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Turning Back the Pages
Jan 22, 2025
125 years ago — January 1900
Mrs. Katherine Frink of Salisbury gave an enjoyable whist party to a number of friends.
Mrs. James McDonnell slipped on the ice last Saturday, and injured her left hip quite seriously. She has been under the care of Dr. W.B. Bissell since the accident.
The new school building at Dr. Knight’s Institution is beginning to assume shape. The frame work is already up and the sheathing on. When finished this building will be a great convenience, will be thoroughly modern in equipment and add greatly to this excellent institution.
The young people have had great times this week and last coasting down the different hills about the village. There were double rippers, toboggans, big sleds and little sleds. On Thursday evening of last week Mr. and Mrs. Travers Jerome gave a very enjoyable coasting party to a number of friends.
While loading ice on Indian Pond on Thursday, a team belonging to James Macklin in some manner got into the lake, but were gotten out safely after much hustling on the part of those present.
The through car from Norfolk to New York has been discontinued. This will be a cause of regret among a large number of people who used this through car in their going and coming from New York. It is to be hoped the management of the two roads will again find it profitable to put on the car.
Mr. Robert Scoville has presented the corporate members of the Library Association with handsomely bound volumes of the new library catalogue. The library has procured a typewriter for its librarians and a new stove has been placed in the temporary reading room.
100 years ago — January 1925
In the last two thousand years, only fourteen total eclipses of the sun have been seen from the territory which is now New England. On the 24th of this month (Saturday) the people of Connecticut are to have their last chance to see nature’s grandest spectacle. If any of the babies born this month live to be a hundred years old they may see the next one which comes in 2024.
ORE HILL — William Rowe has been ill with an attack of grippe. The Genito family have all been ill and under the doctor’s care.
A.F. Roberts’ Reo delivery truck caught fire on Wednesday and was considerably damaged. The Lakeville Hose Co. was called and extinguished the blaze.
A new street light has been installed near Benjamin Cleaveland’s residence on Pettee Street.
See what the street plow did toward opening the walks after the 10 inch snow fall of Tuesday? If you want this work continued after future storms hand your contribution to the snow plow committee.
Miss Margaret Egan has received a five pound box of Masterpiece Chocolates from Lovell & Covel Co., Boston, Mass., as a radio prize, for sending the first telegram from Connecticut to station WEAN, Providence, Rhode Island, in a contest held there last week. Needless to say Margaret is quite pleased.
Mrs. Hunter of Lime Rock was in Lakeville Saturday to visit the dentist.
LIME ROCK — The death of Mrs. Richardson was a great shock to our community. She will be greatly missed. She leaves two sons, Milo of this place, and Edward of New York.
50 years ago — January 1975
All was going swimmingly in production of The Lakeville Journal last Wednesday night when a bolt suddenly broke and sheared off our folder, and the press ground to an abrupt halt when we were half-way through printing the “B” section. It was impossible to make immediate repairs, and The Journal appeared courtesy of The Berkshire Courier in Great Barrington, Mass., which printed the remaining papers in emergency on short notice. Our sincere apologies go to readers whose papers were delayed and who may have inadvertently received the wrong sections.
A testimonial dinner honoring Dr. Josephine Evarts (Mrs. Charles Demarest) will be held March 22 at 7 p.m. at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville. “Dr. Evarts is not retiring, thank goodness,” said Mark B. Cohn, chairman of the dinner committee. “It is just high time that we recognize this lady of great stature who has played such an important role in our communities.”
The new Whitridge Memorial Wing of Noble Horizons, Lower Cobble Road in Salisbury, has opened its doors. The new wing offers complete 24-hour nursing care for 30 beds.
The first physical signs of construction were apparent this week on the site of the future Market Place of Salisbury, in the area behind the Salisbury Bank and Trust Company branch office. A bulldozer began work on Monday, but that operation was held up by the intensely cold weather. By mid-week, a construction shack and portable sanitary facilities had been erected, and action was expected to resume when the weather moderates.
Canaan residents voted Tuesday night to purchase a 2.55 acre portion of the former Lawrence Playground on East Main Street from the State of Connecticut for $15,450. The purchase returns about one-half of the original field to town ownership. The field was purchased in 1957 for the proposed relocation of Route 7.
Leroy M. Beaujon, a Canaan resident who devoted 40 years of his life to furthering recreation in Canaan, was honored at Tuesday night’s town meeting. The Canaan swimming pool building will be dedicated to his memory and will henceforth be known as the Leroy M. Beaujon Memorial.
