50 Years Ago

■Skiing, 1973, was a disaster for ski slope operators with the two in the Greater Northampton area reporting the earliest closing in years and receipts off considerably from last year. The unusual winter that saw only two major snowstorms that were quickly diminished by rain or fog or unseasonably warm weather worked great hardships on the ski areas.

■Eleanor Flexner, author and Northampton resident, has been nominated for a National Book Award for her biography of the 18th-century Englishwoman Mary Wollstonecraft. Formal announcement of the nomination will come early next week.

25 Years Ago

■Total fees at Mount Holyoke and Amherst colleges will climb to more than $30,000 next year — the first of the area’s schools to top that figure. Hampshire College is expected to follow suit.

■You call that a winter? Soggy shoes, battered umbrella and gushing waterways about sum it up for this winter in Massachusetts. Few tall snowbanks. Few people being stuck in their houses. Fewer tough walks. This winter marked the second wettest in almost 15 years, and one of the warmest in 47 years.

10 Years Ago

■Amherst Town Manager John Musante is calling on the University of Massachusetts to provide greater assistance in dealing with the effect of student drinking and unruly behavior on the town’s public safety resources. Musante is demanding the university cover the costs of staffing two additional ambulances on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights this spring and is asking the campus to keep its health center open longer hours on weekends to treat intoxicated students.

■Concerned about proposed budget cuts for next year, Northampton High School students plan to rally today to urge city leaders to support art and other electives in city schools. Students will gather outside the high school between third and fourth periods and march to the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence on Main Street, where there will be student speakers, art activities and performances.

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