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THE WAY WE WERE

JULY 27, 1973

An early morning accident on Tuesday in Newtown resulted in multiple injuries

for three persons. Witnesses told police that a car driven by Mary Jane Healy

of Rock Ridge Road started to enter the intersection of Route 202 (now 302)

and 25 with the green light when a tractor trailer dump truck southbound on

Route 25 went through a red light and struck her car, causing her and her

seven-year-old son, Brian, to be thrown from the vehicle into the road. Truck

Driver Allen White of Shelton also was thrown from his vehicle. The truck

struck a telephone pole and turned over. The car was pushed approximately 200

feet from the point of impact. All three persons were taken to Danbury

Hospital. The truck driver was arrested on a charge of reckless driving.

In the wake of four serious accidents within 20 days, residents of Main Street

have become increasingly alarmed that the road is fast becoming a speedway and

a death trap. On Wednesday morning, July 25, they voiced their concern at a

meeting with First Selectman Frank DeLucia. They urged Mr DeLucia to have the

police set up round-the-clock radar and to take other measures to make traffic

slow down. Police Chief Louis Marchese said a lack of manpower because of

budget constraints makes it difficult to dedicate police officers solely to

manning radar in one location for any extended period of time. Mr DeLucia said

he has written to the State Department of Transportation asking that a study

be made on Main Street in the vicinity of the monument and Academy Lane to see

whether yellow flashing lights should be installed.

Newtown's allocation of revenue sharing funding for the fiscal year 1973-74

will be $332,991, according to a letter from the US Treasury Department to

First Selectman Frank DeLucia this week. There was no explanation of how this

unexpectedly high figure was arrived at, but Mr DeLucia said he assumed it

would include the extra payment on the 1972 allocation which the Treasury

Department had previously agreed to make. So far Newtown has received $59,066

for the first half of 1972 and $57,304 for the second half, or a total of

$116,370 for 1972. Part of the money will be used for a variety of capital

expenditures and for a portion of the social worker's salary.

In honor of Newtown resident Bertram A. Stroock's 82nd birthday on Monday, 50

friends and members of the Danbury Hospital Board of Directors contributed

$82,000 in his name to the hospital's Development Fund. The money was in

addition to the usual annual gifts by the donors. Mr Stroock, founder of the

Development Fund, now serves as its chairman and is also a vice president of

the hospital board. Three years ago he was honored with the Distinguished

Citizen Award from Newtown for his devoted service to improving health and

recreation services for its residents.

Two bridges in Newtown developed severe problems this week, a third is

awaiting repair, and First Selectman Frank DeLucia has decided to survey all

the town bridges and find out how many more are headed for trouble. A part of

Obtuse Road collapsed at the approach to the bridge over a branch of Pond

Brook Road Tuesday morning. The rotted steel structure of Black Bridge, which

crosses the Pootatuck River on Black Bridge Road, one of the most scenic

gravel roads in Newtown, was closed to traffic on Monday until it can be

repaired or replaced. A horse put his foot through one of the boards on the

bridge last weekend, and when Road Superintendent Ed Napier went to

investigate, he found that not only the boards but the steel structure that

supported them was full of holes. Residents who normally use the bridge to

reach Glen Road must now use Walnut Tree Hill Road. A third bridge, on

Huntingtown Road just off Route 25, is under repair because it was damaged in

a recent traffic accident.

Some 30 Hawleyville residents came to the Planning & Zoning Commission hearing

Friday night to express their disapproval of Mary Elizabeth Ramsdell's request

to have her residential property off Route 25 in Hawleyville changed to

industrial M-4. She requested the zone change for the half-acre property

because she said she cannot sell it as a residential property. Mrs Ramsdell's

home is next to the Hawleyville Fire company's station, across the street from

Platt Lumber Company and near the DeSherbinin factory. Her neighbors protested

the request, saying it would constitute spot zoning and would prompt more

requests for zone changes. No decision was made at the hearing.

At first they thought someone was racing up and down their road on mini-bikes

but Earl A. Cabral and his family soon discovered that the loud buzzing they

heard was coming from a swarm of honey bees that had begun building a large

hive on the trunk of a tree in front of their home on Toddy Hill Road. The

bees, thousands of them, began showing up about a month ago, and Mr Cabral

thought they'd go away, but they are still here. The hive clings about 12 feet

up on the tree trunk and all the activity is clearly visible from the front

door of the Cabral home. The bees haven't stung anyone yet and have provided

some unusual summer entertainment for the Cabral family.

