As high school seniors all over Addison County celebrated graduation, young people filled the headlines 50 years ago this week. Here are some of the top stories that appeared in the June 18, 1970, edition of the Independent:
•  Fourteen-year-old Donna Marie Parent of Shoreham won sixth place at the National Junior Chicken Cooking Contest in Princess Anne, Md., for her baked chicken with maple syrup batter. Her prize was a “brand new gas range.”
•  High school student Jack Sheehan of Middlebury won a “surprising” first place in the pole vault at the New England Track Meet in Andover, Mass. He was the only Vermonter to gain a first-place win. 
•  Earl Miner Sr. pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Addison County Court. He was accused of murdering his wife.
•  Helen Porter Nursing Home in Middlebury planned an open house to celebrate the 50-bed facility’s grand opening. 
•  Middlebury College launched its new East Asian Studies program, one of only five in the country, by opening a summer language school for Japanese to complement the Mandarin Chinese language program.
•  Middlebury Town Clerk Kenneth Caul reported that food stamp sales were increasing in his town, where people in need from all over the county purchased their stamps. Caul estimated that he sold around 60 books of food stamps each week.
•  Graduation day did not go as planned for four Middlebury Union High School seniors, who were severely shaken when their car collided with another vehicle while driving on Route 125 in Cornwall. The students were involved in a rear-end collision while trying to pass another car, causing their station wagon to go off the road and tip over. All of them were able to attend their graduation ceremony that evening except for William Wright of Weybridge, who had sustained a broken back and was taken to Porter Hospital.