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THE WAY WE WERE

JANUARY 26, 1973

Lexington Gardens, a nationally known nursery, is planning to open a branch in

the Queen Street Shopping Center area of Newtown. The garden center, owned by

Pepperidge Farm, will offer a large variety of plants for every kind of garden

imaginable as well as horticultural information and workshops. Application has

been made for a building permit, and the Borough Zoning Board is due to review

the proposed plans in the near future. If all goes well, Lexington Gardens

will open in the late spring or early summer.

It took him a long time to announce his arrival, but the first baby of the

year finally spoke up and let The Bee know he was in town. His name is Daniel

Komaromi, and he was born on January 5 in Danbury Hospital, weighing in at a

hefty eight pounds, five and one-half ounces. His parents are Mr and Mrs

Joseph Komaromi, and he joins a brother, Joe, and sister, Judy, who think he's

just fine.

On Tuesday evening, President Richard M. Nixon went on radio and television to

announce an end to the war in Vietnam. The cease fire is scheduled to take

effect at 7 pm EST on Saturday. Two hours before President Nixon's

Inauguration last Saturday, some 200 Newtowners assembled on the law in front

of the middle school to pray for peace and walk in procession to Edmond Town

Hall.

Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 26th President of the United States, died this week

at the age of 65.

Neighborhood opposition was expressed at Tuesday night's Borough Zoning Board

public hearing to the proposed shopping center at the corner of The Boulevard

and Church Hill Road. The hearing was called to hear a petition for a change

of some of the five-plus acres from residential to commercial in order to

permit construction of the shopping center. Board member Stanley Kleiner also

read a letter from the Planning Commission expressing that body's unanimous

disapproval of the proposed center, citing traffic problems, poor soil for

sewerage, and a failure to show that another shopping plaza is needed.

Attorney Seth O.L. Brody, who represented the applicants, said the rezoning of

parts of Church Hill Road for business and professional zones in 1968 and 1969

shows that the requested zone change is a reasonable step in the normal growth

of the town.

The Board of Education this week got a first look at the bill for correcting

defects in the new high school building, repairing and enlarging the septic

system at the middle school, and meeting payroll increases resulting from the

1972-73 contract settlement for teachers, administrators and other employees

of the school system. The total came to $257,000, considerably below the first

estimates which had come to a total of $346,000.

Fire, believed to have been started by carelessness with matches, completely

destroyed a barn and its contents on Blackman Road Saturday night. Twenty-five

volunteers from Newtown Hook & Ladder fought the blaze, but the barn was

totally involved in fire when the first firefighters arrived.

JANUARY 23, 1948

Subzero temperatures and several feet of snow piled alongside town roads have

led to the cancellation of meetings and events during the past week. Doc

Crowe, Sandy Hook's popular druggist, received a letter on Monday from Dr

William S. Bard who is vacationing in Florida. Dr Beard reported it was 27

degrees in Tangerine, Fla., on January 15, a cold spell that has ruined the

flowers and vegetables.

At the annual parish meeting of St John's Episcopal Church in Sandy Hook this

week, parishioners learned that the final payment has been made on the church

organ. The church building was completed in 1931 and the organ was installed

the following year. The following officers were elected at the meeting: Edmund

F. Dinkler, senior warden; W. John Murphy, junior warden; Austin E. Dinkler,

parish clerk; Mrs Ada Andrews, treasurer. Elected vestrymen are Albert Kuhne,

Sr., Mrs Carl Robinson, Albert Kuhne, Jr., Henry Johnson, Mrs Ada Andrews,

Harry Johnson, and Austin E. Dinkler.

Mirah Chapter, which is the local chapter of the Order of Eastern Star, became

a fully constituted chapter -- number 113 of the state -- at an impressive and

well conducted ceremony last Saturday. The ritual was presented in the

Alexandria Room of the Edmond Town Hall and was witnessed by a large gathering

of guest chapters and past and present officers. Preceding the formal meeting,

a reception was held at the Parker House for the more than 100 visiting

officers. Mirah Chapter 113 has been a fast expanding body since its

institution on February 22, 1947. Its membership has doubled in the past year.

James Mainwaring, son of Mr and Mrs James Mainwaring of Mile Hill Road, was

awarded the rank of Eagle Scout at the 37th annual meeting of Pomperaug

Council, Boy Scouts of America, in Stratford on Monday night. It was the only

Eagle Scout award this year in the council. James is a member of Troop 70 in

Newtown.

The Newtown High School basketball team continued its undefeated season in the

southern division of the Housatonic Valley Schoolmen's League this week on the

Armory court in Danbury with a 60-41 win over Henry Abbott Technical School.

The Hawley boys led by 18 points at halftime and 19 at the end of the game, so

the Henry Abbott team held them almost point for point in the second half.

Mickey Keough led the winners with 18 points.

This week's cold weather caused some of the pipes to freeze at the Parker

House. As they were being thawed out, it was necessary to remove some of the

wainscoating in the tap room. After work on the pipes was finished and the

wainscoating had been nailed back up, someone heard a cat crying. A search

began for the cat, Four Roses, and sure enough, she had been nailed inside

after she apparently climbed in to inspect the work in progress. Four Roses

was rescued and all was well again.

Dr and Mrs J. Benton Egg leave on Saturday by air for Bermuda where they will

spend a week as the guests of Mr and Mrs Harrie Wood of the Dodgingtown

district. The Woods have been in Bermuda since November 1 and will remain

until April, occupying Point House at Warwick.