Members of the Newtown Committee on Aging traveled recently to Hartford, where Gov Ella T. Grasso met with them and cut a special birthday cake in recognition of the completion of the committee’s fifth year as a town agency promoting, implementing, and fostering services to Newtown’s senior citizens.

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Where were you on November 22, 1963? Few people would normally recall many specifics were it any other day, but each living American who had reached the age of reason then recalls his or her whereabouts on that dark day, when they learned that President John F. Kennedy died of an assassin’s bullets in Dallas. Wednesday marked the 15th anniversary of the assassination, and just who was responsible still remains a subject of controversy.

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Whether or not there will be more snow depends upon where one looks for information. The white stuff which fell for a short while this week was predicted by area weathermen, although they said it wouldn’t come until Wednesday, and it showed up Tuesday. The old Farmer’s Almanac hit the forecast right on the nose too, sort of. That sage old publication, once the only weather guide the farmer had, predicted that the winter in the east would start out cloudy and mild, but that a cold wave and snowstorm would hit the area Thanksgiving week. And so it has, but the few flurries could hardly be called a snowstorm.

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The end of the year in Newtown is likely to see a couple of requests come before the taxpayers for purchase of properties by the town of Newtown — the Lovell’s of Ruwet-Sibley building at 3 Main Street, and a four-acre parcel of land located adjacent to the town landfill, which the first selectman wants to buy as a source of sand and gravel.

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The Democratic Town Committee has named David L. Grogins of Abbots Hill Road as its choice to fill the vacant spot on the Board of Education of former Chairman David Chipman.

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The first draft of a budget for the town’s day care-multi use center has been prepared by Park and Recreation Director Lee Davenson for First Selectman Jack Rosenthal. P&R agreed to accept responsibility for the building about two months ago at the selectmen’s request. Mr Davenson this week put together a package he will review with Mr Rosenthal which estimates a first year budget of $14,000.

 

NOVEMBER 27, 1953

The Alexandria Room of the Edmond Town Hall was completely filled for the open meeting held last Friday evening by the Newtown Committee on Education. The topic, “What Should Be the Aims of the Public Schools?” attracted not only local residents and teachers in the local school system, but also teachers and citizens from surrounding towns and Danbury State Teachers College.

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A benefit movie, featuring The Yearling, will be shown at the Edmond Town Hall on Thursday, December 3. Proceeds will be used for the cost of a roadside shelter for the Hawleyville school children, which is now in the progress of construction.

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 The philosophy and objectives of education for the Newtown schools are being reviewed by the high school teachers and the principal of Newtown High School, James F. Hinckley, it was reported by Superintendent of Schools Carl A. LeGrow to the Board of Education at its regular monthly meeting last Thursday, November 19. The writing of the elementary course of study for all six grades by Frederick H. Parr, principal of Hawley School, and formulating of new courses for the high school were also reported by the superintendent.

 The Sandy Hook Fife and Drum Corps children are to take part in a PTA program in Southbury Consolidated School on Thursday, December 3. They are to leave the Fire House in Sandy Hook at 8 pm and children are to wear their dress grey uniforms.

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Plans for the dedication of the Rochambeau Bridge, the new Housatonic River crossing at Riverside, will be told by the committee chairman, Raymond Miller of Waterbury, at an open meeting of all members of the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolution next Saturday, December 5, at 2 pm at the Scott-Fanton Museum, 43 Main Street, Danbury.

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A strong preference of residents of Huntingtown District that their area remain as it is, essentially farming and residential in character, was indicated by results of a district questionnaire on zoning, as reported at a district meeting in Edmond Town Hall Thursday, November 19. Ross A. Fife, chairman of the Huntingtown District Advisory Committee for Zoning, revealed that 93 percent of the residents who filled out questionnaires want Huntingtown to remain in its present character.

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A nine-foot stone carving of St Paul recently completed by John Angel of Sandy Hook has been erected in the south portal of New York Cathedral (St John The Divine), and is to be blessed after the 10:30 am service this Thanksgiving Day. Bishop Horace W.B. Donegan of the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of New York is presiding at both the service and the unveiling. The cathedral now has between 135 and 140 figures done by Mr Angel, singly and in groups, all executed in Indiana limestone. Mr Angel began his monumental project in 1925.

 

 

NOVEMBER 23, 1928

Henry C. Carlson of Newtown is one of the beneficiaries in the sum of $10,000 in the estate of the late Dwight Wheeler of Bridgeport, which inventoried $1,915,998.86.

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With the advent of Messrs George U. Burr and William Cole as representatives, the eastern part of our town will be looking forward to the continuation of the state road to Stevenson.

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Miss Aileen Finkle returned to her home in Newtown on Monday after a year in the service of the American Red Cross in Venezuela, where she assisted in a tropical hospital in the treatment of tropical diseases.

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Miss Anne S. Anderson has sold the property south of the Newtown Savings Bank to Miss Mary E. Hawley. This is the former David Beers property.

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William Perry, son of Mrs W.C. Perry of Sandy Hook, has successfully passed the examination to the Naval Academy at Annapolis.

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“Dick” Botsford, local aviator, will be in Danbury again over the weekend and will take up those desiring a trip in the air.

 

NOVEMBER 27, 1903

Miss Maggie Honan is to enter a Catholic convent at Lockport, N.Y.

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Master John Houlihan caught a large mink in a trap at the home of his grandmother, Mrs John Houlihan. It had been preying upon the poultry, having killed eight or nine. It measured about 26 inches in length.

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Thomas Kenzie has about completed the well on the property of the Misses Scudder and A.J. Smith. He put the well down 32 feet, and found an abundant flow of water.

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The high school young ladies prepared a pleasant surprise for the victorious high school football team and their friends, entertaining them Saturday evening at Glover’s Hall with an excellent spread.