Appreciation: Tom Glennon

For decades, students at North Canaan Elementary School had Mr. Glennon for seventh-grade science, including me. My daughter had him as a substitute and she would often come home with Mr. Glennon stories and quips, reminiscent of my own days in his class. I would find myself smiling with fond remembrance. To say he was unique would be an understatement. The highlight of seventh-grade science, during his tenure, were the gardens. At the beginning of the year, students teamed up, each team assigned a garden. We spent the fall preparing the beds for spring. In winter we sowed our seeds. In the spring we planted. It was not unusual for kids to meet up with him at the school on a Saturday morning or during vacation to work the gardens. Truth is, we couldn’t wait. Hauling soil and mulch, working with others, having a goal, giving back to your community — all the while learning the earth sciences. Extraordinary! I was in the seventh grade the year my dad died. Mr. Glennon wrote me a personal note assuring me that everything would be OK. He helped my classmates understand my loss. I was now in a single-parent home, unusual for those days, and not knowing how to react (most of us only 11 or 12), my friends and classmates held me at a distance. Mr. Glennon helped us all get through it, not by ignoring it, but by talking about it, through science, the cycle of life. Brilliant. His reassuring words of support and his acts of kindness made me feel safe at a very tough time in my young life. After all these years, I still have his note. If I were to describe him in one word, I guess it would have to be “jolly.” He was stout and round, smelled of cigars, was louder than most; he loved to sing; he walked with a shuffle; he had a prose like no other, always the advocate for kids and education. He made learning fun and we, his students, adored him.When I learned of his passing, and while attending a special tree planting ceremony at the school this past week in his honor (undertaken by the five North Canaan boys he took cross-country to Alaska in 1962), I could not help but recall the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: “To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty; To find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better whether by a: Healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; To know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived This is to have succeeded.”— Susie Fracaro Clayton, North Canaan Elementary School Class of 1967

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Club baseball at Fuessenich Park

Travel league baseball came to Torrington Thursday, June 26, when the Berkshire Bears Select Team played the Connecticut Moose 18U squad. The Moose won 6-4 in a back-and-forth game. Two players on the Bears play varsity ball at Housatonic Valley Regional High School: shortstop Anthony Foley and first baseman Wes Allyn. Foley went 1-for-3 at bat with an RBI in the game at Fuessenich Park.

 

  Anthony Foley, rising senior at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, went 1-for-3 at bat for the Bears June 26.Photo by Riley Klein 

 
Siglio Press: Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature

Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.

Richard Kraft

Siglio Press is a small, independent publishing house based in Egremont, Massachusetts, known for producing “uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.” Founded and run by editor and publisher Lisa Pearson, Siglio has, since 2008, designed books that challenge conventions of both form and content.

A visit to Pearson’s airy studio suggests uncommon work, to be sure. Each of four very large tables were covered with what looked to be thousands of miniature squares of inkjet-printed, kaleidoscopically colored pieces of paper. Another table was covered with dozens of book/illustration-size, abstracted images of deer, made up of colored dots. For the enchanted and the mystified, Pearson kindly explained that these pieces were to be collaged together as artworks by the artist Richard Kraft (a frequent contributor to the Siglio Press and Pearson’s husband). The works would be accompanied by writings by two poets, Elizabeth Zuba and Monica Torre, in an as-yet-to-be-named book, inspired by a found copy of a worn French children’s book from the 1930s called “Robin de Bois” (Robin Hood).

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Cycling season: A roundup of our region’s rentals and where to ride them

Cyclists head south on the rail trail from Copake Falls.

Alec Linden

After a shaky start, summer has well and truly descended upon the Litchfield, Berkshire and Taconic hills, and there is no better way to get out and enjoy long-awaited good weather than on two wheels. Below, find a brief guide for those who feel the pull of the rail trail, but have yet to purchase their own ten-speed. Temporary rides are available in the tri-corner region, and their purveyors are eager to get residents of all ages, abilities and inclinations out into the open road (or bike path).

For those lucky enough to already possess their own bike, perhaps the routes described will inspire a new way to spend a Sunday afternoon. For more, visit lakevillejournal.com/tag/bike-route to check out two ride-guides from local cyclists that will appeal to enthusiasts of many levels looking for a varied trip through the region’s stunning summer scenery.

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