Fall Festival fills Salisbury with autumnal charm

SALISBURY — The Fall Festival had one glorious day on Saturday, Oct. 11, with brisk, sunny weather.

Friday, Oct. 10, wasn’t too shabby either. The Salisbury Central School (SCS) middle school chorus got things started with a concert on the lawn of the Scoville Memorial Library.

But the main action was Saturday. Salisbury village was packed with festivalgoers. Several people opined that it was the largest Fall Festival crowd they’d seen.

The NBT scarecrow was outside the Salisbury branch of the bank Oct. 11.Patrick L. Sullivan

The SCS eighth grade class had a fundraiser going. The idea was for contestants to purchase chips and place them on numbers from 1 to 24.

Then a wheel was spun, a number chosen, and the winner got a cake.

Not a piece of cake. An entire cake.

A group of Indian Mountain School students were determined to get a cake. They purchased 17 chips and spread them around.

Alas, their number did not come up.

At the Salisbury Handmade booths on the White Hart lawn, a small girl was eyeing a toy bat as created by Liz Bucceri.

The little girl asked her grandmother about buying the bat.

The grandmother demurred.

Undeterred, the little girl disappeared, only to reappear holding a cell phone. She took a photo of the toy bat and dashed off again.

After a slightly longer wait, she returned with her grandfather in tow. Grandpa bowed to the inevitable, funds were exchanged, and the little girl pranced off happily, holding her bat aloft.

Bucceri said she started making the toy animals as a hobby and to give to friends with small children.

She only does one show per year, at the Fall Festival, because she is a teacher at a private school in Windsor and does not have vast amounts of free time.

On Library Street the traditional hayride was operating, and there was a new twist in the form of a ride in an antique car.

One of these was a 1930 Ford Model A station wagon, restored by Dave Heck and his son Dan some 15 years ago.

“We found it in pieces at Cape Cod,” Heck said. The restoration took about a year and a half.

Dave Heck gave a group a ride in his 1930 Ford Model A at the Fall Festival. Patrick L. Sullivan

The Salisbury Band Senior Hotshots struck up the familiar circus-y sounds of “Entry of the Gladiators” for the opening of their concert.

Behind the portable bandstand a sea of small children dashed about getting their faces painted or decorating pumpkins.

Looking on were Emma Foster of the Northwest Connecticut Prevention Network and Jessica Hawthorne of the Housatonic Youth Services Bureau. They were there to provide information about their respective organizations’ efforts to help people with substance abuse problems.

Moving east along Main Street, Will Trowbridge was demonstrating aspects of blacksmithing next door to St. John’s Episcopal Church, and right in front of the porch steps of the White Hart Inn, a group of dance students from Blue Studio Dance in Lakeville put on a show, featuring Sydney Howe of North Canaan.

Sydney Howe, center, was the tallest of the Blue Studio Dance performers in front of the White Hart Inn on Saturday, Oct. 11.Patrick L. Sullivan

A man with a dog on a leash and clutching a to-go coffee came out of the White Hart’s front door as the dancing was going on.

He looked somewhat taken aback. So did the dog.

There was tension in the air. Would the man and the dog try to go down the steps and awkwardly maneuver around the dancers?

The man looked to his left. No escape there.

He looked to his right.

Aha! An exit!

Crisis averted.

Sunday, Oct. 12 was cold and windy. By noon even the diehards of the Salisbury Association were bringing their tables and stacks of flyers inside.

But there were still cars parked along Route 44 towards Salmon Kill Road and people milling about, admiring the scarecrows and grabbing something warm to drink.