A Look Back, Nov. 22

50 Years Ago

■Teenage drinking, sanctioned by the reduction in the legal drinking age from 21 to 18 in March 1973, has reached problem proportions in Hampshire County. “Alcohol is the number one drug problem on campus,” reported Bob McCarthy, a young counselor in the Room to Move program at the University of Massachusetts, where on-campus bars reported a dramatic rise in liquor sales when the drinking age dropped.

■Northampton city councilors voted 6-2 last night to convert the former Bay State Gas Co. building into a City Hall Annex at a maximum cost of $314,900. The entire bill will be paid by city taxpayers, with no aid coming from the state or federal governments.

25 Years Ago

■Northampton is asking the federal Housing and Urban Development department to release $18,000 to pay for the demolition of three buildings on the former grounds of the Northampton State Hospital. The buildings slated for the bulldozer include a small, three-story brick building on Earle Street that once was used to store coal that fueled the hospital’s powerplant just across the street.

■A new policy adopted unanimously by the Northampton School Committee on Thursday calls for school facilities to be named for people who have made an “outstanding contribution” to the school system, community, state or country. At the same time, the policy states “every effort will be made to ensure that the choice of names for dedication will reflect the diversity of Northampton’s school population.”

10 Years Ago

■Deerfield has hired Douglas Finn, the general manager of Frontier Cable Access Television, as executive assistant to Town Administrator Kayce Warren. The decision ends a search that started in February, when Warren was named interim town administrator.

■Emergency medical technician Debbie Stevens was recently voted president of the Plainfield Volunteer Firefighters’ Association. Members of the association at their annual meeting voted Stevens as president of the group for the next year. The association also re-elected her husband Andy Stevens as treasurer.