VOLUME XLII, No. 6 JULY 2019

“... Hampton should be proud of its history

during the war, for in the 1940s, a town of

only five hundred thirty-five people produced

four young women who volunteered to serve in our military.”

L. Anne Flammang, Captain, United States Coast Guard, Retired

VOLUME XLII, No. 6 JULY 2019

The Hampton Gazette

EDITOR

Dayna McDermott-Arriola

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Juan Arriola, Chair

Sulema Perez-Pagan, Secretary

Peter Witkowski, Treasurer

Angela Fichter

Diane Gagnon

PRODUCTION

Mary Oliver, Art Direction

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THUMBS UP: to everyone who contributed to our Memorial Day traditions: the parade

participants -- the Fire Department and Ambulance Corps, the farmers, the officials, and the

veterans, the scouts, and the Parish Hill marching band; the Memorial Day Committee for

organizing the parade and the ceremony; the Congregational Church for providing breakfast;

We-Lik-It Farms for donating ice cream; the Historical Society for their Open House; the

Recreation Commission for sponsoring the Turnpike All Stars; and to all who assisted us

with the Gazette’s barbecue: Morris Burr for delivering the chicken and the charcoal, the

Patels for storing everything at their convenience store, Thayne Hutchins, Carl and Wendell

Kauffman, Dan Meade and Brian Tracy for helping prepare the chicken, Lulu Blocton,

Susanna Fisher, Cathy Greene, Angelika Hanson, Judy Kauffman and Elaine King for serving

the meals, India Arriola and Kathy Donahue for cashiering, and Diane Becker, Renee Cahill,

Kathy Donahue, Susanna Fisher, Linda Gorman, Linda Grindle, Angelika Hansen, Sue

Hochstetter, Kaye Johnson, Judy Kauffman, Penny Newbury, Kathi Newcombe and Laurie

Pribble for baking those wonderful homemade desserts. Lastly, to all of our patrons –

thank you!

MEETINGS EVENTS

CONTRIBUTORS: Deb Andstrom, Cindy Bezanson, Anne Christie, Pat Coleman, Margaret Easton, Anne

Flammang, Dave Goodrich, Bob Johnson, Marcia Kilpatrick, Lena Ives, Michelle Mlyniec, Janice Trecker,

Alexandra Zani. Photos: cover, Ruth Halbach, page 3 Alexandra Zani, pages 10, 11 Juan Arriola, page 12 Randy

McMahon, Chris Crawford, page 14 Cindy Bezanson.

Board of Selectmen

Town Hall Community Room

Monday, July 1, 7:00PM

Inland Wetlands

Town Hall Community Room

Tuesday, July 2, 7:00PM

REFERENDUM

Town Hall Community Room

Tuesday, July 9, 12-8PM

Board of Finance

Town Hall Community Room

Tuesday, July 9, 7:00PM

Green Committee

Town Hall Conference Room

Wednesday, July 10, 7:00PM

Library Board

Fletcher Memorial

Thursday, July 11, 4:00PM

Agriculture Commission

Town Hall Conference Room

Thursday, July 18, 7:00PM

Planning and Zoning

Town Hall Community Room

Monday, July 22, 7:00PM

HES Board of Education

HES Library

Wednesday, July 24, 7:00PM

Recreation Commission Meeting

Community Center, LL

Thursday, July 25, 7:30PM

For more information on Hampton

Happenings, please visit our Town online at

www.hamptonct.org

HUNTINGTON HOMESTEAD CELEBRATES OUR LIBERTY JULY 6TH!

11:30AM: A professional artist demonstrates calligraphy at its eighteenth-century finest to help us

sign the Declaration of Independence with quill and ink.

1PM: Learn of the lives of the four Connecticut signers, including Samuel Huntington.

11AM – 3PM Tours of the Huntington Homestead.

SEEKING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES

The Republican Town Committee is seeking candidates to run for municipal offices on the

Republican slate, where there are openings in every role of Town governance. If you are

interested in serving in any one of these important offices, boards and commissions, please

contact any member of the RTC, or Chairman Juan Arriola directly at 860.455.0160. We look

forward to hearing from you.

3

HOWELL MEMOIR CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

MEMOIR:

DOROTHY HOWELL JOHNSON

The Women’s Reserve was established on July 30,

1942. The Women’s Reserve was an integral part

of the Navy and was involved with numerous duties

that included taking over jobs that were solely done

by men. The idea of women serving in the Navy

was not necessarily supported by the Congress at

that time. Through the efforts of the Navy’s

Women’s Advisory Council, Margaret Chung, and

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, women were allowed

to serve. The women entered fields that were

previously held by men causing some workplace

hostility from male counterparts. My mother was

one of those women who enlisted in the Navy

around early 1943 and joined the ranks of the

women who served. A new and separate women's

auxiliary called Women Appointed for Voluntary

Emergency Service (WAVES) was established to

serve in many positions around the U.S, and since

this new term – WAVES -- was coined in 1943, my

mother was most likely one of the first women to

join this new established group within the Navy.

Born September 11, 1921, my mother, Dorothy,

was the eldest of five children. She was an

extraordinary woman who lived during some very

turbulent times in history. She was brave, kind,

adventurous, intelligent, talented, and had a gift

for writing. Sadly, during January of 1931, she lost

her mother, my grandmother, Thelma Dunn

MEMORIAL DAY ADDRESS:

HAMPTON’S WOMEN WHO SERVED

When I was a cadet, I searched for women role models and found

one in LCDR Dorothy Stratton, the leader of the SPARS, the Coast

Guard’s women’s reserve during the Second World War. In LCDR

Stratton, I invested all manner of worry about my place at the

Academy and in the Coast Guard. At the time many men, at every

rank, questioned whether a woman should serve in the military, and

sometimes they laced the question with aspersions aimed not simply

at my character, but my nature. In those moments, Dorothy Stratton

was my North Star.

What my women peers and I were doing in the mid-1970s was new

and unheard of: women attending a military academy. My own

grandmother questioned my father’s willingness to let me go. Although

she was very proud of me when I was commissioned, before I left for

New London, she complained, “women will ruin” the academies.

The situation was little different for the women in the World War II

reserves. In more than one household, a father pronounced,

“no daughter of mine will join the military!”

Against this backdrop, Hampton should be proud of its history during

the war, for in the 1940s, a town of only 535 people produced four

young women who volunteered to serve in our military. I find that

number extraordinary. Today I would like to honor those women.

No one from Hampton joined the SPARS, but Dorothy Howell

Johnson joined the WAVES, the naval women’s reserve on which the

SPARS were modeled. Dorothy was a farm girl. In the early 1930s,

her father moved the family to Hampton from the Bronx after her

mother died. Dorothy was only ten, but soon she was responsible for

household chores, caring for her four younger brothers, and helping

her father run a chicken farm. Dorothy graduated from Windham

High School and started at UConn in the hope of studying medicine

some day, and then the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The military

had to expand, and quickly. In four years, the Navy grew from a

quarter of a million to over three million enlisted men, and it needed

to send those men to sea. Women were recruited to take over the

men’s military jobs stateside, and Dorothy enlisted, becoming one of

100,000 women who served in the Navy. In 1943, she left Storrs for

Hunter College, where enlisted WAVES completed basic training.

At the war’s outset, the Navy imagined women would serve as

yeomen, radiomen, and storekeepers, but by early 1943, the service

realized they needed women to serve in less traditional industrial

roles, such as machinist mates. Dorothy demonstrated technical

proficiency, and the Navy selected her for the rating of Aviation

Metal-Smith and sent her to Specialist training in Norman, Oklahoma.

The majority of the WAVES completed their specialist training in

women-only units located at colleges around the country, but the

women who went into aviation specialties, like Dorothy, trained at

naval air stations alongside enlisted men. At a time when most of

American labor was highly segregated by sex, Dorothy’s training in the

WAVES was very unusual. Moreover, Dorothy held the same rank as

the men with whom she’d graduated, and she received the same pay.

