Just in time for the River Rat Race, the Athol Fire Department’s 1962 fireboat recently underwent a restoration project, with materials and labor donated by Fred’s Auto Body of Gardner.
Plans are going along swimmingly for the River Duck race, sponsored by the Athol Area United Way. The ducks that have been adopted by paying $5 to the United Way, will be dumped into the river on the upstream side of the South Main Street bridge and the finish line will be about 100-150 yards downstream.
Two local youths were commended by Athol Fire Chief Leon Lozier for discovering an oil slick on a small brook off Coolidge Street. Theodore Mallett III and Joseph Bowers detected the odor of gas or oil and saw the oil slick floating on the brook that feeds into the Millers River. The department traced the spill to an underground fuel tank. There is no way to determine how long the tank had been leaking. The contamination in the brook is being contained with booms and pads until the tank is removed.
Most people in Orange know John O’Lari as the barber who has an opinion on everything. While not everyone agrees with his philosophies, there is another side to O’Lari, a side with a golden heart, that most people don’t always see. This is why the Orange Revitalization Partnership decided to honor O’Lari as their March Citizen of the Month. When O’Lari graduated from Orange High School in 1947, he was listed in the yearbook as “Best Boy Athlete.” His love of baseball got him into the Yankee farm system. Later it motivated him to organize and found the Orange Little League and he has always been an aggressive promoter for local baseball.
Mr. Math (Michael Humphries) made a return visit to Warwick Center School recently. He captivated Mrs. Barbara Walker’s first and second grade children’s attention with a super calculator activity.
Former U.S. Air Force gunner Herbert W. Peterson, 98, of Royalston, was recently recognized by the American Legion on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of World War I. Peterson is the Edward H. Phillips Post’s oldest surviving veteran of WWI. Peterson was the founder of Peterson’s Dairy in Royalston, which served the Mount Grace Region from the end of the roaring twenties through 1978.
Demon paddlers Walt Poirier and Bobby Parker supplied the answer to critics who claimed they won a year ago with an “illegal” canoe in a style befitting champs. Shooting under the South Main Street bridge first and never looking back, the proficient pair backed by the Café Royale won the seventh annual River Rat Spectacular in record time, 42 minutes flat. They did it in a conventional canoe despite a brisk wind that blew upstream and against a record number of entries, 105 two-man canoes. Thirty-eight seconds behind the winners were the Ellsworth brothers of Petersham, Bill and John, who left from the number 53 post position and paddled past 51 canoes to nail down second. They were seeking their fifth spectacular title after finishing third a year ago following four straight victories. The third and fourth place finishers also came from far back to take home top payoffs. Leroy Barnes and Dick Hamlett of Orange came from the 72 post to finish third and veterans Sonny Soucie and Donat Boudreau, nearly out of sight around the bend at the start in the 78 post position, finished fourth.
The 3rd World, teen center in the former Bemis Store in the Highlands, came to life at an open house attended by an estimated 200 persons. The center rocked with the music of juke box and a rock and roll group. Soda and coffee flowed like water and kids filled up on doughnuts, chips and ice cream novelties.
The Athol-Orange Aero Club, in a letter to Orange selectmen, have criticized the total use of Orange Airport as a parachute jumping center and went on record as recommending return of the airport to its original status – as an airport with a flight school and maintenance shop, offering scenic rides, charter flights and to welcome flight transients.
James Slavin, a junior at Mahar Regional High School, Orange, received a first place award in the chemistry division at the Westfield Regional Science Fair at Westfield State College. His project, long tube chromatography, received grand prize at the Mahar Science Fair on March 13. John Thayer, a senior, was awarded second place in the biology division for his project, Benthic Fauna. Stephen Cody, a junior, received second place in physics for his air rocket project, “The Kruchnic Effect.”
An “Afternoon of Music” will be presented at Memorial Hall for school children of grades 5 through 12. Music will be furnished by members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Approximately 1,000 school children are expected to attend.
Pfc. Peter Salkauskas, 19, who was reported missing in action in Germany since March 4, returned to duty March 17.
Mrs. Amelia Greene of Athol has been notified by the U.S. Military Mission in Moscow that her husband, Sgt. John P. Greene, has been released from a German prisoner of war camp in Germany. The 30-year-old infantryman was reported missing in Germany since Oct. 6.
Charles Rydell, husband of Mrs. Lorraine Rydell of Athol, who is serving with the Third Army in Germany, has been awarded the Bronze Star Medal for heroism in France and has been promoted from sergeant to staff sergeant.
S/Sgt. Maurice Granger, 26, of Athol, has been awarded the Air Medal for meritorious achievement in a bombing attack on an enemy held bridge at Voghera, Italy. He is a bombardier on a Mitchell bomber.
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Mallet of Athol received word from the War Department that their son, Pfc. Leo V. Mallet, 19, had been wounded in the Western Front campaign and that his right foot had been amputated at the ankle.
The sixth annual Orange High School Minstrel Show, under the direction of Malcom Hall, made its debut before an appreciative capacity audience in the Orange High School Auditorium. All of the numbers in the show received encores. The general opinion voiced by the majority of more than 500 who jammed the hall was that this year’s minstrel, the first to be run three consecutive nights, is as good if not better than last year’s presentation, which was considered “tops.”
How some towns and cities have gone about having modern hangers at their airports and a proposition for erecting a modern hanger at the Orange Airport will be told by W. L. Baker, manager of the aviation sales department of the Standard Oil Co., at a public meeting at Orange High School Auditorium, sponsored by the Orange Kiwanis Club.
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph S. Willette of Erving have received word that their son, Sgt. John Philip Willette, 24, was killed in action in Germany on March 15.