May 15, 1992

A group of school and community leaders, school administrators, and the police department are calling for parents and other adults to resist pressures that increase at prom time to allow teenage drinking. They are hoping to convince parents and other adults to take stronger stands against condoning drinking. The action is a result of discussions at PTA and Substance Abuse Committee meetings. The action is being taken as a reminder of consequences of serving liquor to underage drinkers. According to Lieutenant David Lydem, adults who serve persons under age 21 are breaking the law. Any adult who serves liquor to a minor may be imprisoned fro 18 months or fined up to $1,800, or both.

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Maybe it's the spring weather. Maybe the recession is subject to gradual but steady recovery, like the economists and the stock market analysts say. Or, maybe good ol' Yankee ingenuity is at work in the revamping of restaurant menus, coupon offers, and reduced prices. Whatever the cause, almost all of Newtown's 18 restaurant owners said this week that their lunch crowds are returning compared to this time a year ago. "Business is starting to pick up," said My Place luncheonette owner Louise Tambascio. "It's not as good as it was, but gradually it's recovering." "It's definitely better than it was a year ago," added her son John, who owns the adjoining pizzeria.

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Twenty-two people showed up in the old court room at the Edmond Town Hall Wednesday evening, May 13, to help circulate petitions in Newtown to put Ross Perot on the presidential ballot in November. Resident Andrew Cartoun says he decided to take action because he admires Mr Perot's views and was fed up with candidates already on the ballot. "You probably feel the same way," he told the group of volunteers. Mr Cartoun, with residents Dick and Jenny Trapp, are spearheading Newtown's effort to put Mr Perot on the ballot in November. "Many have heard or seen press coverage of Ross Perot's potential presidential bid," Mr Cartoun said. "His outspoken, very direct and often witty nature have brought him from political obscurity to a popularity rivaling the two likely major party candidates." According to Mr Cartoun, the petition drive to place Mr Perot on the Connecticut ballot has begun in Newtown.

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Town officials and a handful of Main Street residents discussed and debated solutions to the increasing traffic problems on Main Street at the Board of Managers meeting Tuesday evening, May 12. The meeting's purpose was to bring together members of the Board of Burgesses, Police Commission, Board of Managers, and concerned residents, to pool ideas to solve traffic problems. "I think it has to be a joint effort in working out this problem," said Police Chief Michael DeJoseph. "I don't think there is any immediate solution." Some of the proposed solutions to the traffic problem include: expanding parking behind the Edmond Town Hall, staggering time between movies at the town hall theater, and putting a blinking traffic light on Main Street at the crosswalk to the Edmond Town Hall.

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Dear Mr Smith, I think that the town budget as proposed is well balanced as it addresses the needs of the Newtown population from the very young to the very old. I urge the voters of Newtown to support the town budget by voting "yes" at the referendum May 20. Very truly yours, Helen Joy Previdi.

May 19, 1967

Town's central section operates by charter granted in 1824. While most Newtowners are aware of "The Borough" as a central section of town, few are aware of its actual boundaries. Indeed, they are hard to define, as Borough Warden Paul Cullens attests. "If you don't pay Borough taxes, you know you're not in the Borough," he says. Starting at the flag pole, The Borough stretches east to the railroad tracks that cross Church Hill Road; west up Castle Hill to Taunton Lake; north up Main Street just past the top of Mount Pleasant; and south down Main Street just past Borough Lane, almost as far as the entrance to Fairfield Hills Hospital. Its boundaries are jagged, with one side of a street inside, and perhaps only two houses on the other side of the street included.

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All winter long the play reading committee of the Town Players has been reading, mentally casting, and changing its mind over the season's plays for this one of the oldest of Connecticut's many little theatre groups. Granted that comedies are harder to do well than a fine, tightly written drama, for amateurs, still the Players think that people like to laugh and summer is the time for fun so they have chosen "The Irregular Verb To Love," a slightly sophisticated English comedy to open their 21st year since The War. The players are looking forward to this season and hope to present the kind of thing in that everybody in town can look forward to also.

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Members of the Horticulture Club enjoyed a program presented by three of their members at the May meeting last Thursday at the home of Mr and Mrs Hastings S. Morse in Botsford. The topic was "Planned Parenthood for Plants" and Mrs James Brunot, Mrs Stuart Wilder, and F. Willard Johnson talked on propagating various shrubs and plants. They illustrated with actual samples the success they have had with layering and with cuttings, giving many hints in the use of each method. The three speakers were generous, not only with information, but also with the number of specimens which they distributed among those present.

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At 10:15 Wednesday morning, May 17, a time bomb exploded in an unused locker at Joel Barlow High School. Three lockers were damaged, but no one was hurt nor was there any fire. Fire engines from Redding and Easton arrived moments after the explosion and stood by in case of need. Redding Fire Chief Clifton Palmer described the bomb as "of a fairly sophisticated nature" rigged in a complicated wiring circuit with an alarm clock and battery. The locker door was found to have been padlocked with a lock of a type not used by the school. A possible clue may be the presence that morning of two strangers, a young man and a girl, who were seen inside the school. They left immediately in a car. Police obtained descriptions of the two and of the car. A boy in the lunch line was heard to say another bomb was set to go off at 2:10 pm. When questioned, he insisted he was joking but the search for another bomb continued until all 1,600 lockers at the school. No bomb was found. School was dismissed at 1:30 pm. Newtown High School has had several false alarms within the last few years. In every case, those responsible have been apprehended. Names were not released because they were under age.

