100 years ago, 1917
Over 800 boys, from all parts of Maine, will sit down to supper tables in Lewiston city hall, Friday night, and then the 12th annual Maine boys’ conference will be in full sway. A few boys, more especially those who are members of the wonderful boys’ orchestra of 37 pieces which will mark this conference, arrived in town, Thursday. It was Friday morning that little knots of young strangers became noticeable along Lisbon and Main streets. They were unmistakably “boys’ conferencers,” neat, bright, eager-appearing chaps bent on the right kind of a good time.

50 years ago, 1967
Carl K. Kauffman, manager of employee and community relations, Circuit Protective Devices Department of the General Electric Co., last night told members of the Auburn Business Development Corp. that the business climate of the area was one of the principal reasons of the firm to locate a plant in Auburn. Kauffman spoke at the annual meeting of the ABDC. He said, in speaking of the former Dane-T-Bits Biscuit Co. building, which GE is taking over, that it offered “the size required, was well designed, well constructed, and well equipped with G. E. electrical components.”

25 years ago, 1992
“Please wash your hands before entering,” the wench says to enraptured second graders as they step into the candlelit, medieval kitchen. The lady of the manor, Maureen Peters, explains to the young crusaders and maidens that washing their hands is custom in the Middle Ages, as is leaving food on their plate at the end of the meal, so as not to appear poor, starving or just plain greedy. Lady Peters and her kitchen helper (the wench), Franny Lee, have prepared a facsimile of the day’s feast as it might have been during the Middle Ages — featuring such items as eel pie, boar’s head, blackbird pie or squirrel stew. The occasion is “Medieval Day” at Elm Street School in Mechanic Falls, the culmination of a two-month, school-wide study of the Middle Ages, the period from about A.D. 400 to the late 1400s.

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