100 Years Ago: 1922

Refreshed by a good night’s rest President Harding was looking forward enthusiastically to the first day of his vacation when he arose today aboard the special train which is carrying the executive and his party to Florida for a week’s rest. The train early today was skirting the lower South Carolina coast. It is scheduled to arrive at St. Augustine at 2 o’clock this afternoon.

50 Years Ago: 1972

“In spite of the bad weather we had a good session,” said Normand J. Vermette, Androscoggin Civil Defense Director, who served as coordinator for a Civil Defense highway rescue course held Saturday at the Hasty Memorial Armory. About 125 persons participated in the six-hour course. which dealt with methods and techniques in gaining access to automobile accident victim’s and aiding in their removal. Under the direction of Lloyd Drinkwater, Waldo County CD director who headed the team of instructors, the demonstrators were three women: Gertrude Hewett, Diane Legge and Mrs. Drinkwater. Vermette explained that by having women demonstrate the various techniques it would be shown that “not brawn but knowledge” was needed to extricate an auto accident victim. Vermette stated that the course was “originated and designed to help save lives by teaching the participants how to “extradite victims quickly.”  Among the ideas suggested were the use of the car jack, “which could be used to free a foot from under the gas pedal or push a dashboard back,” an enlarged can opener (some 20 times larger than the house type which could cut into the the roof in case of a pancake crash — where everything gets leveled,” and an electrical saw which could cut the steering column away if need-be, but wouldn’t start a spark that might set off a gas fire. The later two ideas Vermette stated were demonstrations of equipment of “sophisticated manufacturing” especially for these types of accidents. The women demonstrators used all these types of extracting tools. Vermette said this showed that a car could be ripped open like a can of peas and the women demonstrated this.

25 Years Ago: 1997

The Daycare Connection will meet Wednesday,  from 7 to 8:30 pm at Auburn Middle School, This month’s workshop is Infant and Child Massage.” The speaker will be Patricia Clark Estes, a registered polarity practitioner. Providers who plan to attend should bring a doll or a stuffed animal to practice on. The Daycare Connection welcomes all child care providers to attend. For more information contact Debbie Bellemere or Rose Pelletier.

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