Lyme Times

Take Your Pick in East Lyme - Scott's Family Farms

Suzanne Thompson — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:59:00 GMT

Put “East Lyme” and “family farm” in the same sentence and just about everyone comes up with Scott’s. The question is, which one, which generation, and what was their first name? And for good reason.

There have been a lot of Scott brothers over the years. Most of their names begin with W. Many are still actively involved in Connecticut agriculture, growing or selling fruits and vegetables.

East Lyme’s Web Scott specializes in growing raspberries, strawberries and vegetables. The eighth of nine children of Woodrow, or “Woody” Scott, now 91 years old, Web has Scott’s Orchard Farm Market, with seasonal farm stands in Old Saybrook and in Haddam.

From apples to bulk mulch, many of the other Scott’s farm stands around the region, especially west of the Connecticut River, are owned by one of Web’s brothers, whose names all begin with W.

“It was a great way to grow up, with six brothers and a family farm,” said Web, who grew up working with his brothers in his father’s wholesale apple business. “It was a real blessing growing up like that. There was always plenty to do and a lot of adventure.”

The brothers who have remained in the business have independent, but co-dependent operations, often selling what each other produces. The apples at Web’s stand are produced by a brother with orchards in Deep River and Glastonbury.

“If one of us plants a large amount of something, the other ones won’t,” Web said. “It allows us to have a broad range of products without everyone trying to have a little of everything.”

Web and his wife, Lisa, have six children. They are familiar faces around the Lyme Farmers Market every weekend at Ashlawn Farm, selling everything from spinach and lettuce to tomatoes, watermelon, peppers, squash, corn and berries.

Daughter Lydia, 17, is a respected buyer at the regional wholesale farmers market in Hartford, Web said, having accompanied him for years on early morning runs up there. It’s not exactly a gentile place. Lydia has started her own cut flower business, planting and caring for annuals at Ashlawn. She plans to study horticulture at the University of Connecticut.

Even four-year-old Laura had her first garden this summer. She won first prize for yellow and green squash at the Hamburg Fair and has delighted her grandfather with deliveries from her garden.

The Roots of the Scott Family

The Scott farming legacy started with Michael Scott, an England weaver who came here in the 1880s to work in the textile mills. He had to leave his wife, Clara, and family behind until he raised enough money to bring them over. Arriving family members came to work in the mills and farmed on the side. As the mills shut down, farming took over.

The W’s started with Michael’s and Clara’s offspring, including sons Walter, who is Web’s grandfather, Wilbur, who Web credits for developing “butter and sugar” sweet corn, Wilfred, a state legislator, who got into apples, and a sister named Dot. Wilfred’s offspring include Allen Scott, retired pastor of the Flanders Baptist Church, and his son, Allen, the current pastor.

“We have a really good immigrant history of what it was like to earn enough money to send for the rest of the family and establish them over here,” said Web. One of Walter’s sons, Wainright, wrote articles about the changing seasons for The Day. Web credits him and his siblings for putting together a detailed family history in the 1960s.

Wainright, or “Bun,” and Audrey Scott started their family farm in the 1960s. Their son, Tom, and his wife, Karen, are owners of Scott’s Yankee Farmer at 436 Boston Post Road in East Lyme. They have four children. Daughter Allison is deeply involved in the family business.

During the spring months through the late December the Yankee Farmer offer a variety of native produce, about 85 percent of it grown on the farm. Corn is the longest season, running from July through September. They also sell eggs, honey, fruit pies and cut flowers, plus run a busy you-pick season for strawberries, raspberries and blueberries.

Fall brings peaches, apples, pumpkins and mums and a steady stream of families and school field trips for hay rack rides into the pumpkin fields and apple orchards. Tom and Karen give the kids an entertaining education on how the crops are grown and harvested.

With the high cost of land and development pressures, farming is one of those fields that a person has to either be born into or marry into these days.

“Everyone in our circle of friends were farmers,” Web said. “Up until about 20 years ago, many left farming, looking to make a better living.”

Both he and Tom see the exodus from farming to other fields as leveling off. The survivors who have made it this far are committed to it. Those who are successful have to continually innovate, and going into retail operations is often part of the equation.

Karen Scott has found success with her version of Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA. The typical model is for people to buy shares early in the season, supporting a farmer who provides them with produce through the growing season.

“Ours works very differently than most,” she explained. For a $90 share, members get $100 of credit and came come into the shop to pick out produce at any time in the season. This works well, she said, with teachers who have the summer off, or people who travel.

“People are loving it; they can walk in, not worry if they brought cash or the checkbook, we add it up and keep track of their balance,” she said.

The number of CSA shares has almost doubled this year since Scotts opened for the season in April.

“People are more conscious of wanting to know where their food comes from,” she said. “They also are very supportive of local farmers. They want to support a local person, and don’t want to see them gone.”

With higher food and energy prices, Karen said she is seeing consumers act differently. There’s more interest in “putting up,” or preserving fresh produce. Some years ago, she said, they couldn’t give away the stacks of pickling cucumbers; home canning was a lost art.

“Now I have more and more people looking for baskets of cucumbers for pickling,” she said. “They are freezing peaches, too.”

U-pick crops are more popular, too. Scott was amazed with the numbers of people who came to pick blueberries, not a quick task. Lots of families came out to pick fruit this year.

“We ran out of blueberries this year,” Karen said.

Both farmers reported more people buying vegetable seedlings last spring, too, as more people decided to try growing their own vegetables, either to save money or as a hobby.

“I’d like to see how many of them were successful at it,” Tom said.

For more information about Scott’s Yankee Farmer, go to www.scottsyankeefarmer.net

Deborah Beckwith contributed to this article.

It's all in a Day's Work - Hannah Watkins saves Jasmine

Suzanne Thompson — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:02:00 GMT

Andy Baxter is still trying to figure it out. Call it fate or good luck, the Lyme resident is very thankful that 15-year-old Hannah Watkins, also of Lyme, had the presence of mind and smarts to save the life of Jasmine, his dog and close companion, a few weeks back.

So much that Baxter had to contact the Lyme Times, tell this story and send in the photo of Hannah and Jasmine. No one would know that days before, Hannah had rescued the pooch from choking.

Jasmine is a special companion to Baxter. She came into his life shortly after his wife, Carley, died in January 2005 at age 54 from breast cancer. The couple had been married for 20 years.

For many years, Andy and Carley had enjoyed the off-season as renters in Old Saybrook and Fenwick. They decided in 2001, shortly after Carey had been diagnosed with the disease, to make Lyme their home. They bought an old dairy farm on Joshuatown Road.

Baxter struggled with his loss after Carley’s passing. He bought a big RV and decided to drive across the country.

“I didn’t have a plan to get a dog,” he said. He just happened to meet a family whose dog had a litter of 10 puppies. The next thing he knew, he had a dog – an eight-week-old puppy, half English springer spaniel, half English cocker spaniel.

He picked up Jasmine on May 1. On June 1, the two set off cross-country. Man and dog traveled together for 4 ½ months, across 12,000 miles, through 36 states, to San Francisco and back.

“That’s how we got to know each other,” he said. “Jasmine is my partner.”

Baxter still spends a lot of time in New York. Caretakers Lee and Mary Watkins live in the guesthouse in Lyme.

For the past few years, Lee’s niece, Hannah, who is home-schooled by her parents David and Nancy, helps out during the summertime, with weeding, gardening and watering. She started doing this about the same time Jasmine came into the picture.

“Whenever Hannah is over, Jasmine is outside for the day, and the two of them just hang together,” Baxter said.

Early one Wednesday in July, Lee had to go somewhere. After feeding Jasmine and letting her have her morning romp, he put her in Baxter’s house and set the security alarm.

About fifteen minutes later, Hannah arrived for the day.

Baxter points out that she could have started working anywhere around the grounds that morning. But she decided to start tending flowers on the terrace, just in back of the kitchen. She happened to look in the house only to find the dog on its back, on the floor, feet up in the air, obviously in trouble. It was clawing at its throat.

Hannah knew where the spare key is hidden. So, she got it and unlocked the door, not knowing that the security alarm was on. Baxter credits her for keeping her wits, despite the blaring siren that soon went off.

The teenager calmly examined the dog and determined there was a piece of wood lodged in its throat. Unable to get the piece out of Jasmine’s mouth, she rolled the dog over and was able to massage the obstruction out of the animal’s throat.

“I have little doubt that I would have handled it that coolly,” Baxter said. “I might have hurt Jasmine by trying to force it out. More likely I would have thrown my dog into my car and tried to drive 120 miles an hour down to the vet and I would have killed us both.”

Jasmine was out soon of danger, but by this time a state trooper had shown up. It apparently didn’t’ take him long to surmise that Hannah wasn’t a robber attempting to break into the house, but a helpful friend with miraculous timing.

The dog quickly recovered from the harrowing experience, and so did her owner, once he learned of it about 48 hours later from the Watkins family. Both are very appreciative of Hannah’s sense and swift action.

So, Hannah had no idea, when she posed for her uncle Lee to snap this post-rescue photo with Jasmine that the plan was to send it to the Lyme Times to thank her for her efforts.

