A Look Back, May 1

50 Years Ago

■Representatives of downtown merchants appeared before the Traffic and Police Committee of the City Council last night to request that free parking be allowed downtown on Saturdays. The merchants argued that because there are no longer any bond issues to pay on the downtown parking lots, free parking should be allowed on Saturdays.

■Newspaper columnist David B. Wilson, in an address to a legal group here Saturday, said that there was no doubt in his mind that the television networks and the metropolitan press currently have so much invested in causing trouble for President Nixon that their journalistic detachment has been damaged.

25 Years Ago

■The basement of Memorial Hall is in the process of becoming home to a 20-bed cot shelter. After years of debate over where to locate the cot program, it is to open this fall in Memorial Hall’s basement — a place where thousands of square feet of space have served no other purpose than to store old windows and junk for the city.

■Starting today, Look Restaurant, a Route 9 mainstay for 40 years, will close after its breakfast and lunch trade, at 3 p.m. daily and no longer serve dinner. Michael Cronin said Friday that he ended dinner-time service because he wants to spend more time with his family and children. The eatery will continue to welcome patrons for breakfast and lunch.

10 Years Ago

■The “Florenaissance” continues this week with the second Florence Night Out arts event Thursday. Last year’s inaugural event was held in September and drew about 600 people, according to organizers. Riding a wave of positive feedback and a larger, more varied offering of events, hopes are high to increase that turnout this week.

■The proliferation of unmanned aircraft, commonly known as drones, around the world has met with opposition, and the tone was no different during a forum at Amherst Regional Middle School Tuesday night to support resolutions at the Amherst and Leverett town meetings that would control their use in private air space.