September 23, 1994

Sam and Rose Mauro of Fieldstone Drive planted some zuccho seeds their friend, Stanley Frystak brought back from Italy. The one vegetable growing on this plant is now 37½ inches long, 26 inches in circumference, and 8 ½ inches across. Mr Mauro plans to slice it up and serve it with pasta.

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Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members have approved an amendment to town zoning regulations allowing a South Main Street restaurant to serve alcohol to patrons. Following a September 15 public hearing, P&Z approved changes to the zoning rules which will allow Basil’s Pizza and Pasta to serve beer and wine to diners. Basil’s has been operating as a BYOB establishment at the site of the former Hitching Post Inn since moving there in February. Attorney Stephen Wippermann, representing Basil’s proprietors Lulu and Sal Anello, told P&Z P&Z that the Anellos twice had sought variances from the town Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) to sell alcohol in their establishment but were denied because Basil’s is closer than the 1,500 foot alcohol establishment separation distance to Piccolo Mondo at 97 South Main Street. The zoning amendment submitted by the Anellos exempts Basil’s from the distance requirement. The 1,500-foot separation no longer applies to “full service restaurants serving alcoholic beverages only for consumption on the premises in conjunction with food services.”

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Demolition is expected to begin next week of two Church Hill Road buildings to make way for a building which could house both Newtown Hardware and the Drug Center. Mike Sorrentino of Newtown Hardware said on Thursday, September 22, that a demolition permit would be sought Monday and work could begin as early as Tuesday to remove the former Fruit & Flounder building and the two-story brown frame house next door. Drug Center owner Doug Bates is looking forward to the relocating. “I think it will be a much better location for us,” he said.

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Police arrested an off-duty Garner Correctional Institution correction officer late Tuesday night, lodging seven charges against him. Police said they saw Patrick Neary, 37, of Torrington, driving a motor vehicle eastbound on Church Hill Road at about 11:30 pm with both tires on the right side of the vehicle flattened. Police attempted to stop the vehicle, but Mr Neary increased his speed. He later stopped, police said. After stopping, he fled on foot, but was caught a short time later, police said. Mr Neary resisted arrest and kicked police officers and head-butted a policeman. Police brought him to Bethel police department for alcohol breath testing. While there, Mr Neary threatened to assault another prisoner, according to police. Police charged Mr Neary with two counts of assault on a police officer, interfering with police, driving while intoxicated, engaging in pursuit, operating a motor vehicle while under suspension, and threatening. Police held Mr Neary on a $5,000 bond for arraignment September 21 in Danbury Superior Court.

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Newtown artist Jim Grisko had some fiendish ideas when he fashioned a creep design announcing the 1994 Socko’s Haunted Yard. The T-shirts, $14, and sweatshirts, $19, are available through Printer’s Image Dynamics in Sand Hill Plaza, or at Socko’s Haunted Yard. All profits will go to Newtown Youth Services.

September 12, 1969

“The Earth-Moon System,” a new show about the moon is now open to the public at the planetarium of the Museum of Art, Science, and Industry, Park Avenue, Bridgeport. The show includes reference to the Apollo II moon landing, as the planetarium’s GOTO instrument projects on the ceiling demonstrations on the phases of the moon. The lecturer explains how the moon orbits the earth and how the moon influences the earth by its gravitational pull and tidal bulge. A dramatic moment occurs when a view of Earth, as recorded on film by astronauts in space, is seen surrounded by stars.

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The resignation of Miss Sharon Tarvers as recreation director has been announced by William A. Honan, Newtown Recreation Commission chairman. Mr Honan indicated that at its next meeting, the commission will officially accept Miss Tarver’s resignation with considerable regret. She has indicated that she plans to continue her education. The commission will call a special meeting to consider her replacement.

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Parents interested in enrolling their children in the instrumental music program, grades 4 through 8, are invited to a meeting at Newtown High School September 18 at 7:30 pm. Joseph Grasso, Mrs T.G. Whippie and Marvin Zimmer, who is newly appointed to the music department, will be present to explain their rental system and answer questions concerning lessons. There will be a display of instruments to help in the proper selection for each child.

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The first Fall meeting of the Newtown Historical Society will take place on Monday evening, September 15, in the downstairs meeting room of the Cyrenius H. Booth Library at 8 pm. After a short business meeting, Peter McLachlan of Newtown will present an illustrated talk on “Railroads around Newtown.” Mr McLachlan, past president of the Connecticut Railroad Historical Society, is also a locomotive engineer with the Penn Central Railroad and a confirmed railroad enthusiast, which should ensure an interesting and authentic narration.

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A new addition to the permanent art collection is a water-color by F. Hopkinson Smith, recently given to the Cyrenius H. Booth Library by Mr and Mrs Arnold Hall, just before they moved to New Canaan. It’s nice to have this momento of the years they were Newtowners.

September 15, 1944

Sergeant Edward Ugolik, who was wounded on April 23 in the South Pacific, has been awarded the Purple Heart, the medal reaching his mother, Mrs Sophie Ugolik, last Thursday. Sgt. Ugolik has been serving in the Air Corps as a gunner on a bomber. While he is still in the hospital, he is recovering from his wounds , which is good news to his family and local friends.

