One hundred years ago today, the crab apple trees were blooming, the grass was a vivid green and excitement filled the air. Just as now, every Maine community was honoring the accomplishments of their high school graduates and the passage into adulthood.

“Now is the time when the girl graduate is monopolizing a great deal of attention,” reported the Lewiston Journal. Much of this attention was paid to her appearance.

Dressing properly for the graduation ceremony was important, and the article went on to explain that graduation dresses should be white and trimmed in lace. Jewelry should be simple, and the hair could be worn in “a feathery loose pompadour or a mist of love locks at the temple.”

As for the cut of the dress, girls who were too thin had to be especially careful.

“For the girl whose figure is too much like a lead pencil, nothing is so becoming as the shirred models,” advised the writer.

Girl graduates were singled out again in a poem published in the Lewiston Journal a couple of days later. The poet, listed only as H.R.V. but obviously male, bemoaned a young lady’s lengthy graduation speech. She will not be valued by her intellect alone, he cautioned: “But as your burning words do ring/Pray careful notice take/That all mankind is wondering/if you can broil a steak.”

At Norway High School, where nineteen students graduated in 1903, both the salutatorian and valedictorian were girls. Their ceremony was held in the Opera House where the stage was decorated in class colors of olive green and white.

“The class has been splendidly trained and harmonious in all things,” noted the correspondent to the Lewiston Journal. As part of the graduation ceremony, students read essays about science and nature.

In Farmington, forestry and the evolution of band instruments were essay subjects at the commencement ceremonies. These took place at the Music Hall, now Reny’s Department Store, where nearly a thousand people turned out to see 16 students receive their diplomas. After the essays were read and the diplomas conferred, the formal ceremony was over the party began.

Beneath the giant chandelier graced with the class colors of blue and white, revelers danced to the music of Miss Alden’s Orchestra.

Meanwhile, up the road, the village of Strong was celebrating the graduation of 10 seniors from its own high school. Led by class President Harold Shaw, the senior class marched into the Methodist Church to the music of Dyer’s Orchestra. Along with essays read by the graduates, presentations were also given on the class history, gift and prophecies.

Ice cream and cake were served afterward at Bell’s Hall, and then as the moon rose and the orchestra played, the parents went home and the young people were left to celebrate their passage from youth to adulthood as they danced the night away.

Additional research for this column by David Farady.