By Mike Davis

BN Columnist

Howdy neighbor!

I am so very happy today to announce a slight change in form here at The News, which I am sure all of our discerning readers will have already noticed this past month; for the last three issues, on the front-page and appearing as part of the masthead, has been featured a weekly selection of inspiring quotes by American athletes, done in honor of the Olympics. There’s never been room there before, and the layout of masthead had to be tweaked just a bit to squeeze them in, but our Editor Wayne Rivet wanted to make space for these inspiring quotes and to feature more like them from other sources once the Olympics passed, to give a little more character and interest to the front page. They will become a regular feature of The News moving forward, but it will probably surprise all but our oldest subscribers to hear that this practice of putting quotes or passages in the masthead is not so new as it first appears; in fact, we used to do that here long ago, and so these new quotes are really something of a return to form for The News, speaking historically. Because that’s just about the only way I speak here in this column, I wanted to take today to celebrate this old tradition’s return and share with our readers the history of the bygone “Golden Quotes” which once adorned the masthead of The Bridgton News in the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s.

Starting with the first issue of 1933, that of Jan. 6, above the masthead and appearing as the very first line of text on The News, there began to be printed every week an old-fashioned piece of sage advice.

“There is only one way to make an honest dollar.”

“The best way to kill time is to work it to death.” Sometimes, they were inspiring, sometimes cautionary; others were religious, political, or even critical, including such sage maxims as; “More community service and less lip service is the crying need in most communities,” and “When a man becomes too big to take orders, he is too small to give them.” Some were just plain jokes, or else wry observations on the state of life or the economy, while others were important reminders such as “Register so you can Vote — Then be sure to Register your Vote” and “Don’t Forget — Your Maine Driver’s License Expires on your Birthday!”

These have always been for me a charming piece of The News’ history, and I should also state that I haven’t encountered this practice in the archives of any other local newspaper I’ve ever read; and believe me readers I spend more time routinely paging through old newspaper archives than probably anyone else you know. Beyond it being a big part of my job, it’s genuinely what I do for fun in my spare time! Now, this is not to say that no other Maine papers in the 1930s did this — Henry Shorey had to have gotten the idea from somewhere — but certainly these weekly nuggets of country wisdom were yet another thing The News was doing to make a name and character for itself in a time when, thanks to the Great Depression, readership was falling and budgets were tight everywhere. It was a hard time for The News, in an era when it was often nicknamed the “Foreclosure News” on account of how many dire public notices filled its pages weekly; but no matter how grim the reporting got in a week, the first thing readers saw was something aimed to help brighten up their day. It worked, people did love them, and so the practice became a regular affair.

I take you now to a reminiscence of Warren Martin on these inspiring “Golden Quotes” which appeared in his column “I Remember it Well,” here in our issue of Feb. 22, 1990, in which he recounts what they meant to him while receiving the paper overseas during his enlistment in the Second World War. As he warmly recalled them, they were just another thing to help buoy up one’s spirits; just another taste of New England warmly contributing to the breath of home The News offered him each issue. As he says, “Bridgton servicemen received a free subscription to The News while they were in the service. The received them by Mail Call in those God-forsaken islands in the far Pacific and around the world. My mail wasn’t called very often as our Landin Ship Tanks (LST 747) was always moving troops and equipment from one island or invasion to another; Eniwetok, Solomon Islands, Guam, Peleliu, Lingayen Gulph, Okinawa, Biak, New Guinee and Tokyo, Japan. When The News did come, it was like a holiday, ten or twenty copies at a time. Every word was read, from cover to cover. The first thing I read was the Words of Wisdom on the front page, which appeared above the nameplate, THE BRIDGTON NEWS. Those quotes were really great.

Next, I checked in with ‘Old Zeph’ on the Ridge, who wrote and exchanged stories with ‘Elderberry,’ the South Bridgton reporter. These stories were usually amusing. Local news came next from the local reporters; who were working at the South Portland shipyards, who got married, whose cow had a calf, local dinner guests (including what they had to eat!), who was home on leave, and all the other small talk that made the world go ’round. It was great, took your mind off where you were, but not why you were where you were.

A shipboard buddy of mine, Bill Premosch, hailed from Bridgeton-With-An-E, New Jersey. Our favorite pastime was making homemade ice cream in the refrigerator down in the hold of our LST, the coolest spot on shipboard. We took turns reading The News aloud and turning the crank by hand. Bill got to know all the home folks in Bridgton-With-No-E, Maine. Our shipmates thought we were a bit crazy, but we knew better. You see, we escaped the tropical heat, and got to clean the dashers, and had at least a couple of big bowls of ice cream before we stacked it away. We always noticed that on the following Sunday that ice cream didn’t last long. Research in the Bridgton Public Library tells me that these Golden Quotes, or Words of Wisdom, came into existence in the 1930s and were discontinued about 1960. I miss those quotes today, but here are a few of the good ones… “Some bees ain’t as busy as they seem, they buzz just to let folks know they’re around.” “The more a man knows, the more he knows he doesn’t know.” “Life is not so short but there is always time for courtesy.” “Every day you find people who are interested in business that is none of their business.”

My thanks to The Bridgton News for bringing the hometown news to us during the horrible War Years. It brightened many servicemen’s lives, I’m sure. And we loved those Golden Quotes! Perhaps the old custom should be renewed?”

How happy I am today to say that, albeit an additional 34 years later, circumstances again allow for the return of this custom, and I hope very dearly to hear from some of our older readers who will remember the old days, to write in and tell us what they thought of the old quotes, and perhaps share any favorites left impressed upon their memories. The practice seems to have ended, with little ceremony or observance, on Oct. 27, 1960, but now old times are come again and though it be only a small thing, these little things add up, and in my judgment, it seems this re-introduction is well calculated to further define The News as a standout exemplar of what an independent, small-town newspaper can and should be. I welcome this return to classic form, and look forward to assisting in my capacity as local historian to help source out and re-share some of the best of these olden maxims now in their proper format; once again as part of the masthead, greeting the reader with a first impression that here is something different, something special, which marks The News out from its fellows and proves it has not only something to say, but the wisdom necessary to make it worth listening to.

It is my fervent hope that all our readers, new and old, will welcome the return of these old quotes, and new ones like them, as a regular feature of the paper moving forward. Some of my personal favorites include one very similar to something my grandmother used to say, “Some people can stay longer in an hour than others can in a week,” and of course this classic, which yearly is proven truer than I or anyone else would like, “The only thing that gives you more for your money each year is the penny scale down at the drug store.” Hard truths these, sometimes; but always said with a knowing wink and a smile, half in jest but all in earnest, well-meaning and well-said. The kind of wisdom your grandfather handed down, or should have handed down; the kind writ large in every almanac since first Ben Franklin took up the pen of Poor Richard, and put to shame all philosophers who were not themselves yeoman farmers.

Do me a favor this month, at least, cast away your celestial horoscopes and seek not the wisdom of mystic fortune cookies which come three free with any fried rice order above small. Old man Confucious never penned half so wise a line as once passed freely back and forth across the cracker-barrel checker boards of New England’s country stores, with only Yankee farmers there to hear and sagely nod their wisdom. There’s a good deal of that in these old Golden Quotes of The Bridgton News; and a great many smiles and points to think over too. If I hear even one of them piped up in Annual Town Meeting next year, it will have all been worth it. I know you will love them, for whatever they mean to you each week — whether to uphold a long-held conviction, get at a hard truth worth facing, state the facts of life plain as day and twice as sweet, or just cause a good laugh. For after all, isn’t that what a down home paper’s all about?

Till next time!