IT’S A GOOD thing that Bethesda residents are only figuratively turning back the clock this weekend during the village’s 100th anniversary, because turning back the town clock literally would be impossible.

The giant timepiece, a landmark for more than eight decades, won’t be seen, because it was removed due to safety issues in June.

There’ll be a lot to be seen, however, as varied activities are scheduled tonight through Sunday for the Bethesda Centennial Festival and Chautauqua Homecoming Days.

Epworth Park, which came into existence before the village’s incorporation, will be the location for varied events. A popular event will be the tour of cottages Sunday from 1-4 p.m. as these small homes are a reminder of the days when the Chautauqua was in its heyday.

BETHESDA is not alone in considering 1910 to be important as it also was the year that the Boy Scouts of America became incorporated.

That year marked an appearance of Halley’s Comet and the death of Mark Twain. The noted author once observed, “I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year (1910), and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don’t go out with Halley’s Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: ‘Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'”

Although there’ll be contests and games during the Bethesda celebration, residents ought to be thankful that none of them will be as unsafe as the first movie stunt, dating to 1910. At that time, a man jumped from a burning balloon into the Hudson River.

An auto show, sponsored by the Bethesda-Belmont-Morristown Rotary Club, will be part of Sunday’s activities. Village residents in 1910 didn’t have many cars as that was part of the horse-and-buggy era.

Vehicles, however, were making headlines elsewhere that year, because Barney Oldfield set a land speed record of 131.7 mph at Daytona.

A TRAFFIC light system was patented in 1910. Now, 100 years later, there appears to be a go-ahead light for a festive celebration in Bethesda.