After earning her Specialist rate, Dorothy was assigned to Naval Air

Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island, where she served until April

1945. After the war, she returned to Connecticut, married, and raised

three children, and like most veterans, she corresponded for the rest

MEMORIAL DAY ADDRESS CONTINUED ON PAGE 9

4

ANNUAL TOWN MEETING

Approximately 75 residents attended the Annual

Town Meeting on June 25 to address the 16 items on

the call. After First Selectman Al Cahill was

nominated to serve as Moderator, residents rapidly

approved items authorizing the Selectmen to borrow,

expend, and accept money from the State, as well as

the 5 Year Capital Improvement Plan. Kathy Freed, the

sole nominee, was elected by acclamation to serve on

the Regional District 11 Board of Education,

replacing Rose Bisson who is retiring after several years

of service, currently as Chairman.

The agenda items that generated discussion at the

Town Meeting will be decided at a referendum

scheduled for July 9. These included the town govern-

ment and elementary school budgets. Cahill reviewed

changes in the municipal budget resulting in a 2.63%

increase over last year, which mostly involve public

safety, including funding for the fire department, the

ambulance corps, and the highway department, with a

$20,000 increase to the line item for tree trimming.

The budget also includes a 2% cost of living increment

for all town employees.

The costs to taxpayers for both education budgets,

however, were reduced. The RD#11 budget reduction

of 3.39% was the result of a decrease in Hampton’s

assessment due to a decline in students attending the

regional school. The elementary school budget was

reduced by the Board of Finance in accordance with

the amount prescribed by the State to meet the

Minimum Budget Requirement. Chairman Rose Bisson

stated that the school board would meet the following

evening to determine where the $31,916 cut would be

made. Lynn Burdick raised questions concerning the

impact of the solar panels on the electric bill, and

FROM THE REGISTRARS OF VOTERS

The polls will be open from noon to 8PM on July 9 in the Community Room at Town Hall to vote on the following questions:

though the school’s Business Coordinator was not present to supply precise

information, Superintendent Frank Olah estimated that the school saves $1,700

a month as a result of energy efficient measures. Administrative costs were also

questioned, including the principal’s raise, at 8%, or $7,484, with Bisson

explaining that a market adjustment was necessary to bring the salary closer to

the level of other area principals. Olah explained the necessity of the $12,350

increase for the Special Education Director, from one day per month to one day

per week, in order to accommodate the needs of 18% of the school’s students

who receive special education services. Though Bisson did not have the figures

available to answer Lisa Sanchez’s question regarding the adult to student ratio,

documentation supplied to the Board of Finance on June 13 reveals the adult to

student ratio to be 3.3:1, with an instructional staff to student ratio of 4.2:1.

While the transfer of money from the General Fund to complete the paving of

Kenyon Road was approved at the Town Meeting, the Selectmen are asking

taxpayers to approve the transfer of $250,000 from the General Fund to a

Municipal Reserve Fund at the referendum to cover the costs of several

capital improvements, such as paving the elementary school’s parking lot and

playground, the replacement of the school’s generator, repair of the town’s

tennis courts, and the construction of a pavilion on the Town Hall campus.

The expenditure of $171,500 from the Open Space and Land Acquisition

accounts for the Town purchase of 51 acres of land along the Little River will

also be voted on at referendum. The parcel, located south of Hammond Hill,

has been identified as “highly desirable” by the Conservation Commission as a

natural habitat for wildlife. Cahill envisions multiple purposes for the land,

which might include open space, recreation, and the current uses: agriculture,

fishing and hunting. Though multiple concerns were raised over using the

property for hunting, which ranged from noise to governance, Cahill explained

that the purchase of the land was the first consideration; specific uses for the

property would require a later discussion among residents.

Two ordinances will also be considered at the referendum. The Board of

Finance is recommending adoption of an ordinance which establishes a bidding

requirement and procedure for purchases and services by both the town and

the school. Another ordinance will consider changing the position of Tax

Collector from one of election to one of appointment, a recommendation

of the Board of Selectmen after discussions with the Northeast Council of

Governance on municipal functions. Cahill explained that the ordinance would

allow the Selectmen the option of appointing a qualified person, or outsourcing

the position to another town, noting that Chaplin and Scotland are already

utilizing services Windham is providing. A collaborative arrangement with

another town would not preclude office hours in Hampton a few times a month,

Cahill said, and potential savings range from $8,000 to $20,000 annually.

The meeting culminated on a high note when Lynn Burdick praised the road

crew for the “fantastic” paving of Kenyon Road, thanked First Selectman Cahill

for moderating the Town Meeting so soon after knee surgery, quipping about

the need for him to “get a leg up”, and encouraged residents to “meet the

Mennonites”, who have “mastered the term community involvement”, noting

their recent assistance in weeding the town gardens and paving the entrance to

Town Hall.

Dayna McDermott

5. Shall the Town of Hampton approve the Ordinance to establish

a bidding requirement and procedure for purchases and

services?

6. Shall the Town of Hampton approve the Ordinance to make

the position of Tax Collector one of appointment?

1. Shall the Town of Hampton appropriate $1,675,184 for the

General Government for the 2019-2020 fiscal year?

2. Shall the Town of Hampton appropriate $2,104,318 for the

Hampton Elementary School for the 2019-2020 fiscal year

3. Shall the Town of Hampton transfer $250,000 from the

General Fund to a municipal reserve?

4. Shall the Town of Hampton purchase 51 acres of land along

the Little River funded by Open Space and Land Acquisition

Capital and Non-Recurring accounts for $171,500?

Registered voters and taxpayers listed on the October, 2018 Grand List as

owning property assessed for at least $1000 are eligible to

vote in the referendum. Absentee ballots are available during regular Town

Hall hours from the Town Clerk up until the opening of the polls.

5

COMMUNITY WALK

The Hampton Conservation Commission invites

all for a casual walk at the H.E. Preston Nature

Sanctuary on July 13that 10AM. The Preston

Sanctuary, a Joshua Trust property, is a 100

acre preserve of various habitats, from dry

upland woods to flood plain thickets, and of the

Little River and tributary streams. The walk is

approximately one mile and showcases the beauty

of the Little River. The Sanctuary is located on

Route 97 across from Kimball Hill. Children

accompanied by adults are welcome.

5K HAMPTON wRECk ROAD RACE

A 5K (3.1 mile) Road/Off-Road Race, sponsored

by the Hampton Recreation and Community

Activities Commission and supporting the

Hampton Fire Department, is scheduled for

September 14 at 10AM. The timed race will start

and end at the Fire Department on Old Route 6.

The 5K course traverses the streets of Hampton

and the blazed trails of the Goodwin State Forest

and the Town’s newly acquired Edwards Property.

This relatively flat and unique course highlights

the natural beauty and charm of Hampton.

Registration through August 30th

is $15and the

first 100 registrants will receive a free T-shirt.

Registration after the 30th is $20. Refreshments

and a water station on the course will be

provided. Registration is on Runsignup.com

(key in Hampton).

For more information on the road race and the

community walk, call Bob Johnson at 860.455.6503.

We retired to Hampton this year, partly because of the relatively large

population of senior citizens residing here. We attended our first

seniors luncheon recently, and because it was at an old Grange, dressed

casually – I wore my “grandma jeans” and a cardigan, my husband wore

his Birkenstock sandals and Bermuda shorts. We were right at home

in this cozy, casual atmosphere! We were informed that there is a

forthcoming senior luncheon at another, far more prestigious venue

in town, quite elegant, I’m told. We are looking forward to this, and

wonder - what should we wear? A simple summer frock? A dress suitable

for a garden party? Should my husband wear a suit and tie? Or would

that be too formal? We’re still new in town and don’t want to make

the wrong impression.

