DEAR SUN SPOTS: I am trying to find out if anyone could or would remember any of these pictures from the Maine Broadcasting Radio Station. I’ve been trying for a long time.

Also about these other pictures. I would really appreciate it very much. Thank you. — Mildred, Strong

ANSWER: Sun Spots isn’t sure what it is you want to know. Several of the photos are “publicity stills,” photos taken to promote a group, publicize an event or sell a new recording. That is the case for the photos you have for Stone City Band, Val Young, and Process and the Doo-Rags.

These photos are similar to the photos a model has taken to try and get work. These professional shots are sent out by the dozens and are unlikely to be valuable, with some exceptions. Sun Spots suspects an old head shot of someone like Frank Sinatra or Elvis might be coveted.

Sun Spots doesn’t usually put photos in her column, but she has reproduced two of your other photos. These are also promotional shots — in this case for Maine Broadcasting and a radio station, but the musical artists are not identified. They may be local musicians. Perhaps a reader will recognize them.

The last photocopy looks to be a cover for the September issue (year is illegible, but Sun Spots guesses the 1970s) magazine called the Good Old Days. It shows a Norman Rockwell-type illustration from painter John Slobodnik, who often illustrated the magazine’s covers.

Again, Sun Spots doubts that any of these have any monetary value, but you might be able to sell them for a few dollars on eBay.

DEAR SUN SPOTS: A year or so ago someone wrote in to ask about the “Green girl.” I meant to write back on her, or her mother.

When I was a young girl I had a classmate who married a “Green” man in the L-A area. They had two or three girls. After each of them were born the mother would have post-partum depression, which no one knew how to handle back then, and she’d have to be hospitalized.

This made a stigma in the marriage and other problems, which broke up the family. Was this girl in Sun Spots’ story one of the Green girls I knew? I could help them with some of the mother’s background and history. —  M., Strong

ANSWER: Sun Spots is pretty sure you could not be old enough to be a classmate with the Greene girl, who killed herself in 1868 and for whom there is a monument on a hill in Auburn. 

David in Poland Spring was kind enough to send the original 1988 Sun Spots’ column on this topic, and Sun Spots republished it on Sept. 13, 2011. You can read the column at sunjournal.com/sun-spots/story/1086151. There are pamphlets about this sad story at the Auburn Public Library.

DEAR SUN SPOTS: Thank you so much for the interesting information on the Pepsi girl. I enjoyed reading how she has succeeded. 

I am also writing about the letter about the lying-in hospital. I was born there on March 21, 1931.

My mother told me years ago what a caring place it was. The nurses were very nice, and Dr. Rand delivered me.

The women were cared for for two weeks after the births. Seeing that I weighed 10 pounds at birth, I can see why my mother stayed two weeks. 

My father, Lawrence E. Towle, was an officer for the Auburn police at the time. Other police officers’ families used this hospital.

I have no idea how many of us are still around, but it would be nice to know. — Joan Mahaffy, Auburn

This column is for you, our readers. It is for your questions and comments. There are only two rules: You must write to the column and sign your name (we won’t use it if you ask us not to). Please include your phone number. Letters will not be returned or answered by mail, and telephone calls will not be accepted. Your letters will appear as quickly as space allows. Address them to Sun Spots, P.O. Box 4400, Lewiston, ME 04243-4400. Inquiries can also be emailed to sunspots@sunjournal.com.

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