100 years ago, 1915
A correspondent now writes the Lewiston Journal: “I notice that another “square” is calling for a name — that at the junction of College and Sabatis streets. I well remember that the proud owner of the one-time famous vegetable garden on College street, said: “I can stand on my corner lot and count six squares.” Now the new Universalist church stands there, forming a triangle surrounded by three streets. At this place there is practically a union of seven streets. Sabatis and College being the principal thorofares and radiating from them in different directions are Oak, Bartlett, Wood, Nichols and Horton. This is rather an unusual combination and appears to be the ‘Hub’ of one of the city’s busiest wheels.”

50 years ago, 1965
Lewiston police officers struggled early Friday night with the heaviest traffic load of the season in the downtown shopping district as hundreds of people turned out for holiday buying. LPD Lt. Gerald Gilbert described it as “the worst yet.” He reported that downtown traffic was extremely heavy until after the stores closed around 9 o’clock. All beat officers were assigned to traffic duty and some of the cruiser car men were brought in to help the others. “The whole of Lisbon Street was just a stream of traffic all the way back to beyond Birch Street,” the lieutenant said. “And all the intersections were very busy.”

25 years ago, 1990
Every morning Rozzi Poto talks to someone on a Navy vessel in the Persian Gulf, but he’s not saying who and he’s not saying which ship. “I’ll only say it’s in Region I, security reasons,” he said. A retired captain with the Auburn Fire Department and an amateur radio operator, Poto has his equipment set up at his 15 Old Danville Road home. It’s there that he receives messages from military personnel and other ham radio operators, relaying them to their rightful owners back home or in the gulf.

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