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It was with deepest regret that townspeople learned last week of the death, somewhere in the South Pacific, of Platoon Sgt. Charles Dean Perry of the United States Marine Corps, son of Mrs William C. Perry of Botsford Hill Road, and the late Mr Perry. Word of Sgt Perry’s death was received by his mother in a telegram which arrived last Thursday morning. In one of the last letters received by Dean’s family, he told of being on Guam with the First Marine War Dog Platoon, of which he was in charge. In The Bee’s issue of August 11, there appeared a story taken from The New York Times, which vividly told of the splendid work being done by the war dog platoon, which was made up of Dobermann Pinschers and German Shepherds, and which was the first such outfit anywhere to use dogs as actual combatants. These dogs, as well as Sergeant Perry, were seasoned veterans of the Bougainville fighting, and on Guam they were kept busy day and night with the daring task of tracking down Jap snipers in trees and caves on the muddy, rain-drenched slopes of the island. The dogs were also used as messengers, where other forms of communication were impossible, and these Canine heroes such as Ceasar and Willie, whose stories were told in the dispatch, deserve the highest praise. Sergeant Perry was a graduate of Newtown High School, class of 1931, and had been with the Marine Corps for the past 10 years. At the outbreak of the war on December 7, 1941, Dean was at Pearl Harbor, and since that time had seen much of the Pacific area.

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Two well-known horseshoers from the Naugatuck Valley were inducted in the Army on August 31, 1944, Joe and John Kriz of 10 Spring Street, Seymour. The father has conducted the blacksmith business in Seymour for the past 25 years. The boys have worked with their father since a very young age, to learn the business. The boys drove around in a truck and shoed horses, from farm to farm within a 35-mile radius. They were known as traveling blacksmiths. The ring of the anvil can be heard all over town. Now the farmers are wondering what will be done. With the boys in the Army, how are they going to get their horses shoed? The Connecticut Horse Association gave the boys a large farewell party, shortly before they left for the Army.

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Confucius Say: Eating inadequate lunch like trying to heat house by burning paper. Food provides your body with the fuel that gives you energy. The skimpier your lunch the great inroads your body makes on your store of energy. Carbohydrate foods may be likened to paper; protein foods to wood; fats to coal. An adequate lunch combines all three to give you the lasting fire, or energy you need to get through the day. Eat lunch that packs punch. The Danbury & Bethel Gas & Electric Light Co.

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Mrs Lucy Cavanaugh is passing a few days in Bridgeport, as guest of her daughter, Mrs James McGrath.

September 12, 1919

A very sad case was that of Miss Anna Degan, 22 years old, of Pembroke Street, Bridgeport who was found covered with blood and dead in an automobile wrecked in Beardsley Park Tuesday morning at 2:30 o’clock, and Howard J. Bradley, son of John F. Bradley, a well-known contractor of 85 Gem Avenue, was held by the police and coroner pending an investigation of how the girl came to her death. The findings of the body followed Bradley’s appearance at the police station in a dazed condition and his reporting that he had started out in an automobile with the girl, which had become wrecked in a manner unknown to him. He accompanied the police to the scene, the woman’s body in an upright position and smeared with blood was found, while the machine, in which the two were riding was a wreck. Appearing Tuesday morning before Coroner Phelan, who at once started an inquest into the young woman’s death, Bradley was unable to remember anything of what happened. The police, however, believe he was unacquainted with the road contour and that the machine went off a curve into a pile of rocks. It is believed that the girl was thrown from the car and died almost instantly when her skull was fractured in landing in the stone pile. John F. Bradley, the boy’s father is a former resident of Newtown.

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Up to 2 o’clock Wednesday afternoon, nothing further had been learned as to the location of Miss Ethel Coleman of New Milford who had left her home Sunday night, leaving no indication of where or how she went. Her relatives are greatly puzzled over her disappearance and the circumstances surrounding it. A friend of the family, this afternoon, said that Miss Coleman had been suffering for 10 days Neuritis in the head and that she had been taking something to relieve the pain. Whether she took an overdose of the drug and this affected her mind or whether the pain in the neuritis affected her is unknown, but the relatives believe that the illness had everything to do with her disappearance. It was said by this friend of the family that Miss Coleman left her home about 9 o’clock Sunday night and that she was she was partly dressed in clothing that she wore about the house. She did not retire, as her bed showed no indication of having been occupied. Miss Coleman is described as twenty years old, very pale, slight build; a little over 5 feet tall and with dark hair. An incomplete search of the Housatonic Riverbed has been made but thus far without results. Miss Coleman retired as usual Sunday night and was apparently in her usual health during the day. Monday morning, she failed to come down to breakfast, but it was not until long after she failed to appear at the usual time that attention was paid to her absence. A member of the family went to call her and was astonished to find that she was not in her room.

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Seeing the item in last week’s Bee in regard to the weight of nine peaches raised by J.L. Alvord, which weighed 54 ounces, John Roach of Stoney Hill brought nine peaches to the store of F.B. French in Bethel, Monday, which tipped the scale to 65 ½ ounces. While the editor was calling at the residence of Amos T. Camp on Friday, Mrs Camp brought in some peaches she had just picked. Nine were selected and weighed, and the result was 62 ounces. So Mr Alvord will have to take a fresh start if he wins out. Who can beat these latter records?

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James Crick, who returned from France a short time ago, has bought a 2 1/2 ton Armleader truck and will do local and long distance moving. Anyone wishing to have trucking done would do well to see Mr Crick.

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It matters not how deep entrenched the wrong— How hard the battle goes—the day how long— Faint not! Fight on! Tomorrow comes the song. —M.D. Babcock

Please consider sharing your old photographs of people and places from Newtown or Sandy Hook with The Newtown Bee readers. Images can be e-mailed to kendra@thebee.com or brought to the office at 5 Church Hill Road to be scanned. When submitting photographs, please identify as many people as possible, the location, and the approximate date.