“Everyone is fine now. This very cool young woman saved my dog, when I don’t think I would have had the wits,” Baxter said. “It’s just one of those little things that happen in life. I was so impressed with Hannah and how she handled the whole situation.”

The Lyme Tree - Woman's Exchange Going Strong in Old Lyme

Suzanne Thompson — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:59:00 GMT

As retail establishments go, the Lyme Tree in Old Lyme is hardly a high-pressure, hard-sell environment. It’s not meant to be.

The little shop in Old Lyme Marketplace is a great place for women of all ages and walks of life to catch up with friends, find hand-made original gifts from local artisans and support worthy causes in the process.

The Lyme Tree is one the handful of surviving Woman’s Exchanges across the country. The movement was started by some society women in Philadelphia in the 1830s to help widows and others make a living at a time that it wasn’t proper for women to be seen as breadwinners or working outside of the home. The exchanges became a formidable force in the 1800s, but have been on the decline as everything, from retailing and manufacturing, to the role of women in the work place, have changed.

Today, the local exchange is one of 18 remaining stores and organizations in the country. With the closing of the West Hartford exchange last year, the Old Lyme shop is now one of three remaining in the state. The other two are in Greenwich and Southport.

The Old Lyme shop has over 300 consignors, most of them from communities close by. Some items are carried year-round; others come and go with the seasons and fashion trends.

The charm and character of the Old Lyme exchange was obvious in a recent visit to the shop.

Bobby Gustafson, Lyme, one of the “Founding Mothers” in 1986, had stopped by catch up. She remembered when its beginnings, across the street, near the Hide-Away.

“We started out with a handful of women from just the surrounding towns, and they hand-made everything,” she said. “We had less than half of this space. It was just a place where people got together. It has grown so, it’s unbelievable”

As different officers got involved over the years, she said, they expanded the merchandise to round out the selection. Between evolving with the times, attractive pricing, and keeping a strong member base, the Lyme Tree continues while many exchanges around the country haven’t.

Today, the store carries a collection of all sorts of hand-made items by artisans in Connecticut plus some from other states that were recommended by other Women’s Exchanges. These account for about 80 percent of the merchandise; the remainder is complementary gift items, such as pewter candlesticks, coffee coasters imprinted with maps of the Connecticut River, more jewelry and specialty foods. The Exchange consciously selects items that aren't offered by other gift shops in the area.

There also are some antiques, usually plates and dishes. The shop currently is carrying a few items from the estate of Eleanor Walsh Meyer, one of the original founders and a long-time resident of Old Lyme, who passed away last August.

“I think a lot of people see ‘consignment’ and they think old stuff being offered for sale,” sand Sandy Dowling, publicity chairman. But aside from the antiques, everything else is new, or newly created.

The exchange is known for high quality hand-made infants and children’s clothing, from knitted baby blankets, hats and sweaters to smocked dresses and christening dresses.

“We always carried smocked dresses for little girls – the place was full of them,” said Gustafson. One popular seamstress, Lippy Reade, still stops by the shop each year as she drives up from Florida to Martha’s Vineyard, bringing by her newest creations.

Dowling likes how many of the items provide a touch of whimsy.

There are the hand-crocheted “scrubbies” made by a woman in Mississippi, the colorful miss-matched socks from a gal in New England. The store also carries cards and candles made by an 86-year-old woman.

Yarn artist Sandy May’s elegant little hand-knitted shawls are popular, as are the hand-painted bird houses made out of gourds. These are created by a woman in Niantic. She also paints glass holiday ornaments. Another woman makes ballerina tu-tu’s that play musical tunes.

A bit of the practice of not identifying the artists continues, both to respect the privacy of the consignors and to protect the retailing role of the exchange shops.

There also are creations by men, including wooden bowls carved by Kenneth Guarneri of Preston. He signs, dates, and lists the name of the wood on the bottom of each numbered piece. These been made from wood either recycled or collected in corrective pruning of trees, not harvested.

With about 30 members, ten of them on the board, the Exchange is always looking for more volunteers, according to Jenny Timcke, Old Lyme, Exchange co-chair this year with Dowling.

While most members tend from Old Lyme, Lyme and Essex, members can be from anywhere in the area, said Dowling, who lives closer to Madison.

Board member Barbara Farmer, Clinton, didn’t let a lack of previous retail experience deter her from getting involved.

“I’d retired and was wondering what I was going to do with the rest of my life,” she said. “I was walking by with my husband and saw the store.”

Volunteers can put in as little as half a day every two weeks, which fits the schedule of Joanne Kottke, Essex, who rings up sales, or get more involved in any and all aspects of running a retail establishment.

For a rare find and unique gift, Kottke recommended the hand-made quill gift cards. These one-of-a-kind mementos were priced below most mass-produced gift cards.

“The store is beautiful. I love all the knitted baby wear,” said Nicole Tarantino, a new mother who moved to Old Lyme from Roxbury several weeks ago. She discovered the shop while walking around her new town.

As a non-profit organization intent on raising funds for local charities, the exchange gives consignors 70 percent of the proceeds from sale of their items. After covering its expenses, including rent, the balance is awarded each year to area organizations.

“Our theory is, if you’re going to buy a present, why not buy it at the Women’s Exchange, because you’re helping somebody else,” Dowling said. “That’s what we’re trying to do, help the artisans and help the organizations we support.”

The exchange board reviews requests and awards its grants with an eye toward education and support of families and individuals in need.

This year the exchange awarded a total of more than $2000 to four organizations along the shoreline area: the Old Lyme Youth and Family Services; the Valley Shore Domestic Violence Services Center, Westbrook; the Thames River Project, Norwich, and St. Martin de Porres Nativity School in New Haven.

Many times the organizations seek funds for specific projects, Dowley said. The OLYFS sought funds to provide counseling services for families and children in need; the donation to the Thames River Project will use its grant to provide for a “living packet,” the sheets, towels and other items that a woman and her children would need in temporary housing.

Organizations can submit an application any time of the year, she said. The exchange usually awards its grants in May or June. The exchange has awarded up to $4,000 a year; this depends on proceeds made from the shop.

The shop is open Tuesdays through Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm during the summer and until 4 pm starting in September.

On Friday, Dec. 5 the exchange will hold its Christmas boutique at the Saybrook Point Inn, Old Saybrook.

East Lyme's Daniel Morris Pedals Cross Country for a Cure

Suzanne Thompson — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:03:00 GMT

Daniel Morris is returning to UConn Medical Center this month as an enlightened medical student, not from a summer in a hospital or by hitting the books. Instead, he spent seven weeks on his bicycle, pedaling from California back to Connecticut, contemplating life and talking about leukemia with people he met along the way.

The East Lyme resident recently completed a cross-country bicycling tour, Coast to Coast for a Cure, to raise money and awareness for Lea’s Foundation for Leukemia Research, a Hartford-based non-profit organization formed in 1998. It provides funding for many researchers at the UConn Health Center and has started to provide limited support for patients and families affected by the disease.

“I definitely was not an avid bicycler before,” said Morris, who spent many ten-hour days on his bike, drafting or just slogging it out with two other male and two female medical students. Four of the five are UConn students; one woman is a University of Maryland medical student.

This was the third year for UConn medical students to do this ride. Two years ago, a student who had lost his mother to leukemia set up a partnership between the small foundation and the school.

Morris’ group started training with their bikes about a month before, including a ride in the White Mountains of New Hampshire to experience mountains and riding with gear.

“It’s really hard to balance with the gear on your bike,” said Morris, who lived on the road with little more than a tent, sleeping bag and pad, a fleece, rain jacket and pants. These fit into two large waterproof pannier bags over his back wheel. “You almost have to learn how to ride your bike all over again.”

On June 14, the group flew out to San Francisco, assembled their bikes in the airport and headed north, toward Sacramento and the Carson Pass through the Sierra Mountains.

They took Highway 50, “the loneliest highway in America,” across Nevada.

“There aren’t that many choices to stay out there,” he said. “We couldn’t run out of water. You have a town every 75 miles, and no services in between. There was no choice – you really had to go that distance.”

The group clocked 100+ mile days. Morris preferred mountains to flat terrain.

“The uphills are hard, but they are the most rewarding,” he said. “When you get up to the top of those mountains in California and Utah, the views are amazing.”

The toughest part was figuring out where to stay every night. The first stop in town was always the grocery store for dinner and breakfast and to start looking accommodations. Food was the biggest expense item.

“We ate a lot,” Morris said. “It was our fuel.”

Food also provided comfort, diversion and something to talk about. It reflected some of the differences across America, which Morris and others blogged about along the way.

The group didn’t pay for a single night of lodging. They camped out, particularly out West, and depended on donated hotel accommodations and the generosity of far-flung family, friends and sometimes strangers.

“One of the wonderful things was the people we met. They were so generous,” he said. One of the first nights a California bicycler invited them to camp in his back yard. A park ranger who met them early one day tracked them down hours later to give them food and water.

Near Salida, Colorado, after five or six hotels couldn’t help them, a woman offered her place. The only problem was that it was seven miles back west. Once there, the students discovered her husband was a retired urologist and bonded instantly with the family. They blogged that it was the only – and the best – seven miles that they rode westward on the entire trip.

