European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 20, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse George Greenwood Chaffer s grandson Sham off a comic trim Oleter Mutt. Lowing and bearings to keep wheels from wrenching of a Hook Lor Lillig doughnuts Wilhour frying your lingers a washing a thine a Holder Lor umbrellas so you could Shako hands or dig Lor change without gelling Wel. There was the automatic Cal. A wind up device Hal lured mice 1o Reward Wilh Dummy rodents that Seu Nied in and Mil of a Dummy cheese. He and a partner built and installed the Lisl Telephone Syslo in the United slates and. Again displaying Chester s vision sold it to the Bell system in 1900 not for Cash just Slock. Chester had the fits steam cat in town. The invention of the Stanley Brothers in nearby Kings held. In those Days if something broke you had to tin it said Star bad. Or Lake it to my sister would come downstairs Lato and i Here would be grandpa in Tho parlor turning some Gadget Over and Over m his hand looking to see what it might do said George Greenwood on engineering professor at the University of Maine in Orono. Chester Greenwood is Thore with Thomas Edison on the smithsonian s list of the 15 greatest american inventors. But in was the Earmuff that secured Chester s Fame and Fortune. Ears had figured in several earlier patents. But with Iho a Jaid simplicity of no 18d,29 Chester said Lacity acknowledging the immutability of oar placement i behave perfection has been reached " the 1b8s edition of the leading businessmen of farmin Loii and Vicinity agreed the Beauly of the Greenwood device is that in May be carried in the Sockol with the least inconvenience and when occasion requires ii can be placed in position instantly and stays where in is put with no disfiguring elastic band below the Chin to make a Man look like an overgrown Chesler sri Angly handsome showed the dignity of the Well to do in an Early promotional photograph taken Side View to avoid perhaps resembling a satellite Wilh solar panels extended. To is wearing a Irocus coat and Derby. And mulls. Allor you made in in Maine in those Days you wore a Derby said Starbird. But a Derby in Winter in t much Good without Greenwood s ear Prol Clori were made on the second floor of a Brick factory now a laundry. A machine shop look up Iho first floor whore Greenwood made the machines to make muffs fixed plows devised gleam furnaces or just invented. There Wera about 20 employees Peak. A doily sight was school kids toting Homo Bones of frames Lor ladies of the Lown to stitch Chesler did any necessary printing on presses he and his Brothers had Al Home. Greenwood woke before Dawn and ran the mile to the factory to Light the boilers. A non smoking Teet Taler he did t invent jogging but was an Early practitioner and ran a mile daily Unold a few years Beloro he died being his obit read Iho envy of Many of his younger his Wile Isabel Bell was Active in anything that had to do Wilh battering a woman s place in the world said George Greenwood. She was a health Nul Belore anyone heard about that kind of thing said another grandson Lawrence Sully Greenwood. To while bread. Nuts. Lots of Ruil. Lived to 96. By the 920s. Greenwood s bewildering array of drive belts and Horne brewed machinery and Iho Temi Nino lingers of Farmington were turning out upwards of a Quarter million ear protectors a year. Bui in the Early 30s, Richard Mallei principal of the Normal school or one of his sons attended a Winter carnival Over the Hills to Dartmouth or Smith or some such College he resumed with breathless news. Students were going bareheaded right in the dead of Winter. Why did t Chester Start making coloured protectors logo Wilh the Lary 20, 19s8 fancy mittens the Young were wearing quicker than you could say Snow Bunny Chester inc. Was turning out plaids and reds and you name it. In 193g, at Tho depth of the depression the company had its biggest year Desile a Winter thaw from new year s on 400,000 pairs of muffs. Mela shortages in world War ii closed the factory Lor Good. Although if anyone had had the sense to preserve the machines we might have Kepi on said George Greenwood. His Grandval hts died full of honors in 1937. But one last Honor remained 40 years in the Lulu re. Edward t. Mickey Maguire More or less got lha snowball rolling he ran a glorified newsstand and notions store thai also was a Day Long conference Center Tor the townspeople. From six o clock on they d come in and sit and Lack about everything imaginable even Hal they d just seen an Albino Moose recalled Corbel than a cub reporter in the local office of the Waler Villo Sentinel. So in the mid-1970s, when Mickey read an editorial in the Portland paper Hal Maine had not Given Chester Greenwood his due he was determined to rectify Tho oversight. He began lobbying Richard Morton the farming on representative in the stale legislature every time their paths crossed. This is easily Dona in Faiming Lon which has one Streel Light no parking