Something a little out of the ordinary to say the least took place recently at the home of R. E. Wilson on Summer Street, Auburn. A glass bowl containing gold fish was placed on the top of the sewing machine near a window. Beneath the bowl was a table cloth which had been folded several times. Sometime later someone in the house noticed the smell of burning cloth and on investigation found that the table cloth had been burned through eight thicknesses, the sun shining through the fish bowl causing it to act as a burning glass.

50 years ago, 1959

Lewiston Patrolman Francis Coady and Robert Federico beat the stork and the weather early yesterday morning in getting an expectant mother to St. Mary’s General Hospital despite snowed-in conditions.

The LPD was notified that Mrs. Ernest Hart III, the wife of a former policeman, was about to become a mother but police were unable to get a cruiser car to the home despite a rugged attempt by a snowplow.

The officers plowed through waist-deep snow, wrapped Mrs. Hart in blankets, placed her on a toboggan and moved her to the Rideout PAL skating rink where she was transferred to the hospital in a waiting cruiser. The child, a girl, was born some six hours after her toboggan-cruiser ride.

25 years ago, 1984

Contracts for residential construction in Lewiston-Auburn were down in January, compared to the same month a year ago, according to the F. W. Dodge Division of McGraw-Hill Information Systems Co.

Contracts totaled $338,000, down 21 percent from $426,000 in January 1983, according to the firm, an authority on the construction market.