November 12, 1993

A local horse club has proposed that about 275 acres at Fairfield Hills Hospitals be designated for use as a horse park where some of the Northeast’s major equestrian competitions would be held. Kurt Schneider, chairman of the Newtown Bridle Lands Association, proposed the horse park November 10 to Fairfield Hills Task Force, an ad hoc group which is reviewing potential uses for land and buildings at the state mental hospital’s 800-acre grounds. State Rep Julia Wasserman, who heads the task force, termed the horse park “a very ambitious and serious undertaking.” She noted the proposed facility would consume a majority of open land at the grounds. Mr Schneider responded that only about 30 acres would be “developed” for equestrian use, with the rest of the 275 acres remaining fields.

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Newtown has a tradition of helping neighbors, friends, and even complete strangers when they need a hand. Year-round, residents support food pantries and other volunteer services that bring assistance to individuals and families down on their luck for one reason or another. In 1992, Women Involved in Newtown (WIN) provided food for the Thanksgiving holiday to 98 families identified as needing help by Newtown’s Social Services. This year, WIN expects even more families to be eligible. Will Newtowners once again rise to the challenge of sharing this Thanksgiving? Individuals, families and businesses can “adopt” a family and purchase groceries for the holiday. Items can be dropped off at the Sandy Hook firehouse on Friday evening, November 19, where they will be picked up the next day by the families who asked for help this holiday season.

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At its November 4 meeting, the Newtown Substance Abuse Task Force set priorities of the way it intends to pursue its continuing battle against substance abuse. Members assigned priorities to the following actions: support hiring a substance abuse counselor at the high school; keep students informed of efforts against substance abuse; ask the Board of Education to review its drug policy; have ongoing workshops for parents and students; and hold restaurants and liquor stores accountable to adhering to age restrictions.

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The Bee has received the following letter for publication. Dear Highway Department: On behalf of myself and the Newtown seniors, we truly appreciate all the hard work and effort you put into painting the Senior Center. To Rick, Pete, Buck, George, Joe and Dave, Thank You! Also, thank you to the girls from WSATU, Gladys, Kelly, Brenda, Celeste, Denise and Jackie, who also worked hard painting and cleaning. Well done!

Sincerely, Marilyn Place, Senior Center Director.

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All are invited to an open house at the C. H. Booth Library, 25 Main Street, on Sunday, November 21. Tour the five floors from the basement to the attic and acquaint yourself with the new technology and research help that is now available. Steven Kellogg will also be in attendance from 2 to 4 pm for his annual autograph signing party. Mr Kellogg is the illustrator of over 80 children’s picture books and the author-illustrator of many more. He is from Sandy Hook. Bring your own books or purchase selected titles at the library.

November 15, 1968

There was a bit more than frost on the pumpkin during the early storms of Sunday and Tuesday. Five plows were out on Sunday and seven on Tuesday and 12 men. Between 6:30 am and 8:30 pm Tuesday, Newtown’s 150 miles of road were cleared with the exception of some dirt roads where the plows turned unfrozen ground into a sea of mud. A number of mailboxes were casualties in the town’s first encounter with winter, knocked down by the wet, heavy snow, not the plows. If the old adage holds, the first snow on the 10th of the month means nine more storms to go before spring!

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The Newtown High School Indians ended the football season last Saturday with a 26-0 victory over the eleven from Masuk High School on Taylor Field. A series of shots photographed by George McLachlan during the last quarter show the Masuk back leaving one Newtown tackler on the ground and gaining running room. In another shot, four Indians follow in pursuit of the ball carrier, when into the picture comes number 34, Mark Fesh. He catches his man and takes him to the ground, preventing the visitors from getting into the scoring column. The referee called it short of the goal line.

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If pictures are worth a thousand words, then The Bee is wealthy, for pictures used in the paper are piling up. A housecleaning is due, and those who would like to have their pictures are asked to pick then up before the end of this month. Since November 30 is a Saturday, when the office is closed, the deadline is Friday, November 29. Come and get ‘em.