“We met so many people who were either involved in the medical field or touched by leukemia,” he said. “It was really amazing.”

Their highest point, going over the Continental Divide, was Monarch Pass, in Colorado.

“That was the coolest thing ever,” Morris said.

Aside from about one week of the trip, when visiting family members hauled their gear, there was no support crew or van driving along with water bottles, to help fix flats or carry supplies.

“I learned a lot about myself,” he said. “When you’re on a bicycle for ten hours a day, you’re with yourself for a long time. You have a lot of time to think.”

Morris admitted that more than once he wondered if he could really make the trip, and what the heck he was doing.

“Afternoons were always the worse. You’re hot and tired, and there’s still 20 miles to go,” he said. “I tried to focus on just getting myself to where we were going that day; not that I was trying to make it all the way back to Connecticut.”

Traveling with a group helped, as did knowing that he had his family’s support. He also called good friends along the way and stayed in touch with them, pretty much as he would on a regular basis.

Morris conceded that his parents, Joel and Robin Morris, thought he was insane to take off cross-country. They were able to detour from a wedding trip to Utah to catch up with him in Denver.

The group also stayed in touch with families and friends through a GPS tracking device one of the women brought along.

“Every night when we reached our destination safely, all she had to do was push a button and leave the thing outside and it would send an email to all the parents, letting them know where we were on a Google map,” he said. They also traveled with cell phones, but didn’t have time to talk until night, and didn’t always have phone service.

Once over the mountains, they started the long, flat descent through eastern Colorado and Kansas. The bicyclers had to stay off of Interstate highways, but often biked through big cities.

They headed to St. Louis, stopping off two nights in St. Louis where Daniel’s younger brother, Josh, also an ELHS graduate, and now a student at Washington University, welcomed them.

To get across the Mississippi River they took the old chain and rocks bridge on a bike trail system north of St. Louis. After the wide open spaces of the American West, states east of the river went by quickly.

By the time they reached Pennsylvania, Morris was ready to get back into some mountains, this time the Appalachians. On August 4th, they arrived in Easton, Conn.

The last stretch of the trip for the four UConn students was from Easton to Farmington on August 5. They were joined by Dr. Keat Sanford, Dean of Admissions at the UConn medical school. After crossing the Sierras and Continental Divide, the uphill climb along the UConn Health Center drive in Farmington was a breeze, he said.

All told, the group raised about $35,000 for Lea’s Foundation from friends and families before the trip. Connecticut bike shops were some of the most supportive businesses, donating supplies. The group’s jerseys sported the name of Niantic Bay Bicycle Shop, which donated hundreds of dollars of supplies. Morris said Steve Morrissey had good advice, based on his own previous long bike trips.

Donations can still be made to Lea’s Foundation for Leukemia Research, c/o Carla Sgro, 522 Cottage Grove Road, Bloomfield, CT 06002 www.leasfoundation.org

See the group’s trip blog at www.coasttocoast2008.blogspot.com

Life's a Beach - Traditions, tourists converge on Old Lyme's Sound View Beach

Suzanne Thompson — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:06:00 GMT

Depending one’s age and frame of reference, Sound View beach conjures up various images – sidewalks bustling, whole neighborhoods across Connecticut flocking to the beach for the summer, the arcades, the El Morocco, or even a lady named Busty Heart.

These days, the Old Lyme shore community is a cleaned up dichotomy of sunbathers, mostly teens and 20-somethings, particularly on the weekends, and plenty of families, especially on weeknights, as kids and parents flock to the perennial favorite, the carousel.

Regardless of age, almost everyone is from somewhere else in Connecticut: Colchester, Newington, Waterbury, and Whethersfield. Celeste Mattingly, West Hartford, a baby boomer, came to Sound View Beach as a kid. She remembered how Hartford Avenue was like an extension of the South End of Hartford, which contributed to the high propensity of Italian water ice stands.

Alyssa Miano celebrated her 11th birthday on Monday, August 4, by coming to the carousel, a vintage model that is known for its brass ring that riders on the outside rows can grab for. Her extended family has been coming down from Rocky Hill for about 35 years, said her mother, Susan, to enjoy the beach and celebrate multiple August birthdays.

“It’s the tradition,” explained Miano. “My older sister, Diane, always came down here to grab for the gold ring on her birthday.”

Although Diane wasn’t there yet that night, her daughter, Erica, was, along with siblings Owen, 9 and Celia, 6. Grandmother Ersilia Kindl, Whethersfield, also was there, celebrating her birthday in a matter of days.

“We must have come here when I was first married, 50 years or so,” she said. “We used to stay at Miami Beach. My oldest daughter, even though she’s 60 year’s old and married, she still has to get the gold ring. It’s a nice tradition.”

Kindl remembers three generations of the family sticking it out through a hurricane one year, staying in a house up on stilts, while her mother insisted on making waffles for her granddaughter.

While the Surf’s Up and the Cool Moose liquors and convenience store cater more to adults, The Carousel Shop aims to have something for every member of the family, including younger kids with pocket change.

Dee Vowels, who recently retired from being a speech therapist, and her husband, Jerry, have been running the carousel and the shop for 20 years. They are marking the anniversary this summer with Carousel tee-shirts that read “What’s the Scoop?” on the front and “20 years and still scooping” on the back. A brand new Carousel Shop sign went up the first weekend of August.

“There has been a merry-go-round on this spot since 1948,” said Dee. The current one is a 1925 Allan Herschell Carousel that the previous owner brought up from Florida in the 1960s. The Vowels acquired the seasonal shop and carousel in 1987 and have been running both ever since. Running a carousel is serious business, she said, even if it is seasonal. There are safety inspections, seat belts and insurance.

The carousel is an evening-only treat, Dee explained, because sand, sun and pony rides just don’t mix well. Kids have to wear shoes on the ride. Besides, it is more magical in the evening when the lights come on.

Back when people came down for the summer, with fathers commuting back in to Hartford for work and mothers and kids staying at the beach house, the shop provided local access to groceries and convenience items, plus beach paraphernalia, swim suits and everything people forgot to pack. Today, it specializes in ice cream, cold drinks, tee-shirts, inflatables, candy and snacks.

“It’s been good,” said Dee. “When I think back to 20 years ago, just starting out with my daughter on my hips, I wonder how we did it.”

Jennifer, her daughter, has scooped her share of ice cream in the store since then. Their son Jay, who also used to work there, is completing his PhD in southern California. The shop also provides summer employment for some Old Lyme kids.

“We get nice families here,” said Dee, who grew up on the Jersey shore. “The candy is a big thing with the little kids, especially when they have movies on the beach.”

Two years ago, they bought the building next door, expanding The Carousel Too to be a clothing and gift shop. Dee and Jerry have renovated the upstairs, ending their commute from West Hartford and making Sound View Beach their warm weather home. They plan to spend winters in Florida.

This is the place to buy “name drop” clothing: the hats and teeshirts with the names of the local Old Lyme beaches, as well as ones with the signature carousel.

While the official beach season is Memorial Day to Labor Day, and shops will try to stay open on sunny weekends in September, she said The Carousel usually opens up on Mothers Day weekend.

“We like for people to know we are here while they get their cottages ready for summer; we get ice cream delivered to they can come and get one,” she said. Once school activities starts in the fall, though, the beach traffic really drops off.

It’s a twelve-month investment to maximize a ten-week season. One year, she counted 17 rainy weekend days out of 20.

New Eats

There’s a new eatery on Hartford Avenue. Bobby’s Place II opened for Memorial Day weekend on a corner that old-timers may remember as the home of Palmer’s, which sold a sloppy Joe hamburger concoction 24 hours a day back in the 1980s.

The place is owned by Carole and Michael Dufour, Colchester, and her parents, Bob and Ruth Breau, East Lyme. The Breaus opened up the first Bobby’s Place in 2000 in the Colonial Market parking lot in Niantic, serving up lobster rolls, clam chowder and chili, kielbasa and *** and hot dogs with all sorts of concoctions.

“I asked my dad if he’d be interested in going into business together,” said Carole. “He called me one day and said ‘I found the perfect spot.’”

All of the soups are homemade by Breau. Bobby’s II features an expanded version of the menu, adding pulled pork sandwiches, meatball sandwiches and cheese pizza.

“Hartford Avenue needs to be rebuilt again,” said Dufour. “People are redoing the houses down there. It really looks nice, and it’s picking up. When it’s hot and the place is hoppin’, it should be a great place to have a restaurant.”

June was pretty rough with all of the rain, she admitted, but the family’s plans are long-term. The shop is open seven days a week through August and Dufour said they plan to be open on the weekends in September and October, as long as the weather is fair.

“Everyone in town has been so welcoming. That’s been great,” she said. “It’s a nice, warm feeling.”

When they started cleaning up the shop in March, she said, all the locals were very helpful. Her husband, Michael, is operations manager for National Signs, Berlin, which made the new sign for The Carousel Shops down the street.

