainmen aboard the train were reported. The train was en route to Mechanicville, N.Y., from South Portland, Maine. Most of the derailed cars were wrecked and several hundred feet of rails and ties demolished. Rail lengths were twisted like straws and some cars rested criss-cross or topsy-turvy along the rails.
South Street, from Pine to Freedom streets, will be reopened to normal traffic. That portion of the street has been closed to enable workmen to remove top stories from the American-Lithuanian Naturalization Club. The building, former home of the National Acadien Club, is headquarters for the Lithuanian Club and the Pequoig Tribe, Improved Order of Red Men. A new peaked roof will be installed.
Collewanaha Council 69, Degree of Pocahontas met recently in the Grange hall. Deputy Great Pocahontas Margaret Petrie of Maysotta Council of Springfield and suite installed chiefs of Collewanaha Council.
Snow’s Shoppe, newest addition to the Mohawk Plaza on Route 2A, held a grand opening. The restaurant-dairy bar shoppe is a division of Snow’s Ice Cream of Greenfield and offers booth and counter service. It specializes in ice cream, sandwiches and light lunches. The shoppe joins the already functioning Mars Bargainland and the Plaza Cinema. Additional facilities under construction in the plaza are a First National Store and a branch office of the Franklin County Trust Co.
The A & P store on West Main Street in Orange will close its doors Oct. 18, climaxing a half-century of business. Frederick Bromage of Springfield, regional sales manager of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, said no plans of relocation or reopening will be made. The store is being closed because it is not in keeping with modern times, he said.
The Jumptown Twirlers free fun night held at the Town Hall in Orange featured special prizes, refreshments and square dancing for all.
Area residents interested in learning square dancing may attend lessons Sunday at the Town Hall from 7-9 p.m.
1944 A cucumber 39 inches long has come out of the Victory Garden of Jules H. Fournier of 1094 Main St., Athol, a printer at the Athol Daily News. Fournier brought the vegetable, along with a smaller relative, down to the News and was going to show them to a “Doubting Thomas”, his former employer, Henry Metevia of the Modern Printing Co. Metevia scoffed at Fournier’s claims of yard long cucumbers. Fournier said his “cuke” was a new variety. Its skin is smooth and it appears to be a cross between a squash and a cucumber.
Staff Sgt. George H. Emery of Athol has been awarded an Air Medal for “courageous service while participating in aerial flights” in the Southwest Pacific.
Second Lt. Charles L. Hallquist, son of Mr. and Mrs. Conrad T. Hallquist of Athol, has been awarded the Air Medal for meritorious achievement while participating in heavy bombardment missions in the air offensive against the enemy over continental Europe.
Mrs. Evelyn M. Ambrose of Athol received a telegram from the War Department stating that her husband, Pvt. William J. Ambrose, 27, an infantryman, was killed in action in France on Sept. 2. The couple had been married five years and she is expecting her first child in two months.
Lt. Albert Chappuis of Orange has been commended for the part he took in the Normandy invasion.
Lt. Col. Glendon P. Overing, 31, of Orange, B-17 Flying Fortress pilot and group commander, has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his outstanding leadership while acting as commanding pilot and air leader of an entire combat wing of Fortresses, during an attack on industrial Berlin.
Word was received in Orange that Pfc. Irving Robinson, 26, had been killed in action in France, Aug. 21. Robinson came to Orange as an orphaned youth and lived with the Harold Burrill family of Gay Street, who brought him up in their family.
Staff Sgt. Arthur Ferrari, 26, member of an infantry armored unit, was killed in action in France on Aug. 31, according to a telegram received by his wife, the former Laurette Desrosiers of Orange.