SALISBURY — The Lakeville Journal Street Fair took place on a blocked-off Academy Street Saturday, as families brought children to get their faces painted, receive a custom-tied balloon, a toy duck and/or octopus, and sing along with Danny Tieger.
Meandering down Academy Street attendees encountered the sibling team of Izzy and Charlie Wolff, who were selling bracelets they made themselves for $10 apiece to benefit Camp Jabberwocky, a camp for persons with disabilities in Martha’s Vineyard.
Missy Wolff, their mother, said that this was the third summer the children had been selling the bracelets. They had raised some $6,000 over that period, which is impressive at $10 a pop, and even more so at $5, which was the original price.
Audrey Cole, whose business card refers to her as being with the “Senior Medicare Patrol” for the Western CT Area Agency on Aging in Waterbury, was securing her signs and pamphlets from a persistent breeze.
She said her specialty is Medicare fraud as committed against unwary senior citizens.
In a nutshell, her advice to anyone who gets a dodgy phone call about their Medicare status is “Don’t engage.”
What makes a call dodgy?
“If you didn’t initiate the call.” In other words, this isn’t someone calling the senior back with an answer to a question.
Other signs of skullduggery are calls that raise fear in some way. (Sometimes it’s as crude as a threat to cancel a person’s Medicare unless they give up bank account information.)
Or calls that come during holidays.
Cole said that when banks and government offices are closed, it gives the crooks more time to empty a victim’s bank accounts.
On a more bucolic note, Danny Tieger (with his guitar) was singing to an ever-shifting group of children, most of whom seemed to know him.
Danny Tieger played guitar and sang for a group of children during The Lakeville Journal Street Fair Saturday, Aug. 2.Patrick L. Sullivan
As parents held up phones to record the doings for posterity, Tieger got a group to pitch in on a number called “Penelope Poppins.”
Over in the non-profit organization tent, State Rep. Maria Horn (D-64) chatted with Lakeville Journal Editor John Coston as well as Anne Childs and Caroline Collins from Great Mountain Forest.
Christine Gevert was urging visitors to sign up for season tickets for Crescendo, and Craig Davis and Lynn Martorell were spreading the word about East Mountain House, a new hospice facility opening soon in Lakeville.
Vance Cannon from the 21st Century Fund for HVRHS had a special treat for the younger set: little octopi that were made with a 3D printer at the Mahoney-Hewat Science and Technology Center at Housatonic Valley Regional High School.
The octopi made an excellent set when paired with the toy ducks available at The Lakeville Journal tent.
At the balloon and face painting tent, the youngsters who weren’t having their faces adorned were choosing from a balloon menu that included a sword, dog, flower, snake and magic wand.
Northwest Passage, with Ed Thorney, Scott Camara, Greg Riess and Dave Mallison started their set at about 1 p.m., opening with “Drift Away.”
Those with an appetite could try a lobster roll, tacos, specialty candy and vegan wraps and burgers.
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A packed House of Books in Kent celebrates its 50th anniversary Saturday, June 14, with a birthday bash, refreshments and books. D.H. Callahan
Among the attendees was Cathy Hoffman Miller, daughter of John and Carol Hoffman the original owners. Cathy wasn’t even a teen yet when the family settled down in Kent, after years of bouncing from boarding school to boarding school.
While she was happy to establish roots in the quintessentially quaint New England town, it quickly became apparent that this new business was going to be a family affair. Cathy and her sisters were put to work keeping the wire racks full of noir and wester paperbacks, and the shelves stacked with new releases. The sisters would soon enlist their friends to help out with the annual new year’s day inventory counts in exchange for free pizza from the Kent Pizza Garden, one of a handful of businesses still open today.
With a thriving art community in the area, famed mid-century painter, Eric Sloane utilized the store as a base for distributing his art books, often coming into the store to sign copies which House of Books would ship all over the country. They even converted the back of the store into an art gallery for a time, setting the stage, in a way, for today’s Kent Barns galleries.
The House of Books was clearly more than just a store. Kent residents would treat the shop as a place to hang out, taking their time to socialize and fraternize while leafing through pages. Buying something seemed like a secondary priority to gathering together to shoot the breeze. That was just fine with the House of Books.
The Hoffman Family founded the House of Books.D.H. Callahan
Of course, this was all long before the fatal one-two blows of Big Box bookstores, and the online onslaught from Amazon. When the House of Books opened 50 years ago, there were an estimated 10,000 bookstores operating in the United States. In 2019, there were fewer than 2,000.
But manager Ben Rybeck believes the pendulum is swinging back in favor of the little guy. Rybeck was hired as the manager of the House of Books in April of 2020, a time when the whole world was shut down, and in-person shopping was a thing of the past. He witnessed first hand how the community rallied together to support the store that had been there for them over the decades.
Using online tools made more available to small businesses, customers were able to shop the House of Books inventory, sending their purchases directly to their homes, or picking them up outside the store. It was a great chance for the community to be there for House of Books, who had been there for the community for 50 years.
The next 50 years may be hard to predict, but Rybeck seems to be right about one thing. The pendulum is indeed swinging back. Since the pandemic, the number of small, independent bookstores across the country has nearly doubled. That fact, just like 50 years of this beloved store, is truly something to celebrate.
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