In addition to providing the usual showcase for the community groups which make Newtown such a special place, the 25th Annual Labor Day Parade will double as the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Dodgingtown Volunteer Fire Company No 1, founded in 1911. The company will lead off the parade’s fifth division, a division that, in honor of Dodgingtown’s anniversary, will include a number of fire units from other towns.

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During the month of August, The Newtown Bee sponsored the first-ever Jewel Weed Contest. Over 85 people entered the contest to try and pull the biggest weed and win the grand prize. The tallest weed was 8’11,” plucked by Mark Hilty, 15, of 14 Wills Road. He was working with landscapers at Mt Pleasant Animal Hospital when he spotted the contest winner. Mr Hilty will receive a Bee T-shirt for every member of his family, a Bee tote bag, and a pair of industrial strength clippers to hack down any remaining jewel weeds he finds.

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The town clerk’s office has been making an effort this summer to get businesses to sign up on the town’s Trade Name Registry. An old Connecticut law requires both corporations and persons doing business under a name other than their own to register their trade name with the clerk of the town where they do business. The registration fee is $5.

September 1, 1961

When Newtown’s schools open, some 1,771 pupils are expected on opening day. The cafeteria will open on the first day of school and the charge per lunch will be 35 cents, or a weekly ticket for five lunches may be purchased for $1.65, a savings of ten cents for each student. Extra milk may be purchased for four cents per bottle.

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At a meeting held last Friday, August 25, at the Hawleyville firehouse, the Hanover Home Owners Association and the Pond Brook Home Owners Association merged to form a new group, to be known as the North Newtown Home Owners Association. These two groups were brought together because of the pollution of Pond Brook with silt, thus creating a very muddy condition, which prevented people from using the brook for swimming. The pollution was also a hazard to the fish in the brook.

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On Sunday, September 3, at 2 pm, at the A. Fenn Dickinson Memorial Park, the formal presentation of a bronze plaque by the Newtown Lions Club, in connection with the tennis shelter and tennis courts dedicated in memory of Henry Carlson, a past president and Rudolph Berkemann, a past vice president, will take place. The handsomely made bronze plaque dedicates these projects in memory of these two past citizens and loyal Lions and marks the completion of two of many town park projects undertaken and completed by the Newtown Lions Club.

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Early risers Sunday morning found a Nazi flag flying from the pole on Main Street. Saturday’s storm made it impossible to lower the American flag that evening, as is the custom. The pranksters made off with the American flag as part of their practical joke, which, after all, was neither practical nor a joke. First Selectman Charles Terrell will be glad to exchange the flags.

 

August 28, 1936

During the severe electrical storm of Sunday evening last, lightning struck the large maple tree in front of the residence of Albert Boyson on Sugar street. Taking off several large portions of bark and jumping to a nearby wire fence, it knocked off the top of an ornamental post, uprooted several barberry bushes and threw two large stones from the doorway into the room. It knocked out three windowpanes, broke a hole in the door screening and cracked part of the frame. Lightning also entered the barn and ran along the iron stanchions. It jumped from one of the stanchions to a steel stool on which Mr Boyson was seated milking a cow. Mr Boyson received a light shock and dropped the pail filled with milk.

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The work of remodeling the Walter Hutchinson house, formerly the Sturges homestead, in Taunton, is progressing rapidly. New additions are being built, the entire house being changed to bring out its beautiful colonial points. The work is being done by local contractor Arthur McCollam.

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Early last Friday morning two fires occurred at the farm of Alpheus B. Durgy in Hawleyville, destroying the icehouse, milk shed, and a large barn. The barn had just been filled with hay the day before, and held about 200 tons, besides mulch, farm machinery, tools, and dairy equipment and antiques, the whole contents being valued at more than $10,000. While the barn building owned by the estate of Amos T. Camp was insured, the contents were not covered and their burning represents a total loss to Mr Durgy. The cattle were rushed from the building just before part of the roof fell, and in a few moments the entire structure was a mass of flames.

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An attempt was made shortly after midnight on Tuesday to burglarize the First National Store in Sandy Hook, by Lawrence Johnson, Zenbrick and John Desano, all of Bridgeport. Suspicion of the three men by Constable William Blake who noticed their car about town Tuesday evening, caused him to telephone State Police in Ridgefield, who sent officers. The three men were seen going to the rear of the store and the officers found them preparing to break into the basement door.

 

September 1, 1911

The hard shower on Friday, August 18, played havoc with the fine maple trees in front of Patrick Ready’s house. Three of the trees were split in the center, half of each falling to the earth. One section of a tree fell right across the road north of Mr Ready’s barn and had to be cut up before anyone could pass. The wind of that storm seems to have centered all its fury about Mr Ready’s house.

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For a couple of weeks the new telephone poles have been like giant’s, gaunt fingers, pointing to a lowering sky. They are performing this function nobly and unswervingly. One might imagine they were pointing accusing digits at those whose duty it is to see to it that they fulfill the destiny for which they were manifestly brought into being — that of being the proud bearers of manifold messages. As a matter of fact, unless the wires are strung and the telephones installed in the immediate future, some of the prospective users will refuse to allow the instruments to be put in their homes. It is up to the company to “get busy” and “saw wood.”

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The entertainment for the benefit of the Zoar Library, which took place Saturday night, was a success. Even the weather refused to interfere. It rained Thursday and Friday, it rained Sunday and Monday and Tuesday, but it stopped raining just for Saturday afternoon and evening, so that nobody who planned to go might be obliged to stay home. Soon after 7 o’clock, the teams began to speed along the roads, from Zoar, from Gray’s Plain, from Berkshire, and Newtown, all converging at Glover’s Hall, Sandy Hook, where the entertainment was to be.

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By Labor day peaches for canning will be at their best at the orchard of Newton M. Curtis, who is picking daily scores of baskets of the finest peaches. From South Britain, New Fairfield and all over Newtown people are driving daily to the orchard to buy peaches. Always courteous and affable, it is a pleasure to visit Mr Curtis’ orchards.