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The federal government — and probably the State of Connecticut as well — will be fooling around at the gas pump on April Fool’s Day. Just when gasoline prices were heading for the under $1 mark, drivers will find a new five cents per gallon federal excise tax tacked on, effective April 1.

* * *

A 29-year-old man accused of trying to burglarize the Colonial Bank on Route 25 March 18 told The Bee last week he was himself trying to apprehend a chicken at the time of his arrest. Dexter Dean, a 29-year-old psychiatric aide at Fairfield Hills Hospital, said that he and Wayne Britto, 24, of Mile Hill South, Newtown, were driving down Main Street at close to 4 am on Friday when the chicken ran across the street in front of their car. When he crouched down in front of the bank door to grab the chicken, police came up behind him, he said. Mr Dean said he started to run after the chicken, thinking the officers were there to help him. Mr Dean said he gave the officers a handful of feathers to corroborate his story.

* * *

After Newtown High School and Sandy Hook School did not report minor fires to the Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire Company in separate incidents occurring since January, the chairman of the Board of Fire Commissioners has informed the respective principals that “this practice is very dangerous and must be stopped.” Chief Halstead said concerns include the possibility that a fire could start again, and the school principals could face liability in the event of problems resulting from a fire not responded to by the local fire department.

* * *

Newtown Congregational Church moderator Robert E. Hamilton said Wednesday that he will bring a proposal to relocate the West Street-Main Street intersection before the congregation for a decision as soon as town officials can provide him with the necessary maps. The flagpole intersection is considered the worst intersection in the ten-town Housatonic Valley region in terms of accidents, and its improvement is a priority of the regional planning agency.

* * *

First period every Friday morning for a ten-week period, 22 eighth graders and their teacher walk over to Hawley, where they are given assignments — task cards — and go to work on a one-to-one basis, tutoring students from the learning center, the ungraded class, one first grade class and one third grade class. Examples of their work include assisting in decoding exercises, working on comprehension skills, listening to student read aloud and giving encouragement and support to the students they help.

* * *

Students and teachers have to make yet another decision at Newtown Middle School — salad versus regular meal. At the present time, the salad bar seems to be winning. According to Director of Food Service Vera Perrini, nearly 400 salads are bought a day, with concoctions kids would never dream of eating at home — broccoli, cauliflower and peppers, onions, radishes, sprouts.

April 4, 1958

A spokesman for the Housatonic Public Service Company reports that power was cut off to all of Newtown at about 12:18 pm, Thursday, March 27, for about 23 minutes. The trouble was apparently caused by gunshots fired by some unknown person, which shattered a string of insulators on the Stevenson to Danbury high-tension line.

* * *

The new organ in the Newtown Congregational Church will be dedicated at a service and recital Sunday evening, April 20. Gordon Stearns, organist and choir director of the West Hartford Congregational Church, will be the guest organist. The public is invited.

* * *

An enthusiastic group of Student Town Government Day officials recounted their various experiences in town government at the Tuesday night meeting of the Newtown Parent-Teacher Association. The summary session terminated the third annual student government project which was under the chairmanship of Mrs Edward J. Coleman. Mrs Coleman thanked all town officers for their cooperation and help given to student office holders.

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Grand Union: FRESH DRESSED – Regular Top Quality MIDGET TURKEYS Plump, Delicious, Ready To Cook, Avg. Wgt. 4-8 LBS. 51 cents LB. Serve with Ocean Spray Cranberry Sauce – 2 16 oz. Cans 45 cents. CANNED HAMS Packers Top Brands, Fully Cooked, Boneless Avg. Wgt. 9-11 LBS. 79 cents LB. FRESH ASPARAGUS, Tender Green Full Tasty Tips, 25 cents LB.

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The Cyrenius H. Booth Library is more than decked out for the Easter season this week. Not only are its walls hung with a fascinating collection of watercolors and drawing by American artists, but its lobby boasts a charming and colorful Easter Egg Tree. This is the third year the tree, the work of local residents, has graced the lobby.

* * *

The estimated population of Newtown by July 1, 1958, is put at 7,300, according to computations of the Bureau of Vital Statistics of the Connecticut State Department of Health released recently. This figure is exclusive of Fairfield State Hospital patients. Newtown’s population in 1955, as listed in the Connecticut State Register and Manual for that year, was 7,448, a figure which included state hospital patients.