JULY 30, 1948

Three Newtown couples were married in ceremonies here on Saturday, June 24.

Miss Lillian Canfield, the daughter of Mr and Mrs George G. Canfield of

Hillside Avenue, Newtown, married Walter J. McCarthy of Sandy Hook at St Rose

Church at 10:30 o'clock. Mr McCarthy is factory manager of the Fabric Fire

Hose Company plant in Sandy Hook. His bride is supervisor of employment

records in the Bridgeport Brass Company. At 9 o'clock at St Rose, Mary Shirley

Shannon, daughter of Mrs Mary Shannon of Walnut Tree Hill Road, and Martin

Shannon of Bridgeport, was married to David Edward Cassidy, son of Mr and Mrs

Forrest Violette of Newtown-Danbury Road. Mrs Cassidy is employed at Meeken's

Cleaners, Newtown; Mr Cassidy is working for an upholstery firm in Bridgeport.

At the First Congregational Church, Miss Virginia Stuart Drew, daughter of Mr

and Mrs Julian K. Drew of Sandy Hook, became the bride of Harry Leslie Wilson,

Jr., son of Mr and Mrs Harry Leslie Wilson Sr of Newtown. The bride is

employed at the Flag Pole Fountain and Mr Wilson is an attendant at the

Liberty garage.

Lorenzo's Grill on Riverside Road on Lake Zoar is offering something new: a

pizza (a tomato pie). Try one at the grill or take one home.

The Newtown League of Women Voters is proud and happy to have Miss Anna Lord

Strauss, national president of the LWV, join the local organization. In the

previous absence of a local organization, Miss Strauss, a resident of Newtown,

had joined the Fairfield league. Now that Newtown has a league, Miss Strauss

has transferred her membership. Miss Strauss has brought an imposing list of

qualifications and wide experience in government and the business world to her

position as head of one of the nation's most active organizations. She has

been an editor, has worked for a number of government agencies and in wartime

organized and headed a department in the personnel division of the United

Aircraft Corporation in Stratford. She is widely traveled and regarded as a

squash, tennis and skating expert and has sailed her own sailboats on Long

Island Sound.

Thomas J. Keane, of Pine Street, Sandy Hook, one of the town's older

residents, occurred at Danbury Hospital on Saturday night following a cerebral

hemorrhage with which he was stricken at his home on Friday. He was 79. Mr

Keane was born in Sandy Hook and lived in the same house all his life. He

entered the employ of the old New York Belting and Packing Company at an early

age and remained there until the plant moved from Sandy Hook to Passaic, N.H.,

in 1899. In 1900 he started work for the Fabric Fire House Company and

continued there until his retirement last year. He was a charter member of

Virgilius Council, Knights of Columbus, and a lifelong communicant of St Rose

Church.

Mr and Mrs Edward Conger and children, Carol, Jimmie, and Ruth, left by plane

on Monday from LaGuardia Field for Hawaii where they will make an indefinite

stay with Mrs Conger's sister and brother-in-law in Wahiawa, Oahu. At the

airport for the departure of the "flying family" were Mrs Edward M. Conger,

Sr., Mr and Mrs James B. Nichols, Mrs Paul Smith and Teddy Smith of Newtown,

Walt Lang of Bethel, who has been Mr Conger's partner at the Conger and Lang

Garage, and Mrs Robert E. Beers and children.

It's too hot to cook so visit the Hawley Manor for the Saturday night

smorgasbord, all you can eat for $2. On Wednesday evening is a potluck summer

for $1.75. Sunday dinner is $1.75 to $2.

The annual fund raiser for the Sandy Hook Boys social and Athletic Club will

be held on August 29. This year it is a swell picture, Tom Sawyer, in

technicolor, plus some thrilling sports shorts that you'll get for the small

sum of 50 cents. Tickets are available now from any member of SAC.

A. Warner, who published a book called History of Danbury and Fairfield County

, was well remembered Sunday when his son, Raymond Curtis Warner, and wife,

and Mr and Mrs G.A. Backmere, all of Chicago, stopped in at the Parker House

on Main Street in Newtown. Edith Parker phoned Mrs Hobart Warner and found her

at home so everyone went over for a pleasant afternoon in the Berkshire

district.