Date: Fri 13-Mar-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

Mountain-weather-flood

Full Text:

TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN

What a week. It was 50 degrees on Monday and with five inches of rain pelting

down, we were all just about ready by Tuesday to build another Ark, except

that Wednesday dawned cold and clear, putting us back in the Ice Age with wind

chills dipping below zero. By Thursday night there will be a Full Sap Moon

riding high over frozen ground, and the promise of a partial eclipse if we can

stay up late enough to appreciate it. Finally, Friday is the 13th. What more

can I say?

The only saving grace of bad weather is that it gives you a stock of bad

weather stories to augment and embellish down the line when you are trying to

impress friends from out-of-town with tales of New England weather. I expect

all the workers down at Shorewood Fine Arts Reproductions will have some great

stories about the day the Pootatuck River rose up and nearly carried them

away. We know that isn't exactly the way it happened, but give it a few years,

and they can probably work an Ark into the telling, and the story can safely

assume biblical proportions.

Actually, Sandy Hook did see something that closely resembled the Great Flood

back in the '50s. I was talking to longtime Sandy Hook resident Don Lewis this

week about the Pootatuck River flooding over the broken dam, and he said high

water in Sandy Hook was nothing new to him. He remembers a time 43 years ago

when he stood in the center of town, water up to his waist, helping the liquor

store owner remove the merchandise to higher ground during the flood of 1955.

"And we didn't even get a free bottle for our efforts," he moaned.

Lin Hertberg has been busy the last few weeks recruiting some of Newtown's

best basketball players to go up against a group of New York Giants, who are

coming to town Saturday, March 21. The annual event raises funds for the

Newtown Youth Services. Coach Hertberg hopes the game itself will raise as

much excitement as it will funds for the organization.

Selectman Joe Bojnowski bumped in to Jack Rosenthal at Tuesday's meeting of

the Legislative Council and commented on how he has recently run into a lot of

his old friends.

"Watch what you say about `old,'" joked Mr Rosenthal, Newtown's first

selectman for 12 years. "Everybody always has to rub it in."

A bright orange sign proclaiming "John Rohmer Owes Me $2" hung just inside one

of the doors to the gym at Edmond Town Hall where the Newtown Historical

Society was holding its 13th annual antiques show last Sunday. It didn't take

much sleuthing to find out that the sign was written by Sallie Meffert.

Sallie says the sign was the result of a bet she had with John on Saturday

night's Big East championship game. Sallie says John, who has a daughter at

Syracuse but is still a big Huskies fan, gave her the Orangemen and five

points in the first half, and since UConn won, 69-64, Sallie figured he owed

her $2.

"He had this really long, complex explanation about why the bet was a tie, but

I figure he was just trying to weasel out of paying me," Sallie said,

explaining why she hung up the sign. Before the afternoon was over, John

apparently gave in because Sallie was seen toting a plastic bag filled with

pennies, nickels and dimes. "John is an honorable man," she said. Perhaps she

hasn't heard that John has vowed to get even.

Lions Club members are busy trying to raise the $4,300 that they pledged for

the children's story hour area at the Booth Library. They're planning a

progressive spaghetti dinner with on Saturday, March 28. After salad and

entree at the Alexandria Room in Edmond Town Hall, diners will go to the Booth

Library for dessert. Tours of the newly expanded library will be available.

Tickets can be purchased from any Lions Club member, or they may be purchased

at the library. The cost is $7, preschool kids are free, and there is a

maximum of $28 for families.

There are a few people out there who are convinced that two negatives make a

positive. So for those of you who are dreading Friday the 13th, please know

that this black cat will be available for rent at a reasonable rate. I'll let

you know if I got lucky on the 13th, so...

Read me again.