100 Years Ago: 1924

The Minstrel Follies” presented by the local high school students in Winthrop on Monday evening and again this evening at the town hall was well done and reflected much glory on the students, principal of the school and the director, Albert E. Hayes, who has been in town for the last ten days putting much intensive work into the performance.

The show was given under the Acme Theatrical Producing Co. for the benefit of the High School Athletic Association and it is hoped a good sum will be realized.

The parts were all taken by people in school and the endmen, some of them making their first performances as songsters, kept the first part of the evening very much alive with their jokes and songs.

50 Years Ago: 1974

Technical experts have eliminated the theory that a single, accidental act caused the 18.5 minute gap in a subpoenaed Watergate tape. But at a federal  court hearing Tuesday, the experts were prevented  by objections from White House lawyers from speculation whether there was any way the tape could have been erased accidentally.

Two Secret Service agents were expected to testify today about who has access to the tape recorder that the experts said produced the buzz heard on the obliterated segment on the tape.

It was the recorder Rosemary Woods, President Nixon’s personal secretary, said she was using last Oct 1, when she accidently pushed the record button, after being interrupted while trying to transcribe tape of a June 20, 1972 conversation between the president and H.R. Haldeman.

Haldeman’s notes indicated that the segment included all discussion of the Watergate break-in which had occurred three days earlier.

The six-member panel of experts, chosen jointly by the White House and the special Watergate prosecutor’s office, agreed unanimously that the tape showed that the record button had been pushed not once, but at least five and possibly as many as nine times.

“Further,” they said “whether the foot pedal was used or not, the recording controls must have been operating by hand.” But, one of the six testified “We have no idea when it occurred or who was responsible.”

25 Years Ago: 1999

The storm that pelted Maine with freezing rain and sleet as the weekend began was very similar to the Ice Storm of ’98, which left nearly half of the state’s residents without power for days on end, according to meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Gray.

One big difference: Heavy rain and flooding that closed streets clearly surprised prognosticators.

And another: Wind was expected to push the storm away by Friday night, lessening the potential for potential damage, said Fred Ronco, an NWS meteorologist in Gray.

The Ice Storm of ’98 was caused by a stationary front that sat over Maine for several days, coating nearly everything with thick layers of ice that sent branches and power lines crashing to the ground.

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

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