Turning Back The Pages

100 years ago — August 1921

SALISBURY — The residence of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Finnegan has been wired for electricity.

ORE HILL — The United States Tire sign here has been redecorated and the history concerning Millerton has been changed.

— The Extension Service News: “One of the best fields of potatoes in the state, one of approximately three acres, is grown by Dwight Cowles of Lakeville. He is a beginner in vegetable growing and has met with marked success this year.”

50 years ago — August 1971

— A parcel containing 28 pounds of marijuana, valued at close to $10,000, was confiscated last week at Camp Kent, a coeducational summer camp in Kent. The parcel had been mailed from Jamaica. A 17-year-old New Rochelle, N.Y., teen has been arrested.

— Recent sightings of bears just over the New York and Massachusetts borders and in Pine Grove, Falls Village, once again raise the question: Are there, or are there not, bears in “them thar hills”? Conservation Officer Peter Begley says there are reports every year, and said he believes the animals seen are “young bears, feeling their oats,” which have traveled down from the north, probably as far as northern Massachusetts or Vermont, or even higher. Others may come from the Catskills.

— Roland Chinatti, Falls Village Recreation Director, has called off his rain-dancers. Every day during the recent dry spell, Mr. Chinatti would start off his youngest swimming class by having the kids perform a set of wild gyrations, which ended in a frenzied scooping and splashing in the half-filled pool. Designed to ready the youngsters for their lessons, the exercise was dubbed a “rain dance” in view of the prolonged drought. 

25 years ago — August 1996

What a difference a year makes. Last year on Aug. 1, Northwest Corner farmers were desperate for rain. The drought was imperiling crops. Corn was stunted. Water in the brooks and in the Housatonic River was at such a low point that the hydroplant in Falls Village was making only half as much electricity as usual. But now, in 1996, between six and seven inches of rain has fallen in the last three weeks and farmers are worrying about what too much rain could do to crops.

— The Bridgeport Hydraulic Co. this week put its new $4 million Lakeville water filtration plant in service.

These items were taken from The Lakeville Journal archives at Salisbury’s Scoville Memorial Library, keeping the original wording intact as possible.