100 years ago: 1925
“It’s disagreeable enough to have the virtues of your wife’s first husband continually dinned into your ears, but to have to pay his funeral expenses — $400 worth — oh! man! that sure is enough to drive one into the great Wild West where men are men and women are governors.
“Harry P. Ellis, 58, of Turner, told Justice Deasey in the Supreme court at Auburn that his wife “nagged him and nagged him” until she actually nagged him into paying $400 for the funeral expenses of her first husband.
“Ellis got the divorce he was seeking.
“Justice Deasey granted 15 divorces, denied two cross-libels and dismissed one when the April term of the Supreme court was adjourned in Auburn at 12:30 o’clock Saturday noon.”
50 years ago: 1975
“It’s a very special evening! St. Dominic Regional High School will present its annual Junior-Senior Prom, which will be held at Lost Valley Lodge tonight. The prom will commence at 8:30 p.m. and end at 12:00 midnight with a delectable smorgasbord.
“During the evening music will be provided by ‘Travelers.’ The group has chosen music coinciding with the theme ‘Stairway To Heaven.’
“Beneath the soft lights and mood of the music, the girls will be gowned in soft pastels and whites, their escorts having chosen coordinating colored tuxes.
“The host for the evening will be George Langlois, with lovely Suzanne Morency as hostess.”
25 years ago: 2000
“LEWISTON — Montello Elementary is the Kindest School in Maine.
“A national group, Do Something, gave Montello the title and a trophy because its students performed the most acts of kindness and justice — 1,153 — during a two-week challenge.
“Some of the acts were as simple as a third-grader sharing his pencil or crayon with a classmate. In another case, two fifth-grade girls who’d been ganging up on a third girl came to her defense when someone else harassed her.
“In each case, it was up to the recipient of the kindness to report it, to be recorded in the school’s score.
“Fifty-eight schools in Maine participated in the third annual challenge, which the New York City-based Do Something conducts in the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”
The quoted material used in Looking Back is produced exactly as it originally appeared although misspellings and errors may be corrected.