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LET IT BE KNOWN THAT… The fuses kept blowing at one of the recent dances in the town hall gymnasium. It was quite evident from the condition of the roads after the first snowfall that that the town was caught with its plows off. Art and Tody Downes were visitors of late at the Whitehead home. A belated birthday wish to Jane Newman who aged on Friday. John Mitchell, the man who served as campaign manager for Richard Nixon, was John Kennedy’s commanding officer of the PT group during the war. Steve Link has no furniture in his living room. Al Nichols was betting that his wife would not be on time at their meeting place at Read’s on Monday, but she proved him wrong and showed up on time at 4 o’clock on the button.

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FINALLY: Now you can do what you never did before in a Volkswagen. Nothing. Yup. We have gone and put a fully-automatic transmission in a Volkswagen. In fact, we put it in two (as an option). The fastback and the Squareback. So now you can drive anywhere in a Volkswagen without having to shift for yourself. With our automatic, you’ll have to do one thing you don’t with someone else’s automatic: Stay away from gas stations more often. So now you can do what you always did in a Volkswagen: Save money. Automatically.

November 19, 1943

The town of Oxford, in the estimation of The Bee, is to be highly complimented for its forward-looking attitude, a town planning commission having been set up by vote of the electors at the recent annual town meeting. The Commission has named Eldridge Seeley as its chairman and, after thoroughly discussing town needs, has voted that priority be given to planning a consolidated school, to be erected after the war. Such intelligence in civic affairs is unfortunately the exception, rather than rule. Yet the trend is gaining momentum in the right direction. We are all concerned with the post war period. Our doubts can be somewhat dispelled if more towns will do just what Oxford is doing — starting now, rather than at some indefinite date “after the war.”

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Visitors at the Cyrenius H. Booth Library are enjoying the exhibits of paintings which are now on display by Caroline Clark Marshall of Redding Ridge. Mrs Marshall was American Art Week Director for Connecticut, and Newtown is honored to have her exhibit which comes here from Read’s Peacock Alley in Bridgeport. The show will continue through the week.

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The Tuesday evening ballroom dancing classes conducted by Miss Jean Sturrock of Stratford, held their first parties at regular class time on Wednesday evening. The parties were in the form of a winter cruise and each member of the classes brought a snapshot pasted on cardboard to be used as a passport. Two mothers from each class acted as hostesses and received the young people when the parties started. They also arranged the refreshments table.

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BLUE BIRDS REPORT: Our hike is postponed one week. We had planned to go last Thursday but snow and rain came so instead we had another indoor meeting and had a lot of fun planning for meetings to come. We are going to make scrapbooks and table decorations and we are also going to make cushions for our first Council Fire. We played games and sang songs and our meeting ended too soon.

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A.B. Cook of the State Forest and Park Commission was a visitor at The Bee offices on Wednesday morning, informing The Bee Editor that a caterpillar insect, known as the Hemlock Looper, has been doing considerable damage to hemlocks in a property bought by the state in the Glen in Sandy Hook for state park purposes. The insect defoliates the tops of the trees and when they are damaged in this way, hemlocks do not leaf out again and the tops die. Arrangements have been made by the Park Commission with the firm Michael Etzel and Sons to cut those trees that have been severely damaged, and the logs taken to New Haven for cutting into timber.

November 15, 1918

Mrs Smith P. Glover fell as she was ascending the stairs Monday, and broke her hip. Dr W.H. Kiernan and Dr Brownlee attended her. She is as comfortable as can be expected. She is about 80 years old and the accident is a serious one.

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Mr and Mrs Martin Keniry and E. W. Troy had a telephone conversation Tuesday with Dr Keniry’s son, Frank Keniry, who arrived in New York Monday on a transport. He is now in a hospital on Ellis Island recovering from his wounds.

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The Sandy Hook grist mill is piled full of grists brought by farmers from 30 miles around. Manager James Campbell is a busy man. He had a customer come in the other day with grain to be ground from Oronoque in Stratford.

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David Roswell of Hamden, while assisting George Wilson last week in moving a load of furniture on a Ford truck belonging to Mr Wilson, met with a peculiar accident. In going up the hill west of the castle, the car became stalled. Roswell took hold of the end and pulled. It gave way and he fell over backward, fracturing the bones of one wrist. He was taken to Dr F.J. Gale, and later to Dr Sweet, the bone specialist in New Haven.

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A barn dance will be held on Friday evening, November 22, at the home of H.A. Gouldon, Botsford depot, to organize a Democratic Club. All interested are invited to attend.

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.