It’s the day before Christmas, and once again, this is the time when memory and historical fact blur together for me.

There’s nothing I like better than going through the pages of old newspapers and spotting some news item or ad that triggers a long-forgotten image in my mind. Some of the clearest recollections come from the years of my early boyhood when Christmas in L-A was a real wonderland.

Was my memory accurate? Were there really throngs of shoppers on Lisbon Street sidewalks? Were there traffic jams at downtown intersections?

Yes, indeed. Three days before Christmas of 1951, the Lewiston Police Department was reporting the busiest traffic of the season, and every available officer was assigned to traffic duty. Several streets had to be made one-way.

It was a mild 38 degrees on the first day of winter that year. The world headlines were about prisoner of war negotiations in Korea, and the good news locally was that thousands of L-A textile workers would get a two-cent per hour wage increase on Jan. 1. It would affect 5,000 to 6,000 mill workers here and the Bates Manufacturing Company payroll would increase by $300,000. It brought the average pay for Bates employees up to $56.40 per week.

High school basketball also was in the news that 1951 winter. Edward Little High School and Lewiston High School played a double-header at the Lewiston Armory, and they were each underdogs against their opponents. Nevertheless, ELHS beat Brunswick 70-48, and LHS beat Cheverus 59-43.

Those old newspapers also stir memories with the names of stores I see in ads, like Peck’s, Ward’s, J.J. Newberry’s, Samson Furniture Co., Berry Paper Co., Snow’s, Atherton’s, Dodge Clothes, and Roger’s Jewelry Stores.

They were once-familiar names, but those were the department stores and bigger firms. When youngsters shopped for their parents’ gifts, they often went to a much smaller store. One of them was Seavey’s on Court Street at the foot of Goff Hill in Auburn. Its ad heralded Old Spice sets “for him” at $2.40 and Evening in Paris sets “for her” at 95 cents and up.

My wife, Judy, would be employed at Seavey’s a few years later during high school. She fondly recalls a day when U.S. Senator Margaret Chase Smith walked through the door and talked for a while with her and another employee. The old store fell victim to the construction of Minot Avenue in later years.

In the Lewiston Evening Journal’s Magazine Section on Dec. 22, 1951, Rosemary Clifford Trott wrote about area school traditions for Christmas of that year. She said the State Teacher’s College at Farmington celebrated with a performance of “The Messiah” by the Vesper Choir. One sorority there presented entertainment at the Home for Aged People, another repaired broken toys, and another made holiday favors to be placed on trays for patients at Franklin County Hospital.

At Bates College, the Robinson Players performed Stephen Vincent’s Benet’s play “A Child Is Born.” Students of Spanish and German went caroling and sang in the languages they were studying.

Rose O’Brien wrote about the Winthrop High School senior formal dance where the theme came from a popular new song called “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” And Eloise M. Jordan wrote about an elaborate Hansel and Gretel gingerbread house and forest scene created by a talented cook in Lisbon, Mrs. Iva Millett.

It seems there also was a Grinch at work in L-A so many years ago. A mail pouch was stolen in Lewiston. It was found in Brunswick, but packages had been torn open and only ribbons and wrapping paper remained.

There was one other “Front Page Bulletin” of special note, and a similar one is seen every year. On Christmas Eve, it said, “Santa Has Left North Pole For Big Sleigh Ride.”

Dave Sargent is a freelance writer and a native of Auburn. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].