For a two-week period, if you lived in a certain part of Hawleyville, nothing in your mailbox was sacred as a rash of vandalism and apparent mail thefts has plagued a number of area residents. Postal officials discovered an unusual incident of a large amount of mail being stolen, some of which has been recovered; and in a late development, have revealed that the person responsible for the thefts might have been caught “in the act.”

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The Cyrenius H. Booth Library Board of Trustees officers disclosed some of their strategy at a meeting Tuesday night in their effort to get their proposed expansion project to the town’s 47-year-old library before the town’s voters for a decision. At a board meeting at the library, Herman Jervis, president, said the trustees plan to go directly to the Legislative Council with their estimated $1.25 million expansion plan, instead of first to the Board of Selectmen, as was done in February.

In 1971, a group of students, backed by some parents, and after several public hearings on the subject, coerced the Board of Education into establishing a policy at the high school wherein any member of the student body was permitted to smoke while school was in session, in a designated smoking area. The area is the patio outside the cafeteria of the building, and is still in heavy use today by the student population which takes breaks as they go outside to light up. Now, in light of the statistics on the harmful effects of tobacco and smoking, parents and others are pushing for a change in this policy. They want smoking eliminated at the high school and came to the Board of Education on Tuesday night to ask the board to consider the matter.

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The Newtown Ambulance Association Inc took immediate steps following Saturday’s accident to ensure that 24-hour emergency service would continue to be available to the town’s residents, and began the process of getting a new ambulance to replace the one which was extensively damaged in the collision.

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The Legislative Council Wednesday night passed a resolution urging all town departments to reduce their spending by five percent of their budgets in the current fiscal year, but whether it will eventually be anything more than symbolic only time will tell.

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Finally. What you’ve been waiting for all year is here again—the Kiwanis Club’s annual sale of Claxton’s world famous fruitcakes. The civic organization sells the holiday delicacy each year to raise money for its service activities, such as a scholarship fund.

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Last Tuesday’s elections saw some voters going to the polls for the first time, mostly those who had become of voting age. But, in Newtown, there was one very special first-time voter, Eppie Exconde. It was not only her first time at the polls but it also was her first time she could vote as an American citizen.

NOVEMBER 19, 1954

That art is a universal medium of self-expression in which the untrained worker as well as the skilled technician can find satisfaction and experience personal growth is demonstrated by a group of mental patients of Fairfield State Hospital, whose paintings and drawings comprise the current exhibit at the Flagpole Galley, Main Street. Shown for the first time in town away from the hospital, the creations of patients participating in the institution’s art therapy program is a striking, decorative collection in which interest in the forms, color, and activities of the world outside the patient’s narrowed sphere predominates.

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A meeting was held on Wednesday evening, November 17, in the Congregational Church House by members of the Newtown Girl Scout and Brownie troop committees, leaders of the troops, members of the Bridgeport Organization Committee of the Bridgeport Area Girl Scout Council and members of the Danbury Area Girl Scout Council to discuss the feasibility of the Newtown troops withdrawing from the Bridgeport Council and becoming affiliated with the Danbury Council. Approximately 50 attended.

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A sold-out house welcomed the Trapp Family Singers to Newtown last Thursday evening, when the famed group appeared in concert in the Edmond Town Hall theatre under the auspices of the Newtown Auxiliary of Children’s Services of Connecticut. By virtue of their superlative voices, the Trapp singers are able to bring the simplest tunes to life, to evoke whatever images they please. So clear and trained are the voices, there is a single-instrument quality about their arrangements that approaches perfection.

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Residents of Hattertown received their mail for the first time through the Newtown Post Office on Tuesday as that office’s new Rural Route Number 3 went into effect. Jerome Goosman, temporary carrier, delivered on Route 3 as G.H. Beers’ Route 2 was extended into Hattertown.

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A class of 92 received the Sacrament of Confirmation from the Most Rev Lawrence J. Shehan, Bishop of Bridgeport, in St Rose Church following the 11 o’clock Mass last Sunday morning, November 14.

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The Bee office now shines in a new dress of dark red paint. Eugene Spencer of Sandy Hook and his men did the work.

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Plans for the annual Christmas drive to secure gifts for 2800 patients at the Fairfield State Hospital have been announced by Mrs Richard Staples of Bridgeport, chairman of the organized group in Fairfield and Litchfield counties.

NOVEMBER 15, 1929

Charles Harrange of Gray’s Plain has recovered from an attack of quinsy.

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William Seaman, son of Mr and Mrs R.H. Holcomb, was given a happy and pleasing birthday surprise Saturday evening at the Holcomb Tavern. He was the recipient of some handsome presents.

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Al Bevans, proprietor of the Old Cabin Lunch, is adding an addition to his lunch room in order to handle the increased business.

NOVEMBER 18, 1904

A committee consisting of Misses Julia Duncombe, Mabel Taylor, Jessie Taylor, and Elsie Moore and Rev O.W. Barker has been appointed to arrange the program for the Christmas festivities of the Congregational Sunday school.

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George R. Wilson has completed for P.L. Ronalds a trout pond on land west of Castle Ronald. The dam is 200 feet wide, six feet wide on top, and will flood two acres of ground.

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Edward Conger of Huntingtown is at the Bridgeport Hospital to have his eye treated, which he injured very badly with the lash of a whip. It is feared he may lose the sight of the eye.

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Miss Margaret Hayes of Sandy Hook, who has been attending the Bridgeport Union Business College, has accepted a position with the Roof Tree Magazine Company in Bridgeport.

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The Southern New England Telephone Company is resetting and putting longer arms on the poles through Palestine District this week.

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Henry Perkins of Hattertown has sold his graphophone to Ernest Ferry of Dodgingtown.

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The Taunton School was closed the last of last week, as the teacher went to her home in Long Hill to attend the funeral of a friend.

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Arthur T. Nettleton will attend the Yale-Harvard football game in New Haven Saturday.

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Mrs John Keating of Gas Street is recovering from an attack of malarial fever.