100 Years Ago: 1924

Miss Belle Foote of Bath has a novel and highly popular little business which she conducts in her home, the manufacturing and renting of puzzles. She makes them from interesting pictures, pasted on to specially prepared panels of three-ply wood which she cuts into intricate shapes, in tiny pieces and boxes, each one by itself, carefully.

Madame Emma Eames was her first customer, in 1922.

Since then Miss Foote has prepared more than 400 of these attractive pictures, and one customer has put together more than 300 of them.

Miss Foote has sent her puzzles from Bath to California, and to Italy; she has extended the business so she now has a branch shop in Brunswick as she sells them as well as rents them.

50 Years Ago: 1974

Members of the Lewiston-Auburn Rotary Club crowded the Heritage House today to pay merry homage to former club president Lewis W. Haskell, who celebrated his 95th birthday Thanksgiving Day.

25 Years Ago: 1999

While her offbeat personality may forever remain a puzzle, the mystery of Susi The Cat’s summertime whereabouts has finally been solved.

Turns out the 5-year-old feline, who disappears each May and stays away for the whole summer, has been hanging out, eating and sleeping just a couple miles away.

Until last night, Susi’s summertime whereabouts were a complete mystery to her owners, Patty and Randy Donovan of Lewiston.

All that changed last night when the Donovans received an illuminating phone call from a Sun Journal reader, who had just pawed her way through a story on none other than Susi.

“A lady called us half an hour ago and said, ‘Guess what? Your cat has stayed with us during the summertime for the past two years,” Donovan said. “So now we know where she’s been all this time.”

Turns out the cat, who returns home every year around the time of the first snowfall, summers several miles down the road.

“(The lady who called) said she’s very territorial and rules the neighborhood.”

News of Susi’s aggressive behavior came as a surprise to the Donovans, who say she is a lovable, cuddly and peaceful cat during the winter when she is at home.

“My wife and I have been laughing for the past half hour because of what a split personality she (apparently) has,” Donovan said. “She’s a wicked, lovely, wonderful cat for us.”

Apparently, “we’ve got this weird bipolar cat or something,” Donovan surmised.

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