motors and a paucity of watering holes. There was a groundswell of two Corbel recalls Mickey and Morion. Like a politician Morion thought it looked Good. It was t As though they were proposing Charles Manson Day. Ii would keep the town s spirits up. Ice does t break up on Rangeley Lake until May. And it would t Cost the town a Nickel which was just fins with " whal it had going Loril was whimsical Ity says Morion. The name was Chesler the product earmuffs. Mag he not Havo made it James b. Longley icon governor and a Man remembered As being Short on whimsy was Loach to sign Morton s Bill when in passed the legislature. A Chester Greenwood Day would be 3 fool in the door to lil Loring lha whole Calendar. Besides in would make Maine took foolish. A politician from Bangor de Kelleher might have carried the Day. Every state should have a choler Greenwood Day he told the governor. So on Deo. 21,1977, with a plow Clearing the Way through a made to order 5-Inch snowfall farming on paraded Lor its resurrected native son. The police car wore huge earmuffs. So did everybody else Al the risk of spending terms of live to 15 minutes in jail. I did t even gel a fair trial complained one jail bad. The even has been a future Ever since but Only Here. The ski resort Al sugarcoat up the Road never joined in Lor reasons Morion can t comprehend it s a nature Lor besides the Parade there have been snowball throws Lor accuracy a 100-Yard Snowshoe dash a basketball Onlest Best of 10 foul shots wearing mittens and a Frozen ear contest. One year they had a sled dog race a backward even in which kids pulled their mulls on sleds a chaos that established Only that dogs make unreliable jockeys. The occasion has also excited the town s poets. A music teacher Carole to deck the Halls coloured car mulls Green and yellow a la la la la la la la la. Chester Greenwood Clever fellow a la. Joyce Potter won in All in 1979 with this ode to step outside in Maine when the temperature goes below. And not to have on your earmuffs is a darn poor Way logo. So let s pause a minute and raise a cheer to the Man this very night who warmed our ears and our heart sour Savior from this Winter s Celebration did t seem to galvanize the town. Tho weather cooperated with Aboul 6 inches of Snow on the ground. But a Survey on the last Day of autumn temperature 2z degrees and a Lazy wind the kind Hal goes through you instead of taking the Long Way around showed this head attire among 28 farmin lonians crossing Al the Stop Light two peruvian Type knits Lour Laplander style sin baseball Caps Iwa scarves two blocking variety and the rest bareheaded. No Prol Nalion mulls. Tha Neil Day Marly Pike at Ferrari s clothing store said is just another Day in the mull Bui most people downtown wore mulls and everybody in Tho Parade did including the squad car. Tom Esller might have wished a Only had to keep dogs from jumping of sleds. He had to Leach Aboul 50 member i. Of cub Seoul pack 585 How to March and sound of in cadence Chester Greenwood what a Man. Inventing farm urls was his plan. Sound off one. Iwo Hup three Lour Sel Woodcock. 10. Resolutely carrying a hag in the first Row. Contributed the second stanza Chester Greenwood lot our Sake invented the Good old Rake. Sound promptly Al 10 30, the cubs moved out behind a flatbed truck carrying their float a version o the automatic cat. There was the entire student body of the special place Nursery on another truck Santa clans on a John Deere Lawn tractor howling lire engines lol towed by howling dogs All led by s. Clyde Ross a High school teacher posing As Chesler Complete with Darby and Riding a horse and buggy. Ross was chosen Lor the Job in a Lown Elacion in 19813, beating Oul Lour other candidates Wilhour campaigning or qualifications other than owning an heirloom Derby. The Parade wound up Al the courthouse where Hazel Thomaa Chesler Greenwood hag Black mulls on a White Field was raised. Morion in red mulls. Gave a Short speech acknowledging Chester Mickey Corbel. Himself and de Kelleher then All those wearing mulls crowded in for a photograph Stacey Roy a member of the Campus residents Council at the College got them to buy 276 pairs of Earmus to give away for the photo As a gesture of Lown gown Amily Laeey has an exam and could t make it but the picture was Lobo submitted to lha guinness world Book of records to prove thai in farming on on Deo. 21,1987 there were the most people Over in one place at use same time wearing the same thing. That was that. No races or basketball or poems Corbel widely credited with the inspired idea to Honor Chester on the Lisl Day of Winter was Poloso Plhal when told of the Low keyed Observance. Holy Days Are cyclical he said in Baltimore whore hrs is now a Iree Lance writer. I expect Illo be a major festival again it s still kind at fun to celebrate old Chester said Starbird. Ii helps avoid the Grueso Moness of the decisions you have to make these Days. Besides Winter could use a shot in the Arm the stars and stripes Page 15
