100 years ago, 1916
The Auburn police have been having many complaints recently about the matter of copper-bottomed wash boilers being stolen from the sidewalks, and investigation showed that the petty thievery was being done by small boys, who in turn sold the stolen goods to junk men, for a small sum of money. The police immediately began a careful search and a New Auburn man was arrested Saturday afternoon by Officer Legendre on charge of receiving stolen goods. He furnished bail and will appear in court this morning.

50 years ago, 1966
The united efforts of Lewiston, Auburn and Lisbon officials to bring former Maine residents back to this area are being praised around the state and Louis Sarelas, Lewiston’s Economic Development Officer, said today that the thus-far expressed approval of the novel project “is only the beginning.” Sarelas has received several letters in the past two days, from people with friends and relatives living out of state, and want to return here.

25 years ago, 1991
In a completely one-sided contest, the mayor of Lewiston won his trivia contest challenge to the mayor of Portland. Portland Mayor Peter O’Donnell and Lewiston Mayor James P. Howaniec were the guests on radio station WBLM’s morning show, where they played Workplace Trivia, a daily feature of the show where people at work compete by answering trivia questions. O’Donnell failed to get any questions right, while Howaniec got three out of four. O’Donnell was first on the air and said he was surprised to find that “Mayor Jim” was awake so early in the morning. The two mayors, who often work together in the Maine Conference of Mayors, traded jabs as they went through the contest, and afterwards talked to each other until one of the show’s hosts, “Captain” Herb Ivy, was forced to break in.

The material in Looking Back is reproduced exactly as it originally appeared, although misspellings and errors made at that time may be edited.