At this point of the year, I am always glad that Newtown zigs when most other towns zag. Rather than having its big celebration and parade at the beginning of the summer on Memorial Day or the Fourth of July, the town gives us two full months of lazy summer days to rest up before we pull out all the stops on Labor Day. Frankly, after all the recent excitement with graduation and the end of school, I’m happy not to have to do too much celebrating on Independence Day.

The St Rose Carnival is just the right size celebration for this holiday weekend. Be sure to stop by. The carnival runs 6 to 10 pm each night through Saturday. Hank Wasicki, who coordinates the carnival with Frank Middleton, had a special reason to celebrate when carnival opened with perfect weather on Tuesday. It was his birthday. Father Bob also marked a special date this week when he celebrated his fifth year at St Rose. He’d be the first to say that he came to the parish never thinking he would survive the move from Shelton, but since then he has realized what a joy it has been to be in Newtown and how his life has improved.

Anne Ragusa and her nine-year-old son, Seth, were among the first to arrive at the carnival on opening night. Seth immediately wanted to get on the Ali Babba, one of the more terrifying rides, but Anne wasn’t concerned. Seth’s first experience with the ride was the summer when he was only five, and after that Anne says he had no trouble with other scary events, like taking the bus on the first day of kindergarten. “It was one of those parenting moments,” she recalled.

Duane Baumert was spotted flipping the pieces of fried dough in the cooker at the Knights of Columbus booth. Duane and Dottie have been packing in preparation for their move to the Knoxville area of Tennessee on August 19. Their house has been sold and they are about 95 packed, according to Duane, who says they have about 315 boxes packed and numbered.

Sandy Hook’s own organic farmers’ market is reopening next week. Organizer Mary Fellows says the market will be held on Tuesdays from 9 am to 2 pm, staying open a little later this year to accommodate people who have a later lunch hour to shop. Organic farm produce, baked goods, crafts, a café, pony rides and lots of other things will be happening in the field behind St John’s Episcopal Church so be sure to check it out.

Life has been a little hectic for Mary Fellows recently. Besides operating her businesses, Little Merry Fellows and the Little Green Barn, in Sandy Hook, and helping to organize the farmers’ market and the upcoming St John’s church donut drive-through, she is in the throes of moving with husband, John Conk, and their daughter Cleo from Sand Hill Road to Walnut Tree Hill Road. “It’s like a reality show,” she said of the move. “Everyone should be forced to move every ten years to clear the junk out.”

The Non-Fiction Book Club has got its work cut out for it this summer. With the assignment by member Bill Edelen to read all 1,000-plus pages of David McCullough’s Truman by the September 7 meeting at the Booth Library, they had better get cracking. The club meets the first Tuesday of each month but takes the summer off. So if they start right now, they’ll have exactly two months to complete this book. We hope they are all planning several days at the beach to delve into it –– and no trashy torn bodice novels allowed until they’ve finished their assignment. Non-Fiction Book Club members are not only diligent they are loyal. Former longtime Newtown resident Bill Meyer has been commuting from his retirement home in Rhode Island for the past year, just to attend book club discussions.

To honor the five members of the Newtown Hook & Ladder Volunteer Fire Company who graduated from Newtown High School in June 19 ceremonies, a contingent of Hook & Ladder firefighters went to the Western Connecticut State University’s Westside Campus in Danbury where the event was held. The volunteers brought a fire truck festooned with a banner honoring the graduates: Tomar Sedaliu, Jason Garbarino, Colin Curran, Brian Slattery, and Charlie Fulkerson. The contingent of well-wishers included Cameron Law, James Croswell, Tom Ramsdell, Ryan Coyle, Greg Korotash, and Justin Moser.

The Chicago Tribune recently released its annual list of the 50 best magazines, and Fine Homebuilding, published by Taunton Press right here in Newtown, was number 16 on the list, beating out such big-name mags as The Atlantic Monthly, The National Review, Sports Illustrated, Vogue, Vanity Fair, and Rolling Stone. Taunton Press has a lot of other great magazines in its stable that should have been on the list in our estimation. Maybe next year the Chicago Tribune will catch on. Anyway, congratulations to Taunton Press!

While I was waiting at a red traffic signal on Glover Avenue recently, I spotted what, at first glance, appeared to be an Eastern gray squirrel, in a dog disguise, leading a woman behind it on the sidewalk around the corner from Main Street to Glover Avenue. The tiny animal, which was on a leash and running in front of its walking master, I later learned was probably a Yorkshire terrier, a miniscule pooch that is not much larger than a squirrel. With its midsection fur shorn for summer weather, but its lengthy teased head fur remaining intact, the tiny canine looked vaguely like a domesticated squirrel badly in need of a haircut.

Finally, congratulations to Gordon Williams on his selection as this year’s Labor Day Parade Marshal. Gordon, who seems always to be working behind the scenes for so many causes, will finally be thrust into the limelight for a change.

Time for me to retreat once again behind the scenes, but I’ll be back in this limelight again next week, so be sure to…

Read me again.