A Look Back, April 26

50 Years Ago

■A lecture and question period on Transcendental Meditation (TM) will be presented Tuesday night at Northampton High School by the Students International Meditation Society to acquaint the community with TM and discuss the possibility of providing a TM course in the high school curriculum.

■The planning board recommended to the Zoning Board of Appeals last night approval of a zoning variance which would allow Miller’s General Store, in an all-residential area, to sell beer and wine. Miller’s store is located at 15 West Farms Road.

25 Years Ago

■Horace Clarence Boyer, perhaps the foremost authority on black gospel music, will retire this spring after 26 years with the University of Massachusetts music and dance department. Boyer, 63, of Amherst, plans to keep busy in retirement with concerts, composing, seminars and workshops. He’ll also work on a dictionary of black gospel singers.

■Likening the disparate stories in his new book to dots in a pointillist painting, author Tracy Kidder helped a crowded hall of readers make connections Saturday, both with “Home Town” and its creator. Nearly 500 people gathered to hear Kidder launch a national book tour with what is host warned would be a “secular” reading from the high pulpit of the First Churches.

10 Years Ago

■Thousands of participants in Northampton’s annual LGBT Parade and Pride event May 3 are expected to march over a new “rainbow” crosswalk being installed on Main Street as a symbol of the gay community. Crews from the DPW have begun the weeklong process of transforming the existing crosswalk between Thornes Marketplace and TB Bank.

■Yo-yo pros from around New England will come to Easthampton Saturday to compete in the 10th annual Massachusetts State Yo-Yo Contest at the Eastworks Building. The event, put on by city businessman and national yo-yo master Andr Boulay, offers a total of $700 in cash prizes for the top three competitors and is open to youths and adults.