100 Years Ago: 1924

Fred H. Harrington of Durham was the recipient during Christmas week of a crate of oranges from his brother, Frank Harrington of St. Petersburg, Florida.

50 Years Ago: 1974

Lewiston Senior Girl Scout Troop 309 has expanded their project of collecting used Christmas cards and greeting cards.

This year the girls have covered boxes with Christmas paper and will be placing them. in various Lewiston shopping centers and supermarkets along with attractive posters which inform the public to save their cards and deposit them in the boxes.

These cards will be given to various nursing homes and schools where they will be used for special projects which help fill the hours for the residents as well as being a form of recycling.

25 Years Ago: 1999

Elly Bennett of the Hatch Road in Auburn is still amazed that so much good could come from something so bad, but she’s also very happy it did.

On April 26, Bennett lost her home of 48 years to a fire that started after lightning struck a tree in her yard. The 69-year-old widow faced an uncertain future until friends and neighbors came together to build a new house from donated materials and labor, and she moved back home in late August.

“I’m so comfortable in my new home,” Bennett said recently. She enjoys the central heating and hot water, two things her old home lacked, “but I’m an old farmer, so I like my woodstove when it gets really cold.”

Bennett can’t believe how many people gave so much help to “an old lady they didn’t know.”

“I’d like to send them all a Christmas card, but I can’t because there’s so many that I don’t even know,” she said. “Just tell ’em thanks for me, OK?”

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