Turning Back the Pages

100 years ago — 1922

SALISBURY — The construction of H.R. Brinton’s new garage is now well under way. The steel girders have arrived and the brick layers are at work on the walls.

Today is Candlemas Day, the day when the old ground hog is supposed to look at his coal bin and decide whether he had better fill it up again for another six weeks of cold weather or make up his mind to get along on wood and siftings till spring arrives.

LIME ROCK — Mr. Wanbery fell on the ice at the foundry and hurt his leg quite badly Tuesday.

Walter Loucks Jr. of Lakeville spent a few days with his grandmother. Walter broke his wrist one day last week while coasting at school.

50 years ago — 1972

Real estate developer Del Tenney has proposed to build a private airport on land he owns on Dugway Road in Salisbury across the Housatonic River from Falls Village.

Judy Andrews, who works in Lakeville’s Apothecary Shop, says Mrs. Clifford Irving and children came into the drug store last Friday morning.

The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection has arranged to purchase 520 acres of land north of Falls Village for preservation as a wetland wildlife management area. Purchase of the tract, which is owned by William R. Knowlton of Tokone Hills in Lakeville, was authorized Friday by the State Bond Commission in Hartford.

Unknown to many of the participants, baseball hero Steve Blass, who lives in Canaan, has been refereeing basketball games at the Salisbury School. One day recently he irritated a youthful player with his ruling. Grabbing the jacket of the pitcher whose hurling won the 1971 World Series for the Pittsburgh Pirates, the student exclaimed, “What do you know about sports?”

Thanks to the generosity of a New York foundation, which has asked to remain anonymous, the Salisbury Volunteer Ambulance Service Inc. has completed its fund drive and has a comfortable little cushion for the future. The service began operating early last July. W. Rees Harris, president of the ambulance service, says that the $18,000 gift paid off the mortgage on the vehicle, leaving about $1,300 toward future expenses.

Chuck Wohlfert, operator of the Norfolk and Canaan Water Pollution Control facilities, is enrolled in a course at the University of Hartford on Environmental Chemistry. The course will give Mr. Wohlfert a greater background in air and water pollution and how to detect and work with pollution problems.

The Penn Central Transportation Company is apparently willing to part with its Falls Village station. The town’s selectmen this week received bid forms from the bankrupt corporation. First Selectman Miles Blodgett told The Lakeville Journal the railroad informed him it would consider sealed bids for its property. The two-story frame structure is badly run down and has been shuttered and unused for years.

25 years ago — 1997

SHARON — The two-year-old Sharon Stage operation may make its final curtain call following a recent preliminary bankruptcy filing. A Sharon Stage creditor, who wished to remain anonymous, this week confirmed receipt of a notice indicating that the playhouse operation had begun Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings.

LAKEVILLE — Charles Feeney made the front page of The New York Times last week when the news broke that he has quietly given away $600 million and had until last week kept his generous gifts a secret. The news and the widely syndicated story came as a surprise -- and yet as no surprise — to the few people who have known “Chuck” Feeney since he bought a house in Lakeville in the late 1970s.

SHARON — A family of four was left homeless Tuesday evening when a fire destroyed their Guinea Road residence. Firefighters from five area companies responded to the fire which was reported around 5:30 p.m. at the two-story Frasca residence on Guinea Road near the Cornwall town line. Family members evacuated the home before Sharon and Cornwall fire companies arrived. No injuries were reported.

Brad Harrison of Ashley Falls, Mass., has joined The Lakeville Journal as a staff reporter. He will cover the town of Salisbury, Housatonic Valley Regional High School, the Region 1 schools and state police news, as well as other assignments from time to time.

KENT — Because Kent has a small population, it took two weeks before a first baby of 1997 arrived. Michael John Tagani III arrived 11 minutes after midnight Jan. 14. His parents, Michael and Patti Tagani, own Michael’s Restaurant on the Green and have a three-year-old daughter, Jaclyn.

Former Salisbury resident James M. Bates has been named senior vice president of affiliate sales and marketing for The Golf Channel, a growing national cable television operation.

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