100 years ago, 1918
An expert gives the following advice on handling soft coal fires which were never so much invoked as this winter by private families in Lewiston and Auburn. How to Save: Don’t cover the whole fire at once. Don’t load the furnace with coal. Don’t carry the fire over 12 inches thick. Use the slice bar only when you have to . . . that is seldom. Don’t turn the fire over when slicing. By all means avoid holes in the fire. Cover the fire only where it burns out, keeping it level. Keep the steam jet or other blower on for a minute after firing. Keep the ash pit empty, the boiler free of soot, and the water at the same height in the gauge glass all the time. Save coal.

50 years ago, 1968

If you live in an apartment house and you have a mailbox, you’ve got to have a box with a lock, and keep it locked, or you may have to drive downtown to the post office to pick up your mail. That was the word today from Lewiston Postmaster Roger Albert, who said he has been “advised that a longtime Post Office regulation, requiring apartment mailboxes to be locked, must be enforced.”

25 years ago, 1993

Come Election Day this November, thousands of Lewiston residents will find themselves voting in different wards, precincts or districts than they’ve been assigned to in recent years. Political lines within the city are being redrawn to reflect population shifts that occurred here between 1980 and 1990, City Clerk Gerald Berube explained Wednesday. “There’s going to be a drastic change in ward lines,” Berube predicted. “We’ve seen a lot of downtown buildings torn down and population shifting to the outskirts. And since the ’80s, there’s been a lot of construction in the Randall Road, Pond Road and Sabattus Street area.” All seven wards are likely to be affected, but “Ward 4 will have a drastic reduction in size,” the city clerk projected. In contrast, the boundaries of Wards 2 and 5 “will move outward.”

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