100 Years Ago: 1920

The enterprising owner of a motion picture theatre, observing that his patrons had difficulty in finding their way to seats in the dark, had an electric light installed under the end seat of every tenth row. The lights were arranged on alternate sides of the aisle, and shaded in such a way that the illumination was diffused over the floor, and could not interfere with the picture or play or annoy the audience.

50 Years Ago: 1970

A group of area girls will be among the Maine 4-H Clubs who are leaving bright and early Saturday morning for Washington, D.C. and their National Junior 4-H Citizenship Course. Members will be picked up at.the Auburn Turnpike entrance, by a chartered bus coming from Augusta who will be joining the local group. Mrs. Chartes Waterman of Waterman Road, Auburn, will be the chaperone for the local  group and other chaperones will include Mrs. Rae Kontio and  Mrs. Carl Rawcliffe of Augusta. While in Washington, they will be taken on tours of the Capital City and will visit many historical sites as well as a boat to Mount Vernon. Local members participating include Marilyn Kilten, Colleen Hatch, Karen Hatch, Diana Waterman, Karen Longley, Janice Nabor, Laurie Anderson, Vella Woodard, Ann Gage and Elaine Cooper.

25 Years Ago: 1995

Bicentennial celebrations continued with Saturday’s garden and historical site tour of seven local flower gardens and the Empire Grove Methodist Campground. The Poland tour was organized by Garden Club President Glen Torrey and David Tedford as a way to acquaint garden club members, and townspeople, with the range of local garden and landscaping styles and techniques and to offer an opportunity for  people to visit the town’s hidden resource, the Empire Grove Methodist Campground. The tour by members of the Poland Garden Club, which headed out moments before the rain and wind squall blew through, visited Mary and Irving Groves’ gardens off Route 26, Barbara and Dan Driscoll’s on Maple Lane Road, Cindy and Richard Charloffs on Dunn Road, David Tedford’s on Schellinger Road, Rhonda and Frank Watson’s on Range Hill Road, Dorothy Coffin’s on Range Hill Road, Carol and David Kimball’s on Jackson Road and Rose Aikman’s on Tripp Lake. Beverly Pratt, historian for Empire Grove directed people to the recently restored 1861 cottage at the  Empire Grove Methodist campground.

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