100 years ago, 1916
Oxford County, the stronghold of the Progressives in Western Maine, is opposed to a third ticket in Maine. Representative Progressives from this county and members of the delegation who attended the Progressive State convention at Bangor, yesterday, were defeated in an attempt to secure a vote for a coalition in Maine provided Col. Roosevelt or any other candidate was unanimously nominated by the Republican and Progressive conventions to be held in June.

50 years ago, 1966
Plans for phasing out the schoolboy patrol in Auburn were revealed Wednesday night at a meeting of the Auburn Superintending School Committee, Schools Supt. Lewis E. Webber said the patrol program has been diminishing each year for some time. “Aren’t they effective,” asked Mayor Harry W. Woodard Jr. “Not really,” replied Webber. He said the school-boy patrol program places a “tremendous responsibility on the youngsters,” and the matter of liability in the case of injury to a youngster is a major consideration. There are only three or four schools in Auburn which still have patrols, Webber said. The patrol program was started about 30 years ago, and for many years an outing of patrol-boys to Bear Pond Park at Turner has been an annual affair.

25 years ago, 1991
Thousands of people from throughout the state have signed petitions to keep the Gray Game Farm open, but legislators who control the purse strings will probably determine its fate. Organizers of the petition drive say more than 15,000 signatures will be delivered to the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee in Augusta later this month. Jeanne Adams and Sarah Holman, co-owners of Gray Dove Printing in Gray, have spearheaded a petition drive that brought attention to the game farm’s proposed cut from the department’s budget early last month. She said one woman told her it was the only thing her parents could afford to take their eight children to do. “A rich man from Boston called and offered us the use of his office staff, and a sizable contribution,” she reported.

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