The Sound View Beach Association, a community based charitable organization that sponsors services and events for the entire the Sound View Beach community and surrounding area and sponsor of the Shoreline Community Center on Hartford Avenue, just completed a successful summer of kids krafts. For two hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays in July and early August, children age 12 and under could make a craft and have a snack at the center for a nominal fee.

“We had children from Hawk’s Next, Point o’ Woods, White Sands Beach, and even from in town,” said Debbie Schreier, Rocky Hill. She and Shirley Grande, West Hartford, an associate member of the beach association, volunteered last summer to run the crafts sessions and expanded it this year.

Grande, a grandmother, came up with the idea. Granddaughters Samantha, 9 and Brianna, 10, enjoyed helping out, as did Shreier’s neice, Lilly, 12, who visits each year from Atlanta, and a friend, Courtney Fox, 13, Wolcott.

“One day we had 47 children,” said Grande, adding that adults were requested to accompany children under seven. Proceeds from this year will fund next summer’s program. The women hope to involve area school students who are looking for community projects next year.

Membership in the community association is based on property ownership, but anyone can be an associate member and get involved, said Grande. The air-conditioned and heated hall, renovated over past months, can be rented out year round for parties by contacting the association at www.soundviewbeach.com. Future plans include completing a conference center and finishing off the upstairs, she said.

Fans of the “original” Beach Donuts can still buy them on weekends and holidays, 7 to 10 a.m. at the community center through Labor Day weekend, with all profits going to benefit the center’s ongoing renovations. Really serious donut eaters are encouraged to stop by the center for an advance order form, either Wednesday nights when it is open for bingo, or on Saturday or Sunday morning for next day delivery. Wednesday night bingo continues at the center through the third weekend in September.

Hamburg Fair this Weekend - Family Fun Runs Friday through Sunday in Lyme

Suzanne Thompson — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:04:00 GMT

The Hamburg Fair is gearing up to provide families old-fashioned fun and entertainment again this year. The fair, arguably the biggest event that goes on in Lyme each year, starts Friday afternoon at the Grange Hall and Fairgrounds on Route 156 and continues through Saturday night and Sunday.

Traditional live animal exhibitions and competition include the pony pull on Friday night, horse pull on Saturday afternoon and evening and oxen pull all day Sunday. Each day features live music performances from classic rock to Celtic and old time fiddlers, plus hypnotist/comedian Jim Spinnato. The fair tradition continues with competition and awards for best baked goods, home-grown vegetables and flowers, photography, crafts and quilts.

“This whole fair is geared to give kids the old time family experience we had when we were kids,” said Ted Powell III, fair president.

Saturday features games for kids from 10 am to 12 noon, including pie eating and watermelon eating contests. There is no additional charge for kids up to age 12 to sign up; the eating contests will be broken into age groups. There also will be ring tosses, nail driving and similar games for younger kids, as well as pony rides, alpacas and small animals, face-painting, magic and a clown on stage.

“Every kid who enters will get a prize – you know how kids get at fairs,” Powell said.

Revolutionary War and 6th Connecticut Regiment re-enactors will be camping out, demonstrating campfire cooking, marching drills and blacksmithing. As always, there will be farm exhibits and antique tractors on display.

Last year’s fair brought in record-breaking crowds of almost 19,000, so fair organizers have expanded and continued some of the features this year, including the Imperial Show carnival rides.

There are at least two new rides at this year’s fair, Powell said. The Wiz is geared for teenagers.

“It goes in circles and keeps rising and all of a sudden it drops,” he said. There’s also a brand new scrambler ride that goes a lot faster than older models, too.

Another hit from last year is the all-day carnival bracelet, Powell said.

“We’re the only fair in the state that is running a $20 all day ride bracelet for each day of the fair,” he said. “It’s more economical for the parents.”

No down-home fair is complete without a slice of pie and a cup of coffee. The Lyme Grange #147 will be serving pie, donuts, breakfast sandwiches and beverages.

Fair parking is available at Reynolds Garage; proceeds benefit the local Boy Scouts, or at the First Congregational Church of Lyme, which benefits the church.

Fair hours are 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, Aug. 14, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. For last-minute information, contact hamburgfair@comcast.net.

Patricia Spratt for the Home - Old Lyme designer puts shoreline town on the map

Suzanne Thompson — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:06:00 GMT

The J. Elms Building at 60 Lyme Street is unassuming along the quiet tree-lined streets of downtown Old Lyme. No ice cream for sale or artwork displayed in the windows. Just a tasteful sign: Patricia Spratt for the Home.

But twice a year it is a hubbub of activity, as women in the know search through stacks of table cloths, napkins, placemats, tasseled pillows and quilted bags to find great deals on high end home décor pieces.

All of the items have been designed by Old Lyme resident and business owner Patricia Spratt, and made in America – mostly in Connecticut.

Every July and December, for three days, Patricia Spratt home décor designs can be snapped up at great prices, direct from the company’s headquarters and warehouse.

Women come from near and far, even other countries, to catch one of Spratt’s sales. Kathleen Auperin, East Lyme, likes the quality of the fabrics and the finished goods.

“It’s an event where your girlfriends, everyone helps each other out to find that list missing placemat,” she confided at this year’s July sale.

Kathie Vannini, Niantic, another regular, was elated to find placemats that match pillows she found last year. It’s not uncommon to find a couple of generations of the same family there.

“We always stop by,” confessed Catharine Haff, Norwalk, who times her vacations at Griswold Point around the sale. She brought along her friend Cathie Johnston, from Michigan. “We’ll probably come back tomorrow, too,” she noted.

Gail Stafford led a contingency from Black Point Beach. She lives in West Hartford and summers in Niantic, so invited inland friends, including Melissa Horan, from Chile, down for shopping and lunch at her home.

“I’m the recruiter,” admitted Pat Nyikos, Old Lyme, as she and friends Sharon Lynch, Essex and Karen Basli, Westport, came to check out this year’s finds.

Others just get lucky, discovering the event as they come through town. Dale Johnson, from Farmington, and Joan Stabenau, Carlsbad, Calif., who used to live in the state, thought they’d come down for a stroll along the DEP boardwalk along the Connecticut River. After a detour into town, they quickly decided to go get their car.

“There’s something about linens that brings out this camaraderie,” mused Spratt. “Everyone is willing to be shoulder-to-shoulder, looking for that extra matching napkin. It’s hot, we’re sweating, and we’re all laughing. We’re totally immersed in the creative experience, collectively.”

She knows a few airline attendants who schedule their layovers to bring them through Connecticut when her sale is on. Her friend from first grade, Cecily Fanza, now a math teacher in Old Saybrook, helps out every year with the sales.

“Patricia designed her own prom dress, so I wasn’t surprised that she ended up as a fashion designer and now doing this,” said Fanza.

“And I always knew you would become a math teacher,” joked Spratt.

Spratt grew up in Old Lyme, always knowing she wanted to be a fashion designer. After high school, she went to Parsons School of Design in New York City, then a year-round program.

“At the ripe age of 17, I was in the big city,” she said. By age 20, she had her degree as a fashion designer and was designing a knit wear line for Anne Fogarty in Hong Kong, traveling over there for three to four weeks at a time.

As her 16-year career on Seventh Avenue progressed, she worked for a number of designers.

Pratt created ball gowns for Oscar de la Renta, working side-by-side with the famous designer. She designed career apparel for Stan Herman, creator of the first official designer uniforms for McDonald’s. There also was her Pat Spratt line of women’s sports wear.

“When I had my second child, I said ‘This is very difficult to do,’” she admitted. “I often give women the advice ‘You can do everything you want to; you just can’t do it all at the same time.’ Of course, you just have to live long enough!”

Spratt and her husband, John, moved back to Old Lyme, and had two more children. For about ten years, she stepped back from working. This gave her time not only to raise her family, but to join a garden club and do volunteer work for Lyme Art Academy. She served on its board for a number of years.

“It gave me a chance to see what people needed to express who they were, without necessarily wearing it,” she said. “It might be that through a dinner party they showed their savvy, through their table they showed their creativity.”

Spratt identified a new customer - the more conservative woman who used the décor of the table to show her own flair - and decided to create a linen company.

“I realized the tabletop was definitely the one I could make a niche in,” said Spratt, who also experimented with a line of children’s clothing. “I can run an international home décor design company from Old Lyme.”

Early on, Spratt earned the Tommy Award, recognition given to the best new product for the most innovative use of fabric in the textile industry. What won it was her garden holster and smock designed to hold gardening tools.

“It was very much inspired by my being a part of the Lyme Garden Club,” she said. The first collection, with floral patterns, included placemats and other items for the home.

From there, the business has taken off. Between 800 to 1,000 specialty stores across the country carry one or more of the about ten lines of home décor designs. Bloomingdales is her premier department store account.

Internationally, she has sold to Paris and has a strong following in the Caribbean. Her creations are also sold in Columbia. Patricia Spratt is hot in Hawaii and some of her strongest growth is in California.

Locally, Spratt’s latest creations can be found at a number of area retailers. In Old Saybrook, Saybrook Country Barn carries her pillows as part of its home décor; Home Works features her tablecloths. In Mystic, Comina carries more of her modern table décor. Some items are also available at She’s Back on Cutler Street in Stonington.

