100 Years Ago: 1923
Pres. Warren Harding, of Ohio, is home tonight; sleeping time away near the mother at whose knee his first childish dream of greatness was prattled.
Before his tomb, as the chiming verses of the choir sang softly among the trees. “Nearer. My God To Thee,” another tender, brave woman stood with an aching heart, her veiled face lifted to the sky. A moment later she stepped a meager moment into the dim vault where the dead husband’s journey of life had ended. Then she turned away, brave to the last to face the lonely years ahead. She waited not to see the iron gates close softly upon her dead.
Harding Is Home Forever from life’s high places, where the restless heavy winds of ambition blow: home beneath Ohio soil, for above him the vaulted roof is mantled with grass grown sod; home among the friends and neighbors of his youth, the kindly people of a kindly town. Time has ended for him and the shouting and clamor that surrounded the great are done.
50 Years Ago 1973
The Lewiston-Auburn Christian Women’s Club are sponsoring a boat ride excursion on the Songo River Queen, Naples. This is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 14 and the trip is from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. The boat will accommodate 120 persons and early reservations are advised. They may be made by calling Ruth Hiltz, Lewiston, or Catherine Whitten, Auburn.
25 Years Ago: 1998
Beaten by the sun and hours of picketing, first-time strikers paused for relief under a shade tree until a strike leader ordered them back to their feet Monday.
Wearily, they strode back to their positions to briefly block the path of a Bell Atlantic truck operated by a manager.
Some were in shock to find themselves on strike, marching under the hot sun as cars and trucks tooted their horns in support. Portland and Falmouth police reported no problems at the picket lines.
“I’m still in denial a little bit,” said Kris Giroux, one of two strike captains who marshaled picket-carrying forces outside two entrances of Bell Atlantic’s Portland offices.
This is the first strike for virtually all of the 2,800 Bell Atlantic workers in New England who are represented by the Communication Workers of America, officials said. They joined the union and got their first contract in June 1996 as the union’s four-month strike in 1989 was becoming a distant memory.
The material in Looking Back appeared exactly as it originally appeared although misspellings and errors may be corrected.
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