100 Years Ago: 1922

Gasps were frequent among the crowds that lined the Lewiston-Auburn bridge Monday morning as two small! boys paddled their frail raft about on the surface of the river below.

50 Years Ago: 1972

City officials and co-workers gathered at the Auburn city building today to honor Alton C. Morrell, Auburn  city electrician, who retired Friday after 26 years of municipal service. Morrell received a gift of money from his many friends, the presentation made by his close friend, Police Chief Stephen Smyc. Also at the presentation were City Manager Bernard J. Murphy, Mayor John Linnell, former city Manager Woodbury E. Brackett, Detective Normand O. Bolduc, and Ward Four Councilman Elmer F. Berry. A light buffet, prepared by the Manpower Development and Training Center Culinary class, was served during the noon hour, The reception was held in the new police guardroom in the basement at the city building.

25 Years Ago: 1997

When former academic Linda Tatelbaum and her husband, Kal Winer, headed “back to the land” in 1977, their commitment to their ideals was firm. They bought land, built their own house, grew their own food, carried water from a well and lived without electricity. Tatelbaum thought she would meet her minimal cash needs by growing chamomile. I will never need money again, or “good clothes” or anything made of plastic or light bulbs, extension cords, ice cube trays, books, that aren’t how-to manuals. Years later, she admits she believes in compromise. To prove it she has written a book. And it is not a ‘how-to-manual.” The book, “Carrying Water as a Way of Life,” gives Tatlebaum’s view of the place those early ideals have in the ‘90s. Half justification of those views, and the compromises they required, and a half prose poem of tribute to a way of life she still lives. “Carrying Water” is an intellectual and literary essay about the simple life on a piece of land in mid-coast Maine.

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