The Old Lyme sales are strategically timed for the sake of her retail accounts and to uphold the image of her brand. Shoppers won’t find marked down Patricia Spratt designs at a TJ Maxx or Tuesday Morning closeout retailer.

The items at the warehouse sale are a mixture of design samples, styles no longer carried in retail stores, some one-of-a-kind or what-can-we-make-with-this-remnant? creations whipped up by Spratt and her employees. Any with minor flaws in the fabric are clearly marked as seconds. All are priced well below retail. Collectively, these enticing finds send the customers digging in the bins and pawing through the carefully wrapped placemat sets.

Spratt always attends the Atlanta and New York home décor shows, the biggies in the industry. There are about 50 sales reps on the road and her lines have a presence in wholesale show rooms. Each season, she puts out a wholesale catalogue, featuring about 10 different home decorating trends, which each offers merchandise in 50 fabrics.

She strives to be a U.S.-based and U.S-made business, from the fabrics to the stitching and assembly, and first approaches U.S. mills for fabric. Her business consistently employs about 20 to 25 people in Connecticut, either through contracted work at mills and finishing shops, or employees who do a variety of functions in the Old Lyme warehouse.

John Spratt runs a totally unrelated business, involving physical rehabilitation centers, on the upstairs floor of the building. Their children are Lilly, 19, a sophomore at Connecticut College; Meredith, 21, who attends the University of Miami, John, 23, a senior in business at Bentley College in Boston, and Emily, 26, working on a PhD in archeology at Princeton. Patricia visited her in Greece this summer.

One of Spratt’s goals is to help return commercial vitality to downtown Old Lyme. She remembers when Main Street used to be bustling, where people regularly met their neighbors.

Spratt and Lyme Street merchants have started to hold monthly Lyme Street strolls. The last one was Thursday, July 24, the first night of the warehouse sale. She also is considering opening her own back office of Patricia Spratt Home Design to do custom designs for customers.

Longer-term, Spratt has more ideas to put her Old Lyme-based business on the map with her target clientele.

She describes her next quest as providing “the art of the table,” with a concept design studio based in Old Lyme.

“It really is an artistic endeavor,” she explained. “I’m looking forward to be able to present the total, polished, up-to-date finished product. I would like to be able to present that very special ‘art of the table,’ the custom design work, here, in Old Lyme.”

While Spratt works on making that happen, fans of her warehouse sales will be making plans for her December sale.

Deb Beckwith contributed to this article.

A Full Life - East Lyme's Arthur Massolo Writes His Memoirs

Suzanne Thompson — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 20:54:00 GMT

There’s a treasure waiting for Arthur Massolo’s great grandson, Zachary. Some day, when the little fellow is old enough to read and understand them, he’ll have Massolo’s memoirs.

Massolo, 92 years old, has had a full and interesting life. Born and raised in Brooklyn, who rubbed elbows with and worked for New York and national politicians and covered international diplomats at the United Nations. He and his wife Gloria moved to East Lyme in 1999 to be closer to his daughter, Laurie Deredita, director of special collections at Connecticut College. Gloria passed away in 2007.

“I would define my century as the darkest and the brightest ,including the two great World Wars, the Holocaust and man’s walk on the moon,” wrote Massolo.

He started writing his memoir on January 1, 2001. Forty pages, double-spaced, he recounts family and personal history, starting with his Italian and American ancestors.

Massolo remembers a warm, caring family that struggled through the Great Depression. His father, Arturo Massolo, came to America to find freedom denied in his native Italy. Friends called him “il Professore.” Active in anti-fascist activities, the man was barred by the Italian consulate from selling in this country.

Stella Vazzoler Massolo, born in Brooklyn, had family blood lines from Northern Italy. An early family custody decision cut her out of a significant inheritance. Massola remembers her as “la donna di casa,” a great cook and running the domestic front.

His older brother, Sylvio, always looked out for him. Silvio studied law, so Arthur went into pre-law. But early on, a terrifying day in court when a judge lectured Massolo for testifying about a suspect bankrupt fish market he’d never seen, he lost all interest in the field. So, he went to the New York Post where Silvio worked as a statistician. Arthur started out opening envelopes in the contest department.

“I wrote God-awful poetry as a young man,” Massolo remembered. He learned his journalistic writing style on the job, working his way up to head copyboy, where he prepared filler for the back pages of the paper, to reporter.

“That was my secret to success – learn from others who know more than you know,” Massolo mused.

He recalls getting information from Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, called “the little flower,” about the sabotage fire that almost destroyed the Normandy, the luxury liner, as it was being refitted as a troop carrier for the impending World War II.

In 1941, he married Gloria Bou. She came from different circles, as he put it. Her family moved here from Puerto Rico in 1928 after their farm was wiped out by a hurricane. She was one of thirteen children, and fluent in Spanish and English. They met at a friend’s wedding. She was on the fencing team at Hunter College and he was working on his Master’s degree at New York University.

A young man with a low draft number, Massolo opposed the war. He became associate editor of a paper published by the War Resisters’ League.

“I was strongly opposed to sending our men to Europe to fight another war,” he wrote. But, over time, learning of Hitler’s atrocities, his views shifted.

Drafted for limited service, excused from going to the field because of his myopia, and one of the few with a master’s degree, he ended up based at Camp Ellis in Illinois, writing for the Camp Ellis News. Gloria was able to come out to the Midwest with him, and taught Spanish at the officers wives’ club. Their first child, Laurie, was born in 1945.

Returning to New York after the war years, Massolo went back to the New York Post and sought to cover the newly-formed United Nations. He tailed Soviet Ambassador Andre Gromyko. He also reported on and supported the formation of the new state of Israel.

As night editor, he put together the paper’s coverage of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s hearings to ferret out alleged communists in America.

Soon, he was a political correspondent, interviewing Nixon, Adlai Stevenson and Barry Goldwater as they ran for president. He also covered Albany and the administration of Governor Averill Harriman.

Massolo was on a first name basis with Governor Nelson Rockefeller, who later ran for president and was appointed Vice President by Gerald Ford. He turned down a job with the new governor’s administration, saying he viewed political work as worse than taking graft. Years later, he would work for the Governor in a different capacity.

Massolo recounts a family cross-country driving vacation in 1958 out to California, camping in national parks. One night, Gloria, the designated night-time driver, witnessed a blinding light in the sky. Newspapers the next day reported that it was a testing of the atom bomb.

There was the family vacation to Europe in 1959, where he met relatives in Italy. His cousin Piero Massolo, became one of his dearest life-long friends. It also was by chance that he met Phil Holmes, a British painter. The family gave Holmes, who was studying with the now acclaimed British painter David Bombert, a bumpy ride to a local town festival. Holmes recently passed away, but his paintings have been gracing the walls of Massolo’s home for years.

When President Kennedy created the Peace Corps in the early 1960s, it inspired the world. Sargent Shriver, Kennedy’s brother-in-law, personally asked Massolo to run the first Central American offices of the Peace Corps, overseeing the new program in El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Guatemala. The job was based in San Salvador.

The writing wasn’t all pleasant reminiscing for Massolo. He recounted how his one son, Richard, three years younger than Laurie, took his own life at a young age. Richard was bitter over not having full credits to complete doctoral studies in psychology at Central Michigan University, which cancelled a promising job at Dow Chemical, helping employees with addiction problems.

Massolo still has the 44-page suicide note his son left. In 1981, Arthur and Gloria established a library endowment fund for the Everett Cash Library in Colgate University, Hamilton, New York. Each of the books bears a book plate with the name of Richard Massolo.

In 1977, retired from government service, looking for something to do, Massolo became a consultant in public relations. Gloria retired in 1981 after working as a Spanish and French teacher for 21 years at a junior high school.

In 1981, Massolo started on the career that continues to this day. Edward McGowan, a man of some wealth, had built St. George’s University School of Medicine, a medical school for American students, where they could study in English, in 1976. It was based on the island of Grenada.

The first class graduated in 1981, about the time Massolo became director of public affairs. He was based in Bay Shore, New York, the school’s U.S. headquarters. Meanwhile, Communists were taking control of Grenada, uncomfortably closes to the United States. He recalled how Governor Maurice Bishop, who led the Communist coup, made a little history by speaking to the graduating class, declaring “God Bless St. George’s University.”

The U.S. invaded Grenada in 1983, at the request of other Caribbean nations, putting down a coup by led by Bishop, who was assassinated. Massolo recounts how 1,000 Americans, mostly students, hunkered down in their rooms, awaiting attacks from Grenadian armed forces or Cuban forces, which he estimated to be about 600. The students were flown to the U.S., where they continued studies in New York and New Jersey.

Today, Massolo points out, the school has become the largest global institution, training and graduating 750 medical doctors a year. It also has a veterinary school, public health and liberal arts degrees, as well.

After completing his staff position, the school appointed Massolo a life-time trustee of the school. Although he no longer travels to board meetings, he still gets calls and stays involved in school matters.