Dorothy Edell, who has operated the Globe Thistle motel in East Canaan since 1956, has announced that she will open a new kennel on her property this spring. The motel was closed early this year. Miss Edell said that her kennel will be known as East Farms Kennel and will be able to board about 25 dogs of small breeds. She says that she is known for being “a nut for dogs” and that she wants to make her new kennel the “nearest thing to home away from home.”
There will be no public access and no public fishing on Cream Hill Lake this spring unless the state changes its mind and renews a lease with Ralph Scoville. When Mr. Scoville wrote to the state asking for an increase in salary and state leasing fee, he was told that “already high inflationary pressures make it impossible to justify your salary increase demands in either services rendered or recreational opportunities available.” The lease had been a “handshake agreement” with Mr. Scoville’s father Frederick while he ran the boat renting business from 1938 to 1952 and it continued with Ralph Scoville before becoming a formal lease two years ago.
Gerald Blakey has been appointed General Manager of the Housatonic Valley Rug Shop. Mr. Blakey started with the firm in 1955 as a carpet installer, and for the past two years has been in sales. He is tax collector for the Town of Cornwall, a member of the fire department, a trustee of the First Church of Christ, and is active in many community affairs. His wife is the former Patricia Benedict. They reside with their three children in Cornwall.
A young Salisbury skier, John Harney Jr., will represent the United States in the World Biathlon Championships in Italy this summer. Harney, a 20-year-old graduate of Salisbury School and a student at Williams College, is a member of the Salisbury Winter Sports Association and has skied for SWSA on many occasions.
25 years ago — January 2000
The charm of the Cornwall Inn will remain the same, but its buildings will undergo a major renovation. According to Tom McKenzie, who along with three other business partners recently purchased the inn, work on the buildings has started and rooms should be available by the first week in February. The restaurant and bar are scheduled to open a month later. The inn’s upgrade includes refurbishing the smaller bunkhouses behind the main building. The bunks will cater to those passing through the area while hiking on the Appalachian Trail.
Kent Affordable Housing’s first parcel program house was delivered earlier this month and is expected to be ready for its occupants by mid-February. The Jones family from Kent was selected from dozens of applicants to live in the two-story Cape home on Locust Lane. Through the parcel program, general contractor Concept Homes LLC of New Milford built and delivered the 1,300-square-foot three-bedroom home. The Jones family will have a 99-year lease for the land and a government-backed mortgage with New Milford Savings Bank for just under $100,000.
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Measles kills: A short history
Jan 22, 2025
He knows nothing and thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.
—George Bernard Shaw
In 1962, about 500,000 American kids got measles, with fever and spots made by the immune system reacting with the virus. Many of us remember it as relatively benign and I have heard people say, ‘I had it, and it wasn’t so bad’. But we are not all the same; we are not inbred white mice. Some people respond differently; immune systems are complex and vary from one person to the next. About 20% of affected children had complications, usually encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain. Or they had diarrhea and dehydration. Many were hospitalized and about four hundred died. Year after year. That is hard to imagine now, because in 1963, a vaccine was produced by the legendary Dr. Sidney Hillman and his team at Merck. The Merck team made many vaccines and saved millions of lives.
After 1963, measles was one less thing for parents to worry about, along with polio, mumps, rubella, and then chickenpox. Whooping cough, diphtheria, and tetanus had been dealt with through earlier vaccines. Measles virus did not disappear, it was not eradicated like smallpox; It still stalks unvaccinated communities.
The measles virus is very contagious, more than SARS-CoV-2. Measles has another insidious property—it wrecks existing immune responses and not just a person’s response to measles. Imagine a child in Africa, whose immune system is just managing to keep the malaria parasite at bay. A case of measles will depress the immune system, unleash the malaria parasite, and may kill the child. Measles virus is one of the great killers in Africa with 47,000 deaths in 2022. Most viruses have ways to suppress immune systems, but measles is a champion of immune suppression and contagion.
The vaccine is exceptionally effective. And measles returns when vaccination stops. In an under-vaccinated community, a single tourist shedding measles virus can start an epidemic. That is what happened in September 2019, in American Samoa, in the months before the Covid pandemic.
