Here are some of the top stories that appeared in the March 19, 1970, edition of the Addison Independent:
•  The top floor of Lyle Emmons’s home in Lincoln was destroyed by a fire; luckily nobody was hurt.
•  The Addison Northeast Supervisory District unanimously voted Mount Abraham Union High School Principal W. Neal Hoadley to be its new superintendent. 
•  The Middlebury Grange began a toy drive to collect used toys for children in Vietnam. The drive was the idea of a local Marine who was serving overseas and helping train Vietnamese soldiers. 
•  New Haven sixth-graders wrote letters to Gov. Deane Davis and President Nixon asking what they could do to combat pollution. The Governor’s Office urged the youngsters to vote for candidates who would protect the environment, when they were old enough to do so. Nixon did not respond.
•  Middlebury was shocked by two bomb scares in the span of two days — one at the Middlebury Inn on March 18, and another at the high school on March 19. Both the Inn guests and students were evacuated for over an hour and police were called, but no bombs were found in either building. 
•  A proposed four-day “rock festival” to be held in Orwell was vetoed after the local selectboard refused to sign an agreement with the organizers, Filippo Festivals, Inc. The New York City-based company had planned to purchase David M. Fosgate’s farm for music festivals and arts and crafts programs; however, locals raised an outcry and circulated several petitions protesting the plan. Many feared that Orwell, with its population of just 840 residents, would be overwhelmed with “the invasion of thousands of ‘hippies.’”
•  About 200 Middlebury College students joined a nationwide demonstration on March 19, protesting the ongoing Vietnam War and new revisions to the draft system. Although the route of the march was lined by police, the protest was peaceful and reporters noted that the students “resembled a group of persons on a Sunday afternoon walk more than a protest.” The demonstrators carried protest signs and American flags, but also notebooks and textbooks as they marched from Proctor Hall to the Middlebury Municipal Building. Once there, 20 students entered the building and peacefully picketed the draft office.
— Emma Pope McCright