Sanford High School art students prepare a Junior Prom mural under the direction of art teacher Hazel Harrison. Photo: Sanford Tribune, June 14, 1951
By Lawrence Furbish
High school graduation festivities were prominently featured in two articles on the front page. Sanford High School graduated 108 seniors and St. Ignatius 32. Rev. Edouard Nadeau, pastor at St. Ignatius Church, handed out degrees, but the paper was silent as to who handed them out at SHS. Presumably it was either Principal Lawrence Page or Superintendent of Schools Neil Sullivan. There were many graduation-related activities, including a baccalaureate service, a senior class banquet, Class Day, and the Junior Prom.
Sanford was scheduled to have its first defense test since World War II. It was to begin sometime around 5 pm (the ending time was cut off from all copies of the newspaper) with short blasts from the mill whistle and sirens. People were instructed to seek shelter in a basement or the ground floor of a public building. If they were in a car, they were directed to pull over to the curb, shut the windows, and lie down on the seat. These actions were designed to protect people in the event of an atomic bomb. The “all clear” signal was to be a steady one-minute whistle blast and three sirens’ sounds.
A thorough assessment survey of Sanford and Springvale was announced to ensure more equitable property tax valuations. The survey cost the town $31,000. It was to be conducted by an independent firm from Cleveland, Ohio, and begin immediately, running until April 1952. Secretarial staff had already been set up in Town Hall. Authorized investigators were to visit “every dwelling and business establishment in town” and they would be carrying official ID cards signed by the town selectmen.
Municipal Court was handling a heavy load of traffic cases. Coming before Judge John B. Roberts and Recorder F. William Hochberg were four speeding cases, two for driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor, three for failure to stop at an intersection, one for passing on a curve, one for driving an unregistered vehicle, and one for driving without a license. There was also one petty larceny case.
Sports news was slim, but the St. Ignatius baseball team lost 5-1 to South Paris High School in its bid for the State of Maine Class M Western title at a game at Bates College. Meanwhile, in the first Twilight League baseball game of the year, Allen Mapes’ pitching, aided by some timely hitting by John Maher and Roland Merrifield, helped Gendron Lumber knock off Central Tire, 5-3.
At the “cool and comfortable” Capitol Theater, you could see Danny Kaye and Gene Tierney in “On the Riviera”or if the Sanford Drive-In Theater was more your style, you could view Forrest Tucker in “California Passage.”
Grants had boys’ polo shirts for 79 cents while at First National you could scoop up two heads of lettuce for 25 cents or two loaves of bread for 29 cents.
But in honor of the upcoming Father’s Day, you could “Take Dad’s Word for It” regarding “Good Taste Through the Years” and purchase some Philadelphia, the Heritage Whisky – $3.10 for a fifth or $2.00 for a pint.
Lawrence Furbish is president of the Sanford-Springvale Historical Society. The Historical Society Museum in Springvale has many resources regarding Sanford’s history. It is open Thursday and Saturday, 10 am-2 pm and Friday 10 am-4 pm.
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