Happily Retired in Hampton

My Dear Neighbor,

Welcome to Hampton—the jewel of the Northeast. Residents here

enjoy a bucolic lifestyle, a close-knit community, and a veritable

cornucopia of community activities for all ages. Unfortunately, Auntie

Mac cannot offer you specific advice on matters of fashion, as she

attends all Town functions, from the annual Easter Egg Hunt to the

Selectmen’s Meetings, in full evening attire, with matching jewels,

gloves, hat and bag. It is one of her only remaining nods to her time in

Budapest as Secretary of Protocol for the Arch-Duke, and old habits,

etc. Permit her to indulge in a few observations, however, regarding

your concerns. The Senior community in town is indeed robust, offering

many outings, activities, and chances to socialize with peers. Still,

it would be helpful if you did not stick this precise a pin in your

existential atlas when deciding what to do and with whom to do it.

The good impression that you so covet is made by a demonstrated

willingness to venture outside one’s comfort zone and sample activities

not solely reserved for one specific age group. Regarding “prestigious

venues” in town, the “old Grange,” now known as the Hampton

Community Center, is held by many in as high regard as Carnegie Hall,

and one must remember that even when it served as a grange, no

farmer’s family would think of attending a public meeting in anything

but clean and pressed clothing. Unless of course it was the annual

Chicken Farmers’ Cotillion; in that case, attendees went directly from

coop to dance floor, with sometimes less-than-refined results.

But I digress. You would eliminate much of your concern, dear, if you

contacted the person who let you know about this more formal event,

and asked what people usually wore to it. You can also call the Senior

Coordinator, who I am quite sure would be happy to tell you that

Hampton residents are nothing if not eclectic individuals whose

acceptance of, and delight in, the fashion sense of others practically

guarantees that if you follow your own good sense, you will feel

comfortable and welcome anywhere in town.

Your Auntie Mac

MONTHLY EVENTS

July 3, 10, 17 & 24 Summer Reading Program

1 – 2PM

This summer’s theme is “A Universe of Stories”. We

will be exploring the Solar System, learning about

planets and stars, as well as Chinese Zodiac animals.

Hands-on activities, stories, and snacks will be

provided. All ages welcome!

July 10 Artist’s Reception with Janice Trecker

4:30 – 6PM; Painting Demonstration at 5PM

July 10 FML Book Discussion Group 6:30PM

We will be discussing Born a Crime by Trevor Noah.

New members are always welcome!

July 17 Lawn Concert with Maria Sangiolo 6:30PM

Refreshments will be served.

Wednesday Knitting Group NOON – 3PM

Drop in and have a cup of tea or coffee and work on a

needlework project, or just come in to socialize. All are

welcome!

Friday Story Time, Song & Play 10-11AM

An interactive program for children (0-5) using a variety

of musical instruments, rhymes, songs, finger plays,

puppets, and stories.

Adult Coloring

Experience the stress-reducing and meditative benefits

of coloring in this drop-in program.

6

NEW BOOKS

A good line up of popular fiction this month, including titles by Janet Evanovich, Ian

McEwan, Chris Pavone and Sujata Massey. Non-fiction includes the Mueller Report,

a volume on spring migration, and a new David G. McCullough about the western

pioneers.

ADULT FICTION

William Boyle A Friend is a Gift You Give Yourself

Ken Bruen In the Galway Silence

Wanda Brunstetter The Forgiving Jar

Janet Evanovich The Big Kahuna

Richard Paul Evans The Road Home

Nina George The Book of Dreams

Iris Johansen Dark Tribute

Sujata Massey The Satapur Moonstone

Ian McEwan Machines Like Me

Jojo Moyes The Peacock Emporium

Julie Orringer The Flight Portfolio

James Patterson The Cornwalls are Gone

Chris Pavone The Paris Diversion

Wilbur A. Smith King of Kings

ADULT NON-FICTION

Kenn Kaufman A Season on the Wind: Inside the World of the

Spring Migration

David G. McCullough The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers

Who Brought the American Ideal West

Robert S. Mueller The Mueller Report

Lynn Olson Madame Fourcade’s Secret War:

The Daring Young Woman Who

Led France”s Largest Spy Network

Against Hitler

AUDIO BOOKS

Kate Atkinson Transcription

Kiese Laymon Heavy: An American Memoir (NF)

LAWN CONCERT AT FLETCHER MEMORIAL

This summer’s garden concert on July 17 at 6:30PM on the library’s lawn will feature singer, guitarist and songwriter

Maria Sangiolo. Along with other songs from her repertory, Sangiolo will be singing Songs of the Wood, written and

recorded after her 2016 stint as Artist in Residence at Trail Wood. Sangiolo has eight solo albums to her credit

including Maria and Friends – Planting Seeds that was chosen for the 2011 Parents Choice Gold Award. Her voice

has been praised by the Boston Globe and San Diego Union Tribune and has received an Artist’s Grant from the

Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, as well as national recognition for her songs for children.

The Hampton venue is especially appropriate for songs inspired by the local sanctuary, as Sangiolo calls Trail Wood

“a life changing experience. My creativity flourished and I began to write again, both in prose and poetry.”

The concert is free although donations are always cheerfully accepted. Patrons are encouraged to bring lawn chairs

or blankets.

HOURS Wednesday 12-8PM, Thursday & Friday 9AM-12PM,

& Saturday 9AM-3PMWEB: fletchermemoriallibrary.org 860.455.1086

TOP SHELF GALLERY

The Top Shelf Gallery’s July- August show features portraits and action scenes of Grand Tour cycling and Cyclo-cross riders by

Janice Trecker. Trecker, a local painter and writer, is a keen fan of bicycle road racing and has followed the sport for a number

of years. A mostly self-taught painter, Trecker paints in strong colors on masonite and enjoys painting people and animals and

has shown in many galleries (solo and group shows) throughout Eastern Connecticut.

The show will open officially July 10 with a reception from 4:30 to 6 p.m. when Trecker will demonstrate the use of

underpainting in depicting the human face.

7

SCOUTING NEWS

SCOUTS BSA BOY TROOP 93 &

SCOUTS BSA GIRL TROOP 1093

On June 7-9, eleven boys and girls along with

their leaders enjoyed an extraordinary 26-mile-

long canoe camping adventure. The Troop 93

and Troop 1093 Scouts studied for months under

the guidance of Sam Gailey, learning about

proper techniques, equipment, and safety with

several practice paddle events in Scotland,

Mansfield, and Union. On June 7th, the campers

loaded all their gear, dehydrated food, and all

drinking and cooking water and paddled from

Portland down to the Hurd State Park campsite

on the shores of East Hampton. The next day

they continued down river to the Quarry Knob

campsite on Selden Island in the middle of the

Connecticut River. Along the way, they stopped

at Gillette’s Castle and thoroughly enjoyed their

tour. The Scouts completed the trip by paddling

the final eight miles down to Long Island Sound in

Old Saybrook. The trip was a resounding success

and a wonderful way to kick off the summer.

FAMILY CUB SCOUT PACK 93

During the first weekend of June, the Family

Cub Scouts were undaunted by the multiple

posts of the black bear on the other side of the

Mashmoquet Forest as they held their annual

family camping event at the Averill Youth

Camping Site in Pomfret. The families enjoyed

s’mores, Connect-4, Giant Jenga, Corn-hole, man

-hunt, and a campfire program of songs, jokes,

and skits. Our weekend included fire-starting

instruction and a trail hike over to the swim area

of Mashmoquet Park where these boys and

girls (and a few parents) did not let the cold

early-spring water deter their fun. During this

weekend, we retired in the campfire the 24

tattered flags that we had collected and held our

“crossover” of Scouts to the next grade level

rank. As always, we ended the weekend with

a campfire interfaith worship service on Sunday

morning accompanied by trumpet player, Boy

Scout Sam Nunn. This beautiful weekend

was enjoyed by over 45 Scouts and family

members. We always welcome new members.

