A Look Back, Sept. 3

50 Years Ago

■Today is children’s day at the Three County Fair but they’ll have a hard time equaling the number of children and adults who attended the fair Labor Day weekend. A total of 35,706 paid their way into the 157th annual Three County Fair Monday. That is still about 8,000 shy of the record one-day attendance of 43,154 on Labor Day 1972.

■School enrollment in Northampton is up over last year. The total enrollment at the last count was 4,597 students. Enrollment on Oct. 1, 1973, had been 4,544. An influx of new pupils at the elementary level has been reported this year due to new families moving into the Hampton Gardens and Meadowbrook apartment complexes.

25 Years Ago

■Three area veterans from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center brought home medals from the 13th National Veterans Golden Age Games, held in Geneva, N.Y. John Prusak of Southampton won a silver medal in the table tennis event. Edward Gagnon of Chicopee won a silver medal in swimming, and Clifford Junkins of Holyoke took a bronze in the same event.

■Police officers and members of the Florence Heights Neighborhood Association hope to be party poopers, of a sort, at the apartment complex. Some residents of the area say neighbors and their guests have taken to partying in the street that runs through the complex.

10 Years Ago

■A new set of zoning regulations governing residential projects of at least seven units will get a public airing Wednesday night. If approved, the rules would guide the future development of Smith College’s Fort Hill property, the former Shaw’s Motel and a few other properties in and near downtown.

■“The Hilltowns have lost a pioneer, mentor and friends,” Goshen Fire Chief Sue Labrie said Tuesday of the passing of retired chief Francis Dresser, who died at his Main Street home Sunday. Dresser, 89, served the Goshen Fire Department for 55 years until he retired in 2006 at the age of 81.