Turning Back The Pages

100 years ago — May 1919

SALISBURY — William Dempsey, our genial plumber, is out once more after being confined to the house with a severe cold.

LAKEVILLE — A new cement platform is being constructed in front of Roberts’ store to replace the wooden one.

SALISBURY — The Girl Scouts were very delightfully entertained by Mr. and Mrs. C.M. Ingersoll at Evergreen Farm on Tuesday afternoon and evening. After a hike to the farm, Mr. and Mrs. Ingersoll provided eggs, potatoes, etc. which the Scouts proceeded to cook at the fireplace in the woods on the farm. Songs were sung and cheers were given. Scout leader Miss Stephens was in charge assisted by Miss Ethel Arthur. About 27 Scouts were present and all had a “dandy” time.

LAKEVILLE — Chester Thurston who recently arrived home from overseas, has resumed his old position at Dufour’s barber shop.

Lester Ball was slightly injured in one hand by the overturning of an auto which he was driving near Hotchkiss School on Monday. The auto was quite badly damaged.

LAKEVILLE — There is a new Shetland foal at W.S. Hallowell’s farm. The young pony is about the size of a fox terrier and weighs about 35 pounds. It is said to be a fine specimen of the Shetland breed.

50 years ago — May 1969

James E. Pshenishny, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Pshenishny of Taconic, has been accepted for admission in the September 1969 freshman class at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.

Seaman Recruit Thomas R. Robertson, USN, son of Mr. and Mrs. R.G. Robertson of Lakeville, is serving aboard the helicopter assault carrier USS Princeton with the prime recovery force for the Apollo 10 moonshot. The ship was deployed to the recovery area in the Pacific after departing its homeport of Long Beach, Calif., in late April.

Charles H. Bentley of Lime Rock was reported recovering in the Newington Veterans Hospital from an operation performed on his foot last week.

Richard Kearcher, who has been a Chrysler-Plymouth salesman at the Litchfield garage, has entered the employ of the Winsted Motor Sales Co. Inc. as a sales representative. A resident of Sharon, Mr. Kearcher is well known in the area where he has been in the sales end of the automotive industry for 20 years.

CORNWALL — A pair of rare migratory birds, the Northern Phalaropes, were seen on the Calhoun pond on Saturday for a couple of hours. These birds spend the winters in the South Atlantic, usually off the coast of Peru, and migrate north to the Arctic to breed.

25 years ago — May 1994

LAKEVILLE — The death of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis this past week recalled a brief visit she paid to the Northwest Corner in the 1970s. Nobody is quite sure of the year, but Mrs. Kennedy was looking for a prep school for her son John  and they came to Lakeville to look over the Hotchkiss School. Mother and son lunched at the Milk Bar, then one of the village’s most popular restaurants, located between Lakeville and Salisbury on the site of the present-day National Iron Bank.

According to John Thompson Sr., whose son owned the restaurant at the time and who had enlisted his father to help behind the counter, Mrs. Onassis sat on a bar stool with her son. “Young John had that ridiculous sandwich that was so popular with the kids at the time — a hamburger with a fried egg and cheese, lettuce and tomato,” Thompson recalls. He served her a light chicken sandwich on rye toast.

The news items are reproduced from past issues of The Lakeville Journal.