Nora and Porter -The only four-legged volunteers in the CT Department of Corrections

Suzanne Thompson — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:13:00 GMT

When Margaret Ormond, assistant principal at Norwich Technical High School, adopted an English mastiff named Porter four years ago, she became inspired by a friend who owned a therapy dog she would take into the Janet S. York Correctional Institution in Niantic and by a book Wally Lamb wrote about teaching writing skills to the female prisoners at York.

After Margaret read Lamb’s book, she was so touched by the plight of the inmates at York she decided to approach the administrators to see about bringing Porter into the prison as a therapy dog.

Margaret, a Waterford resident, was first introduced to the English mastiff breed back in the 1990s when her son, who’d just gotten married, bought a mastiff puppy. When he and his new wife came to visit with the dog, Margaret says, “They walked in with what appeared to me to be a full-grown dog. Her name was Miss Remington, and she was a beautiful brindle color. As things go, I ended up with the dog.”

When Miss Remington passed away in 2003, Margaret found herself in an empty nest.

“So I put in for a mastiff rescue and I received a call from a family in Coventry who had two mastiffs named Nora and Porter. They were looking for a home at the time just for Porter, because he was more feisty. They brought him down, he took over and got up on the couch, I gave him a piece of cheese, and he was mine forever.”

A year later Margaret took Porter to classes to become a therapy dog for convalescent homes. While Porter made his weekly visits to cheer up the confined senior citizens, Margaret remembered a friend who had the first and only therapy dog at the mental health unit at York. When that German shepherd died, the dog therapy program ended.

“I remember my friend, Ellen, telling me how fulfilling it was,” Margaret says. “Here I was with Porter, a therapy dog, so I decided to approach York and see if they were interested.”

From the start Porter was a big hit with the inmates in the mental health department, and it was not long before correctional officials asked Margaret if she’d take Porter for visits into the long-term maximum security building, otherwise known as Zero South.

“The lieutenant in charge at the time thought the women needed more stimulation and positive activities,” Margaret says.

After a year of just Porter and Margaret’s visits to York, Margaret ended up adopting Porter’s older sister, Nora since her owners were relocating to Virginia, and she now had two therapy dogs on her hands.

Inside Zero South

On the day the Times had exclusive access to follow Nora and Porter on one of their visits to York, Margaret says, “Each time I pull into the front security gate Nora and Porter get so happy. They know where they’re going.”

It’s a hot sunny Saturday when we enter the sterile prison, officially known as the Janet S. York Correctional Institution. The expansive compound is the only prison in the state to hold female inmates, nearly 1,400 of them, and most of them adults. The facility also holds youthful offenders (ages 16 and 17) and some juveniles (ages 9 to 15).

It’s a long walk for the dogs on such a hot day from the entry area of the main compound to Zero South—the Level 4 maximum security building where long-term inmates are housed—and we are escorted by Counselor-Supervisor Erin Murphy-Pelletier.

The walk is made harder by the fact that Nora and Porter are senior citizens. Porter at 7 1/2 years and Nora, his senior by a year, are both approaching their 10-year life expectancy.

Once the dogs enter the common area outside the cell block tiers, several inmates become excited as they wait on the other side of the cell block doors. One inmate waves in anticipation from behind the glass wall.

A corrections officer at the duty officer’s desk opens the doors from behind a large console panel, and the doors to each of the four cell tiers open and seven young women enter the common visitor’s area. The rest stay behind, paying no regard to the canine visitors.

There is a rush of smiles and hugs among the women as they greet Margaret and her mastiffs.

The dogs finally have a chance to rest and immediately lie down on the cool, white-speckled linoleum tile floor beside one of four fixed tables and chairs (there is nothing in the room that is not bolted down). Two of the inmates immediately fetch bowls of water for the panting dogs.

Corrections Officer Conrad and Murphy-Pelletier are seated at the duty desk. The inmates become so focused on Nora and Porter it is as though the officers have vanished into the background, or they are not there at all.
While the inmates are seated on the floor with the dogs, Margaret shares stories of Nora’s and Porter’s latest adventures.

“I took the dogs to the beach and Porter jumped right in but Nora didn’t want to get her toes wet,” Margaret says, and the women laugh.

On one recent visit Margaret told the women she’d just gotten engaged so they wanted to know how her fiance, Larry, likes the dogs. “I told them, I think Larry is the right man because he showed up on the first date with two humongous dog bones.”

The inmates get to live vicariously through Margaret’s personal stories about the world outside their sterile confines—a world they otherwise only get to glimpse through a television or the pages of magazines.

While they talk more, huddled around the dogs, Kim and Jessica take turns painting red nail polish on Nora’s toenails, front and back, which complement the pinkish flower on her collar and her white pearl necklace.

Porter, sporting a U.S. Marines emblazoned bandana around his neck, lies on his side while Jennifer runs a small brush through his fur. Nicole directs others to bring more water for the dogs.

After a few more laughs, Margaret says, “Who shares a birthday with Prince Charles and my brother?”

The women look quizzical.

“Porter!” she answers. Plans are then made among the women to make a meatloaf birthday cake for Porter’s Nov. 14 party.

Near the end of the visit, Jessica runs off to bring back a paper bag filled with apples and small plastic cups of peanut butter the women have saved up over the past two weeks. Porter has no trouble getting to his feet when he smells food, and Fernanda joins Jessica in feeding the dogs the peanut butter and apples.

For an hour and a half, any misdeeds of the past that have brought these seven young women to this prison seem to be forgiven if not forgotten, and Porter and Nora, two canine ambassadors of unconditional love, clearly hold no malice, no vengeance, no judgment whatsoever toward these prisoners.
Lockdown comes at 2:30 p.m.—in preparation for the officer’s shift change at 3—and Porter’s and Nora’s fans are ordered back to their cell tiers.

During the long walk from Zero South back to the administration building, Nora is the one who is tired this time and lingers behind, puffing along like an old train engine.

We stop at the back door to the kitchen, by Porter’s choice.

“He always knows where the food is,” Margaret says.

One of the eight or so women to emerge from behind the solid double doors asks if she can be in the program to receive a visit from Porter and Nora. There is some discussion about the limits of the dogs’ weekly visits so the short answer is, unfortunately, “No.” Margaret and her dogs could not possibly visit every building in the compound.

Back at the main exit, more than two dozen corrections officers file out, heading for home. Lt. O’Hanlon has a cheeseburger for each dog, a treat he has waiting for them on each visit.

“I’ve been very fortunate in my life,” Margaret says. “I came from a good family. I grew up in a time when things were simpler. I don’t know why any of these women are here. I don’t ask any questions and I don’t want to know. You don’t look at them as prisoners, you look at them as human beings, as women.”

Knowing that most of these women will one day return to the outside world, Margaret says, “The dogs allow me to bring some change to their lives,” to help them on their journey.

By Jason J. Marchi
Times Correspondent

Art 'n Image Gallery & Studio Expands its Niche in Niantic

Suzanne Thompson — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:00:00 GMT

It’s not just another art gallery and studio in Niantic. Maribeth Stone plans to make the Art ‘n Image Gallery and Studio, at the corner of Hope Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, a supportive place for aspiring and accomplished artists in the area, as well as a place to buy local art.

The studio, which opened in May, brings together all of Stone’s passions, including her business savvy. The 800-square-foot space is home for art classes taught by Stone, display and retail space for a growing little local artist’s cooperative, and an inspirational haven for creative types in general.

Stone had an art studio in Massachusetts and taught students for about 22 years, including in Canada, England and France. She and her husband John used to summer in Niantic and moved here fulltime about four years ago. After refinishing their beach community house, they both decided retirement wasn’t exactly for them.

“I found I missed teaching terribly, and when John founded Black Point Ventures Consulting, LLC, I decided to start over as well,” she said. “I love to paint and have had the opportunity to teach many students in the U.S. and overseas – it is my true love.”

Stone started out at Once Upon a Cottage in Niantic and quickly outgrew the available space. She selected the corner location, a former pottery studio, for its natural lighting, ample space for classes, sitting room, library, retail space and nooks for displaying artworks.

In addition to her art classes, Stone rents the space by the hour to other creative people to teach courses. This can be anything from arts to languages, computers, photography and beading to yoga, she said. The space can seat 30 to 40 people.

“Short of the library or community center, there really isn’t any space available for people to do this sort of gathering. Just come in and do your thing in a safe, quiet environment,” she said. “You can come in and have a cup of tea before class, enjoy the comfortable, friendly community spirit of the room, the cozy chairs, the relaxing atmosphere in the library/research room.”

Stone believes she has found a niche of artistic instruction that complements and differs from the courses offered by established art associations along the shoreline by helping students with specialized learning.

“Basically, I think a lot of the success of my teaching is because I interview my students so thoroughly. I find out what they want, and I gear all of my classes toward what my students want to learn, not what I necessarily think they should learn from a traditional standpoint of learning,” she said. “I don’t want them to feel like they have to keep learning the same stuff over and over, but from a different teacher.”

She admits it can be pretty scary to open an art studio in the shadow of an esteemed art college.

“I don’t want to keep painting circles, cylinders and triangles over and over again,” interjected Cricket Murphy, Niantic, looking up from her oil painting. She signed up for Stone’s classes to perfect her painting of trees after taking a semester at the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts in Old Lyme.

