This summer's months are good for memories.The Newtown Bee each week, and a recent Way We Were column photo brought back their high school days.The Bee," she said. In the column of July 1, 2016, was a photo from 1952 of Hawley Vo-Ag students. The caption prompted, "Does anyone know the people in this photo?"The Bee, she said. She had been "friendly with a gal in town, and when she died her daughter sent a picture to me that was given to her mother," she said.another picture in the Way We Were from July, with an image of what is now the Foundry Kitchen & Tavern in Sandy Hook - a general store - which she mentioned to her husband's brother, David Carmody.The Bee." He contacted the newspaper after seeing the Way We Were general store photo that ran on July 15.A Streetcar Named Desire in 1951, Kazan owned a large piece of land in Sandy Hook, part of which has been turned into town-owned open space..Francis Bresson

Marge Carmody of Brookfield and her husband, Richard Carmody, originally from Sandy Hook, enjoy reading

"I always enjoy reading

Ms Carmody, who graduated from Newtown High School (the current Newtown Middle School building, at 11 Queen Street) in 1954, knew several students gathered around a table filled with gourds. Referring to a "tall girl," she named Liz Johanna Hansen, who graduated in 1955. She then named Phyllis Odell, from the Class of 1954, and "the young man holding the rabbit is Merwin Burr [Ms Carmody's cousin] who graduated in 1956, and the boy beside him was Sherman Gaffney," she said.

Sherman's father, "Boss" Gaffney, was a teacher, she said.

Despite the decades that have passed since high school, Ms Carmody still speaks with several classmates.

"I just talked to Phyllis's brother [Clifford] yesterday," she said. "Clifford married my cousin Sally Tomlinson; they moved to Florida."

Although former friends are now living different places, they still enjoy reunions. After one recent get-together, she said, "We were talking about the Way We Were pictures and we were trying to figure out who people were." Unlike today's graduating classes with several hundred students, her class was small - about 35 people, she said.

Ms Carmody still has "some snapshots" from her school days, and one in particular that she will soon mail to

The image is of men shoveling on Mt Pleasant. She wonders if anyone can recognize a house that appears in the photo, or any of the men with shovels.

The photo sparked memories of people she remembers. The image had originally been sent to Muriel Kiernan, whose father was Dr Kiernan, and she married Bill Seaman, Ms Carmody said, recalling the people and relationships as if they were fresh in her mind. She "ended up with the picture," which has some information "nicely printed on back."

What was the town like in '54? "We lived in the best of times; life was so different, but it was the best of times considering all the things going on today," she said. "It was great, great."

Ms Carmody saw

"Marge sent me the clipping of the store - to me it was a wonderful place. The people were so nice and a lot of the customers, as well," David Carmody said.

He graduated from Newtown in 1956, and also "keeps up with

In an e-mail he wrote: "In response to the picture and query … yes, I remember." Under the photo that week was a caption describing the current restaurant as the Red Brick General Store, which is one of the building's former names. The caption asked if anyone remembered the store.

Mr Carmody wrote, "I worked there part-time from 1954-56." At that time, the store was "H.G. Warner and Co.," and was a "full-fledged general store." He said, "We sold everything from paint and hardware, cut glass, dry goods, plus groceries and meat."

Most memorable were the people, he said. He recalls Henry "Hawley" Warner, who owned the store, and whose roots preceded the Civil War.

"Hawley could and did do everything. He was certainly one of the finest people I have ever known," Mr Carmody said. "He allowed people to purchase meat and groceries on credit, often to people who probably wouldn't have made it without his help. The store also delivered groceries to numerous older people throughout the town at no additional charge."

He remembers "Billy" Hayes, who "took the call-in grocery orders and ran the register."

George Clark ran the meat department and his wife, Carolyn, also worked at the store. "George was a full-fledged gentleman and a great butcher," Mr Carmody said. He was one of the nicest people he had ever met, he said. With names flooding his memory, he continued: Rozz Tilson was also a butcher. His mother, Pearl, ran the yard goods department on the second floor. "They were both wonderful people," he said. Jean Watkins also worked at the store for many years. "As you might expect, Jean was also a very nice person," he said.

Five generations of Mr Carmody's family shopped at Warner's, he said.

"For many years after I stopped being an official employee at Warner's, I continued to visit and often don an apron just to spend time with my good old New England Yankee friends."

He was grateful for seeing the photo, which brings back "the days when Sandy Hook was the finest place on earth," he said. Regarding the general store, he said, " It's one of the favorite places I have ever been."

During a telephone call following his e-mail, Mr Carmody offered additional thoughts. He lived on Glen Road, and in high school, was close to his job at the store. Mr Carmody now divides his time between North Haven and Florida. His father, Arthur Carmody, was the postmaster in Sandy Hook.

A post office once occupied what is now Sabrina Style, on the corner of Washington Avenue and Church Hill Road. Across the intersection, on the corner of Glen Road and Church Hill Road, is the former general store. The building had been a store from the time of the Civil War, he said.

