Steve Toll of Los Altos, Calif., formerly of Newtown, was in town visiting his mother, Susan Toll, last week. He shared an early memory from 1954 when he was three or four years old and had gone with his parents to look at the 21-acre property off Pocono and Old Hawleyville Road. They were in the process of buying it from its owner at the time, Mary Keeshan.

“There were all these animals running all over the place –– ducks, geese, turkeys, chickens –– and there was this vicious goat. I was told to stay in the car because of it,” Steve recalled.

Susan Toll also remembered that goat, and the fact that when she and her family were finally ready to move in, Mrs Keeshan still had not found a home for it though all of the other animals had been placed. “I was worried it would get out and kill one of the children,” Mrs Toll remembered.

It seems the lively barnyard scene at Mary Keeshan’s home might also have had an effect upon another slightly older man, namely, Mrs Keeshan’s son Bob Keeshan, who was 27 at the time. Mr Keeshan often visited his parents in Newtown while he was working in New York City, playing comic roles in early children’s television shows. He was first known as “Clarabell the Clown” on the Howdy Doody Show, and then as “Captain Kangaroo,” a role he would continue to play for the next 30 years. When Bob Keeshan died on January 23, 2004 at the age of 76, millions of children and their parents mourned. Perhaps Newtown’s Main Street flag should have been lowered in honor of the Captain, who delighted so many.

Warm weekend weather has been enticing people outside. Paula Stephan admitted that she has already been poking around in her garden and has seen signs that some of the spring-flowering bulbs she planted last year are getting ready to pop up.

Steve and Cindy Landin were spotted power-walking on Main Street Sunday, taking advantage of the warm weather as a welcome respite from their treadmill.

You can tell the political season has started from the following exchange at the Legislative Council last week. Following Board of Finance Chairman John Kortze’s somewhat lengthy answer to a question from a council member, finance board Vice Chairman Jim Gaston said, “That’s the John Kerry answer…the answer is yes.”

“I’ve never been called a Democrat before,” Mr Kortze noted. “You’re welcome,” Legislative Council member Joe Hemingway, a Democrat, replied.

At the same meeting the Legislative Council voted on a resolution authorizing a financial procedure. Council member Joe Borst questioned, “Do people in the audience understand what this is all about?”

 “And do they care?” Council Chairman Will Rodgers replied to laughter from members and audience.

Will was full of quips that night. Upon hearing the motion for acceptance from the State of Connecticut of land at Deep Brook, Commerce Road, Oakview Road, and five houses on Mile Hill South, Vice Chairman Tim Holian declared, “It’s a no-brainer.”

“Mr Holian appears in support,” was the chairman’s wry retort.

Micaela Hurley McMurrough has returned to Fort Drum in New York State after her lengthy tour of duty in Afghanistan, where she is awaiting her next assignment. The West Point grad and US Army Captain dropped by the house of her parents, Lorraine and Michael Hurley, on South Main Street in time to celebrate her dad’s birthday on the 29th and to show off the Bronze Star she earned for exceptionally meritorious service in Afghanistan. Micaela’s mom and dad had waited a long time for her homecoming. They even left their Christmas wreaths and tattered Army flag up until she came home. The yellow ribbons at the Hurley home will remain up for the other soldiers still in harm’s way, but everything else is coming down now that Micaela is back in the USA.

When there’s a police station to be maintained — Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters! At least that’s what it looks like as Dennis Kean goes about the facility at 3 Main Street with his backpack-style vacuum cleaner. Dennis works with Jim Shpunt in maintaining the police station at Town Hall South. From a distance, Dennis looks like one of the backpack-and-hose toting Ghostbusters, who worked as on-call demon exterminators in the 1984 fantasy-action film. Some wag at the police station even applied a Ghostbusters decal to his vacuum backpack.

So what are you going to do with your extra day this year? Leap day, February 29, is Sunday. Spend it wisely. I will be busy working on next week’s column, so be sure to…

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