DEAR SUN SPOTS: I would like to know when the bridge between Durham and Lisbon Falls was built? — No Name, Durham
ANSWER: Sun Spots looked up the topic in the archives for the Lewiston Evening Journal and the Daily Sun and found several references for the need for a bridge to replace the ferry in the early 1900s, but not the exact day it was built.
She also found a 1936 reference to the need for a temporary bridge to replace the one washed out by the flood.
Google provided her with a project Bates students and the Androscoggin Land Trust did on the history of the Androscoggin River. That document, which you can read at http://tinyurl.com/bu6usju, provided slightly different information.
It said that a steel bridge replacing the wooden toll bridge was built in 1895. It agreed that this bridge was washed away in 1936.
There may have been more than one location where a bridge was desired or built.
Sun Spots feels sure that many of her readers will remember the building of the bridge in the late 1930s and ’40s and write in and offer more details
Readers who are river-history buffs may want to check out the document cited above. It offers all kinds of interesting tidbits about life along the river going back to original settlements.
DEAR SUN SPOTS: I am almost 94 years old and have lived at the Maine Veterans Home for 9 years.
When I first came here I noticed a beautiful Little League ball field and thought I would be able to watch some games. But as the season went on, I realized the only games were for the littlest kids, and they just hit the ball off a standing pipe.
I asked a few questions and found out that one of the neighbors threatened to sue the home if any balls were hit on his land.
I think it’s a shame to deprive the kids from playing on such a beautiful field and us old-timers from watching them. There must be someone with a little influence who may be able to reach this person’s heart and get him to lay off and allow games to be played and us oldsters to watch them.
I hope someone will resolve the problem and we can all have a nice summer. — James Denholm, South Paris
ANSWER: Your plea is most eloquent. If it dosn’t change the landowners’ mind, probably nothing can!
DEAR SUN SPOTS: I read your column each day, and, as you have helped many, I now hope you can help me. I have a bank in my yard that is eroding, and I am trying to save it with the vine plant periwinkle, which has a little purple flower.
If there is anyone out there who has an abundance of it and would like to share, I would be most grateful and gladly dig it up. Thanking you in advance. — No Name, New Gloucester, 926-4042
DEAR SUN SPOTS: Fast Eddie’s Drive-in on Route 202 will be opening for the season on Friday, April 13, at 11 a.m. We are looking forward to a great season and have been working hard to put a metal roof over the car port area, which we hope will be complete by Friday. — Barb and Russ Angell, brangell2@hotmail.com
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