100 Years Ago: 1921

The members of Auburn Art and Literature enjoyed an outing Thursday at Mrs. John G. Coburn’s summer cottage on the west shore of  Lake Auburn. The party left town about 10:30 by motor and a picnic lunch was enjoyed at noon.

50 Years Ago: 1971

Mrs. Harcourt Rousseau, director of volunteer services at Central Maine General Hospital, and Mrs. Jean Frank of Poland Spring addressed freshmen students at the Auburn Maine School of Commerce recently, concluding their study of Personality and Career Development. Mrs. Rousseau spoke on personality traits and proper office etiquette and presented guidelines for the girls.  Mrs. Frank demonstrated use of cosmetics using two girls from the class as models.

25 Years Ago: 1996

The ELF Woods will come alive Sunday, as the Edward Little High School drama club christens it’s rather unconventional outdoor stage with a play about nonconformity. The club has finished the first  phase of its amphitheater and, on Sunday, will give a free performance of an original one-act play, “The Bare-Footed Trunk.” For students, the 6 p.m. performance is an opportunity to perform outdoors on the high school’s first stage. “It’s a great feeling,” said German exchange student Markus Vaas, cast member and stage builder. The ELF Woods Playhouse is not only an asset to the school, which has never had its own stage before, but also to the community, said Drama Club Director Penny Appleby. “There are just endless uses for  Woods Project — a plan to develop 40 acres behind the school for educational purposes — the amphitheater is about half-complete,” said Appleby. Students, with the help of teachers, a few key adult volunteers and a $4,800 grant, have completed the actual stage and four rows of oak-log seating set into the hill in back of the high school. The club will raise funds to install the back wall of the stage, equip the facility with electricity and add more seating next fall, though the grassy hill above the existing seating offers plenty of space for spreading blankets, Appleby said. Six additional rows of seating will bring capacity to between 250 and 300.

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