Michelle Mlyniec, Interim Cubmaster

Boy Scout Troop 93 information John Tillinghast,

860.455.9387; Scouts BSA Troop for girls, Scott Garafano,

401.529.1454; Family Cub Scout Pack 93 information contact:

Michelle Mlyniec, 860.465.7344

CONGRATULATIONS, SCHOLARS & GRADUATES!

HAMPTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Hampton Elementary School recently graduated the following students:

Hannah Becker, Om Brown, Nicholas Burgess, David Fernandes, Harmony

Freed, Morgan Hayes, Sydney Lovegreen, Calvin Marden, Jonah Mlyniec,

Kaya Morell, Evelyn Rondeau, Brady Silva, Ella Sholes, Anthony Tatulli and

Molly Wolfe.

Congratulations on the completion of the first phase of your academic lives; and

best wishes for the next steps!

ELLIS TECHNICAL SCHOOL: Travis Jacobson, with High Honors,

and Jacob Lafleur

PARISH HILL HIGH SCHOOL: Lucian Araujo, Patrick Barber, Mackayla

Blanchard, Maxx Freed, Kyleigh Horan, Cyrus Sprague and Aliyah

Tomas. A seat was reserved for Dakota “Koty” Bartlett, whose family received

his diploma posthumously. Valedictorian Tomas received over a dozen awards,

including the Marsh Chester Award, the National Honor Society, the Presi-

dent’s Award for Educational Excellence, the Army National Guard Scholar-

Athlete Award, the Associated Student Government Scholarship, and awards in

English Literature, Statistics, Calculus, Spanish and Physics. Tomas shared the

Capstone with Distinction Award with Kyleigh Horan and the American

Citizenship Award with Cyrus Sprague. Maxx Freed was awarded

Achievement in Allied Health.

The Gazette applauds the students of the Class of 2019. Good luck in all of your

future endeavors!

ARTS AT THE CAPITOL THEATER

Grade 11 High Honors: Olivia Burelle

Grade 10 Honors: Olivia Dickinson

Grade 9 Honors: Emi-Lou Perkins-Couture

PARISH HILL HIGH SCHOOL

Grade 12 High Honors: Mackayla Blanchard and Aliyah Tomas

Grade 11 High Honors: Maximilien Blanchard

Grade 10 High Honors: Brent Freed and Nicholas Meister

Grade 9 High Honors: Joseph Landolphi and Vivian Rowntree

Grade 8 High Honors: Caleb Evans

Grade 7 High Honors: Dylan Fernandes

Grade 12 Honors: Cyrus Sprague

Grade 11 Honors: Rebeca Burnham and Ethan Dunn

Grade 10 Honors: Marcos Cabranes

Grade 9 Honors: Hannah Bell, Jason Salois and Mason Stoddard

Grade 8 Honors: Brett Burlingame, Patrick Cannon,

and Ethan Jacobson

Grade 7 Honors: Grace Chokas and Ralph Marden

EASTERN CONNECTICUT STATE UNIVERSITY Dean’s List: Courtney Beaulieu,

Priscilla Leon, Megan Ryan, Ashley Walton and Kelsey Wolfe. Congratulations

to Priscilla Leon for her induction into Phi Alpha Honor Society.

ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY Dean’s List: Vanessa Surridge

QUINEBAUG VALLEY COMMUNITY COLLEGE Graduates: Cassie Haddad and

Thomas Merasco. Dean’s List: India McDermott Arriola

UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT Graduate: Ian Lake, Cum Laude

Please send us news of graduations and other laurels so that we can recognize

your academic achievements.

casket making, which speaks to a lot of what Renée has going on here

at her workshop: everything is recycled and repurposed. Nothing goes

to waste.

In the kitchen area is where classes in cooking will be held. One-on-one

learning is always the best way to learn something quickly, and if you’ve

been meaning to enhance those baking skills, then this is your chance.

If you’re looking for something more intricate, then down the hall and in

a small sewing room is where you can sit and make jewelry, sew, and try

scrimshaw. It’s important to note that the Tagua Nuts used for

scrimming are eco-friendly, and though they look similar to ivory,

they are simply a better alternative. And buying these nuts helps the

environment tremendously since it prevents trees from being cut down.

Scrimming is a wonderful art, and one that can be enjoyed immensely,

but more so when you know the Tagua Nut you’re using saved a tree.

There’s a lot to learn here at the Rural Arts School, and a time spent

gaining knowledge on a useful craft is never time spent poorly. If you’re

serious about mastering a new skill, then be sure to stop by every

Thursday for a chance to do exactly that. With tools already at your

disposal, all you’ll have to do is show up and get started. Renée will be

there to help you with whatever you need. Don’t miss out!

Suli Perez-Pagan

HOWELL MEMOIR, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

8

Howell, who succumbed from a kidney infection at the age of 31 when

they were living in the Bronx, New York.

My grandfather moved his five children to Hampton, Connecticut where

they lived in the basement of what was the beginning of a larger home

built later on. My mom helped raise her four brothers. They attended

school and worked on the chicken farm built by my grandfather. It was

the era of the great depression with life being meager and tough.

Nevertheless, my mother excelled at Windham High School, including

the French language, and attended pre-med at the University of Con-

necticut before enlisting in the Navy. Moreover, three of her brothers

served in the military -- John, George and Tom. Her dad served in WWI.

Dorothy, “Dot” as she was called, did her boot camp in Norman,

Oklahoma and then was sent to the Navy Air Station Quonset Point,

Rhode Island. Her desire was to go into the medical corps. Instead she

ended up working in mechanics. She made many friends and they

would go to Boston on furlough. She corresponded throughout her life

with some of the women she met in the Navy.

There is also a beautiful love story that emerged between November

of 1944 and March of 1945 between her and my father, a member of

the French Navy. He went back out to sea. It was reported that he was

a casualty of war. It is difficult to decipher given the communications of

the time. The story unfolds in his 40+ letters (all written in French) that

he wrote to her while at sea. They corresponded for many months.

The letters stopped after June of 1946. As a small child, I remember

her sitting on the floor re-reading his letters. Tears would swell up in

her eyes. She would carefully put them away as she experienced the

emotions of losing someone she dearly loved. It is a WWII mystery

as to what really happened to him. A book in the making.

Mom was discharged from the Navy in April of 1945. She raised three

children and lived in Connecticut most of her life until she died from

cancer at the age of 67, May 3, 1989.

Alexandra J. Zani

RURAL ARTS & WORKSHOP RETREAT

Learning a new skill, or even wanting to hone

one that’s already there, is never easy. It can be a

daunting endeavor, and become something of a

nuisance if not met with patience and excitement.

But sometimes that may not be enough;

sometimes we need a helping hand and a little

guidance to get us to where we want to go. If

you’re someone that needs hands-on learning,

there’s a place right here in Hampton just for you.

Located at 170 Estabrooks Road is the newly

opened Rural Heritage Arts School owned by

Renée Cuprak, whose skills range from felting to

jewelry making, and who is looking to teach you

whatever it is you wish to learn. Have you ever

wanted to learn how to sew? Or try your hand at

wood burning? Maybe even master the art of

baking? Then here at the Rural Arts School you

can learn the basics to it all, and at a reasonable

price of just $5 for every visit (first visit free), you

can finally begin learning something new.

Starting can be as simple as picking up one of the

dozens of How-To books shelved in the living

room, where you can sit and read for as long as

you want. If you aren’t sure what it is exactly

you wish to learn, don’t let that stop you from

venturing out. There are plenty of options to

choose from, and you can try each and every one

until you find one you’re comfortable with.

