Turning Back the Pages

100 years ago — October 1921

SALISBURY — Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Miles and Mr. and Mrs. E.J. Stuart motored to New Haven on Wednesday in Mr. Miles’ car.

The remains of Ross Woodin, a former Salisbury boy who was killed in France, were brought to Winsted on Wednesday where services were held. The interment was made later in the day at Salisbury cemetery.

TACONIC — It is rumored that we are to have a dressmaking shop here, Mrs. Knickerbocker of Canaan having rented rooms of Mrs. Elizabeth Jones.

Apples are scarce and mighty poor in this section. How are we going to have orchard tea without the cider berries?

Dr. Skiff’s many friends in Lime Rock extend their sympathy to him in the death of his mother, which occurred in Ellsworth Sunday morning.

60 years ago — October 1961

On Wednesday of this week, Chas. Pfizer & Co. Inc. completed acquisition of the New England Lime Company organization and outlined plans to “substantially increase” productive capacity. In a transaction completed at Pittsfield, Pfizer acquired the business, assets and good will of New England Lime in exchange for approximately 313,000 shares of Pfizer stock. The acquisition included the stock of Nelco Metals Inc. in Canaan, which produces high purity metallic calcium and magnesium in addition to limestone products.

On Monday of this week ground was broken at the Housatonic Valley Regional High School by the Bonvicini Building Co. of Torrington, for the erection of a new wing which will contain classrooms, science laboratories and a lecture hall.

Martin J. Whalen of Porter Street, Lakeville, has entered the Academy of Aeronautics at LaGuardia Airport in New York where he will pursue an intensive technical program in aircraft technology.

The North Canaan Board of Education elected Mrs. Edwin Pratt of Railroad Street Chairman by secret ballot last Thursday evening at its regular meeting held at North Canaan Elementary School. As nearly as could be ascertained, Mrs. Pratt is the first woman to serve North Canaan in this capacity.

25 years ago — October 1996

SHARON — An effort by Sprint Spectrum LP to blanket the country with wireless communications is catching the attention of local zoning officials. Wireless means towers. And towers mean trouble. But the issue now is not keeping communications towers out, planner Tom McGowan told Sharon zoning members last week. “The FCC says this is an important technology. You can’t forbid this in your regulations.” All local officials can hope for now is a say in where the 80- to 150-foot communications towers go. Or don’t go. That’s about it, Mr. McGowan said.

That warm and sunny Friday afternoon in Canaan, 29-year-old Steve Blass thought at the time, topped everything he’d ever experienced. “They could put me in a box tomorrow,” he told the 3,000 people gathered at Canaan Depot to honor him, “and I wouldn’t feel that I’d been cut short.” That was 25 years ago this week — Oct. 22, 1971 — and a quarter century later 54-year-old Steve Blass still recalls that day — Steve Blass Day in Canaan — and those that led up to it with fondness. “I was so caught up in it all,” he said in a recent phone interview from Pittsburgh where he broadcasts the Pirates baseball games. “It was a picture postcard day. It was so spectacular I almost became part of the audience.” Blass, a right-handed pitcher then 11 long up-and-down years out of Housatonic Valley Regional High School, had just hurled his Pirates to victory in the seventh game of a classic World Series against the Baltimore Orioles. That win, coming five days after he’d beaten the Birds 5-1 on a three-hitter in game number 3, catapulted the modest Canaan- Falls Village native to the status of American hero. And Northwest Connecticut was ready and raring to claim him as its own.

Lee Collins received a Rotary Club of Salisbury Paul Harris Fellow award Tuesday from club member Dr. Steve Owens. Mr. Collins, honored for such efforts as his work with the Salisbury Band and the HousaTonics, was the first non-Rotary member to receive the award locally.

State workers, private contractors, rail employees and town crew members joined in an effort to repair the rail crossing at North Elm Street in Canaan this week. The joint effort made possible repairs long in advance of when the state expected to do the work.

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