There are at present 48 pupils in the second grade of the Lincoln school, New Auburn, many of them of foreign parentage, and 50 pupils in the third grade, one of them, the latest comer, a little blind girl, who has been led around by her sister, and who studies from her own little book with raised letters. Needless to say, the teacher, with 49 other pupils, finds it difficult to get any time for this unfortunate little one, much as she would like to.

50 Years Ago, 1955

Survival City, Nev. – A savage atomic test explosion today severely damaged Doomsday Drive. Smashing homes and other structures in this civil defense community. But while the 35-kiloton blast smashed buildings in Survival City, men and women in close-up trenches and soldiers in stout tanks came through unscathed. Photos showed a two-story brick house on Doomsday Drive, 4,700 yards from Ground Zero, to be a mass of wreckage. This was the Darling family home, occupied by mannequins, whose fate is not yet known.

25 Years Ago, 1980

Many Maine water supplies contain above average amounts of a radioactive gas that has been linked to cancer when ingested in large quantities, according to a team of scientists at the University of Maine at Orono. The research team said its two-year study found that some Maine water supplies have among the largest amounts of Radon 222 in the world. UMO geologist Stephen Norton said the latest study skewed to water supplies in Maine already suspected to contain high amounts of Radon. But he said earlier studies indicated that most of Maine has above average levels. The major problem was found in drilled wells and not in public water districts, Norton said.

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