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THE WAY WE WERE

JULY 5, 1974

The Board of Selectmen decided at its meeting on Tuesday night to send letters

to other town agencies concerned with land use requesting that a joint

committee be set up to study what courses the town might take when lands

become available for purchase. First Selectman Frank DeLucia said the key

question is "Who's going to decide when the town is going to buy, and what. I

don't think we (the Board of Selectmen) alone can make the decisions: we need

to seek information."

Plagued by vacation schedules and tentative attitudes on the part of some

commissioners, Atty William Lavery, vice chairman of the Charter Revision

Commission, expressed his intention of presenting the voters of Newtown with

substantial proposals at the commission's public hearing July 17. "If the

public comes out strongly favoring or opposing any of the provisions under

consideration and a two-thirds majority of the commission wants to change

previous decisions, they can be changed on the basis of input from the

voters," Mr Lavery said.

On Thursday evening, June 27, the Boggs Hill School building committee, as

ordered by a town meeting vote of June 5, had a public hearing in the

auditorium of the Middle School. The purpose of the hearing was to gather

information from townspeople on what they thought should be included in the

plans for the proposed elementary school. A handful of people attended, and

the evening turned out to be, instead of information, one which centered

around philosophical discussions on the pros and cons of open classroom

teaching. The school specifications committee, a group made up of local

educators and residents, has drawn up a proposal which recommends the school

be designed for open classroom teaching. This 45-page proposal has been passed

along to the building committee and the architect, Richard Butterfield. At the

hearing were three members of the building committee: Mrs Richard Cogswell,

Michael Mazaika and Harry Greenman, chairman.

Buckingham Gardens Convalescent Home, Toddy Hill Road, held its first

volunteer recognition tea on Tuesday, June 18, in honor of those volunteers

who have given outstanding volunteer service to the home's residents through

its recreation and religious programs. Rev Raymond Stephenson, St Rose Church,

Newtown, was presented a two-year award from the Connecticut Department of

Health. Receiving two-year citations were Mrs Barbara Gorham, pianist and

organist for church services; Rev Richard Fordyce, Newtown Christian Church;

Rev Alastair Sellars and Rev John Buttrick, Newtown Congregational Church; Rev

Thomas Lynch for service during his recently-concluded ministry at St Rose

Church; and Rev Stephen Gushee, Trinity Episcopal Church, Newtown.

Application forms for the Miss Teenage Newtown Pageant are now available from

Lee Davenson at the Park and Recreation Commission office in Edmond Town Hall

or at the Town Park. The Miss Teenage Newtown Pageant is being held Saturday,

August 31. The Newtown finalist will participate in the regional pageant to be

held in October at Lafayette Plaza in Bridgeport. The winner of that

competition will appear on the nationally televised finals.

The Newtown Conservation Commission met on Wednesday, July 3, to discuss

changes in the inland-wetlands regulations as a result of suggestions

presented at the public hearing on June 24.

Despite the rain which was giving chairman John Boehm ulcers, Newtown's

largest tennis tournament to date finally got it together this past weekend.

Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day for the finals, and many people came

to watch some really fantastic tennis. In the B category, two newcomers to

town, Jane and Eric Gurstenberger, stepped right in and entered several

events, winning two of them. Jane won the Women's singles against Ellie

Budenstein 7-5, 6-4, then went on to win the mixed doubles with her husband

Eric against Barbara and Ken Bigham 6-2, 6-1. The men's singles was won by

John Boehm over Walt Motyka 6-1, 6-4. Women's doubles was won by Joan Hamilton

and Ellie Budenstein over Rachael Segala and Linda Martelli 6-1, 6-0. Men's

doubles was won by Rick Medve and Jim Walsh over Larry Miller and Russ

Strasburger 6-1, 6-4.

Next week the Republican and Democratic Town Committees will be meeting to

nominate candidates for Judge of Probate, Justices of the Peace, state

Representative for the 106th District, and Registrar of Voters. Republican

Sarah Frances Curtis has announced that she will be seeking her 10th term to

the legislature, and Registrar Jeanne Hubbell will also be seeking re-election

on the Republican ticket.

