100 years ago, 1915
Mr. J. M. Gulliver of Auburn, attended the “Birth of a Nation” matinee, Wednesday, at Music Hall in Lewiston. Mr. Gulliver is 87 years old, possibly the oldest person in these cities to see this picture. He had seen a few moving pictures, but not many, and this stupendous thing burst upon him like a loud call out of the future. Mr. Gulliver says that he never was more interested in affairs than now. He would like to go again to California, having made the trip four times, twice by land and twice by sea, once by the Panama and once by the Nicaragua route. On one of the trips by rail in the old days, the engineer of the train pulled in on a siding and went deer hunting, returning with a buck which he carried on the engine into San Francisco.

50 years ago, 1965
No, you weren’t seeing things … that actually WAS some of Old Man Winter’s white stuff falling over the area this morning. Cold weather and cloudy skies prevailed in the Lewiston-Auburn area today and at about 11 o’clock this morning, snow flurries, the first of the season, fell over the area. Only a few flakes could be seen at first, but the flurry quickly increased to a degree where the snow was quite visible. According to the Union Water Power Company gatehouse, the snow was still falling, lightly, on occasion at mid-afternoon.

25 years ago, 1990
For five servicemen wracked between tension and boredom in the Arabian desert and the Persian Gulf, home has been brought a little closer by a Lewiston grandmother. “I wanted to do something, and this is what I could do,” said Mary Ames. “I like to write letters and I like to get them. Those are all our boys over there — if your son was there you’d certainly write him, wouldn’t you?” Mrs. Ames, whose oldest daughter served in the U.S. Army in Korea and whose youngest is now in the Air Force, wrote a letter and made four photocopies. She sent all five addressed to “Any Service Member” participating in Operation Desert Shield, at addresses obtained from the Red Cross, where she sometimes works as a volunteer.

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