March 16, 1990

Shoppers at the Newtown Grand Union won’t have to listen much longer to the buzz of power drills intermingling with piped-in music as the steer their carts from aisle to aisle. “We’re shooting for April 1,” to hold a grand reopening, said store manager William Volage. Since October, outside and interior renovation work has proceeded while the supermarket stayed open for business, with placards announcing a new and improved store.

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The Parks and Recreation Commission at its Tuesday meeting listened to arguments by opponents of the drinking ban at town parks. That ruling has drawn approval from local youth-support groups and alcohol abuse organizations, but also anger from some users for the park, mostly members of the men’s softball league. The intention of the ban, according to Larry Haskel, chairman of the commission, was to do what was best for the community. He said Newtown was one of the last area towns to ban drinking in its parks.

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The Indian mascot issue is back at Newtown High, and two Native American speakers are scheduled to talk to the student body in April. In question is whether the mascot is demeaning to Native Americans and should be changed, or whether the mascot honors Indians and should be kept. In raising the issue last March, Mr Ashmore, an earth science teacher, said he was not a “raging radical,” but that he felt strongly that Native Americans are wrongly portrayed through the use of mascots and symbols. One symbol Mr Ashmore referred to was a wide-eyed, piano-toothed brave found on high school varsity jackets.

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Restructuring the inflexible, compartmentalized school schedule is essential to promote creative curricula. So says Joyce Hannah, art teacher at Newtown High School, member of a faculty team who will be teaching this September in a pilot program of studies called a School Within A School. In the new program, students would be graded on their progress, according to Mrs Hannah. Students will also be graded on the exhibits they create as part of the program. One of the more important facets of the School Within A School is creating an atmosphere where students learn responsibility in sharing what they learn with their class, school, and community, she added.

March 19, 1965

Four of Newtown’s clergymen returned late Tuesday night from four days in Selma, the Alabama town which presently is the center of the civil rights drive, of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference led by the Rev Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. The intensity of this experience cannot be doubted by anyone who has talked to the four men, the Rev Edward H. Cook of Trinity Episcopal, the Rev James B.Ilten of Christ the King Lutheran Church, Father Richard R. Losch of St John’s Episcopal Church, Sandy Hook, and the Rev Alastair Sellars of the Newtown Congregational Church… The four left Newtown around 8:45 on Friday morning, flew from Kennedy Airport, and arrived in Selma about 3 o’clock that afternoon. The Newtown ministers found accommodations in a new wing of the Roman Catholic Good Samaritan Hospital, not yet opened. In walking the five blocks between the chapel and hospital, the hundreds of visitors were told that they must go always in daytime, in groups of three or four, at a time. They were confined to one section of the city… Major credit for keeping down the violence was given to Dr King — “a truly great man” — and his aides, notably the Rev C.T. Vivian. Sunday morning the Newtown ministers asked permission of city authorities to attend churches of their faith in the city. It must have been a bitter moment indeed, when these ministers were told at the church doors that while they might come in, their friends could not. Permission was granted to conduct memorial services on the court house steps Monday for the Rev James R. Reeb, Unitarian minister from Boston, who was fatally beaten in Selma last Tuesday. The march from chapel to court house was completely quiet… There is much more that could be told of their trip… Let the joint statement of Newtown’s four clergymen speak for itself: “We went to Selma because we believe that the present crisis is a religious issue… to give encouragement… We went because… all men are brothers… We went to protest the injustice which has cast shame on us all by acts of calculated brutality.”

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The Little Theater on Orchard Hill Road, home of the Town Players, was the scene last Saturday of a groundbreaking ceremony which will lead to a new addition to the present structure. The added space will provide dressing rooms, prop and costume storage, and a rehearsal hall and is expected to be finished by early summer.

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The Newtown Board of Education and the Board of Selectmen have submitted budget requests to the Board of Finance totaling $2,516,534 for the 12-month fiscal year from July1, 1965 to June 30, 1966. The school board asks appropriation of $1,681,775 and the selectmen seek $834,759.