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May I again express my gratitude to the Newtown Ambulance Association? I extend my thanks to Mr Charles Clarke and Mr James Burghoff , who with great kindness and courtesy, brought my sister from Glen Hill Convalescent Center to Newtown. Sincerely yours, Henrietta A. Whitley.

May 15, 1942

In a telephone call with Grace Moore Parera on Thursday morning,

The Bee editor learned that a radio treat is in store for Wednesday, May 27, when she and James Melton will sing in a coast-to-coast and short-wave broadcast to all parts of the world where Connecticut men are in service. Ms Parera and Mr Milton have accepted Governor Hurley's invitation to appear on this "Connecticut Calling" program at 8:30 pm at Bushnell Memorial Hall in Hartford, in this way sending greetings from the folks back home to the boys in service. Mrs Parera expressed her extreme pleasure in the opportunity to show our boys that their work is much appreciated.

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The Sandy Hook baseball nine opened their league season on Sunday afternoon at Pine Grove Park when they stacked up against the Naugatuck Bluebirds, the visiting team coming off the victor 6 to 4. The locals scored two runs in the fourth inning and two more in the seventh, while the Bluebirds tallied their first run in the second inning, then followed it up with four more in the fourth and one in the sixth. "Johnny" Liebold, was on the mound with "Jim" Cavanaugh behind the plate for Sandy Hook.

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Generally speaking, the motoring public is taking in good spirit the gas rationing which has descended upon us. They are forgetting, until it is time to vote again, the omissions and commissions of those super-intelligent gentlemen at Washington, on whose doorsteps rests much of the responsibility for the present difficulties in the gas and oil business. Putting that angle of the matter aside, the average motorist has set his mind to make the best of a bad situation, his chief concern being that others needing less gas than himself do not somehow wangle more than they are entitled to. Public opinions and a guilty conscience will, we trust, take care of the offenders. If not before, they will surely be put in line on July 1 when they apply again for a ration card.

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It is good to see a Hawley School baseball team in uniform and playing a few games. True, the games will be limited due to gas rationing, but overcoming the difficulties of transportation and still playing ball shows the right spirit - on the part of the boys and on the part of Mr Summer, their coach. We will wager that America's toughest soldiers at the front sneak in a game of ball whenever they can, gaining relaxation from the seriousness of actual conflict.

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Young father: In your sermon this week you spoke about a baby being a new wave on the ocean of life. Minister: That's right. Young father: Don't you think a fresh squall would have been nearer the truth? -BOY'S LIFE.

May 18, 1917

Hurrah! Ringling Day Almost Here. The big event for which youngsters and adults have been impatiently waiting is drawing near, for on Tuesday, May 29, Ringling Brothers Circus is to exhibit afternoon and night in Bridgeport. Expectancy never ran so high and it is likely that this district will send a large delegation to feed the elephants. Unusual interest centers around the gigantic spectacle "Cinderallo." "Cinderallo" is probably the best loved of all fairy tales and to see it produced with more than 1,000 persons, hundreds of dancing girls and glorious pageants, indeed gives promise of making "childhood's golden dreams come true."

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Selectman W. B. Glover is driving a new Ford car purchased of James B. Nichols, the hustling Ford Representative.

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Dr W.H. Kiernan, Newtown's efficient health officer, is ill with pneumonia. Dr Frank J. Gale and Dr Brown of Danbury are in attendance. The latest word from the sick room is that he is as comfortable as can be expected. Dr Kiernan went through a strenuous experience through the local small pox excitement, to the detriment of his health and acquitted himself well. His many friends hope for his speedy recovery.

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What is the matter with the Lake George school district that it does not have an American flag flying? In the writer's memory there has never been a flag on that building. But it would seem now, of all times, when Old Glory is flying everywhere, as if the school and officials in that district would want to have it too. The lack of flag is not the fault of the school board as I have made inquiries and learned that the secretary will furnish one on request. It seems to be negligence and lack of pride on the school's part and the officials of the district. Based on information I have received, this is not the only thing in which they are slack. Debts contracted last summer have not been paid and no effort made to collect the money. It looks as if some people had gone to sleep over their job. Let us hope by new management next year this back-sliding district will be made more up to date like its neighbors. [Newtown Observer]

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Tax Collector John F. Houlihan has returned from the Waterbury Hospital where he underwent treatment for about three weeks. Mr Houlihan is much improved in health though still unable to use his foot much. He will be glad to receive the town taxes any day at his home.

Please consider sharing your old photographs of people and places from Newtown or Sandy Hook with 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.