In a lovely sun room just off to the side of the

living room and kitchen is where classes in sewing

and exercise will be held, as well as performances.

The spacious room will hold sewing machines and

repurposed church benches, as well as an antique

card catalog for the various threads and needles.

And it isn’t just the benches and card catalog that

are recycled; it’s also the wood that will be used

for pyrography. For the wood burning classes, the

wood that will be used will be from left over

MEMORIAL DAY ADDRESS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

9

[felt] she was going to nursing school.”

Hampton has not stopped producing young

women who go to war. During Vietnam, Caroline

Filupeit and Laurie Burrelle volunteered, and in

the post-9-11 years, Laura Gibbings graduated

from the Coast Guard Academy and served five

years in the Coast Guard, and today, Tanya

Cuprak, also a Coast Guard Academy graduate,

is serving in a Coast Guard logistics center in

Alameda, California, managing maintenance for

area cutters; Captain Gabrielle Frissel, U.S. Air

Force, stationed at Seymour Air Force Base,

Johnson, North Carolina; and LT Mimi Lieu,

a U. S. Naval Academy graduate, stationed

as a physician at Naval Medical Center, San

Diego, California.

What connects this bucolic town to military

service, we might ask. I surmise it has something to

do with the demands of rural life. We learn on

farms and in isolated areas that we are dependent

on one another, as the Howell family depended

on one another to run a farm, but we also learn

self-reliance. Everyone has his or her own farm to

run, so one cannot expect neighbors to solve all

problems. The military demands the same set of

characteristics. As I taught the cadets, when you’re

at sea, you can’t call 9-11.

I admire our little town, and you, my

neighbors and friends, for these characteristics

of interdependence and self-reliance. We have

much to be proud of on this Memorial Day and

many people to thank for the quality of life we

enjoy here. I am grateful to the Memorial Day

Committee for offering me an opportunity to

speak about some of these people, the women

from Hampton who have served in our nation’s

armed forces.

L. A. Flammang, Captain, USCG

Captain Anne Flammang was among the first women

to attend a federal service academy, graduating from

the U. S. Coast Guard Academy in 1981. During her

thirty-year career, she served as an engineer aboard the

Coast Guard Cutter Rush; as the Twelfth Coast Guard

District Training Officer; and as a Professor of English at

the Coast Guard Academy. In 1990, she became the

first woman selected for the Coast Guard’s Permanent

Commissioned Teaching Staff. After earning her Ph.D.

in English at the University of Iowa, Captain Flammang

returned to the Academy where she served as Associate

Dean of Faculty and chair of the Humanities

Department. Captain Flammang’s personal awards

include the Coast Guard Meritorious Service Medal

and the Legion of Merit. She and her husband Scott,

a professor at Quinebaug Valley Community College,

have lived in Hampton since 2003.

of her life with the friends she’d made in the WAVES.

Of the 350,000 women who served in the military during the Second

World War, 74,000 were nurses, and two of those nurses came from

Hampton. One was Ruth Burchnall, whom Jo Freeman remembers as

a no-nonsense woman: “[she] wasn’t afraid to speak up in defense or

support of what she believed.” I am a great-niece and a sister of Army

nurses, so well I know they are direct, confident, and steely in dicey

situations. In war, they confront great human crises, mass casualties that

require quick and efficient triage on one hand and sympathetic care

for the wounded and dying on the other. Military nurses also are

commissioned officers. Ruth Burchnall was senior to the enlisted

Corpsmen and Pharmacist Mates she worked with, so at a time when

there were few places in the civilian world where women supervised

men, Ruth and her sister nurses had to learn to give men orders in a way

that did not arouse the men’s resentment or defiance. The nurses had

little to guide them but their own good sense and knowledge of human

nature. Unlike the women in the WAVES, WACS, or SPARS, Army and

Navy nurses were assigned overseas, meaning they were put in harm’s

way. Thirty thousand nurses served in Europe, and 1,000 served in the

Pacific theater. Among the latter, 77 were captured by the Japanese on

Bataan and Corregidor and were interned in a brutal POW camp for

three years. These nurses now are known as the Angels of Bataan, and

they were the first American women to become POWs.

We should remember that women like Dorothy Howell Johnson and

Ruth Burchnall volunteered to serve in the military. In fact, so many

Registered Nurses volunteered to serve that Congress and the civilian

medical community feared a devastating shortage of nurses at civilian

hospitals and clinics. To address this likelihood, in 1943 Congress

established the U. S. Cadet Nurse program, through which the

government would agree to pay student nurses their tuition and a

small monthly stipend in exchange for the students’ guaranteed service

as nurses for the duration of the war, either in the military or the

civilian community.

Longtime Hampton resident Eva Loew applied for the program with the

intent of joining the Army Nurse Corps and being sent to Europe. Many

of you know Eva’s remarkable life story—her family’s escape from the

Nazis and her long residence in town, where she and her husband

Ernst ran a farm and raised their six children. Time does not permit me

to tell her full story. Today I want to emphasize that this woman who

gave so much to Hampton was, when she joined the Cadet Nurse Corps

in 1943, a new citizen of the United States. She had been naturalized

in 1941, and was the first naturalized citizen to join the Cadet Nurse

program. Eva’s story teaches us something important about the gratitude

so many immigrants have felt for the liberties our country bestows and

their willingness to put their lives at risk to protect those liberties.

Of course, anyone who knows much at all about the military knows

that its dangers are leavened with what Readers’ Digest has long called

“humor in uniform.” Jokes and laughter inevitably relieve the pressures

of service. Jean Surridge reminds us of this. She grew up in Hampton

and completed her nurses’ training at Hartford Hospital. Like many

veterans of the Second World War, she did not talk much about her

service, but her son remembers her being amused that anyone

considered her a veteran. He writes that during the war, “she simply

Amish neighbor, from seeds saved through the years. During our visit,

Sam and his older sons returned from Lancaster with plants from

neighbors there. Most importantly, the crops grown on the farm at

Popover Hill are completely organic; no chemicals are used on the

plants or in the soil. Customers can purchase produce that has

never been treated with chemicals, nor has the soil, nor the seeds.

All farms entail a lot of labor, with everything else dependent upon the

weather and the farmers’ trials and errors as they discover the strengths,

weaknesses, and idiosyncrasies of their particular site. So far, Rosetta’s

only regret -- “We forgot to leave a spot on the slope of crops for

sledding.”

The property has always served as some sort of a farm. A brick in the

chimney is inscribed with the date 1809. Earliest documents record

David Fox, who operated a fulling mill here along the Little River,

which traversed the property, as owning over 100 acres of land east

of Bigelow Road and on both sides of “the road from Hampton to

Brooklyn”. His will mentions two houses and there’s speculation that

the Sears house was once part of this property. This section of town is a

little confusing because of changes in the town line, moving east when

Hampton was created. In 1827, David Fox left “the old farm” of 103

acres to his son, Anson. Josiah and Jackson Horace owned it from 1834

to 1877, and John Smith from 1877 to 1887, when it became known as

“the Sherman place” until 1916.

The Ostby’s operated a renowned Christmas tree

farm for over 30 years on Popover Hill, starting in

1969. They also built a new barn to house their small

assortment of animals -- goats, sheep and chickens,

and a horse -- after the original barn collapsed. The

old foundation of the barn near the house remains

and is now host to lettuce, kale, peas, echinacea for

tinctures, and rose bushes to attract bees.

Although the Fishers have only lived here for a half

a year, the match of family and farm is more than

evident in Sam and Rosetta, in their sons, Adam,

Max, Spencer and Ben, ranging in age from 15 to 6,

and in the settled look of the place, which appears

as though they’ve lived here forever. Across the front

THE FARM AT POPOVER HILL

The property at 153 East Old Route 6 was

christened “Popover Hill” by the Ostby family to

describe the experience of climbing the narrow,

unpaved drive, stonewalled and lined with tall

pines -- an enchanting corridor -- “and popping

over the top of the hill” to reveal one of our

town’s most bucolic locations, an old farmhouse --

a center chimney cape, nestled within stonewalls,

surrounded with rolling hills, and sheltered with

evergreens.

