100 years ago, 1918
Wood dropped today — when a dray filled with baskets of stove wood up-set on the canal bridge and gave the driver and the starter on the electric line no small amount of trouble. There was a rapid gathering of the valuable sticks, to prevent blocking trolley traffic.

50 years ago, 1968
The Bates Street Cigar and Confectionery Co., Lewiston, has not gone out of business, despite a few reports to the contrary, company president Lewis Griffin declared today. The wholesale firm has merely temporarily suspended the distribution of certain products, Griffin said. “The corporation still exists and we still have our building,” Griffin noted. He added that the company presently is working on plans to go into another line of products. Plans might be worked out in about a month, he indicated.

25 years ago, 1993
The inability of the Knights of Columbus to find a suitable site for a Franco festival has prompted the group to withdraw its plan to stage the three-day cultural event in 1993. Fern Cloutier, co-chairman of the Knights of Columbus’ Franco festival committee, said the group voted unanimously Monday not to pursue plans to resurrect the festival, which has not been held in Lewiston for five years. “We Just couldn’t find a suitable, secured site,” Cloutier said Tuesday. “We didn’t want to hold it in Kennedy Park because we didn’t want a carnival-type atmosphere.” The Knights of Columbus had instead considered holding the festival on a practice football field at Lewiston High School, but was stiff-armed by the School Committee. “Hey, I understand that,” Cloutier said. “They have a job to do.”

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

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