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Mrs William Rafferty and Mrs John J. McAvoy recently took their kindergarten classes of Sandy Hook School on trips to supermarkets as part of their study of the community. Wayne Watson of the Grand Union and Mr Hawks of the A&P took the children behind the scenes and explained the workings of each department. These busy men were most kind: the children learned how a truck is unloaded, how the meat is cut, and how food is packaged and displayed.

March 15, 1940

Fire starting in the chimney gutted the attic and part of the second floor in the home of Richard Arndt in Taunton district on Sunday afternoon. The apparatus of the Newtown Fire company was quickly on the scene, with Albert Knapp driving. Members of the company led by Chief “Walt” Glover and assisted by others at the fire battled the stubborn blaze for over two hours. The local firemen and those assisting deserve a great deal of credit for saving the major portion of the home. A scarcity of water greatly hampered them. An old well, no longer used, was pumped dry and proved a lifesaver in checking the spread of the flames.

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A serious automobile accident occurred early Friday evening on Snake Hill on the Newtown-Danbury road, when the car, operated by Louis Detz of Unionville, skidded on the icy surface of the road and crashed head-on into a car driven by Daniel Haugh of Sandy Hook. The force of the impact threw Mr Haugh from the driver’s seat to the roadway, where he was struck by the rear bumper of his own car as it skidded around. The occupants of both cars were rushed to the Danbury hospital, where it was found that Mr Haugh was in a critical state. His condition steadily grew worse and his death occurred on Sunday afternoon.

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Miss Annette Cunningham, dental hygienist of Bridgeport, visited Hawley school on Wednesday of last week, when she talked to the children on proper care of the teeth, using a large tooth brush and a model of the human mouth to point out to the children the various teeth, their care and the correct method of brushing. Miss Cunningham also showed samples of the different kinds of cereals, flour, etc, among them oatmeal, wheat flour and rice, explaining the value of these foods and encouraging the use of more wheat, wholewheat, and rye bread in school lunches.

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Many ski enthusiasts and friends of the Newtown AC were on hand at the Edmond gym, Tuesday evening, to witness the series of talking pictures sponsored by the club. Included in the program was a basketball picture, winter sports in the Laurentians, the Canadian Rockies, and Sun Valley, and a comedy starring Bing Crosby. The pictures of Sun Valley were especially beautiful.

 

March 19, 1915

The Newtown High school has received a very valuable and useful gift in a set of handsome analytical scales for use in the chemistry department. They will be of great assistance to Principal Johnson in his work. The donors are Mr and Mrs Mortimer Smith of Janviere farm, Mount Pleasant. Mr Smith used these scales while at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and they are a particularly good set.

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A Shepherd dog which is said to have belonged to Joseph Harcor, resides with Marion Williams in Hopewell district, disappeared from its home on Thursday or Friday of last week and the first that was heard of it after its disappearance was at Stamford, when the public authorities of that place called up Town Clerk Pitzschler to inquire who owned the dog here with a certain number on the tag. The dog was at Stamford, had bitten several animals and was apparently suffering from the rabies. The Commissioner of Domestic Animals at Hartford, said that the head of the animal had been examined and it was found it had the rabies. The Selectmen have ordered all dogs in Newtown t be muzzled. It is easy to see how the disease may be spread when it is noted that the Harcor dog went all the way to Stamford before being stopped.

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Hattertown: George French, 86 years old, walked from his home in Easton to this place and back again on Monday. A remarkable feat for such an aged man… Timber is being drawn to the M.D. Morgan property on Pinball hill, for a new house which contractor Edgar C. Northrop is to build this spring.

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Some time in the fall, A.P. Smith offered a prize of $1 to the pupils of the North Center school for the best essay on George Washington. Twelve children competed for the prize. The compositions were numbered (without the names of the writers) and placed in the hands of Mrs James H. George, who very kindly consented to act as judge. The prize was awarded to No 18, written by Master Earle Smith. The points considered in judging the papers were originality, accuracy of statements, subject matter, grammatical form, spelling, punctuation and neatness.