New owners, Sam and Rosetta Fisher, a

Mennonite family from Lancaster, Pennsylvania,

and their four sons, are preserving the former

name in their “Organic Roots Farm at Popover

Hill.” The Fishers are also preserving the roots of

the property by establishing a farm here, from

which they will sell seasonal crops of fruits and

vegetables. The sloping fields southwest of the

house have been plowed, fenced, and planted.

Strawberries, red and black raspberries, and

blueberries are being cultivated, along with a

spring crop of asparagus, summer’s cucumbers,

cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and eggplants,

zucchini and summer squash, string beans –

yellow, green and burgundy, sweet corn, and an

autumn harvest of butternut and winter squash,

sweet potatoes, early red and Yukon gold pota-

toes, ornamental and edible pumpkins. Fresh

herbs are also anticipated– basil, parsley, dill,

mint, and nasturtiums. The Fisher’s own roots are

visible in the garden as well, in several of their

plants, in heirloom tomatoes such as one for a

special “Amish paste” that promises a thick tomato

sauce. An Amish woman started the plugs for

several types of peppers, including a variety

likened to “candy for the kids.” Among the

melons, there are heirlooms such as “Teacher

Lydia” watermelon, with larger, yet fewer, seeds.

“Lizzy’s Lettuce” also originates from a former

11

passing last year, Mike told them -- I think I know

exactly what you’re looking for. Popover Hill “was

a direct answer to our prayers. All the dreams

we have for this property, we won’t fulfill in my

lifetime,” but subsequent generations will, he says.

As to their progress in fulfilling these dreams –

“the property is doing its part.”

Sam speaks reverently of the fertile soil, the stream,

the pond, the beautiful land, the cozy home. And

Rosetta describes a “Currier and Ives homestead

where we can grow crops and raise our children”

and calls their discovery, “a blessing from God”.

While they grew discouraged with their futile

searches to find the right place, someone said –

“You will never find a property with everything

you want,” Sam recalls, “but we did.”

As they speak, circles form, full and concentric,

their sentiments echoing someone else’s discovery

of another special spot in Hampton – Trail Wood.

Ironically, Edwin Way Teale wrote of the Ostby’s

assistance in their search for a place here, too,

referencing “the list of things we had hoped for

in a country home. Miraculously, they all

seemed here.”

Watch for signs announcing the opening of Organic

Roots Farm on East Old Route 6.

“I lived at the farm for 14 years. I was brought into

the family when I was three days old and lived there

till I was 14 or 15, when my parents, Lester and

Hattie Hawkes, sold the place and moved. I think my

mother was worried the new road, Route 6, would cut

through our property, so we moved. The old barn –

it was a nice old barn. There was always a cow,

sometimes two, sometimes a calf. There was one

horse, and on the other side of the horse’s stall there

was a smaller pen with a nanny goat and three babies

– that was unusual, for a goat to have three babies.

The other half of the barn was used for hay. My father

worked for Lester Burnham who owned the farm

before we bought it from him. We would bring the

horse and wagon up to the hay field, we’d rake up the

hay, and my father would pitch it up into the

wagon. We worked until we were finished, and

sometimes we returned home in the dark. We used to

sleep in the barn sometimes. It was cooler there, with

the big doors open. We slept in the hay.”

Margaret Easton, Judy Noel’s “Aunt Maggie”

of the house, window boxes brim with an assortment of flowers, and

outside the kitchen door, a window box stuffed with lettuces provides

the ingredients for fresh salads. Along the barn’s old foundation, a row of

bluebird houses are inhabited by blue birds, and little blue eggs have

been discovered inside. A new house has been erected for Sam’s

parents, who are Amish and are expected here shortly.

The Fisher’s appreciation for the property is evinced everywhere.

The stone walls around the house, Rosetta says, make the home feel

like it’s “cradled”. Beyond the patio at the back of the house, the Fishers

unearthed the truth of the rumored existence of an outhouse when they

ground a tree stump and discovered the privy’s old boards. Stone

hitching posts delineate the home from the pastures beyond, spilling first

into a sea of Siberian irises and purple tradescantia, the massive stone

wall extending into the meadow, lining a path and cloaked with Concord

grapes and wild roses, punctuated by an enormous honeysuckle

perfuming the air. The path leads to a pond from which water is used to

irrigate the vegetable field. East of the house, the family is excavating for

an orchard – apples, plums, peaches, and pears. A couple of buildings

brought from Lancaster will be used for the harvest, preparation, and sale

of crops. Produce sheds wait to be situated in the garden for storage and

near the lower driveway for sales. Old wooden boxes for displaying

produce have Rosetta’s grandfather’s initials carved in them. A small pen

houses guineas. Free range chickens will produce eggs for sale later in the

summer. The family expects to open the vegetable stand in early July.

Although the Fishers only arrived soon after Christmas, they have already

transformed their home, opening the small rooms typical of capes to

allow for one large room encompassing the stone hearth, the kitchen,

dining, and living room areas, lending an airy feel to the sunlit space,

antiquity and structure alike supported with repurposed tobacco barn

beams from Pennsylvania. The room that was once Leila Ostby’s jewelry

shop, however, remains separate.

Settling in Hampton, the couple feels like they’ve come “full circle”.

Sam and Rosetta honeymooned, and celebrated a New England

Christmas, in Mystic, returning to Connecticut on their 10th anniversary.

On their 20th anniversary, last Christmas, they came to stay.

Though the Fishers were one of first families to commit to coming to

Connecticut, they searched for three years for the right property.

Selectmen Allan Cahill and Mike Chapel were “instrumental in getting us

here,” says Sam. When the property became available with Leila’s

12

GOODWIN CONSERVATION CENTER

July 3 & 18 Relaxed Ramble 11AM – 1PM & 1 – 3PM

Join Goodwin Guide Jack Griffin on a moderate walk on forest trails. All are

welcome. Hiking sticks are available to borrow.

July 10 & 24 Trail Running Club 5:30 – 6:30PM

Join us for a relaxed run on Goodwin trails, the route and pace chosen by

those who participate.

July 10 Citizen Science Series: Wildlife Cameras 6 – 8PM

This series will provide opportunities to expand your knowledge and help

with research projects. In this session, we’ll discuss setting up and using a

camera.

July 14 Edible Plants Walk 2 – 4PM Join botanist Liz Sangree to learn of

edible and medicinal plants and to taste test these majestic denizens of the

New England landscape.

July 14 Full Moon Night Hike and Campfire 8 – 10PM Let the full moon

guide your path as you take a night hike at Goodwin Forest, followed by a

campfire and s’mores. Inclement weather cancels.

July 17 Connecticut’s Natural History: Stories of the Human-Nature Rela-

tionship 6 – 8PM Join Naturalist Lena Ives as we look for stories of our

relationship to the land over time through the lens of the Harvard Forest

Dioramas.

July 20 Exploring Pond Life 10AM – NOON Explore what lives in Pine

Acres Pond. We’ll be getting a bit mucky to identify as much as possible.

Geared toward families, but all are welcome!

July 20 Family Woods Walk 1 – 2:30PM Join Naturalist Lena Ives on a slow

ramble through our trails where stops sparked by curiosity are welcomed

and encouraged!

July 20 Gardener’s Roundtable 1 – 3PM We share best practices and pitfalls

of gardening in the region, so bring your questions, expertise, and stories of

success and failure in your gardens.

July 27 Summer Fairy Homes 10AM – NOON Contribute to our fairy

community by creating a fairy home for our forest’s magical guests. All

materials will be provided, but feel free to bring a treasure from your own

forest.

