Everybody in the village of Sabattus is talking about roller skating. This pastime has received good support in Lewiston and the Sabattus people have caught the craze. Mr. Lombard has a nice hall and he has decided to fit it up for roller skating. At a recent meeting of the selectmen he was granted a license and he is in hopes of having the opening night in a week or ten days. He has already ordered a large number of skates and he expects to receive them, daily. On the opening evening, the hall will resound with merry music and the people, especially those of the younger generation, are awaiting anxiously the opening night.

50 Years Ago, 1955

A medical journal has called upon doctors to quit smoking and to seek abolition of the use of tobacco because of its reported relation to cancer. The December issue of South-western Medicine carries the editorial in what some medical sources said was one of the strongest attacks against smoking ever made by a medical organ. The editorial listed the chemical compounds of tobacco and described nicotine as one of the most toxic alkaloids known. “We cannot answer at this time,” the editorial said, “which of these substances are definitely harmful to man, nor can we by any means of any filter or by increasing the length of a cigarette remove these harmful products to a point where the habit is without danger.”

25 Years Ago, 1980

Kilroy wasn’t the first to do it, but he certainly was one of the most popular people to ever have his existence immortalized on trees, public buildings, walls and rest rooms. In Lewiston, one of the most popular name-dropping spots is in the tower of Lewiston’s City Hall, where names and dates cover the small wooden enclosure that protects the building’s large clock mechanism. City Hall maintenance man Louis Nadeau takes some pride in the names, encouraging tower visitors to add their names to the collection.