• It is understood that local fruit dealers will soon inaugurate the plan of selling bananas by the pound instead of by the dozen or a certain number for 25 cents. Wholesalers are now selling bananas to retailers by the pound instead of by the bunch as was done formerly.

• One of the most accommodating things done by the Post Office lately was the erection of a new mailbox yesterday on the Park Street side of the building just outside the sidewalk. Now to post a letter at the Post Office, it will not be necessary to climb the long stone steps – which the public will doubtless fully appreciate.

50 years ago, 1957

CROSBY, Minn. – Appearing drowsy but happy, an Air Force doctor-pilot landed safely late today near Ellendale, N.D., after riding the gondola of a plastic balloon to an estimated record 102,000 feet in his 32 hours of exploring outer space.

Asked what was his most exciting experience, Maj. David G. Simons said as he stepped from the gondola: “Getting back to Earth.”

Simons said it was nice to see the sun’s rays diffused by the world’s atmosphere. “I’ve been riding around in a sky that was purple black, even in daytime, and then it got darker at night,” he said.

25 years ago, 1982

OGUNQUIT – Memories of the hit movie “Jaws” surfaced in this popular summer resort when an 800-pound shark was harpooned 200 yards from Ogunquit Beach.

Police ordered sunbathers to leave the beach around 11:35 a.m. Thursday after a life-guard using binoculars sighted the 14-foot nurse shark.

Police notified Ogunquit fisherman Brooks Weiner in his boat, the Nancy B., who traveled to the shark’s location to harpoon and kill it.

The huge fish was brought into fashionable Perkins Cove to be weighed, measured and identified. The carcass was then taken out to sea for dumping.

The beach was reopened by 12:46 p.m., according to police, who said it was the first time the beach had ever been cleared due to a shark.