• The cranberry crops at Popham Beach and at Morse Mountain promise to be the largest for years. The crops will be picked the middle of next month and will be unusually valuable this season, as the big cranberry bogs on Cape Cod were ruined by the fire that swept over them this summer, making cranberries scarce.

• A happy affair took place Saturday at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Fred M. Skillings of Dillingham Hill, Auburn, when they dedicated their new barn. Early in the day, neighbors and friends began to arrive and were cordially welcomed by Mr. and Mrs. Skillings and their daughters, the Misses Angie, Mabelle and Rose, and Mrs. Jusdon Briggs.

50 years ago, 1957

The newspaper of the immediate future will be better written and more interesting to read, Wes Gallagher, assistant general manager of The Associated Press, said tonight.

“Tomorrow’s papers,” Gallagher said, “will be more diversified with broader appeal but also aimed at the special interest groups, ranging from preteenagers to those in retirement.”

“It is here that the extra features, such as those on problems of retirement, medical care of children and scores of other subjects, come in to hold circulation,” he said. “Is is our belief that the newspapers of the future will carry fewer stories but more interesting ones reported and written in depth with great skill. It will carry fewer stories on what happened but more on what these happenings mean to the reader.”

25 years ago, 1982

The United States is on the verge of being “beeperized,” with a boom shaping up for the electronic paging device that helps our mobile society keep in touch with office, home and friends. No bigger than a cigarette pack, the beeper, which originated in the 1950s as a communication tool for the medical profession, is now gaining wide acceptance in the nation’s households. In 1970, there were an estimated 53,000 pagers in use; the total jumped to 364,000 by 1976, to 964,000 at the end of ’81 and is now at more than 1.5 million.