50 Years Ago

■Some 250 visitors stopped by the Chamber of Commerce tent yesterday to view films and pick up timetables and other Amtrak literature after a ribbon-cutting ceremony at noon which officially opened the Northampton Amtrak stop.

■A halfway house for former Northampton State Hospital patients will open on State Street around Oct. 1. The new house, which will be the first halfway house here for former state hospital patients, will house some 12 people at a time for about one year.

25 Years Ago

■Florence residents heard from city officials Wednesday about housing planned for a vacant, city-owned lot on Verona Street, one section of which is tainted with chemical waste. The land is off Straw Avenue, north of Route 9 and northeast of the center of Florence’s business district.

■Internationally acclaimed literary scholar and Palestinian advocate Edward Said, who has been in the news following allegations he misrepresented his earliest years, will be among the speakers from around the world who will honor the memory of Hampshire College Professor Eqbal Ahmad this weekend.

10 Years Ago

■A new payment system at the E. John Gare parking garage will begin dispensing paper tickets instead of plastic cards Wednesday morning as the city moves to a more reliable way for people to use its signature parking structure downtown.

■For the fourth consecutive year, Hadley elementary school students will drop their home-grown pumpkins on the scales this weekend in a contest that is becoming part of the fabric of this agricultural town. The weigh-in for “Myron’s Pumpkin Contest” is expected to bring in some record-breaking pumpkins this year.