As the time for the good old Thanksgiving dinner draws near, naturally there are inquiries about the “festive turkey”. The “festive turkey”, said a local dealer yesterday, “is going to be a mighty scarce article this year and the price will be well advanced. So far as I am able to learn there are going to be but few birds and this few will embrace a thin and scraggly lot. Native turkeys will be just about as scarce as hen’s teeth. The hatch was small and then the weather has been unfavorable. The season has in the most been wet and cold and turkeys will not thrive under such conditions”. There is said to be plenty of other birds including chickens, fowl, duck and goose. Chickens will be from 15 to 18 cents a pound; fowl from 12 to 16; duck 14 to 20 and geese 12 to 16.

50 Years Ago, 1954

The first in a series of Small Marsh Developments in Maine, using funds supplied by the Federal Government and in cooperation with Soil Conservation Districts and the Fish and Wildlife Service has been started on the Harold S. White Farm, on the edge of Lake Auburn, in cooperation with the Androscoggin Valley Soil Conservation District. At the White farm a series of pot holes were blown this summer to provide habitat for muskrats and black and wood duck and other waterfowl. Muskrats immediately moved in and broods of ducks were hatched there this year.

25 Years Ago, 1979

Ronald Reagan prepared on Monday to launch his third campaign for the Republican presidential nomination as other candidates of both parties fanned out to court voters in the East, the South and Midwest. Reagan plans to announce his candidacy in a speech taped Monday and televised Tuesday night on a makeshift network of local television stations. He’ll also deliver the speech live at $500 per plate fund-raising dinner in New York.