100 years ago, 1915
At chapel exercises at Bates College, Tuesday morning, President Chase announced to the student body that the faculty had found it impossible to grant the petition which had been received asking that regular classes be suspended on Monday mornings, until chapel time. The plan for doing away with lectures on that morning until 9.40, was that students might be left freer over Sunday and not be forced to use that time for the preparation of long lessons for the early hours of Monday morning. As it is, Saturday afternoon is the only entirely free afternoon of the week — and that is needed for recreation. But, in refusing the petition for suspension of classes on Monday morning, President Chase advised as a remedy for conditions, a somewhat more careful planning of the weekday work which would of itself result in leaving Sunday as free as possible for its legitimate uses.

50 years ago, 1965
Auburn city officials, officers of the St. Louis Federal Credit Union, along with invited guests turned out in the bright New Auburn sunshine this forenoon for the ground breaking ceremony heralding the start of construction for new quarters for the credit union. Auburn Mayor Harry W. Woodard, Jr., and City Manager Woodbury E. Brackett looked on as the first spadesful of earth on the construction site, at the corner of Third and Dunn streets, were turned by Credit Union President Philip Dufresne and Rosaire Lafontaine, treasurer.

25 years ago, 1990
Don Keneagy, chairman of the New Gloucester Greenbelt Committee, presented proposed measures to protect open space and trails through a Greenbelt Plan. “You ask for the sky and maybe you get a pebble,” said Keneagy of the 16 recommendations from the three-member subcommittee to the Comprehensive Planning Committee. Several of the recommendations may be radical and utopian, said Keneagy, but the volunteer group wanted to include all considerations. A gaping hole left out of the recommendations, said Keneagy, was how to best work with the large private landowners to gain their support and interest.

The material in Looking Back is reproduced exactly as it originally appeared, although misspellings and errors made at that time may be edited.