Throwback to August 12

100 years ago: 1922

"Ah hah" said the big black bear, "so you're the gink that ate my blueberries." But the gink neither denied nor corroborated the accusation. He just started rushing in one direction and the big black bear followed suit. "No you don't," the bear continued, but WH Waterman of Turner Road, Auburn did. He ran and Mr. Bear immediately stayed behind. Mr. W. did not cry out for help. He could not ! In any case, he reached civilization as quickly as safely possible.

Mr Waterman was picking blueberries in North Auburn on Friday night when he looked up and encountered a sizable bear standing on its hind legs watching him with interest. He didn't stop to chat, but delivered a silent message at her feet and they answered his call.

A previous report that a bear was seen in the neighborhood was believed to be false, but Mr Waterman is not running for fun.

50 years ago: 1972

Workers from Clayton Copp and Sons Building Movers of Cumberland moved the Plummer and Merrill Funeral Home today across Turner Street to its new location at the start of Center Street in Auburn.

Many locals visited to reminisce and watch the event which involved the main part of the 101-year-old structure on four diesel trucks tied to the steel beams that support its base.

The garage section will be moved another day. Today's activity which started around 12:30 p.m. took up much of the afternoon due to the size of the three story building. The structure is sited to make room for the Union Street Bypass.

25 years ago: 1997

Some Lewiston-Auburn residents may have come to the conclusion late last night that either the sky was falling or their eye checks needed to be renewed.

In fact, it was just the sky that was falling - tiny particles, that is. And a friend and I were lucky enough to witness the fabulous meteor shower as a once in a lifetime enriching experience.

We were on our way back to Lewiston, around 10 p.m. via a remote road from Sabattus, when he mentioned to me that the showers were to take place. How convenient - it was 10:50am so we were in time to see the 11am peak. Lying on the hood of the car, we were simply mesmerized by the split-second streaks of light that were now happening at about one per minute. Meteors streaked across every corner of the crystal clear sky. And being away from the "big city lights" made it possible to see just about every star - It was quite the trip. Then came the highlight of the shower - a huge meteor ready, we thought, to hit the earth at any moment - and it would have done so if it hadn't burned up in a second and a half, but that was a beauty that started out white and changed all the colors before it became just a memory.

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