25 Years Ago: Charges that the Democratic nomination for first selectman was stolen from the candidate unanimously endorsed by the Cromwell Town Committee were aired at Democratic Town Committee meeting.
25 Years Ago: The then Portland First Selectman Paul Swanson was a candidate for the Board of Selectmen on the Republican slate.

25 Years Ago: The Deep River Laundromat that was shut down remained closed because of polluted water seeping from beneath the building. The problem then fell into the hands of the state’s attorney’s office.
25 Years Ago: Work on the final phase of Middlefield’s largest subdivision had a possibility of finally starting, several months after the Inland Wetlands Commission froze activity on the site.

25 Years Ago: The pomp and circumstance of graduation mingled with gusts of wind and distant rolls of thunder as the Class of 1987 became a part of the history of Cromwell High School at the school’s 29th commencement.
25 Years Ago: U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd cautioned the graduating class at Portland High School to take the constitution for granted.

25 Years Ago: Marsha McDonough, director of Vinal Regional Vocational Technical School, resigned her post in Middletown, effective that August, for professional and personal reasons.

25 Years Ago: One hundred and twenty Vinal Technical School students received their high school diplomas, while a few miles to the east, at Middletown High School, Wanda L. Gaskins nervously waited for her row to be called so that she could receive that long-coveted diploma.

25 Years Ago: More than 80 students took part in the commencement exercises at Lake Grove School in Durham. Fifteen of them actually left the school that summer.

25 Years Ago: Clinton Board of Education made the final deletions from it 1987-88 budget.

25 Years Ago: Nearly 400 hundred students and teachers sat on desks, chairs and floor at the Coginchaug High School Library to listen to four guest speakers talk about the Vietnam War. History teacher Pauline Dyson organized the daylong event.

25 Years Ago: The first day of school in September was unlike any other in many years for Ralph and Jacquelyn Barrett, for they were observers rather than active participants in the drama of a new school year starting. The couple, who combined had 70 years in school system, retired.

25 Years Ago: Clinton Superintendent of Schools Dr. Joseph J. Cirasuolo estimated that it would cost between $12.4 and $18.4 million to meet the town’s school building needs.

25 Years Ago: Although the Deep River Veterans Memorial Park Committee’s plans to expand the memorial were nixed by the Planning and Zoning Commission, it hoped a town meeting would approve the project.