100 Years Ago: 1920

With the fall of the curtain at Lake Grove tonight, the current season will become a memory. It has certainly been a successful season from the standpoint of the patrons of the Lake because no stone has been left unturned by the management to insure the presentation there of the finest summer production that was to be obtained. Tonight the last show of the season of 1920 will commence at 8:15 and the finale will mark the passing of another delight.

50 Years Ago: 1970

Richard Babb, director of elementary education in Auburn, told a gathering of new elementary teachers this morning that something must be done “about the negative atmosphere which now exists in most of  our schools. Babb  directed his comments to approximately 49 new school teachers at an orientation session at the Chamberlain School. The session was designed to give the new teachers an opportunity to become acquainted with the school system. Babb told his audience that school should be a “happy experience” for each student, and it is up to teachers to help do away with the negative “atmosphere” where it currently exists. It is up to the instructors to ensure that the child meets more “successes than failures, more challenges than frustrations.

25 Years Ago: 1995

Fifty-six Trout Lake campers, staff and guests attended a reunion of Trout Lake Camp for Boys recently, including astronaut Edwin “Buss” Aldrin. Trout Lake Camp for Boys was operated in East Stoneham from 1936 to 1962. Today it is known as Camp Susan Curtis and is for children from all over the state. Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin of California, a camper here in the early 1940s and the second man to walk on the moon, showed videotapes of his lunar walk and answered questions. Upon returning to Earth and viewing the newscasts, Aldrin said he told fellow astronaut Neal Armstrong, “we missed the whole thing.”

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