Recalling his days as an employee there, "I stocked shelves and delivered groceries to people who ordered them, ran the register, cut the cold cuts," he said. "I was very lucky," to have the employers that he did at the store, since he played sports in high school. The owners were accommodating of his game and practice schedule.

He remembers "a feature in [the general store] that was unique: a large round log with a rope and pulley to take things from floor to floor, and unfortunately they took it out when the building was redone."

He shared one funny memory, although regrets he was not at work at the time one famous celebrity had visited. "Marilyn Monroe came in one day - no kidding."

He said, "Unfortunately, I was not there for Marilyn." She came in with realtor Dottie Foster, who had loaned Ms Monroe her sweater. When Ms Foster returned to the store, the owner asked her what she would do with the sweater she lent, saying, "You better throw it out because it will never fit you again."

Mr Carmody said, "I thought that was a pretty good story. I thought it was funny, and it stuck with me for many years."

Another celebrity, Elia Kazan, "was there fairly often, he was a big Hollywood director." The director

When Mr Carmody was in high school, he said Newtown was a small town and Interstate 84 had not come through yet. Several major employers included Plastic Molding and the Fabric Fire Hose Co. Newtown "was a friendly, small town where everybody knew everybody, and to me it was a wonderful place to live."

He fondly recalls a boys club founded in the 40s and "a lot of the boys belonged to it and we played ball and it gave us something to do."

Wilton Lackaye and his wife Florence ran the Sandy Hook Athletic Club (SAC) located on Riverside Road. He said the building is still there, where a red barn/clubhouse once served the club, and included a baseball field and a place to swim.

"As kids we were very fortunate" in Newtown, and also had people including minister Paul Cullen and coach DeGroat at the high school "who were very giving and special people who helped give the town its character," Mr Carmody said.

Bethel resident Sheri Bresson, 41, also contacted the newspaper on August 1 with memories of her grandfather, Francis J. Bresson, a lifelong resident of Sandy Hook, who died on June 8. He lived to be 98. He was second generation.

Frederick Bresson was his father, who lived on Bennetts Bridge, and had bought the house, farmland with large dairy barns of about 200 acres, maybe more, Ms Bresson said.

"Much of the land has been sold and is houses now, but I remember as a child bringing my dad, Francis Edward Bresson, lunch while he was haying the land."

Her grandfather grew up in Newtown, and "was born in the old farm house at 25 Bennetts Bridge in 1917."

He lived in town his whole life, except when he briefly lived in upstate New York "on an impulse or dream, I don't know," Ms Bresson said. Remembering him, she said, "He was so quiet," but could look at photos in an album and "tell you everything about them."

In past weeks she has been "getting to know him through his death," she said, in part through cleaning out his house, and in the days before he died.

"I definitely felt I got to know him more in the last few weeks, and in reverse, through his things. There was so much I didn't know."

By reverse, Ms Bresson means she found "artifacts" in his house that were pieces of what were once her grandfather's everyday living.

"When I walked into his basement, I found a really old stove that doesn't exist except for museums," she said.

Thinking of her grandfather in his earlier life, she believes he lived simply. He was "a very simple person and maybe a product of the time he grew up."

Searching her thoughts about him, she said ,"The word simple comes up a lot. Life was a lot about work, a lot about family, a lot about tradition. I think that at that time this was reality, and that's what existed."

People went to bed early, she said, and were not up late on the internet, for example.

"People rose with the sun, went to bed with the sun." Ms Bresson has the impression that there was "not a lot in the way of entertainment; they didn't go out to dinner." Life was "a lot of working or sleeping or eating."

She envisioned that life.

"You get up and go out to milk the cows," she said. Explaining the feeling she gets from being in her grandfather's house, she said that her family "went to work, worked outside and worked very hard, and came home at dinner time and spent time with family." Inside his rooms were gas lamps and cowbells "and things you don't have anymore."

Electricity first came to the area in 1935.

"They had to cut down chestnut trees to get utility poles…" she said. Comparing his life to modern living, she said, "There was more direct people-to-people interaction and people were much more grounded." Today, people's attention is divided by electronics, cellphones, the internet, and television

"People weren't 'there,' but my grandfather was there, rooted like a tree," she said.

Ms Bresson said, "He would walk to the Grays Plain school house [which still stands on the corner of Grays Plain and Route 34] and during the Depression he would have mayonnaise sandwiches for lunch, they were so poor…that was about 1929."

Her grandfather carved a lot. She mentioned a picture she has of the small wooden birds that he had carved and later gave to her.

"The birds were the first that he ever carved and I was touched that he gifted them to me. He loved birds and loved carving them."

He was also a firm churchgoer. Laughing at something she had heard, she said, "The nuns on Sunday would go into the fields to collect donations if you couldn't make it."

But her grandfather did not miss a day of church "until the very end."