100 years ago, 1915
A summer school in Lewiston with 130 pupils registered, a dream which Supt. of Schools D. J. Callahan has long since endeavored to make a reality, was realized, Wednesday, when the summer school at Main street grammar school, Lewiston, opened its doors for a six weeks’ course. For the past three years Supt. Callahan has tried to open such a school, but not until this year was he supported by the school board. This has been tried in several cities outside of the State with decided success, altho Lewiston is the first in Maine to attempt this innovation.

50 years ago, 1965
The lowly baked bean will rise to new heights Saturday, July 31, during the 12th annual South Paris Bean Hole Bran Festival at Oxford Fairgrounds. More than half a ton of dry beans will be baked in the ground for 24 hours to feed the 3,000 visitors expected at this grand-scale baked bean supper. Old-fashioned cast iron kettles, ranging in size from 12 inches in diameter to pots that measure 90 inches across, each fits into its own pit of firebrick. The work starts two days before when fires of hardwood, are started in the pits to heat the bricks white hot and to keep the ground around them warm. After the beans are parboiled, and spices and salt pork added, the coals are raked out and the kettles are lowered into the hot pits. Each is covered with aluminum foil and a metal lid, and buried under a foot and a half of clean sand.

25 years ago, 1990
On July 1, The Heart of Gold Vaudeville Company of Buckfield returned from performing for the annual Summer Solstice Festival in the Soviet Union. Chosen as part of a cultural delegation by the Maine Arts Commission, and the Sister City exchange program of Portland, these western Maine artists juggled, stilt-danced, and made music on the streets of the city of Archangel, in Northern Russia. Rick Adam and Robin Mello who make up this two-person theater company, were joined by clown and unicyclist Ted Lawrence, and Acadian dance artist Don Cyr. Together they performed and danced their way into the hearts of their Russian audiences.

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