50 Years Ago
■William Stringfellow, native of Northampton, noted attorney, social critic, lay theologian and author, will speak at Helen Hills Hills Chapel on Sunday. A frequent guest on television and radio, his articles have been published in most of the leading legal and theological journals and he has been a syndicated columnist with a readership of more than 5 million.
■Six Northampton High School students and graduates and a Northampton language teacher got back from an Experiment in International Living stay in Mexico just in time to miss an earthquake. The group spent three weeks in the city of Uruapan, each living with a different family in an effort to see the country as Mexicans see it rather than from the point of view of tourists.
■Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr laid before Congress and the nation Friday breathtakingly lurid evidence of President Clinton’s sexual misconduct with Monica Lewinsky and declared he had gathered substantial evidence that “may constitute grounds for an impeachment.” Area Democrats say the ground beneath Bill Clinton’s presidency has so eroded in recent days that he may have to resign to prevent further damage to the country.
■A group of parents, teachers, students and administrators met Wednesday afternoon at Amherst Regional High School as the new steering committee for Becoming a Multicultural School System. “This is a very significant undertaking,” said School Superintendent Gus Sayer. “We have a new spirit of community. Our goal is to have a school system in which all kids can be successful, be valued and value those around them.”
■With deaths and overdoses linked to the drug Molly at clubs and music festivals in the Northeast in recent weeks, a techno and dance concert coming to the Mullins Center has been canceled. Return to Fantazia, which had been scheduled for the night of Sept. 21 and was expected to draw 3,000 to 4,000 people, many of them University of Massachusetts students, will not go on as planned.
■One of Village Hill Northampton’s influential developers is pitching a new plan for a 28-unit townhouse complex at the site, further propelling the buzz surrounding the mixed-use village on the grounds of the former state mental hospital. Wright Builders Inc. this week announced plans for Upper Ridge, an estimated $10 million project to be built in four phases over the next four years in the center of Village Hill’s north campus.