“There’s an integrity Maribeth brings,” Murphy said. “This is her passion, and her passion ignites her students.”

“My father wouldn’t pay for me to go to art school,” Stone said. “So I majored in business and minored in art. And I drew plenty of circles over the years.”

Stone offers daytime and evening classes in watercolor and oil painting for adults with all levels of experience, starting with beginner watercolor. She also is available for private instruction of adults and youth.

“I have mixed levels of students in each class because I think they learn from each other that way,” said Stone. “They really do want to help each other, and they can offer good, constructive criticism to each other.”

Stone also wants to help other local artists gain visibility and promote their works through an artists’ cooperative. She has already lined up at least seven artists, most local to the area, and is looking for about that many more. Works currently on display and for sale include beading by Christine Watson, stained glass by Karen Thissell, painting on glass by Margit Hartil, jewelry by Mary Vetel, photography, turned pens and bottle stoppers by Giselle Styron, as well as Stone’s watercolor and oil paintings.

“I’d like it to be Connecticut artists,” she said. “I’d love it if they were all from East Lyme.”

Stone has developed a side specialty of designing and painting stylized watercolor maps of the coastal shoreline and scenes of local beach community signs. Prints of her originals are popular as vacation mementos for visitors and guests, as well as framed art.

Another example of her business sense, Stone has teamed up with the Inn at Harbor Hill Marina to offer artist’s weekend packages. The stay includes an art class and one of Stone’s prints.

She also offers small, private cubicles, as well as non-instructional ‘do-it-yourself’ space for someone who wants to draw or paint.

“The best part is when you’re done, you can leave your supplies and personal items in the locked storage area,” she said.

For more information, call the studio at 739-5500. After taking a break in August, fall classes will start in mid-September.

History in Bloom at Mystic Seaport Gardens

Suzanne Thompson — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:59:00 GMT

Say “Mystic Seaport” and it’s only natural to think of tall ships and historic shipyards. With its collection of historic and contemporary gardens and flowerbeds, the nation’s leading maritime museum is also a destination spot for gardeners.

Stephen Sisk has worked with the gardens for 38 years, starting out during high school and college, studying horticulture at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston.

“Many years ago, we were in the mode of loud, flashy vibrant colors that had nothing to do with the historic aspect of what the Seaport was trying to represent,” said Sisk.

He credits Nancy Spinner, who came on board as the new horticulturalist about 30 years ago.

“She changed the whole philosophy of what we do here regarding what belongs where and how we interpret them,” he said.

Although Spinner left many years ago, Leigh Knuttel, the grounds supervisor for the past 13 years, continued the tradition and expanded it.

A Connecticut College alumna, Knuttel recently accepted a position at her alma mater.

“It was quite challenging at first,” Sisk admitted, since the small staff didn’t have much prior experience with historic plantings or heirloom plants. “We planted marigolds, impatiens, the basic plants you would see in anybody’s home landscape. The main concern was to make it pretty and eye-catching. We still want the gardens to look neat and clean, but we want them to look historically accurate, too.”

The two primary historic examples are the parlor and kitchen gardens at the Buckingham-Hall House, which represent the plantings of a typical family in a coastal agrarian-based community in the 1830s, and the flower gardens around the Burrows House, more reminiscent of gardens around 1875. There are significant differences in the two, driven by economic and industrial development and changing cultures, Sisk said.

The gardens at the Buckingham-Hall House are 40 feet by 40 feet, partitioned off into cubicles, where vegetables and some fruit trees and berry bushes are grown. Museum staff members don’t know anything about the Hall family’s gardening activities, so they have laid out and cultivated the kind of work-horse garden of the era, from spring crops and greens to peas and potatoes, root crops, squashes, tomatoes, and herbs.

“In one section, we have radishes and beets; another section would have squash, cucumbers, and pole beans,” Sisk said. “We explain to people that the kitchen garden of that era would have been four or five times the size of what they see now. We’re trying to crowd a lot of plants into a small location.”

The plants are all heirloom seeds, either ordered from specialized breeders or from seeds collected by staff and volunteers.
The garden’s abundance is cooked up as part of the cooking demonstrations of life in the historic village, Sisk said. Garden interpreters offer daily guided tours of the various gardens through the summer. Visitors can pick up brochures, complete with Latin and common names of the plants, for self-guided tours year round.

Sisk’s historic favorites include the climbing nasturtium, which he said is coming into its own in the hot, dry weather of recent weeks. He assists its climbing nature by tucking tendrils between the pickets in the fence. He also recommends the perennial sweet pea, another fence climber, for its summer-long blooms.

Another favorite is balsam, a member of the impatiens family. This is a tall, upright plant with blooms that look like miniature carnations.
The gardens at the Burrows House reflect the increasingly decorative purpose of home gardens in the late 1800s, with emphasis on blooming flowers and a lady’s increasing leisure time replacing the utilitarian function of earlier gardens.

Many of these plants are old-fashioned standards recognized today: columbine, lupines, sweet alyssum, yarrow, hollyhocks, bellflowers, and dianthus or “pinks.” Strawberries, chives, rhubarb, and fruit trees round things out and provide some fruit.

“One plant people talk about quite a bit is Love-in-a-Mist, or Nigella,” he said. “It looks like a little puff ball with spikes on it. Even when it’s dry, it’s interesting.”

Mulching to control weeds and retain moisture wasn’t a foreign concept back in the heydays of the Seaport gardens. Sisk said salt marsh hay would have been used in the Buckingham-Hall kitchen garden. Many of the plants are self-seeding, so when gardeners wanted annuals to come back next year, they left off the mulch. The gardens follow the same practice today.

Close by, and anticipated by families with small children is the Zoo Garden, right next to the children’s museum. Every plant in this garden has an animal, from elephants to zebras, somewhere in its common name, some for more obvious associations than others.

The snail flower, growing on the fence, is a profusion of fragrant blooms that curl up like masses of snails. The flowers start out white and slowly change to purplish hues as they produce inedible beans. Native to South America, the plant has to be moved indoors to the Seaport’s greenhouses over the winter.

“People also ask about the cardinal climber, a red flowering annual that attracts hummingbirds. It’s another self-seeder,” Sisk said.

The Seaport’s plants are cared for by a small grounds staff and a band of loyal volunteers. They do everything from starting the seedlings in the greenhouse early in the year to setting out thousands of plants, tending to perennials, collecting seeds in the fall, and putting the gardens to bed for winter. Watering can be a constant chore, especially during dry spells.

“The heirloom seeds don’t have the genetic makeup today’s hybrids have, so we’ve been busy watering them,” Sisk said.

One volunteer, Erma Brant, who is in her 80s, has been helping out for at least 25 years. As with any group gardening project, there are plenty of opportunities for socializing while weeding and watering.

“We always try to have something going on in the gardens year round, especially the historic gardens,” Sisk said.

The volunteers also put up winter decorations, made from native and historic plant materials.

In addition to the historic gardens, window boxes and planters decorate the grounds. There also are a few contemporary, or 20th-century, gardens, with newer plant varieties and cultivars.

“The River Garden is probably the first garden that someone who buys a ticket to come into the Seaport sees,” Sisk said. It is designed to have stopping power, with bright, vibrant colors. Yellow, orange, and blues are provided by Basket of Gold, Monk’s Hood, yarrows, and day lilies. The Library Garden, facing the museum’s research library, is more subdued. The hues here are pink, white, lavender, and maroon.

There also is a Memorial Garden, emphasizing texture, form, and color with perennials such as hostas, coral bells, astilbe, iris, and peonies. The garden, designed to honor all those who have given their time and resources to the Seaport, is located behind the planetarium, off the beaten path of the historic village area.

“It’s a true memorial garden,” Sisk said. “I’m not sure whose ashes are
buried there, but I’ve been told there are some.”

A talented photographer, Sisk specializes in nature and plants. Some of his photos have been on display in the framing section of the Seaport’s gift shop and used in Seaport publications. His work can be seen at www.stephensiskphotography.com.

For more information about the Seaport, gardens, and tours, go to www.mysticseaport.org

Three Belles Marina - Clean Environment Makes Good Business Sense

Suzanne Thompson — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:39:00 GMT

Three Belles Marina in Niantic has become the first marina in the area, and only the eleventh in the state, to earn the Connecticut Department of Protection (DEP) “Connecticut Clean Marina” designation.

The certification, a voluntary environmental compliance program started by the state, with help from the state’s marine trade industry and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seed money about ten years ago, acknowledges efforts of marina facilities that prove they are going above and beyond required environmental regulations and participating in voluntary measures to keep the state’s waters clean.

Marina owners Tobey and Libby Russ were awarded a plaque and watched last week as the Clean Marina flag was hoisted over the marina’s main building, where it proudly flies below the American and Connecticut flags and next to the marina’s symbol flags. CT DEP Deputy Commissioner Amey Marella, DEP and EPA program staff, local politicians, boating and environmental organization members joined in the celebration.

Three Belles Marina is a family-owned full service marina, providing wet slips, inside and outside valet racks, moorings, dryland trailer boats and winter storage services. The six-acre facility, tucked in Smith’s Cove, has 150 fixed and floating seasonal slips and a 28-vessel mooring field.

