The Good Guardians Of Main Street

Newtown’s Main Street has always been a welcoming place, except for maybe in the early 19th Century when the Bridgeport and Newtown Turnpike Company charged a 25-cent toll for every four-wheeled pleasure carriage and passenger to pass by. But ever since government took over the upkeep of the road, people have been able to pass freely. Not many, though, have been able to resist stopping along the way. That was certainly the case Sunday night as hundreds of families descended on Main Street with their kids, dressed to trick and ready for treats.

Town Street, as it was called first before becoming Newtown Street, then Main Street, was originally laid out as an exceedingly broad swath as it climbed Church Hill from the Ram Pasture. This was done as a safety measure against surprise attacks, or so we are told by a recent history of the town. Nevertheless, surprise attacks were commonplace on Halloween, as several of the homeowners planned to greet the haunted hordes with some tricks of their own, all designed to safely spook the little spooky ones. It occurred to us, as we witnessed this consciously creepy carnival in the center of town, that Main Street has attracted some extraordinarily generous people to its stately homes.

In addition to the hundreds of trick-or-treaters on Halloween, and hundreds more snow-booted revelers touring homes for the Family Counseling Center’s Holiday Festival in December, Main Street residents host thousands of strangers on their sidewalks and in their front yards for the annual Labor Day Parade. If they didn’t know it when they moved to Main Street, they certainly learned quickly that they are not sole proprietors of their own neighborhood.

Main Street is Newtown’s primary public place. For some people it is woven like a thread through their lives. It is possible to be baptized at 36 Main Street, to first encounter Harry Potter at 25 Main Street, to have your graduation pictures taken at 1 Main Street, to open your first bank account at 39 Main Street, to become a voter at 45 Main Street, to be married at 31 Main Street, to have your wake at 58 Main Street, and to be memorialized at 66 Main Street. And if you run into trouble somewhere along the way, help will come running from 3 Main Street, 45 Main Street, and 77 Main Street.

So it is not just for their amazing hospitality on Halloween night that we recognize the residents of Newtown’s most important street. We offer them our sincerest thanks for being such good guardians of this vital artery through the heart of our community. We would be lost without them. Of course, if we were to lose our bearings, they would be the first to set us on the right track again with the advice: “Start at the flagpole in the middle of Main Street… ”