 

March 31, 1933

Two young men put a canoe into Lake Zoar at the Sandy Hook bridge, Wednesday afternoon, loaded with equipment, tents, and provisions and announced they were going to paddle up the Housatonic as far as the Ten Mile River.

* * *

Oreste Santini has rented the old Oscar Pitzschler barbershop in the Aichison Block and is now ready to do shoe repairing, harness repairing, and all kinds of leatherwork.

* * *

LeRoy F. Barnum of Dodgingtown district, has a record to be proud of. Rats had been causing him some nuisances in his barn. He set a steel trap and covered it with grain, and lo and behold, when he went to it in the morning he had three great big rats all caught at one time. Can anyone beat that?

* * *

The special town meeting Saturday night, called by the selectmen for the purpose of deciding where the State Aid money for dirt roads should be laid out, was attended by 350 voters in the Alexandria room of the Edmond Town hall, with every seat occupied and scores standing about the rear and side of the hall. Cornelius Haugh offered a resolution that the money be expended on the three sections started last year, Huntingtown, Taunton, and Walnut Tree Hill. Mr Haugh’s resolution that the money be expended on continuing the roads where started last year was carried by a large vote.

* * *

Robin Snow, a few inches of soft, wooly, damp snow, oft falling in the night and covering the landscape into a cotton-bathing world, next morning, are called “Poor farmer’s dressing” in country places because it is thought that they bring down out of the air, dust, gases, floating chemicals that enrich the soil and make the grass grow better when the active fingers of the sun have awakened it in the spring. Robin Snows, so called because they come after the first robins, have the power to banish melancholy from sorrowful hearts and set them hopefully longing for the green grass and violets.

* * *

Former Gov Charles A. Templeton Delights Chamber of Commerce Members With Vigorous And Entertaining Address: Governor Templeton spoke of Helen Keller’s recent visit to Waterbury. “In spite of her handicaps she is happy because she loves her people. After all the only thing we take out of life is what we put into it. We have got to appreciate our town and city more. In politics there are always a lot of poison peddlers who go about telling what somebody else said. We have got to have faith, faith in business, faith in our banks, faith in our government.”

 

April 3, 1908

Only a very few people from outside the village of Newtown drove in, Sunday, to attend church. Not over a half dozen teams came to both churches. The roads have been well nigh impassible for a few days. The honorable board of selectmen ought to try to drive by the residence of Mrs I.B. Harris. The slough hole there is worse than usual. As it was, Sunday, a person drove in terror over it.

* * *

Thomas J. Cavanaugh is getting out timber for a new barn which he will erect this spring on the barn cellar just east of his house. The barn will be 30 x 50 feet with 14-foot posts.

* * *

George and Leroy Barnum of Dodgingtown have rented R.D. Shepard’s store and have stocked it with groceries and opened it for business, last Monday. They will also run a team taking orders and delivering goods through Dodgingtown, Hopewell, Elmwood, and Taunton districts.

* * *

Harvey J. Pope, the popular manager of the curtain factory at Hawleyville, having had remarkable success in egg production, the past winter, has an attack of poultry fever, as a result. This led him to invest in a chicken house, an incubator, and some brooders. The result of his first hatch does not promise to seriously disturb the poultry market of the world, but he hopes the experiences gained by this first experiment may lead to astonishing results later.

* * *

The New York Times is in error in stating that the last survivor of the battle of Balaklava in the Crimean War is dead, for Newtown boasts a gentleman who was one of the immortal 600, Thomas Kenzie, of Hanover, hale and hearty, and able to do a good day’s work, even at the age of 73 years. Born in Montgomery, North Wales, May 24, 1835, he entered in Her Majesty’s service in the 13th light dragons. The Battle of Balaklava was fought October 25, 1854, when the Russians in overwhelming force were repulsed by a small body of British troops in one of the most heroic achievements of modern warfare, The “Charge of the Light Brigade,” which has been immortalized in verse. Mr Kenzie was wounded in Malta. In 1879 or 1880 he took up residence in Newtown.