100 Years Ago: 1924

Youth will open the Second Annual Auburn Winter Carnival today, when the junior snow meets commence at 3 o’clock at the Pettingill Park winter playground/ Snowshoe and ski-jumping are the feature events scheduled for this meeting. While the meet is the opening event of the program, the official opening will not be held until evening, when the carnival parade gets underway, with the Court Street skating rink as its objective.

Three days packed with out-of-door activities are on the Auburn program. The Shoe City’s first attempt at the out-door games last year met with instant approval. The second carnival will eclipse the former games by a wide margin, is the word that was sent out last evening from Community Service, under whose auspices the carnival is held.

50 Years Ago: 1974

(Sun Journal photo) The pleased patient shown here is Mrs. Elizabeth Murphy of North Leeds and the nurse is Mrs. Dorothy Gardner, R.N., head nurse for M-1. Cupid visited the Central Maine General Hospital today in the form of lovely orchids and hearts. Thanks to the generosity of a local businessman, each patient at the CMG found something extra on her lunch tray this noon — a delicate purple and white orchid, flown directly from Hilo, Hawaii. A hospital spokesman said the ladies were quite surprised and expressed grateful comments for the lovely gift. “It added to the atmosphere of love and thoughtfulness on this Valentine’s Day,: he said. The spirit of this day was not limited to the ladies — at breakfast this morning, each patient received a special creative Valentine designed especially for the occasion by 30 CMG Candystriper, expressing such sentiments as “Happiness Is … being your Valentine,” and “Love to You.”

25 Years Ago: 1999

This is a ship-in-a bottle town with a “Message in a Bottle” fever.

Positioned along Maine’s fabled coast  — the kind of coast some people  think could pass for North Carolin’s in a pinch — Brunswick has got a wicked case of movie madness.

Days before Friday’s opening of the Kevin Costner/Paul Newman film, “Message in a Bottle,” people were showing up at the local theater grabbing tickets. Anticipating sold-out shows, they didn’t want to be left out in the cold.

They wanted to see Costner and Newman, of course. And they wanted to get misty over a good romance on Valentine’s Day weekend. But many were going to catch their community, their Popham Beach and some of their neighbors — area fishermen, boat builders and waitresses — on the big  screen.

“We got our tickets this afternoon,” Trudy MacMillan of Topsham said Friday night as she and her husband stood in line waiting to go into Hoyts Cinema. She wanted to see the movie, “because it was filmed locally.”

So did Kathleen Logan of Brunswick. “My valentine is treating me tonight,” Logan said as she bought a raffle ticket for one of the bottles used in the movie.

Volunteers from the Bath YMCA had a table at the theater selling $1 raffle chances for a special glass bottle. “What we have is one of the original bottles used in the movie,” bragged Randy Furbish of Bath. “It has a certificate of authenticity. We’re selling it to raise money to build a new YMCA.” Anticipation about the movie is running high, Furbish said.

“I haven’t talked to one person who isn’t excited about the movie,” agreed Priscilla Trudell, owner of the Brunswick Beauty Shop/” Everyone is talking about going to the movie.. This quite exciting.”

The “Message in a Bottle” story is set in North Carolina. But Trudell and her beauty shop customers want to set the record straight ; People want to make sure they tell everyone this was made in Maine on our beach.

And with some Maine people … or at least their homes or places of work.

Just about everyone here has some connection to the movie.

Last summer, truck drivers hauling movie equipment stopped Trudell’s husband and asked for directions. “They were very nice,” she said. “I’m sorry I never got to see the bigtime movie stars. But some  people around here did.”

Karen Severy of Topsham is another who’s looking forward to the movie and bought tickets days before it opened.

“Everyone here is excited,” she said, adding she bought tickets for her daughter who is driving up from Massachusetts to Brunswick so she could see the movie in her hometown. “There’s so much hype about the movie. It’s promoted heavily in Boston as the Valentine’s movie … I read the book, and the book was wonderful.”

At the Applebee’s restaurant in Brunswick, located next to the cinema, General Manager Joe Comerford was all smiles. All week long patrons stopped in at the restaurant after purchasing advance tickets.” People are fired up because it’s bringing a little bit of Maine to the rest of the country.”

Many Maine residents saw a special preview of the movie last Monday night, which sold out in its two showings.

“They brought in special skylights and spotlights. It was quite a gala event,” said Will West.

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

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