Date: Fri 10-Nov-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

Mountain-election-Sleepers

Full Text:

MOUNTAIN FOR 11/10

Of all the election trends that have been chewed over since the polls closed

on Tuesday night, the one that interests me the most is the one that has

gotten the least serious attention: election night food.

I have noticed over the years that the Democrats seem to offer more homemade

stick-to-your-ribs kind of fare, whereas the Republicans seem to favor

ready-made, eat-on-the-fly kind of things. I've also noticed that the

Republicans seem to pour more champagne on election night, but I don't think

that it has too much to do with personal preference. Deep down inside, I think

Democrats would really like to drink more champagne on election night.

This year, the Democrats gathered at their headquarters in the Queen Street

Shopping Center where Bunny Madden, member of the State Central Committee and

longtime former local party chairman, had made her popular Election Day Chili

for "about the 15th time."

"Bunny wasn't going to make it but I told her she had to keep up the

tradition," Jack Rosenthal said. "I had it for lunch."

While the Democrats snacked on the chili, split pea soup, hot dogs with

sauerkraut, fruit salad, and cheese and crackers, the Republicans munched on

slices of a six-foot submarine sandwich made by the Newtown General Store and

platters of fruit and vegetable crudites. They popped their first bottle of

champagne about 35 minutes after the polls closed.

The election wasn't the only excitement in town this week. Film crews were

back at Fairfield Hills doing location work on the movie Sleepers. The various

machines with which movies are made were strewn about the core of the campus.

Work was underway at Woodbury Hall, near Kent House, at Stratford Hall and at

Fairfield House.

The huge lighting platforms used to illuminate movies, as well as trucks full

of electrical and photographic equipment, plus the many mobile homes,

1960s-era autos and catering trucks made for a colorful scene. The burly men

of the film crew were dressed for cold weather. And every now and then men

walkie-talkies stopped traffic as needed to keep it out of the film frame

during shooting.

Beryl Harrison has been attempting to find homes for the six cats who live out

back of the Booth Library before winter sets in. She trapped two, using

Have-a-Heart traps, and found them a home with a woman who has a barn. The

next two cats, tiger cats that have been neutered, are living in Beryl's

laundry room. One of the cats obviously was someone's pet because it already

had been spayed, according to Beryl. Anyone who is interested in adopting one

of these cats should call Beryl at the library, 426-4533.

With four cats now in from the cold, Beryl put the traps out to catch the last

two, including one particularly handsome black cat. Unfortunately, the black

and white animal that wound up in the trap Wednesday morning wasn't the cat -

it was a skunk. Jim Kearns tried to throw a blanket over the trap to calm the

skunk so he could open the trap door and let it loose. Unfortunately the skunk

saw him coming and took no prisoners.

"Jim got sprayed everywhere," Janet Woycik said. "We used 16 different kinds

of deodorant trying to get rid of the smell. And, although Jim got the trap

door open, the skunk is still in there and won't come out."

Jim Crouch got a surprise recently when his car fell into a hole created when

rain washed out the dirt under part of his driveway. The culprit apparently

was the sewer construction work that has been underway on Castle Hill Road.

Jim's wife had just driven the car into the driveway when the ground gave way

and the right front wheel dropped into a hole. The car had to be towed out,

then towed to a service station for a minor repair to the wheel.

Jim says the sewer company "couldn't have been nicer," especially after

learning that he is the chief of the town's 911 emergency dispatch center in

Edmond Town Hall. "They wasted no time in taking care of everything," he said.

Sewer crews are continuing to dig holes everywhere, including on the bridge

over I-84 at exit 10. The workmen are preparing to install a suspended,

pressurized sewer line under the bridge. Sewers in the air. What will they

think of next?

The crew at Newtown Exxon Service Center on South Main Street took the concept

of "service" far beyond its normal boundaries this week. They came to the

rescue when a motorist who was about to pay for gasoline he had pumped dropped

a $10 bill on his way into the gas station's office. A gust of wind caught the

bill and it blew across the gas station parking lot as the motorist chased it.

As luck would have it, the bill blew over a flat storm sewer grating and fell

downward into a catch basin full of water. Station staffers lifted the catch

basin grating off its mount and one of them was lowered down into the basin by

his ankles. He was able to snatch the bill from atop the puddle below. He gave

the bill back to the "grate-ful" motorist who then presented it as partial

payment for the gasoline which he had pumped.

Well, my "news gauge" is on the big "E" for now. I've got to go fill 'er up,

but be sure to be back here next week so you can...

Read me again.