July 27 Long Distance Hike10AM – 1:30PM Enjoy the company of fellow

hikers on this three hour, 5-6 mile hike on our trails.

July 29 Identification Walk 4 – 6PM Bring your own field guide or borrow

from our collection as we identify flora and fauna during a slow walk – to

encourage curiosity and discovery – on the trails.

For more information on all listed programs, contact 860.455.9534 or

helena.ives@ct.gov, or visit friendsofgoodwinforest.org.

CONNECTICUT AUDUBON SOCIETY

GRASSLAND BIRD CONSERVATION CENTER

218 Day Road, Pomfret

July 11 Evening Bird Walk 6PM

July 13 & 27 Mammal Tracking /Training Hikes

9AM – 3PM

TRAIL WOOD

93 Kenyon Road, Hampton

July 13 Using Nature as Your Inspiration! Art

Program for Kids 9AM - NOON

Registration required for this program of engaging

art projects for children ages 7 to 11 lead by Artist

In-Residence & teacher Jessica Yagid.

July 14 Haiku & Contemplation 3 – 5PM

Sherri Vogt, former teacher, congressional staffer

and veteran, will teach Haiku writing to help

process life’s many beautiful challenges.

July 21 Summer Writing Workshop 2 – 4PM

Meet fellow nature lovers and writers of all skill

levels in this workshop led by author Alison Davis.

Bring a notebook and pencil. Registration

required.

July 23 Trail Wood Bird Walk 8AM

Join Andy to find various nesting birds at our

sanctuary which should include blue-winged,

hooded, and chestnut-sided warblers, and

indigo buntings.

For fees and more information on all listed

programs, or to register, call 860.928.4948 or visit

ctaudubon.org

Volunteer Marcos Cabranes and Organizer Stan Crawford excitedly wait for

runners to come in from the June Goodwin Trail Race. Funds raised from the

race benefit programs at Goodwin.

even brushed against me. We turned on the outside

lights. It was a black cat, a very friendly black cat, which

kept meowing at us. It couldn’t possibly be Charcoal,

but who was it? So I picked the cat up and took it

into our kitchen. It did indeed look very much like

Charcoal, even the coat. After several minutes of close

examination of this cat, who very much enjoyed the

fuss, we decided it really was Charcoal. Suddenly, I was

elated, but the awful heavy feeling in my chest and

stomach from the depression of losing her did not go

away for some time. I had both feelings at the same

time, which was very strange.

If you have ever read Lincoln Steffens’ story, “A

Miserable Merry Christmas”, you will know just the

feeling I had. Steffens was a journalist and author in the

late 19th and early 20

th century. He wrote a story about

a Christmas in his childhood when he told his parents

that all he wanted for Christmas was a pony and nothing

else. They asked if there wasn’t some toy or game he

wanted in case they did not get him a pony, but he

stubbornly insisted on the pony or nothing. Christmas

morning came, and his brother got toys, and his friends

came to see his presents, but he had nothing. The hours

whiled away with all the other children enjoying the

day. At dusk he was sitting outside on the stoop when

he saw a man leading a pony down the street. The man

stopped at this house and asked if it was the Steffens’

residence. He apologized for being late. Steffens

recounted the strange mixture of feelings, the joy along

with the sadness that wouldn’t evaporate just because

he finally got his heart’s desire. That was how I felt with

Charcoal’s reappearance. But then, who was the cat

that was killed? We had never seen another cat with a

coat like Charcoal’s. Irrationally, I walked to the grave

the next day. It couldn’t possibly be the same cat, but

somehow I had to see the grave myself. The grave was

as my husband had left it, all intact. We called her

the miracle cat.

Charcoal died at age 17 of cancer. I held her in my lap

at the vets, when she was put to sleep. She could no

longer eat, and then had trouble drinking. I carried her

outside to the garden in her last days so she could enjoy

the fresh air and hear the familiar sounds. She is buried

for real now in the backyard.

13

with Angela Fichter

GARDEN CATS AS PETS

No discussion of gardening would be complete without envisioning the roles

that pets play in your gardening. If your vegetable garden is invaded by

woodchucks, who are cheerfully eating your beets, squash, and anything else

they desire, then your best friend is indeed a dog. Dogs love the chase, and

they are capable of catching and killing those woodchucks. Maybe you are a

vegetarian, but Fido most definitely is not. You can use this to your advantage

with coons as well. Raccoons are smart. The evening you check your ears of

corn and say tomorrow they will be ready to pick, that will be the evening the

raccoons come and pick the ears off the stalks, then daintily strip the husks off

the corn, and greedily eat all those ears of corn you were dreaming of smoth-

ering with butter. Hanging rags soaked in gasoline next to the corn does not

work. Leaving a radio on in the corn patch does not work. A dog next to the

corn patch does work. If your dog is in the house and barking like crazy at

midnight, better check that corn for masked bandits.

Less well known are the benefits of garden cats. I remember one particular

summer in Scotland when I was picking our black raspberries. They were

planted in a circle. Being an unmannerly sort of bramble they had grown into

a nearly impenetrable patch. I was picking berries around the edge of the

patch and reaching deep into the center when all of a sudden a furry body

leapt into the air in front of my face and grabbed a bird off a berry limb. My

heart stopped. I nearly fainted. With heart pounding, I stooped down and

peered into the grass around the bushes’ base. It was Tiger, munching on

birdmeat. Tiger staked out the black raspberry patch each summer he lived

with us, and we picked more berries while he resided here than before or

since. These were the only acrobatic performances I ever saw him do.

Frisky, on the other hand, loved rabbit, and the rabbits loved our lettuce and

garden greens. Eventually I was no longer startled by certain sound effects in

the vegetable garden, such as a crunching noise that sounded just like

someone eating peanut brittle. That was Friskie, who saved the rabbit legs until

last. If you find that unsettling, ask yourself when you last savored a chicken or

turkey leg and your hypocrisy will be cured. You, however, probably don’t eat

the bones as well as the meat. When a cat was not hungry, it just enjoyed the

thrill of the chase, with the rabbit staying about 25 feet ahead of the cat, and

stopping to eat clover the moment the cat stopped, and hopping on again

when the chase resumed. Those leisurely lopes around the garden were

entertaining to the cat and to us, and though the rabbit may not have been

amused, it did not seem terrified either.

Anyone who allows their cats outdoors fears that they will be run over.

I remember years ago sitting in my law office and discussing a case with a

client. I had an office in my home, and my desk faced the interior of the room

with my back towards Route 14. The client set next to my desk, facing the

road. Suddenly the client stood up and shouted, “Your cat just got run over.”

I heard a screech of brakes and the acceleration of a car that drove off. I ran

outside. Charcoal was in the highway, dead. I picked her up and laid her on

the lawn. Her head was crushed, but I knew it was her, because she had a

very unusual coat. Each hair near the skin was white, but the color changed

to gray and then black as it neared the end of each hair shaft. When the wind

blew, the appearance of her color changed. I felt miserable. I terminated the

client interview, and my husband buried her in the back yard.

That night my husband and I went to a movie theater. I was hoping that an

adventure movie would help take my mind off my sadness. Instead I just felt

miserable throughout the movie. When we drove home and got out of the

car, I heard a meow. That made me even more miserable because Charcoal

always greeted us when we came home. This cat meowed some more and

GREEN THUMBS: SOME OPTIONS

FOR TICK CONTROL

Let chickens and guinea fowl free range. They will

eat many ticks in their feeding range. Let them free

range in leaf litter from spring through fall.

Maintain wide, mowed walking paths. Ticks like tall

grasses and weeds.

Use herbal insect repellents when outside.

Install deer fencing around your property. Where

there are less deer there will be less ticks.