The ground had been prepared by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who had visited Samoa, met with government officials, and told them and other people that the vaccine caused autism. In 2017, 74% of babies were vaccinated, which was already low, but by January 6, 2020, only 31 to 34% of newborns were being vaccinated. Before the outbreak there were almost no cases of measles . A single infected tourist introduced the virus and by the 6th of January 2020 there were 5,700 cases and 83 deaths. The population is about 200,000 and about 100,000 doses of vaccine (measles, mumps and rubella) were administered. Schools were closed, and sports teams were idle (Samoans play rugby). People stayed home and hung out a red flag to summon the vaccination teams. Other islands in the region had 99% vaccination rates and no measles or noticeable increases in autism. Wikipedia has a lengthy article on the American Samoa measles outbreak, well as others in the South Pacific.
An emergency response by Samoan health workers converted to vaccinators with help from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the public health agencies of New Zealand, Australia, Israel, and Franch Polynesia and may other countries, and health agencies stamped out the measles epidemic by January 22, 2020.
I do not know if there were any cases of autism among the thousands of children who were vaccinated, as Mr. Kennedy’s theory predicts there would be. Did Mr. Kennedy even ask if autism had increased after thousands of kids got measles vaccine? There should have been a wave, according to his theory, but if you don’t ask, the theory remains intact.
Raw data say no increase in autism occurred. The American Samoa Public Health website, does not mention autism as a problem. I called the American Samoan Health Authorities. They were very cooperative and have not noticed anything of concern, but being competent officials said that they will do a deeper investigation. Numbers count. We will let you know the results.
The message from these events is simple: Be skeptical of people who never admit that they are wrong. Do not trust people whose message is meant to instill fear. Don’t believe people who think they know, but don’t. Do not put Robert F. Kennedy in charge of any American health agency, let alone all of them. Genial skepticism is a virtue that keeps people healthy, even alive.
Richard Kessin, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of Pathology and Cell Biology at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
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Salisbury Association opens new preserve
Jan 22, 2025
Alec Linden
SALISBURY — Another 47 acres of pristine Salisbury woodland are now open to the public, thanks to the completion of a hiking trail on the Hecht Preserve located on Route 112.
The Salisbury Association Land Trust acquired the land from John and Mary Belter and Helen Belter Hill in late 2023, aided by funding from the Connecticut Open Space and Watershed Land Acquisition Program, U.S. Fish & Wildlife’s Highlands Act, and a generous donation from the Anne and Rollin Bates Foundation.
A little over a year after purchase, the parcel is now available for public use via a 1.3 mile loop trail, which the Trust rates as moderately difficult. Parking for the trail is located at the entrance to Wack Forest along Route 112 about a half mile west of the intersection with Wells Hill Road.
The trail was originally meant to be opened by summer 2024, though the process was delayed as the parking is along a state highway, meaning the Trust had to apply for approval from the Department of Transportation, Trust Co-chair John Landon said.
As it abuts the town-owned Wack Forest, the opening of the Hecht Preserve has created a much larger publicly accessible protected area. The terrain comprises a wooded hillside and ridgeline, and is dissected by a clean, cold-water stream that provides valuable habitat for native fish and other aquatic species. The rest of the property is ecologically rich with a mixture of younger and older forest and several key habitat types.
“There’s definitely a lot of wildlife in that area,” Landon said, noting that he’s seen bears several times nearby.
The preserve was named to honor Lou and Elaine Hecht, longtime contributors to the Trust. Lou was co-chair of the Trust for 17 years and remains an emeritus trustee.
“Lou and Elaine have been huge supporters of the Land Trust for many years,” Landon said. “They’ve just contributed so much to the town and have educated people about the importance of the environment.”
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Rafael D. Swift
SALISBURY — The Housatonic Camera Club held the opening of its 2025 show at Noble Horizons Friday, Jan 17.
Gail Dow-Goldberg helped coordinate the show of 13 photographers.
Asked how many people belong to the club, she and husband Steven Goldberg consulted for a moment, and settled on 50 members.
Dow-Goldberg said there are a few members who still use film cameras, but all the entries in the show are digital.
Rafael D. Swift, who was wearing a kilt, had a striking entry called “Halcyon Decay.” It shows an extensive wooden building in the later stages of falling down.
Swift said the building was in Millbrook and he had been keeping it mind as a subject for some time. When he came to photograph it, he found he was just in the nick of time.
“The bulldozers were starting on one side,” he said.
The show will be up through Feb. 23 on Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The club hosted a “How to Improve My Photography” event at Noble Horizons Tuesday, Jan. 21, at 7 p.m. All HCC meetings are free and open to the public.
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