100 years ago: 1919

Lewiston and Auburn were swept away with an epidemic of dozens of weddings. Priests at St. Peter’s and St. Louis churches were kept busy Monday morning from dawn until noon uniting young people of the two cities into holy wedlock. Not since the war has there been quite a general rush into matrimony. At the Lewiston Upper train station, about half-past 10 in the morning, a line might have been seen of dozens of brides and grooms, dodging showers of rice and confetti and being generally entertained by their friends as they waited for the Honeymoon Express to Boston. These newlyweds were for the most part French. French people look upon the month of May as the most desirable month in the year for weddings.

50 years ago: 1969

Miss Hazel Niles. a 50-year member of Ruth Rebekah Lodge, was honored at a meeting of the lodge held Tuesday evening at Odd Fellows Hall in Auburn. She was presented a corsage, a gift of Mrs. Mary Howard, Miss Verna Howard and Mrs. Lydia Curtis, a 50-year certificate and a 50-year life membership card.

25 years ago: 1994

If she was expecting an audience of subdued, agreeable students, Janet Mills, the Androscoggin County district attorney and one of 11 candidates seeking Maine’s 2nd Congressional District seat, was disappointed Tuesday. Intent on talking to students at Edward Little High School about diversity, school violence, and gender bias, Mills was asked about quotas, her views on the death penalty, assault weapons, and the Brady Bill. “Tough crowd,” she said at one point. I like this.” Mills had been invited to speak by Laurie Canaan. an ELHS English teacher and unabashed booster of the veteran prosecutor. Mills talked about social responsibility, and of the need for people to speak out,” suggesting that anyone who is aware of an incident of violence or inequality has an obligation to get involved. If you allow acts of violence to occur without doing something, it will only grow,” she said. But it was her comments about gender bias, and the relative lack of women in positions of responsibility, that placed Mills more in the mode of a candidate. Students did not disagree that too few women hold elective office, are police officers or presidents of major American companies but wondered how a better balance might be achieved. “I don’t think quotas are exactly the right way,” said one girl. “I’d be insulted if l got a job just because I was a woman.” “I wouldn’t,” Mills said. “I’d take the job. What’s a quota and what’s a goal?” One girl agreed, saying, “women have to step ahead or they get left behind.”

The material used in Looking Back is reproduced exactly as it originally appeared, although misspellings and errors may be corrected.