Locate 'deer tubes' around your property. Deer

tubes are sold as Damminix Tick Tubes. They can

be made of permethrin soaked cotton, put in a

plastic tube of about the size of a toilet paper tube.

The mice take the cotton back to their nests and

that kills the ticks.

Check very carefully for ticks when returning

inside. Remember that they are very, very small so

look closely.

DOUG, THE MIGHTY LITTLE ROO:

DEDICATED TO TWO HEROES WHO

REALLY DID SAVE A LIFE!

“There she is again!”

“Who?”

“That lady. The one who came here in the summer and

adopted Lily and Esmerelda.” Four hens and a rooster

pressed closer to their gate to have a look. “She’s

coming over! What do we do?” the four hens said with a

slightly worried ‘cluck, cluck, cluck!’

“Just be yourself,” answered the tiny rooster.

I went over to the small flock only to have a very quick

peek. I had a lot to do that day and not much time to do

it. “My goodness,” I sighed, and without hesitation spun

around and went back to the store to continue my

errands. “Can you tell me a little about the four red

chickens and one rooster?” I inquired.

“They are the last of our bunch awaiting adoption,”

the manager answered. “We think the four girls will be

leaving this weekend.”

“So, the tiny rooster doesn’t have a home yet?” I was

kind of hoping that he did. I still wasn’t over the loss of

our big Brahma rooster, Jack. We’d gotten him as a baby

and had grown very attached to him during his six years

as part of our family. Not seeing him in our yard any-

more, or hearing his proud and songful ‘cocka-doodle-

doos’ left quite a little ache inside me. “Will someone

come get him before winter sets in?” I said, more as a

statement than a question.

“Well, we really hope so. Otherwise, we can keep him

in here.”

“Thank you,” I said and left the shop with the little

rooster still on my mind. When I returned home later

that day, I described the rooster to my husband.

“He’s so little but he has all these gorgeous feathers and

the ones around his neck remind me of a lion’s mane”.

“What breed is he?” he asked.

The manager hadn’t been sure. “He was supposed to be

a Serama (a small, colorful Malaysian breed) but some of

his characteristics don’t match, so no one knows for

certain.”

My journey to and from work takes me right past the

store with the four red hens and the one beautiful

rooster. I tried not to look over as I drove past. “I’m just not ready for another

rooster,” I’d repeat to myself upon each passing. “Plus, everyone is getting along

right now and we don’t need any upsets in the coop.” There. I had convinced

myself. Friday came, and all five were still there. Saturday, still five. “Maybe

whoever comes for the girls will take the rooster also,” I thought to myself.

Later that day, Doug and his four pen-mates were happily munching on the grapes

they’d been treated to by the shop keeper when their friend, little bunny Maxwell,

hopped over for a visit. “Max! Hi Max!” the four chickens and one rooster called.

“We got grapes today,” they all clucked at once. “Here, try one,” Doug offered as

he rolled the grape under the fencing and over to Max.

“Oooo, delicious!” bunny Maxwell replied. “I brought you lettuce.” All five ran

this way and that gobbling up every piece the little rabbit tossed in. “Yum! You’re

the best Max. Thanks!”

Just then, Sally, who had gone back to eating grapes, stood up straight and

stopped talking. She had a strange look on her face. “Sally. Sally. Are you ok?”

they all asked. Sally just stood there.

“Something’s wrong!” Doug ran over to Sally who opened her mouth wide.

“She has a grape stuck way back in her mouth,” he informed the others. “Keep

your mouth open,” he instructed Sally. “I’ll try to pull it out.” But try as he did,

that grape would not budge.

“I had a carrot stuck once. I was so scared. It was hard to breathe. Momma

thumped me on the back and it flew right out of my mouth!” Maxwell blurted.

“Yes, that’s it,” Doug said as he took hold of Sally and moved her close to the

fence. “Ok Max, do to Sally what your Mom did to you”. Maxwell carefully stuck

his best thumping foot through the fence and gave Sally a few thump-thump-

thumps. Nothing. He tried again. The grape still did not come out. Sally started to

wobble. “Oh dear! We need help!” Doug took a deep breath and yelled his very

loudest ‘cocka-doodle-doo!’ At the same time, Maxwell took a deep breath and

screamed his loudest “Mommmmaaa!” And they kept on yelling until Momma

bunny finally arrived.

“Child, what in the world is going on?! And what are you doing way over here so

far away from our burrow?”

“These are my friends and Sally has a grape stuck in her mouth. She can’t

breathe. I tried to thump it out, but it won’t budge. Help Momma, help!”

Maxwell panicked. By now, the other three hens had joined Doug in a fretful

chorus of clucks and squawks. Sally was still wobbly and looking a bit pale.

“Ok now, everyone stay calm,” Momma soothed. “Doug, bring her over here near

the fence and hold her tight. Sally honey, this might hurt a tiny bit.” Momma

slipped her foot through the fence and gave Sally one big, firm thump on the back.

Sally coughed and opened her mouth wide. “Anything?” Momma asked Doug.

“I see it!” Doug quickly reached in, pierced the grape with his beak and pulled it

right out of Sally’s mouth. Relieved and able to talk again, Sally clucked grateful

clucks and hugged Momma bunny.

“You’re a hero Momma!” Little Maxwell exclaimed as he wrapped his arms

around his mother.

“No son”, Momma corrected, “you two are the heroes.”

“What do you mean?” Sally asked.

“Well, Maxwell loosened that grape with his powerful thumps,” Momma put her

arms around her little bunny. “And both you boys used your mighty shouts to call

me. Doug, you used your strong beak with such precision to remove the stubborn

grape that wouldn’t budge. Yes sir, these two are the real heroes.”

“Hooray for Max and Doug!” everyone chimed in. Little bunny Maxwell didn’t

feel so little anymore. Doug, the tiny roo, didn’t feel so tiny anymore.

“I’m so glad we all got to be friends. Us girls are going to our new home tomorrow

so you’ll have to take care of Doug,” Sally said to Max.

“I’ll be ok,” Doug tried to sound optimistic.

It was now late Saturday afternoon and the day was getting on. “I forgot something

at the farm store,” I called to my husband. “Be right back.” I pulled in and parked

next to the pen housing the small flock. Two cute rabbits were peering out from

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behind a fallen tree. “Awww, hi you guys!” I called quietly. To my

surprise, the bunnies did not run away.

The shop keeper came over with my receipt. “There you go,” she said.

“I know you are closing soon. Thank you for waiting for me,” I replied.

I reached in and gently picked up the tiny, little rooster. “I’m told you

girls will be in your new home tomorrow,” I said to the four red hens

who were all now around my feet.

“Cluck, cluck, cluck! The lady came back! See Doug, it all worked

out!” They circled around me as if they were saying goodbye. With

the rooster in my arms, I squatted down so the hens could see him.

“Bye Doug!” they chirped and cooed. The little roo cooed back as if

saying his goodbyes.

“Don’t worry, my girls at home are going to love you and we’re all so

happy that you’ll be part of our family now,” I said to the tiny rooster.

I put Doug carefully in his carrier and seat-belted the carrier in. As I

started the car, the two rabbits came out from behind the tree where

they’d been hiding.

“Good bye Doug!” little bunny Maxwell called. “You’re gonna have so

much fun!”

“Bye ladies! Thanks Momma. Good bye Max! Thanks for all the fun

times!”

As we drove off, Doug let out a strong and proud ‘cocka-doodle-

doooooo!’ Yes, that what is was. I’m positive Well maybe… now I’m

wondering. “Nah, don’t be silly,” I thought to myself. “Roosters CAN

NOT talk!” But then…there it was again! Yes, I heard it loud and

clear! My little Doug definitely said it: ‘Cocka-doodle-dooo…I’m

Doug the Mighty Rooooo!’

Cindy Bezanson

The Hampton Gazette

PO Box 101

Hampton, CT 06247