JULY 8, 1949

The four-day carnival being conducted by Newtown's volunteer fire companies on

Yale Field at the intersection of Routes 202 and 25 opposite Lovell's Garage

opened to a good crowd on Wednesday night with the Sandy Hook Fife and Drum

Corps providing the music. Members of the four companies had been more than

busy all day in fast preparation for the event. As electricians, some of them

were swarming over the field stringing wires to booths and to apparatus.

Trucks were in and out delivering their burdens of stoves, refrigerators, and

properties for the various games, which the firemen were putting in place.

The Pine Tree Patrol of Senior Boy Scouts leaves this Sunday, July 10, for its

annual canoe trip to the Canadian woods. This year members will go north of

the city of Quebec, beyond Lake St John and up the Mistacini River. The boys

will be gone two weeks, returning Saturday, July 23. The patrol will be made

up of Scoutmaster Rev Paul A. Cullens; Junior Assistant Scoutmasters Fred

Jensen in charge of tents and bedding, Douglas Rogers in charge of the

kitchen. Senior Patrol Leader is James Mainwaring; junior (cook), Dwight

Johnson; scribe, Richard MacTaggart; baker, Kenneth Wiser; lighter, Robert

Richmond; waterboy, Ralph Berkemann; handyman, Alexander McQuillan; woodman,

John Brewer.

Recently a group of local women, under the direction of Mrs James B. Forbes,

sent a box containing dolls, gay ribbons, papers and pictures to a children's

tuberculosis center in Germany. Late in June Mrs Forbes received a letter from

the occupational therapist, a representative of the Quakers, to whom the box

was addressed, expressing the deep appreciation and gratitude of both the

workers and the children for the thoughtful gift.

At a meeting of the Board of Education Regional School District No. 3 Tuesday

evening, William K. Daniells and Robert J. Clark announced that they would not

resign from the board as requested. Tuesday's meeting was held in the

Southbury Consolidated school with all members present. The decision of the

two Newtown men followed the June 24 special town meeting at which time the

Newtown Board of Education, which appoints three representatives to the

Regional Board, was instructed to ask for their resignations. Although Walter

Glover of Newtown and Leonard Saccio of Bethlehem refrained from voting, the

Regional Board passed a resolution approving the stand taken by Messrs

Daniells and Clark. Mr Saccio, who heretofore had lent his support to the

regional school program, said that in future he would oppose construction on

the basis of a privately conducted poll undertaken by him in Bethlehem. In his

own town he found the will of the people to be 5 to 1 against the regional

school program.

On the Fourth of July another successful tournament was added to the long list

of special events sponsored by the Ladies Golf Association since the season

opened in May. A Scotch two-ball mixed foursome highlighted the holiday

activities with Mrs Nelson Curtis and Mrs Dwight Johnson taking first honors.

Coming in second were Mrs Ford Cordial and Mrs Fred Duncombe, followed by Mrs

Francis Hubbell and Mrs Edmund Foster.

Laurence V. Burton, whose exhibit of oils and watercolors is currently showing

at the Cyrenius H. Booth Library, has no axe to grind Á at least pictorially Á

with the result that his pictures reflect a kind of contentment and repose.

Readers of Week-end Painter , the book he produced last year and published by

Whittlesey House, will find much that is familiar, since many of the original

paintings used as illustrations in that work are included in the local show.

JULY 4, 1924

Mrs Anna E. Tucker received her commission as postmaster at Sandy Hook on June

29, and on July 1 became postmaster. Mrs Tucker has been acting postmaster

since the resignation of Herbert Cutter.

The annual County Poultry Field Day will be held at Homestead Farm, Newtown

(E.J. and G.C. Morgan, proprietors), on Thursday, July 10. If you have ever

attended any of these field days in previous years, you will not want to miss

this event.

The graduation exercises of the Hawley school, last Thursday night, brought

out an audience which taxed the Hawley school auditorium to its capacity with

100 or more people standing in the rear. The members of the graduating class

are: Evelyn Louise Bresson, Helen Veronica Casey, Wilbur Allen Griscom, Ruth

Madeleine Hanlon, Anna Marie Keane, Natalie Ellen Kiernan, Frederick Child

Mead, Charles William Phillips, Jessie Harriette Tarbox, Ruth Hubbell Wheeler.

The valedictory address was by Anna Keane. Salutary address by Frederick Mead.