100 years ago: 1925

“Whatever possessed a 10 or 12 year old boy to walk from Auburn to Lewiston atop the four inch outside handrail on the south side of the North Bridge Monday evening about 7.45 o’clock, nobody knows.

“He did it in the presence of a 100 or more men and women hurrying to the theaters is all that counts. He did it successfully.

“The most difficult part of the stunt was the climbing onto the rail, which is only four inches wide or just the width of an average pair of men’s shoes. He accomplished this part of it without the assistance of three smaller boys who were with him, tho it took considerable skillful balancing to enable him to stand upright in the face of a stiff breeze which was blowing.

“Then he started while pedestrians stood wide-eyed, and had proceeded only 10 or 15 feet when the three small boys began to make playful passes at him, to pinch his legs and keep shouting ‘Dive over. It ain’t much of a drop and the water’s nice and warm.’

“Because the rail is some three or four feet higher than the boardwalk, he had to stand off their attacks with his feet so that most of the time he was either hopping along on one leg with the other extended at an angle of 45 degrees or else was partially stooping over to make a pass with his hand. He reached the Lewiston side safely and not one of the quartet seemed the least bit impressed with the performance.

“About a year ago an Auburn athlete named Reynolds performed the same feat to celebrate his graduation from Edward Little, which was to take place within a few days. He was, however, much older and made the trip with much more difficulty.”

50 years ago: 1975

“LEWISTON — The proposed Main Street Park, development of which has long been of interest to Lewiston city officials, was the topic of an organizational meeting this morning and the decision was made to obtain professional design concepts.

“The site is open space situated between the (Longley) bridge and the W.S. Libbey Co. on the bank of the Androscoggin River.

“Its development into a recreation area has been discussed six or seven years. Due to lack of funds, or construction work in progress in the area, the park has remained on the back burner, but that’s not the case this year as $25,000 has been made available in the form of a Community Development grant just for the riverside site, now termed a ‘glorified gravel pit’ by some folks.

“According to (Lewiston planner Nathaniel) Bowditch, this morning’s gathering was the first major step taken in development of the area, described by him as the ‘gateway to the city’ and, because of its location, the ‘gateway to the city’s mills, the calling card of the city of Lewiston.'”

Editor’s note: The area is now the location of Veterans Memorial Park.

25 years ago: 2000

“AUBURN — Workmen have laid the brick sidewalks and paved the city’s primary street. Now they’re going to make it pretty.

“Throughout this summer, city leaders plan to add to Court Street a variety of amenities. All aim to define where exactly the downtown begins, what its character ought to be and improve its beauty, said Mark Adams, Auburn’s assistant city manager.

“New flowers, trees, benches, signs and more than two dozen new light posts are planned for the central artery, between its intersection with Minot Avenue and the James B. Longley Bridge across the Androscoggin River.

“The amenities began with those bricks. They replaced patches of pavement and cement and created a uniform presence along both sides of Court Street.

“Meanwhile, dozens of new trees — red oaks, red maples, Callery pears, ginkgos and littleleaf lindens — have already been planted. One-third of that number of trees were removed last summer, when Court Street was dug up and rebuilt.”

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