100 Years Ago: 1922

People thru South Portland a few days ago all stopped to look at an entirely new version of a motorcycle — at least that is the only adequate description. It was ridden by a young woman. The bicycle itself was similar to those which many women rode when bicycle riding was popular. It was fitted with a small motor which propelled it with a reasonable but not a rapid rate of speed.

50 Years Ago: 1972

(from an August 18th Journal photo) Miss Jocelyn Healey poses in her royal finery after winning the title of Miss Auburn Playground Thursday night at the Auburn Parks and Recreation Department annual pageant and talent show. Miss Healey, who represented Fairview Playground presented a cello rendition of “Old Folks at Home.” For the sports clothing modeling she wore a swimsuit and diving mask. Miss Healey is the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Julius Ceplikas of Minot Avenue, Auburn.

25 Years Ago: 1997

The message of peaceful coexistence in the Mideast being spread at the Seeds of Peace International Camp in Otisfield has gone straight to the hearts of three 15 year-old Jewish boys at neighboring Camp Cedar.

After a sharing between the two summer camps recently, Michael Shepard and David Weinreb of New York and Aaron Petak of New Jersey were so inspired by what they saw and heard from Middle East campers they collected $1,000 in one day from the 24 youths at Camp Cedar.

The money was donated for operational expenses at the Seeds of Peace camp.

On Thursday their young hearts were richly rewarded when they faced the 162 campers in the camp mess hall at Otisfield.

Seeds of Peace founder, John Wallach called for silence, pointed to the boys and made the announcement. Almost instantly, the Seeds of Peace campers, representing eight Middle Eastern Nations rose. Many of them jumped on tables and chairs as they erupted in thundering ovation, clapped, yelled and stomped in an expression of gratitude.

“It was one of the best feelings ever in my life,” Petak said Friday as his two bunkmates nodded in agreement.

The idea of raising money for the Seeds of Peace camp was born after the boys and others in their age group from Camp Cedar visited there for a volleyball game. The game was one of a host of intercamp activities that take place among the region’s dozen or more neighboring summer camps each season.

That night. second-year Seeds of Peace campers, known as program leaders, traveled to Camp Cedar to explain to the older campers the camp’s purpose of ending the cycle of generations of hatred between the Arab and Israeli people. They put on a skit in which an Israeli youth and a Palestinian youth had met for the first time in their bunkhouse and wouldn’t shake hands. Each of them had been taught to hate the other one.

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