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WAY WE WERE

NOVEMBER 3, 1972

Ballots have been pouring in to The Bee all week for its informal and

unofficial poll of its readers' views on the proposed racetrack in Newtown. At

press time this week the ratio was 18 to 1 against the track. Ballots also

came from readers in Southbury, Monroe, Oxford, Bethlehem, Fairfield,

Woodbury, Seymour and other towns, all voting against the race track. Most of

those out-of-towners who did include messages said they did not want more

traffic on area roads.

Richard Monckton, Newtown's road superintendent, died on Friday evening,

October 27, in St Raphael's Hospital. He was 52. Flags were flown at half

staff following his death. Mr Monckton had worked for the State Highway

Department for 23 years before taking the position in Newtown in 1969.

Survivors include his wife, the former Eleanor Ball, and two sons, Donald

Monckton of Newtown and David Monckton of Woodbury, and a daughter, Diane

Monckton, of Newtown. The funeral service was held on October 30 at Christ the

King Lutheran Church. Burial was in Bethlehem Cemetery in Bethlehem, where the

family previously lived.

Audrey Sherman Gaffney has been named Mother of the Year by the Fairfield

County Farm Bureau. She has been a member of the Grange since 1939 and a

member of the Farm Bureau since 1943. She has been very active in the

Congregational Church, the Rocking Rooster Square Dance Club, the Newtown VNA

and the Republican Women's Club as well as in school-related activities

involving her four sons, who are now grown. She lives on Toddy Hill Road with

her husband, Vincent.

More than 50 Masons were in attendance at Hiram Lodge No 18 in Sandy Hook on

Wednesday evening to honor the past masters of Hiram Lodge and several members

for long service. Herbert H. Cutler, town treasurer, was presented with a

50-year membership pin. At 89, he is the oldest living member and most senior

past master of the lodge. Hiram Lodge now has five living 50-year members.

George Dayton, a member of Hiram Lodge for 67 years and also 89 years old,

recalled his early lodge meetings before the present Masonic temple was built.

The Masons were meeting on the second floor of a building which then stood on

the present site of the Sandy Hook Shoe Repair Shop and TV Store. Herbert C.

Beers, a 55-year member of the lodge and former Newtown postman, recalled his

earlier meetings in the present temple in candlelight before electricity was

installed. A 25-year membership pin was presented to Kenneth V. Shaw who is

presently a sergeant in the Newtown Police Department.

Candidates for Congress and the State Senate and House stepped up their

campaigning in Newtown and neighboring towns in the final week before the

election. US Rep John S. Monaghan, a Fifth District Democrat who is running

for his eighth term in Washington, is being challenged by Ronald A. Sarasin, a

Republican who has served two terms in Hartford. In the Sixth District,

incumbent Democrat Ella Grasso is being challenged by Republican Jack Walsh.

In the 28th State Senate district, Democrat Jonathan Kantrowitz faces

Republican Joseph T. Gormley, who is a member of the state Assembly. In the

32nd State Senate district, Richard C. Bozzuto, R, and Rogert J. Fournier, D,

are running in a new district created by reapportioning. State Rep Sarah

Frances Curtis, longtime incumbent in the 106th Assembly district, is being

challenged by Democrat Robert R. Freeston of Sandy Hook.

OCTOBER 31, 1947

Handicapped by lack of equipment until the very outset of the season, the

Sandy Hook Boys Social and Athletic Club football team fought its way to an

18-16 victory in its first game played against Bethel High School at Bethel on

October 20. Team members included Jimmie Knapp, Harold Miles, Charles Shepard,

Eddie Kearns, Clarence Worth, Francis Kilbride, Joe Kowalkowski, Kenny

Hendricks, Dough Wheeler, Ronnie Morgan, Eddy Casey and team captain Randall

Watkins.

The Newtown Parent Teachers Association will hold its first meeting of this

session Tuesday evening at Hawley School with Mrs Everett G. Soltmann, creator

of the comic strip "Brenda Star," as the guest speaker. The adventures of the

dazzling super reporter appear daily and Sunday in newspapers throughout the

country, signed by Dale Messick, Mrs Soltmann's maiden name. She lives in the

Huntingtown district of Newtown.

The cabins for the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are almost completed. Three

years ago a fund of $5,000 was raised to build two cabins suitable for meeting

places for the scouts on land that was purchased across from the Newtown

railroad station on Church Hill Road. The money has all been spent and the two

buildings stand with walls and roofs completed and one of the two fireplaces

ready to use. A meeting of the combined troop committees has been called and

the building committee will recommend that extra money be raised for the

second fireplace, the doors and windows and the floor for the girls' cabin so

the scouts can use the buildings this winter.

The dental committee of the VNA Thrift Shop, headed by Mrs Frederic Duncombe,

has started a dental program at the Hawley school which is expected to be of

inestimable value to the health of school children. Last Thursday a dental

chair and lamp owned by the thrift shop was put in the teachers' room of the

school and Dr Yanosky and Miss Kline examined the teeth of all of the children

of the first and second grades. They were aided by Mrs Herbert Brodie, who

sterilized all of the instruments. The thrift shop, which is bearing the

entire expense, intends to have checkups done on all children through eighth

grade.

The 80-member Yale Glee Club will come to Newtown to perform on November 12.

The club has twice won the national championship in the Intercollegiate Glee

Club Competitions and also has won five regional singing competitions. It has

appeared in not only every principal city of the United States but also has

been to Europe four times since its founding in 1860.

House Jameson of Main Street was featured on the NBC Cavalcade of America

program Monday evening when a story of John Paul Jones, "Admiral Who Had No

Name" was given as a salute to Navy Day. Robert Montgomery starred in the

production.