Full Text:

Kids Take Main Street As A Route Through History

(with cuts)

BY MICHELE HOGAN

Second graders at Middle Gate School enjoyed a walk through historic Newtown

on Monday as part of their study of local history.

First they met Herb Rosenthal, first selectman, at the Town Hall. Then they

toured the Booth Library, Trinity Church, the Matthew Curtiss House, and the

Meeting House in small groups.

When Mrs Wenblad's second graders visited The Matthew Curtiss House on Main

Street, they discovered why their teacher was missing from school that day --

she was taking the part of a docent for the Curtiss House second grade tours.

Mrs Wenblad told the children that this morning she had let her son go to

school without splitting wood first, because there was enough wood left over

from yesterday. She acted awfully surprised when none of the visiting children

had split wood before school today. And even more surprised when none had

split wood yesterday either. She asked them "how can you possibly cook and

stay warm without a fire?"

The children, warming to the subject, attempted many explanations of hot water

flowing through pipes, and knobs that you turned. But Mrs Wenblad insisted

that there had to be fire somewhere for something to get warm. She got in the

last word when a child finally described the furnace that heats the water.

She exclaimed that this system of heating water by fire was almost as crazy as

using lightning from the sky to give you something the children had called

electricity.

Getting back to the real things that needed to be done in a household, Mrs

Wenblad asked the girls if they churned the butter. When they said "no." She

muttered under her breath, "I'd almost say they were a little lazy."

The children giggled, then listened with rapt attention as Mrs Wenblad talked

to another docent about a meal they were planning. It seemed that they were in

luck tonight. One of them had seen a turkey and shot it, so there would be

lots of meat to eat.

After the Matthew Curtiss House, the students walked on to the next historic

building.

Sherry Paisley, agent for the Meeting House, described the history of the

Meeting House. The first meeting house was built in 1720 in the middle of Main

Street, right where the flagpole is now. It was moved, then rebuilt in 1808

with many of the same beams used in the 1720 meeting house.

Mrs Paisley described how on Sunday, people came in the morning, went home for

lunch, then came back to church for the whole afternoon. She said that during

church a man stood at the back of the sanctuary with a long pole with a

feather on it. If the man saw anyone falling asleep, it was his job to wake

them up with a tickle or a prod.

Children also learned that it was better not to be late to church. You would

have to sit in the last pew, facing the back of the church all day. (To make

matters worse, the way the pews were designed there was an uncomfortable roll

of wood that would be pressing into your back all day.)

When it was time for the children to leave the meeting house, four children,

assigned as bell ringers, were led up the narrow front stairs where they

reached for a heavy bell-rope.

Pulling the rope to ring the bell at the meeting house was far harder than

Carly Doherty, second grader, thought it would be. But she pulled and tugged,

and with a little help from Tom Paisley, who assists with the meeting house,

they made a fine loud ringing of the bell.

Sherry Paisley, Meeting House Agent, said that she always looks forward to the

children's tours. She said the kids are simply wonderful.

The children then went on to the Booth library and Trinity Church before

heading back to school.