Oxford – The day could hardly have been better for the races on Lake Thompson. To be sure there was quite a little breeze of the sort and temperature which one expects in March, but under the kindly shelter of Canada Hill where the spectators gathered, this was soon forgotten. There had been prepared five tracks but only three were utilized by the racers, three in each class. The “wire” was a scraggly bush, stuck up in the snow, which served its purpose very well. The course was a quarter mile stretch. The crowd was a large one, every one of the 50 or more teams being loaded to the utmost of its seating capacity.

50 years ago, 1957

• All sorts of news is issuing from Augusta these days, – good, bad and indifferent – but it is surely good news to see so many sincere people appear in committee hearing and support a bill that would re-establish the Maine State Museum.

• More than 500 Lewiston boys and girls were given Salk anti-polio vaccine at a health department clinic in the municipal courtroom. Long rows of children and parents lined the first-floor corridor in the city building while waiting their turns with the needles.

25 years ago, 1982

• The face of America changes constantly, and proof of this is seen in the Census Bureau’s report on American Youth. About 92 million Americans, or four in 10, are under 25 years of age. The “baby boom” generation of the 1950s and 1960s is growing up and raising its own families. The number of children under 14 is declining, however, and while the country will see a rise in the number of children under 5 through 1990, the decline will continue.

• Lewiston High and Edward Little picked up state championships, and Mt. Blue was a sectional winner in scholastic sports events at various sites. LHS and Cape Elizabeth were hockey titlists in play at Central Maine Youth Center, and Edward Little beat out Mt. Blue in the girls’ team gymnastics competition at Belfast.