100 years ago: 1925

An editorial in the Lewiston Evening Journal declared that “one thing necessary” for Maine’s future “is to have a great, handsome highway from Kittery to Portland.” It said the visitors will gain an impression of the state from what they see when they enter Maine, one reason that Arthur Race of Boston’s Copley-Plaza Hotel is pushing for a better road. Race “sends to our state thousands of tourists every year. He is at the gateway of our state and of New England.” Race said that “the most important thing for Maine is a fine road from Portsmouth to Portland,” the Journal said. “Let’s be sensible and have a good road leading into Portland.”

50 years ago: 1975

“One Vietnamese orphan, a 3 1/2-year-old girl from South Vietnam, will be one of the thousands of South Vietnamese orphans to be flown to the United States to find a home. As far as can be determined, the little girl is the only refugee war orphan anticipated here, and even her arrival seems shrouded in uncertainty. ‘We have one family in Lewiston that has had a child assigned to them, and we’ve already begun the work to get her over here,’ Ms. Sally Tappan, adoption worker with the State Health and Welfare Department here, said today.”

25 years ago: 2000

“When police went to retrieve a stolen item from a Lewiston apartment Wednesday, the officers weren’t in any rush to get their hands on the goods: a 2-foot-long baby boa constrictor. It was recovered Wednesday night only after the owner of the snake agreed to come pick it up. Auburn police officers investigating the case of the stolen serpent discovered that three of the baby red-tail boas had been stolen from Fin, Feather & Fur Family Pet Center on Center Street. A 14-year-old Lewiston boy was being questioned late Wednesday and police said he confessed to slipping away with three of the snakes over a period of a month.”

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