A 32-Year-Old Janet Mills Was in a 1980 “People, Places and Things” News Segment

During the 70s and 80s, WCSH 6, now News Center Maine, aired a segment during their newscasts called "People, Places and Things," with Cliff Reynolds. They were lifestyle stories told about, just as the title suggests, the people, places and things of Maine, and Cliff was a master of telling these stories.

One of those segments can be found on YouTube and as I was watching it, I noticed someone in the background that appeared to be a young Governor Janet Mills.

In this People, Places and Things, Cliff Reynolds went to the opening of the very first Ossippe Valley Fair in Hiram, on fairgrounds that were built in a very short time after purchasing the land in the spring of 1980. 41 years later and it's still going strong, and will open in full on July 8 to 11.

On opening day, July 10, 1980, then Governor of Maine Joespeh Brenan opened the fair with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and made some remarks about the astounding accomplishment that had been achieved. What we didn't know at the time, was that a woman standing behind him would be the Governor of Maine 29 years later.

That's Janet Mills standing behind Governor Brenan, serving as Maine's first-ever female district attorney. Now here we are in 2021 and she is almost halfway through her first term as Maine's first female Governor.

You can see her in the video below at the 56-second mark. The whole video is interesting to watch. It's pure Maine.

In 1980, local news in Maine still used film to shoot their stories, a process that took a lot more work to edit than the digital recording and editing do today. And the kids in this story that are showing off their animals are likely in their 50s now. See anyone you recognize?