Read more about April 26, 1923, in the SunJournal.com archives.

100 Years Ago: 1923

Donald W. Webber and David Hoxie were chosen Wednesday afternoon after a preliminary contest, to represent Edward Little High School in the Lyford prize speaking contest at Colby College May 11. Both young men are members of the senior class, and Webber won second prize last year in the Lyford contest last year. Six students took part in the preliminaries.

50 Years Ago: 1973

You may remember a hit tune from several years ago called “A Guy Named Joe.” Now it’s a puppet named Joey who’s making a big hit with children awaiting surgery at St. Mary’s General Hospital. Nobody knows his second name either, but he’s helping youngsters to better understand and accept their operations at SMGH.

The girls are juniors at the nursing school, Amy is from Washburn, and Kathy lives in Auburn.

Puppet Joey assumes various roles depending on the situation and coming operation. He may be a doctor, operating room nurse, or a child. His comments and exploration change according to the operation to be performed.

“We wanted to try the personal approach and do the show in person so we could adjust and modify it to fit different personal ties and ages,” Miss Law and Miss McNeil explain. “Puppets also provide the game aspect children love, and because puppets resemble people, children relate to them as people,” they added.

Sometimes children give the puppet their own name “to more closely identify with it and their own experiences.”

Amy and Kathy try to perform the Puppet Show the evening before the children are scheduled for surgery. It’s usually given to them as a group. and their parents are invited. Basic simple honesty is the theme throughout the teaching In the Puppet Show before a tonsillectomy, the student nurses “put the puppet to bed” while explaining that he can’t have anything to eat or drink until after the operation.

“The next morning the puppet wakes,” they explain. “We ask the puppet how he’s feeling and suggest the child answer for him because he can’t talk.”

25 Years Ago: 1998

During April to June seven miles of trails through fields, forests, salt marsh and beach, self-guided discovery tours for children accompanied by an adult, visitor center center with exhibits and much more, are featured at Wells Reserve, Laudholm Farm Road.

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

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