A Look Back: March 21

Published: 03-21-2023 3:15 PM

50 Years Ago

■Sen. Thomas F. Eagleton warned Friday night that gasoline prices could rise to 60 or 70 cents a gallon unless machinery is set up to cope with anticipated shortages this summer. Rationing tickets are already printed and ready for distribution from Washington.

■Laura Mendelson has received delayed notification that she has achieved finalist status on the National Merit Scholarship qualifying test. Miss Mendelson and the three other Northampton High School finalists, Seth Dahlberg, Susan Lander and Jonathan Roche, will compete with finalists from every state for the National Merit Scholarships.

25 Years Ago

■City officials are considering moving a house on Federal Street to an empty lot on Vernon Street. The move is on the table because a plan to have Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School students build a duplex on the Vernon Street lot fell through.

■Talk about the luck of the Irish. On Tuesday, Bill O’Riordan had two strokes of it at a city nightclub. O’Riordan strolled into City Café Tuesday night for some St. Patrick’s Day festivities when he won a door prize, a $25 gift certificate for Spoleto restaurant. Later in the evening at the club, he was also the winner of a drawing for two airline tickets to Ireland.

10 Years Ago

■Land on West Street in Amherst, between the Hampshire College Farm Center and the Red Barn, will be the location for a new energy-efficient building to house the Hitchcock Center for the Environment. The 7,000-square-foot building, which will operate on ecological design principles such as zero net energy and zero net water, is expected to be ready for a fall 2016 or spring 2017 opening.

■An Amherst resident and native is the new regional director for Trustees of Reservations, the oldest statewide land conservation organization in the United States. Joanna S. Ballantine recently was hired to oversee Trustees field staff and properties in the Pioneer Valley, the Berkshires and central Massachusetts. She will have offices in Holyoke and Stockbridge.

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