100 Years Ago: 1922

Sunday afternoon, at a rehearsal in the Elks’ Home, it was announced by the entertainment committee that the entire cast of the Elks‘ Minstrel show to be given at the Empire theatre, Lewiston, will be taken on Tuesday, April 18, to see the Elks’ Minstrel show in the Jefferson theatre, in Portland. A special interurban car will leave Lewiston at 5:35, returning after the performance, and a block of seats will be reserved. It will all be free to members of the cast, and should prove for them a very enjoyable outing.

50 Years Ago: 1972

An original play written and directed by Kenneth Edwards, a 14-year-old seventh grader at Webster School, will be presented tomorrow afternoon for the entertainment of the student body and, if the performance is successful, a little later for the parents and the general public. Entitled “Crime Doesn’t Pay,” the play has roles for several characters include Daniel Lothrop, John Chartier, Pam Michaud, Pam Duprey, Bill Benner and Ken Edwards, Others in the cast are Sue Landry, Vicki Williams, Wanda Nuzzo, Vaughn Simard, Sherwood Spaulding, Ron Michaud, Mare Cyr. In charge of lights and curtains are Peter Norweg and Marshall McCabe; James Driscoll will be guitarist; Steve Mercier, drummer; Leland Bachelder and Wendy Wilding, announcers. The program includes a song, which Kenneth also wrote. Christopher Smith, teacher of English at the school, is faculty advisor.

25 Years Ago: 1997

The Maine French Fiddlers will play some of their French Canadian waltzes, jigs and reels for listening and dancing at 2pm April 20th at Lost Valley Lodge. The group of eight friends and family have been playing music for years, sometimes individually. The group includes four friends who have mastered the old-time art of French Canadian fiddling native to New Brunswick and Quebec. Fiddlers in the group include Lucien Mathieu, Don Roy Jerry ‘Robichaud and 13 old Erica ‘Brown from Lewiston. They are joined by Stu McConnell on accordion, Cindy Roy on piano, Louis Mathieu on guitar and Jay Young on bass. Some of their favorite tunes are nearly 300 years old and include waltzes, and jigs and reels. Since the fiddlers initial outing as a group at the New Year’s Celebration in Portland in 1987, numerous engagements have followed. The National Folk Festival (1988), the Folk Masters Series at Carnegie Hall (1990), two appearances on Garrison Keillor’s American Radio Theater in (1992), Lincoln Center’s Out-of-Doors Festival  (1992), and the Folk Masters Series at Wolf Trap Farms in Vienna, Va. (1993). They also were featured in the successful French Connections tour performing in New England and Louisiana 1993 and 1995.

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

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