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THE WAY WE WERE FOR AUGUST 22, 1997

AUGUST 25, 1972

One of Newtown's most active residents, Arthur Bennett, Sr, has been named

honorary parade marshal for the Labor Day Parade. Mr Bennett, who has lived in

Newtown for 22 years, serves as park superintendent. He is a member of the

Knights of Columbus and served as grand knight and as business manager of the

Knights of Columbus Home Association. Joining Mr Bennett in the lead car will

be Edwin Weber, Sr, who has been named honorary industrial chairman. Mr Weber,

a Newtown resident for 35 years, is one of the co-founders of Newtown

Manufacturing Company. He has been active in the Chamber of Commerce since its

inception, and also is a member of the Lions, Fish and the Sixty Plus Club.

No particular celebration is planned but the first of two long-awaited ramps

joining I-84 and Route 34 via Mile Hill Road is scheduled to open by August

31. The first ramp to open will relieve the traffic through Sandy Hook Center

by permitting eastbound traffic to get off I-84 onto Mile Hill and then Route

34, opening the way to Derby, Ansonia and New Haven. Not until December 1 will

cars heading west be able to get off I-84 via the same ramp to reach Route 34.

However, work will not be completed on I-84 until next spring. Once westbound

lanes are completed, all traffic in both directions will be diverted there to

permit work to be done on the eastbound lanes over the Pootatuck River. So,

for all winter, traffic will continue to be limited to one lane in each

direction. The next phase of the project will extend the widening to Ichabut

Road in Southbury and include a new bridge over the Housatonic River. Under

the state contract with the Campanella Construction Company, 125 men and nine

state inspectors are employed for the project.

The Belden House on Main Street will be open to the public during Labor Day

weekend. The Newtown Historical Society has scheduled the open house to

provide an opportunity for townspeople to see the house before extensive

restoration begins. Robert Carter of Essex, architect who specializes in

colonial restoration, has been engaged to supervise the restoration of the

house and some of his plans showing work to be done will be on display.

At the Democratic caucus Tuesday evening, Marie Klase was endorsed as

registrar in the Second District with 78 votes after having been nominated

from the floor. Joan Lester, who had been recommended by the Democratic Town

Committee on August 10, received 31 votes. Mrs Klase has worked at the polls

in Sandy Hook for the past 16 years and was assistant to Bob and Dorothy

Danko, registrar and deputy, for four years. Mr Danko had announced that he

will not run for reelection in November because he and his wife are moving out

of Newtown.

Dr Thomas Draper, Newtown health officer, attended the Planning & Zoning

Commission meeting on August 18 to request tightening the regulations on

septic systems. Dr Draper said that not only should the design of a septic

system be checked, but also its installation should be inspected to make sure

it is in conformity with the approved design. He said that in Danbury, where

he also serves as health director, a licensed engineer of septic systems is

employed to inspect septic systems before they are covered.

AUGUST 22, 1947

A two-reel color movie called Table Manners , to be narrated by Emily Post,

has been produced at the ROLAB Studio on Walnut Tree Hill in Sandy Hook. Many

local residents were engaged in the production including Dr Henry Roger,

biophysicist, leading authority on optics and sound and owner of the ROLAB

Studio, who was cameraman. The film, first of a planned series of educational

movies dealing with the social graces, is based on the books and newspaper

columns of the 74-year-old etiquette expert who lives in Edgartown, Mass.

Virginia Hopkins is the leading lady. With her in many scenes were Easter

Becker, a young lady from Newtown, George Mariott, also local, Frank Daly of

the Southbury Playhouse, Alan Courtney of New York and many others. Eberhardt

and Madelaine von Jarochowski designed and constructed the sets; Tommy

Ramsdell was in charge of property, acquiring Swedish glass and the best

crystal and silver possible; Art Smith, props; Frank Dubeck, makeup; Phil

Guarneri, film editor; Mary McCarthy, secretary. Malcomb Whitaker and William

Christy of Christy Associates, Inc, of Old Lyme, Mass., were co-producers.

Schools are set to open on September 3. In curriculum, the most noticeable

changes this year are increasing emphasis on music and physical education. The

Newtown Board of Education voted to employ a teacher of music for four days a

week. Newtown's health and physical recreation program will continue under the

able leadership of Harold S. DeGroat and Miss Ann Anderson. In school

administration, the school boards of Newtown, Southbury, Woodbury and

Bethlehem have voted to employ a fulltime elementary supervisor. Miss

Charlotte H. Isham, erstwhile principal of the Sandy Hook School, has been

selected for these duties.

A dozen students of the Department of Engineering at Columbia University,

accompanied by professor John E. Englund, visited the plant of the Plastic

Molding Company in Sandy Hook this week to make a study of the plastics

industry. The visitors were the first of four groups who will visit the plant.

Most are veterans of World War II and their visit is part of a first-hand

study of industrial plants under a veterans training program.

Miss Martha N. Kline, RN, has been hired by the Visiting Nurse Association as

the town's new visiting nurse. A Pittsburgh native, she earned her nursing

degree at Columbia Hospital there, then earned a degree in public health

education at the University of Pennsylvania. She served in the US Army Nurse

Corps during World War II, serving in Great Britain. After the war, she became

an instructor in health education at Plattsburgh State Teachers College,

Plattsburgh, N.Y., a post she is leaving to take the position with the Newtown

VNA and the public school system.

About 50 members of the Newtown chapter of the United World Federalists and

their guests met in the Alexandria Room of Edmond Town Hall Monday evening to

hear Howard Huntington of Westport, vice chairman of the Connecticut World

Federalists, speak about the seven years he has worked toward organizing all

of the major world government organizations into one group. He said there is a

general feeling that the United Nations as now constituted is too weak and

works too slowly to prevent another world war, "evidence of this being the

Truman-Marshall Plan." Each nation must surrender the sovereign power to make

war, he said.