A Look Back, Feb. 9

50 Years Ago

• For the past few weeks, a new chain-letter scheme based on the exchange of U.S. Savings Bonds has been sweeping through Northampton with the rapidity of the flu. According to participants the letter is patriotic and profitable. According to Dist. Atty. John M. Callahan, the chain letter scheme is in violation of the state law regarding illegal lotteries.
• Bruce M. Cowan, M.D., will open an office of internal medicine at 25 Woodlawn Ave., Tuesday. Cowan received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University in 1961 and an M.D. degree from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He served his internship in internal medicine at Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, D.C.

25 Years Ago

• For local doubters who have come to expect only official procrastination on the planned redevelopment of 124 acres of the former Northampton State Hospital, Michael P. Hogan brought a confident progress report from Boston to Northampton Wednesday. “There is no question this is the right time” for the project to begin, Hogan said.
• City elementary schools may be open next fall to out-of-district students, and to transfers by city students now attending their neighborhood schools, if the School Committee goes along with Superintendent Bruce Willard’s recommendation. Willard and the principals of all the city’s elementary schools are recommending the plan.

10 Years Ago

• State wildlife officials want to reintroduce rattlesnakes on a Quabbin Reservoir island. Beginning in a couple of years, the state plans to stock Mount Zion Island with endangered timber rattlesnakes. The plan has raised some outcry, and the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife is scheduling an informational public meeting.
• Dropping oil prices, low unemployment and interest rates and a continued bounce back from the Great Recession are making for a relatively favorable economic climate for the Pioneer Valley. Pioneer Valley Planning Commission Executive Director Timothy Brennan says the economy is doing well, particularly in Hampshire County, which remains, from the perspective of jobs and wages, the strongest county in the region.

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