100 Years Ago: 1918

The kiddies on the Salvation Army picnic had their lemonade, thanks to the generosity of 10 people, who when appealed to, each gave to an adjutant abbott a pound of sugar, and a gift of a pound of sugar today means real generosity. The request was made to the Journal Tuesday evening. By eight o’clock Wednesday morning the adjutant had been promised all the sugar he needed to make all the lemonade for 250 thirsty youngsters could drink on their annual picnic at Frost Park.

50 Years Ago: 1968

Smiling, 15-year-old Pamela Jean Heino with tears of happiness streaming down her pretty face, accepted the wildly applauding homage of her fellow townspeople here, Wednesday night, as she was named Miss Mechanic Falls in the big opening event of this community’s 75th-anniversary observance. The attractive, blue-eyed brunette clasped her hands to her cheeks in surprise when Master of Ceremonies Leon Paine announced her name as the winner in the splendid competition. Gordon College graduate Lois Carrie Jordan, 21, was named first runner-up and 18-year-old Eileen Louise Stretton, a five-foot-four-inch, blue-eyed blond was second runner-up. The Miss Congeniality Award, given as a result of a vote by the 10 contestants, went to the diminutive and smiling Melody Ann Felker.

25 Years Ago: 1993

When Michael Cormier looks around Lewiston, he sees its potential to become more of an urban forest, with trees and flowers flourishing downtown, along the main streets and in the parks. But no amount of planting will make that vision a reality unless the younger generation develops an appreciation for the greenery that “makes the city a better place to live,” he says. Lewiston’s first staff arborist, Cormier sees a natural link between nurturing plants and educating children. In his three years on the job here, he’s seen a disheartening amount of public landscaping destroyed by kids’ insensitivity to trees and flowers. This spring, “We did a lot of work in Kennedy Park and a lot was ruined by vandalism,” including annuals that had been planted in a star design for Memorial Day, Cormier recalled in a recent interview. “We put more than $1,000 worth of trees in there and we lost easily a third of that. Kids were hanging off the branches, climbing small trees, snapping them off at the base, pulling off the bark,” the arborist recounted ruefully. More recently, vandals ripped out four dozen annuals as well as some perennials near Victor News — “Just pulled them up and left them on the ground” to die, said Cormier.

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

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