50 Years Ago

• Since the Northampton Post Office moved into a new building on Bridge Street, the old facility on Pleasant Street has been unoccupied. The Pleasant Street structure will be offered to other federal agencies to see if they have some use for it before being put up for sale.
• Kirsten Harvey, a student at Florence Grammar School, has been named grand prize winner in Northampton National Bank’s bicycle safety contest for area fifth graders. Kirsten’s winning bicycle safety composition was selected from among 90 prize-winner entries which had been awarded cash prizes previously. Her teacher is Betsey Vaundell.

25 Years Ago

• This fall, Mount Holyoke College will open the first dining hall on the five area campuses devoted full time to the dietary needs of Jewish and Muslim students. The kitchen at Wilder Hall, a Mount Holyoke college dormitory, is being gutted and transformed into a 110-seat Conservative kosher and Muslim halal dining hall, observing the two faiths’ dietary laws, three meals a day, seven days a week.
• Southampton residents gathered at Conant Park pavilion Sunday afternoon to witness a dedication that officially opened the town’s refurbished tennis and basketball courts. The restored courts were named for the late Donald W. Madsen, a Southampton native and civic leader who died in December at age 76.

10 Years Ago

• Three 18-year-old young women from Hadley this week received Girl Scouting’s highest honor, the Gold Award, in conjunction with its 100th anniversary. The Girl Scouts of Central and Western Massachusetts presented the awards to Kathleen Kuzmeski, Emily Koehler and Aldona Noonan, after they worked more than two years on their Gold projects.
• There were no injuries after a homemade bottle bomb detonated in a mailbox in Pelham Thursday morning, according to Massachusetts State Police. According to the Pelham Fire Department Facebook page, an investigation found the substance was the result of “a homemade bottle bomb.”