100 years ago, 1915

Sheriff L. E. Davis gave out Saturday statistics tending to show that he and his deputies are working, despite all reports to the contrary, and that their work is meeting with satisfactory results. He points out that for the April term of the supreme court alone his department collected $3,392.55 in fines and costs, nearly as much as his predecessor in office collected for the entire year of 1914. As a reply to the criticisms regarding the extent of the deputies’ vigilance over places where liquor is sold, he offered a long list of Lewiston places raided with the goods seized since last Saturday.

50 years ago, 1965
An Air Force cargo plane crashed in a field at Sabattus Friday after its four crew members bailed out. The plane was en route to Dover, Del., from Goose Bay, Labrador, when engine failure occurred, and Major Allan Foster, the pilot, ordered “bail out.” Their “flying boxcar” craft narrowly missed 14-year-old John Vachon of Webster who was plowing the field when it plunged to earth. The four airmen, picked up later, were uninjured, authorities said. Rescue crews from Lewiston, Sabattus and the Naval Air Station at Brunswick hustled to the scene but were not needed. The plane did not catch fire. The aircraft crashed on property owned by Leo Curran and then slid several yards onto the Leon Vachon property where it came to rest.

25 years ago, 1990
Auburn municipal employees paraded around the City Building Monday afternoon and in a picket line protesting expected low salary offers and health insurance benefit rollbacks. They continued their protest at the City Council meeting Monday night where coalition spokeswoman Idella Harter chastised city officials for talking about negotiation issues in public meetings reported by the media. Media reports, she said earlier, were that it had been stated at city council and school committee meetings that “zero-per-cent (salary proposals) would save the city.” That, she claimed, constitutes “bargaining in the newspaper and bargaining in open session without actually sitting down and trying to work out our contract.”

The material in Looking Back is reproduced exactly as it originally appeared, although misspellings and errors made at that time may be edited.