September 28, 1990

A Woodbury pilot found that experience and a little luck kept him in one piece September 24, when he was forced to make an emergency landing in a lighted church parking lot in Newtown. Reportedly, the pilot, 27-year-old Mark Rideg, formerly of Newtown, survived with only minor leg injuries. The plane, a 1968 single-engine Cessna N150 two-seater, suffered collapsed front landing gear with only minor dents under its nose. Mr Rideg was headed from Marshfield Airport in Mass. to Danbury Municipal Airport. In preflight check, Mr Rideg noted that the plane had two half tanks of fuel “which is plenty to get back to Danbury’s airport.” “When I got over Newtown, I had quarter tanks. Because my radio was dead, I signaled the airport by flashing my lights. I got the green light and began to descend.” When the nose tilted down, the fuel went forward causing the engine to vapor lock and stall. When he saw the lighted parking lot of the Lutheran Church he thought it was too small, but figured it was much better than plunging into darkness. The ground happened to be a five-foot wide, seventy-five foot lot median. Mr Rideg dropped down onto the median at 65 miles per hour, plowing up woodchips for 60 feet before coming to rest nose down against the pile of chips he had created.

***

For about 15 years, as best as he can recall, Bill Walker directed traffic in front of town schools. Due to the colorful way that he went about his job, he became something of a local legend. On the last school day before Christmas, he always donned a Santa Claus outfit. In those days, he had a full-time job as a night janitor in the school system. In 1980, he left both jobs. But when schools recently reopened, Bill was back on the streets again, serving as traffic guard in front of the High School, Hawley School, and the Middle School. Bill, who came to this country from Ireland when he was about 12, certainly is a sight to see. He’s a man of perpetual motion, dramatic and demonstrative in his movements. Usually, he’s whistling, and as the vehicles whiz by, he smiles.

***

A 34-year-old Newtown man was listed in stable condition at Danbury Hospital September 25, after a 20-foot-long, one-and-three-quarter-inch thick metal fence post pierced his chest near his left shoulder. According to police, Thomas M. Merrow of Underhill Road, Sandy Hook, was injured when he crashed through a metal fence. The post pierced the windshield of his vehicle as well as his shoulder. Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire Department was called to the scene to cut the post in order to extricate Mr Merrow from his car.

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The state’s $52 million jail complex is under steady construction off Nunnawauk Road that will continue through winter. Scheduled to open in the summer of 1991, the jail includes administrative buildings, masonry cells for inmates, and a physical plant. Cells measure roughly 7’6” by 12’6” and openings, or “windows,” are purposely measured against the size of “the smallest human skull.”

October 1, 1965

Anyone entering the Newtown General Store last Sunday might have thought he had through some preposterous error, been thrust into the center of a Hollywood set. Lights, cameras, and action filled the store at 5 am, as more than 30 persons came “on location” for the production of three, one-minute Rheingold commercials. Outside was an MGM truck, a bus for wardrobe changes, a monitor showing the happenings within the store, and a sizeable crowd of onlookers. The store churned with activity, in sharp contrast to the lazy country store atmosphere that characterizes the finished commercials.

***

In honor of Louis Untermeyer’s 80th birthday and of the publication, within a month, of four books bearing his name, there will be a reception for him in the Cyrenius H. Booth Library, from 4 to 5 pm, on Sunday, October 3. An exhibit of his newly published autobiography, “Bygones,” and some 20 of his other books has been arranged. Besides his autobiography, you will find on bookstore shelves “Love Lyrics,” a small and beautifully designed book published by Odyssey Press. In the Golden Books of Aesop’s Fables, Mr Untermeyer has modernized the words without changing the substance of the stories. The fourth volume is “Labyrinth of Love,” a re-rendition of a neglected German poet, Otto Julius Bierbaum.

***

Newtown Hook & Ladder Company members will receive tetanus toxoid injections for protection in the performance of their duties. This program was approved by Dr J. Benton Egee and was arranged through the cooperation of the VNA and Cashman’s Drug Store. The injections will be given on Monday evenings, October 4 and November 1, at the VNA office, between 7 and 8 pm.

***

On Wednesday, September 22, Richard Eddy of Currituck Road hit the jackpot — again. The jackpot question selected for the “What In The World?” television show that evening had been submitted by Mr Eddy, who received $40 for the favor. His winning question was: In what naval engagement were the following vessels involved: the New York, the New Haven, the Boston, the Providence, and the Connecticut? He submitted another question to the show in December of 1962. Mr Eddy has identified the encounter as the Battle of Valcour Island in Lake Champlain in the Revolutionary War. The American fleet, he adds, was under the command of Benedict Arnold of New Haven.

 

September 27, 1940

Hundreds of people in Newtown and surrounding districts have signed petitions to send to Great Britain every material short of war. Many have written personally to the President and Congress. Some of these objectives have been attained, in part; among them the exchange of destroyers for naval bases.

 

***

Percy Grainger came to Newtown last Thursday evening and the entire Edmond Theater was filled to capacity to hear him, every seat occupied and a row of standees at the rear of the auditorium. The perennially popular pianist and composer was soloist on this occasion with the Newtown Orchestral Society presenting its last concert of the summer season, and he added much to one of the most memorable concerts given by this organization in the nine years of its existence.

***

An unusual reward for her painstaking gardening came to Mrs Louis Unger of Palestine district on Friday when in doing some transplanting, she unearthed an English coin dated 1724. It is a copper coin, about the size of our present five-cent piece, and unusually well preserved, considering its remarkable age of 216 years. On one side appears the head of King George (probably George I) and on the other, an insignia resembling a goddess holding a shield in one hand. While the coin has never earned interest, it has now created a great deal of it!

***

Alterations have been completed on the interior of Tomey’s Bridge Spa in Sandy Hook. Almost the entire first floor is given over for store purposes, and it is now possible for Mr Tomey to better display his large stock of merchandise. Tomey’s Bridge Spa has just accepted the agency or Pratt’s Frosted Foods and will carry a complete stock of frosted vegetables, berries of all kinds, fish and ground meat.

 

 

October 1, 1915

On Thursday morning, around 9 o’clock, Jason S. Haines, the wealthy Trumbull farmer, who murdered his wife at the Haines homestead in Trumbull, on Monday, was taken into custody by Newtown officers. The credit of discovering the man belongs to Assistant Town Clerk Edward S. Pitzschler, who noticed Haines hanging around the store of R.H. Beers and Co. Mr Pitzschler engaged him in conversation, suspecting he might be the man wanted by Trumbull authorities…George Hayes, former police officer in Bridgeport, happened to come down the street and identified the man. Mr Hayes persuaded Haines to accompany him up the street, where he was put under arrest by Constables Thomas Carlson and A.B. Blakeman. To Constable Blakeman, he admitted the shooting of his wife.

***

On Monday next the voters of Newtown will have another opportunity to register their wishes on the question of management of the schools. It means the doing away with the district officials and placing the care of the schools in the hands of the Board of Education. This ought to bring about a unification of the school system.

***

Sixteen pupils of the North Middle school are down with the mumps. The members of the school board advised the teacher, P.H. McCarthy, to close the school for a few days.

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John Haugh, the local plumber, has opened a temporary shop in a building on Michael Kilbride’s property at Sandy Hook, where he is prepared to do all kinds of shop work in his line, tinning, plumbing and heater work. His telephone number is 28-13.