100 Years Ago: 1923
Life for the lighthouse keepers on islands along the Maine coast has changed much in recent years. Last Friday night Keeper Napoleon Fickett of the Seguin light and his family listened in on their radio and heard the story of the Dempsey-Firpo fight just as did folks on the mainland; also that night they listened in on a concert in Havana and the broadcasting from Chicago and Detroit.
50 Years Ago: 1973
Striking shoe workers at Knapp Kingsize Corporation call plant at 29 Lowell St., Lewiston, today took issue with company manager Harrison Foster’s statement of yesterday that the walkout involves but “a small minority” of factory workers.”
Normand Deschenes of 109 Pierce St., a Knapp employee and spokesman for the strikers, said today that as many as 250 workers were away from work. He pointed to the picket line of which he was a part, and said the men represented at least two full departments, the lasting and making rooms.
Deschenes said all the striking workers wanted was willingness on the part of management to negotiate a reasonable salary increase. The workers claim the increase announced as five per cent was actually only three point five per cent.
A written statement reads: “We, the employees of Knapp Lasting and Making Departments, have had an election by secret ballot, and the majority ruled that we cannot accept management’s offer. Therefore last we are having a walkout. Concerning this matter (of an insufficient pay hike) we have a lot of support from all departments, and the benefits we gain will benefit all.”
25 Years Ago: 1998
(Sun Journal photo) Joni Cooke reacts to the news that she is the recipient of an award during a special assembly Thursday at Leeds Central School. Cooke, in a surprise presentation, was awarded a $25,000 Milken Family Foundation Educator Award. She is one of 160 teachers nationally and three in the state to get the award this year. She is the third educator from SAD 52 to get the award since its inception in the state in 1990. “I never dreamed it was me,” Cooke said after the presentation. “I truly thought it was another teacher here in the building.”
The material used in Looking Back is produced exactly as it originally appeared although misspellings and errors may be corrected.
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