All of the special anniversary issues have stories about the past and then-present people who were staff of the fast growing weekly paper. This publication is in the same historical class as The Newtown Flagpole –– everyone knows about them who resides in a wide circle of Newtown. I read on and on, remembering people and things I hadn’t thought of in years. Irma Nichols of Monroe, a friend in our Historical Society whom I worked with for years, was some part of the backbone of the earlier Bee; no one ever defined how, exactly, but everyone knew it.

Catherine Merrilat, the Easton reporter, exchanged jobs with me when I wrote the Monroe news. We did that during vacations for years. I was reminded of those famous boxes of Christmas cookies she made for all of us every year. Arlene Yaple was a Bee reporter for years and also wrote for several other papers. We worked together at times, when she was involved with Danbury Fair activities in the main tent.

Regularly I got letters from a lady in Ohio whose daughter mailed her the “Back Fence” column which I’ve written for 40 years. A lady from Newtown who wintered in Florida wrote regularly asking for help in getting her Bee to the winter address. Recently I had a very interesting letter from a lady in England. Her friend moved to Newtown and sent her a column in which I wrote about a kind of weed we have. I got a letter from the English lady and on the spur of the moment went out and found a plant of the weed and mailed it to her. An interesting letter came back with pictures.

My address and phone numbers were printed at the top of the news column. The day Laurie was born, a woman from Bridgeport wanted to come to my house for me to go with her to buy a baby pig she saw in an ad in our paper. I was just leaving the house to get to the Danbury Hospital where Laurie was born several hours later.

When The Bee celebrated its 100-year birthday, I learned that the Sherman news reporter and I were related –– she was Allie Giddings. We talked about our ancestors several times after that.

When I search my memory with special intensity I can recall the size of The Bee back 40 years ago. The biggest change I remember is when the sports section was formalized.

The Bee does a great job for all children’s activities in Newtown. They are good with news and stories relating to animals and have helped find many homes for those who were homeless. Newtowners have more news about their schools than most towns provide. The paper provides coverage of the important political happenings and there is a space where people can express opinions by sending proper communications. There are all kinds of listings about things to do –– music, plays, nature centers, and on and on. The pictures have improved so greatly in recent times, their quality could never be faulted.

All in all, we have a very special weekly paper that gives news, not murders or sensationalism or rumors. They are careful to tell us the truth as they can find it and it usually is well written, too.

Happy Birthday, friend!

Last week’s comment at the close of the column was by Noah Webster

Who said, “What a man needs in gardening is a cast-iron back with a hinge on it”?