It’s hats off to the 50th anniversary celebration of the Newtown Labor Day Parade. You can be in on the hat tipping, too. In honor of this milestone, Newtown Savings Bank volunteers (the bank is the platinum sponsor, once again) have designed a commemorative navy blue baseball cap to help raise funds to support the parade. The hats are available only at the Newtown Savings Bank Main Street and Sand Hill Plaza branches. Caps cost $10 each, and quantities are limited, so don’t wait until the last minute. For more information, contact Brian Amey at 203-426-4440, extension 3100.

Speaking of the parade, and not waiting, Parade Committee President Beth Caldwell tells me that no one should try to wait until the last minute if they want to park near the center of town and the parade route this year. Main Street, Queen Street, Glover Avenue, and Church Hill Road will all be closed to vehicular traffic early — at 9:15 am. This will in large part be for the planned unfurling of the oversized Nation’s Flags in the area of the flagpole.

Nancy Crevier wrote about the flags last week (“Old And New Combine For 50th Labor Day Parade Extravaganza,” August 5 print edition, and also online at www.NewtownBee.com). Three historic flags, each measuring 45 by 90 feet — more than double the size of the summer flag at the top of the Main Street flagpole! — will be presented prior to the start of the parade at 10. This means organizers need roads to be cleared of traffic earlier than usual. Official photos of the flags will be taken at 9:30 at the flagpole, and then at 9:50 in front of the grandstand on Queen Street. Paradegoers will be invited to participate in the unfurling of the flags at each location, Beth tells me, so that’s another good reason to arrive well before the start of the parade.

If C.H. Booth young adult librarian Margaret Brown seems to be a hands-on person this week, she is probably just showing off the henna artwork she had painted on the back of her hand last week.

Margaret brought in henna artist Genevieve Levin from Maine for a special program, and after Genevieve dolled up the hands and palms of nearly three dozen youngsters, Margaret took her up on the offer to have her own hand temporarily stained with a fanciful henna design. That’s the mark of a great young adult librarian — one who isn’t afraid to be one of the kids.

A bushy-bearded mountain man appeared in Newtown late last week. Underneath the summer’s growth was one Dana Van Buskirk, who returned from his stint as a ranger at the Boy Scouts of America high adventure Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. But Dana didn’t linger long in his hometown. After a shave and a haircut, he’s on his way to India for a semester, to study public health. Good luck, Dana!

If something seems a little fishy this month, maybe it is the Full Sturgeon Moon this coming Saturday, August 13. August is the month that Native Americans around Lake Superior traditionally found to be a good month for catching the large sturgeon fish of that area. Other tribes know the August full moon as the Full Red Moon, due to the many hazy skies that give a rosy hue to the lunar rising. (As you can see, the lazy, hazy days of summer give me plenty of time to thumb through my Farmers’ Almanac for tidbits of information.)

Anyone visiting the Newtown town clerk’s office during the three previous summers may have encountered Kaitlyn Fenton, the student and summer intern who always greeted visitors with a smile and often pitched in to help with some of the most tedious or unglamorous chores tied to that municipal department. While Kaitlyn is not working in the Newtown Municipal Center this summer, she is spreading the word here in Newtown about her cousin and close confidant Marine Sergeant Matt Fenton of Little Ferry, N.J.

In late April 2006, Matt was serving as a gunner in a Humvee full of Marines in Iraq when he took note of a likely suicide bomber approaching the vehicle. He was able to issue a warning so his entire unit could take cover, but he was tragically killed in the attack — the only casualty suffered from that deadly confrontation. Kaitlyn contacted The Bee this week to announce that through a Congressional directive, the US Post Office in Sgt Fenton’s hometown will soon bear his name in memory of his service — for which he also received a Purple Heart. Sgt Fenton, who was just 24, had hopes of returning from duty to become a local police officer, and was actually studying for his civil servant exam while on duty in Iraq. In an added tribute, the Little Ferry Police Department named him an honorary officer, and immediately retired his badge number 44. Kaitlyn said she misses her brave cousin every day, but knowing he is the recipient of this lasting remembrance in his home town provides some small comfort to Kaitlyn that her cousin Steve will never be forgotten. Semper Fi.

FAITH Food Pantry Director Lee Paulsen is pleased that the community has responded to her SOS sent out last week. With the food emergency pantry the lowest it has ever been, Lee and the other FAITH volunteers were wondering how they were going to help the ever-increasing numbers of local residents in need. As always, Newtowners have answered the trumpet call, and donations are beginning to come in. If you have nonperishable food items to donate, volunteers are on hand to receive them Tuesdays, 10 am and noon, or Thursday evenings, between 6 and 7:30 pm, at St John’s Episcopal Church in Sandy Hook Center. Remember, job losses and other hardships mean that need is a year around thing.

The 2011 Great Pootatuck Duck Race is history, but Newtown Lions Club members are already looking toward and planning for the 2nd Annual Great Pumpkin Race. This year’s event will be Saturday, October 29. Gordon Williams would like to remind everyone that while it’s a little late to plant pumpkins (late May or early June is optimal if you want to harvest good size gourds for Halloween), it isn’t too early to start planning entries for the race and/or decorating contests. “The main focus will still be on the pumpkin races, and we also will have a pie baking contest and the pumpkin decorating contests,” he said. If you already have pumpkins started, good news: “This year we want to add a Largest Pumpkin Contest,” says Gordon, who has high hopes that the Great Pumpkin Race will one day become as big an event as the Great Pootatuck Duck Race.

Now that the heat has broken, at least for a few days, I’m off to see how my garden looks. Maybe there is a pumpkin or two growing in there, something just large enough to provide some shade from August’s sun. I’ll let you know how that adventure goes when you come back next week to… read me again.