A Look Back: Nov. 20

50 Years Ago

■The executive director of Northampton’s Hotline-telephone referral program has been appointed director of Hope Home, a proposed therapeutic residence in Springfield for young people with drug problems. Floyd H. Ashlaw, 28, a Northampton resident, has assumed his duties with Hope Home, which is in the planning stages.

■“Energy Sheriffs” and pizza parties are spurring Smith College students on to conversations about electricity. The first energy sheriff in the history of the college was elected recently by students in Jordan House. Ibbits Warriner, a freshman, was chosen by her dormmates to be “the motivating force” behind energy conservation in the 80-student facility.

25 Years Ago

■The next superintendent of the seven-town Gateway Regional School District will be Donald Nicoletti, following a unanimous vote by the school committee last night. Nicoletti is currently assistant superintendent of the Narragansett Regional School District in north central Massachusetts.

■Mary Clare Higgins, president of the Northampton City Council, was named Monday to the newly created state Commission on the Status of Women. Higgins, who works as the director of day care programs for the Hampshire Community Action Commission, was appointed to the commission by the Caucus of Women Legislators.

10 Years Ago

■The Food for Thought Book Collaborative on North Pleasant Street in Amherst, which issued a public plea for help to keep its doors open last summer, now says it must shrink the size of the store or close. “Here we are at the end of our rope,” members of the collective said in an email sent this week.

■The Florence Civic and Business Association is organizing a “Christmas Tree Promenade” this year that will allow people to show off their decorating prowess to the entire village. Association board member Robert Ross said the idea came to him while he was on vacation in Colorado and visited a town where Christmas trees were put out for public display.