100 years ago, 1915
Dr. Ben Ridder, who claims to be a millionaire tramp, and who a few years ago spent most of one summer in Lewiston and Auburn, where he attracted more or less attention by visits to the jail and police stations and addresses made upon the public square, is dying. In a recent letter to the Boston Herald he recalls his last visit to that city in 1912, when he tried to test the legality of the one cent toll on the East Boston tunnel. For years, tho abundantly able to pay his fare in sleeping cars or parlor cars, Dr. Ridder preferred to buffet his way back and forth and up and down the country in coal gondolas and on the hard bumpers of “blind baggages.” Once, departing from his custom, he came to Boston from Bar Harbor in luxury on his own yacht, but usually he traveled as a hobo with hoboes.

50 years ago, 1965
The general manager of the Lewiston and Biddeford divisions of the West Point-Pepperell Manufacturing Company comes in for substantial praise in the latest Issue of the “American Textile Reporter.” In the article, Bernard F. Brady is credited for his part in achieving successful operations at the two mills “while so many other old and famous New England mills were going out of business.”

25 years ago, 1990
After reading the story of Helen Keller, a blind, deaf and mute woman who became a writer and lecturer, fourth-graders at Greene Elementary School decided to spend a day with an imaginary handicap. Before the exercise, the children commented that they believed it would be fun to use a wheelchair or crutches. The children, taught by Nancy Arsenault, collected blindfolds, ear plugs, wheelchairs, walkers, canes, crutches and bandages, then each assumed the handicap of his choice for a day. They quickly saw the difficulties handicapped people have in performing even simple tasks like tying shoes, turning pages and eating.

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