Russ had never owned a marina before, but it was always something he wanted to do. He came out of the capital markets in New York. When the marina, started in the 1940s and owned by the Bayreuther family came up for sale, he bit. The Russ family moved up from Westport, and named the place Three Belles, after their three daughters, Margot, now 18, and twins, Jessica and Abigail, now 15.

“We’ve really worked at bringing the facility back to its glory,” he said, adding that the plan was very much to create a family-oriented marina. Taking care of the environment and protecting quality of the marina waters is a big part of that.

The main building is undergoing a complete make-over, with new roof, added deli and ice cream station and expanded store space. There’s a new valet rack storage building and outdoor valet racks. The swimming pool got a complete make-over and relandscaping. Greenbelts have been added and a colorful perennial bed tastefully disguises fuel tanks.

Russ admitted he didn’t know what he was getting into when it came to environmental compliance. But he quickly found out after joining the Connecticut Marine Trades Association (CMTA).

“The first thing I heard about was all of these requirements, permits and licenses I didn’t know anything about,” he admitted. He started to work with Grant Westerson, the CMTA executive director and staff, and Rick Huntley, CT DEP Clean Marina Coordinator.

There literally are eight three-ring binders of information, Russ said, that spell out Clean Marina compliance. There are seven categories: mechanical activities, painting and fiberglass repair, hauling and storing boats, fueling, facility management, emergency planning and boater education. Every applicable state regulation, from recycling of white office paper, required of all Connecticut businesses, to “Fido stations” for pet waste, is considered.

“I liked it because it really allowed me to have a roadmap to bring the marina not only up to the required standard, but to go beyond that and to hold ourselves out as one of the very few marinas in the state and the only one in Niantic that has achieved this,” he said.

It’s not any one big item, he said, but a lot of smaller steps that add up. It’s more about changing people’s behaviors than making physical upgrades around the place.

“One of the biggest challenges is in getting people to do things differently,” he said. That means customers have to change their ways around the marina. That includes the fish cleaning station, where fish racks must be put in plastic and go into the dumpster, not back into the cove. There are recycling containers and a new organized bin system by the rack building.

“You can never be successful with this kind of program without support of your customers,” he said.

Russ and Huntley agree that one of the biggest behavioral changes, and one with significant environmental impact, has been the handling of the anti-foulant paint on saltwater boat bottoms.

The paint contains a high concentration of copper, a registered pesticide, that deters marine life from growing on it. The paint purposely sloughs off to prevent marine life growth on the boat.

It’s been common practice for people to scrub and power wash the bottom of their boats to keep them clean and remove any marine life, as well as sand and repaint them in dry storage. The bad news is that the metal ends up in the bay, where it threatens other marine life.

While the DEP and boating industry figure out regulations that will largely stop these practices, Russ said Three Rivers has already taken steps to stop the bottom scrubbing in the water and committed to install its concrete waste water trapping system this fall.

The marina also requires its boat owners to use proper dustless sanding and tarp systems on dry land to recapture the material or offers to do the service for them.

Huntley pointed out how the high percentage of pervious gravel surface around the marina, instead of asphalt, creates filtering and minimizes direct surface water runoff into the Sound.

The marina’s parking lot and winter boat storage area, a graveled surface, serves as a giant filtration system. Russ credits Lee Deer, yard manager, with maintaining the health of the parking lot and the grounds.

Three Belles also hired Billy Martin, general manger, Gary Julian, customer service and Gail Moncovich, office administration.

In issuing the certification, CT DEP pointed out that the marina staff recycles bottles and cans, keeps trash containers covered and tied down and provides for proper disposal of pet waste. Marina staff is trained in spill response and has access to a spill response kit in case of an emergency.

“You are definitely are a leader,” Marrella told Russ as she explained what it takes for a facility to get certified. “This is not an easy process; you don’t just say you’re going to do this and the next day you’re in. It’s a commitment.”

Russ estimates that he has spent over $200,000 on environmentally-relate improvements. This includes an upgraded septic system, not considered as part of the Clean Marina initiative, he said, but a very critical part of water quality.

“One of the biggest contributors to water pollution in the Long Island Sound is non-performing septic systems,” he said.

Russ is not shy about letting customers see, or feel, the added value. The marina established a $1.75 per foot boat fee per season to support investments it has and will make to achieve and exceed the environmental performance standards.

“While our customers didn’t come up and cheer about the fee, I’ve not had one single complaint about it,” he said. “I think that says a lot about the value of what we’re doing.”

At that minimal fee, though, he said it will be a long time before the Marina recaptures what it has spent on environmentally-related improvements.

“It’s really great to see a business in town underline our efforts and our advocacy,” Fred Grimsey, Save-the-Rivers/Save-the-Hills founder, said at the ceremony. “It’s great that people in business to make money recognize the economic value of clean water. For years, there’s been that argument ‘We can’t afford that environmental regulation or advocacy.’ Gradually, it’s been proven. This is not only good for the environment, but it’s good business. I cheer that.”

“To become a Clean Marina and be able to fly that flag, you’ve got to bust your fanny,” Westerson said. “You’ve got to spend some money. It takes a lot of broad-based work to get to where this marina is. Tobey has worked very hard in two years and earned every inch of it.”

Coming into an older marina requires modernizing, bringing things up to code and perhaps catching up with some paperwork, he said.

“It will draw customers, not because you’re flying that (CT DEP flag), but because the place is clean, sharp, everything is maintained. People are going to notice that the marina looks nice,” Westerson added.

“Marinas have become more than just a place to park your boat,” said Paul Formica, East Lyme First Selectman. “The people who both use and manage this lovely area are stewards of the environment. These marinas are economic stimulators for our community. They play such an important role in the success of all that we do and are becoming here in the town of East Lyme.”

The EPA cites nonpoint source pollution as a leading cause of water quality problems throughout the United States. Nonpoint sources of pollution occur when water runs over land, picks up pollutants and deposits them in surface waters, such as the bay or tributaries leading into it.

The other ten marinas that have already achieved Clean Marina status include Saybrook Point Inn, Marina and Spa in Old Saybrook, Harry’s Marine Repair in Westbrook, Shennecossett Yacht Club in Groton, Dodson Boatyard in Stonington, , Guilford Town Marina, Gwenmor Marina in Mystic, Noank Village Boatyard Connors& O’Brien Marina in POawcatuck and Mystic Shipyard West.

Of the approximately 300 marinas CT DEP counts in the state, another 30, including a handful in New London County, have taken the pledge to seek Clean Marina status within one year. These include Port Niantic Marina, Reynolds Garden and Marine in Lyme, Pine Island Marine in Groton, Brewer Yacht Yard, Fort Rachel Marine Services and Mystic Shipyard East in Mystic, Norwest Marine of Pawcatuck, Crocker’s Boatyard in New London, and Don’s Dock in Stonington. A handful of marinas on the Connecticut River and the shoreline in Middlesex County also have taken the pledge.

See www.threebellesmarina.com. For more information about Connecticut’s Clean Marina Program, contact Rick Huntley at 860-424-3609 or rick.Huntley@ct.gov.

Flanders Community Theater is "Working" this Weekend

Suzanne Thompson — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:32:00 GMT

Flanders Community Theater is back on stage this weekend with its production of Working at the East Lyme High School Auditorium. The all-volunteer group of performers is again performing a work by Stephen Schwartz, known for Godspell, which it put on in 2006.

The Flanders Community Theater is a group of teachers, secretaries, administrators, musicians, artists, parents, local business owners and friends of the East Lyme Public Schools. They were an instant hit two years ago, performing to sell-out crowds and raising nearly $12,000 for the Tommy Fund for Childhood Cancer and the children and families in Southeastern Connecticut who are challenged by cancer.

“We’re just a bunch of people with alter egos,” said Ellie Hazen, one of the players who also volunteered to do publicity.

“The theater group started out as a fluke two years ago,” admitted Carol Glynn, director/producer. “Flanders Elementary School had done several coffee houses and evening performances to raise money for worthy causes. We decided to do Godspell and we pulled it off.”

The performers had so much fun they decided to do it again, she said.

“We all have these busy, intense jobs on our own,” said Glynn, a performer and educator. “We don’t have time to do community theater, and Godspell was the first production for some of us. A lot of people discovered later in life that they have these talents, and they’re incredible.”

The group looked for an ensemble production, one with big numbers and not long dialogues. They picked Working, based on the book by Studs Terkel, which shares the stories and challenges of America’s work force, from waitresses, business people, policemen, ironworkers, office workers, housewives, truckers, factory workers and retirees.

The full title of the production is Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do.

“It’s about people more than it’s about working. It’s about how people feel about what they do,” Glynn explained. “Some of the workers are hilarious, others are just driven by their job, some remind you of your grandfather.”

There are 25 performers on stage, Glynn said, with a lot of singing and dancing going on. Profanity in the original production has been taken out, so the show is appropriate for family audiences. As an educator and considering the cause that is benefiting, Glynn said she felt obliged to make the local production “school-worthy.”

As a special local treat, before the show the audience will be entertained by a montage of photos shot of people doing their jobs all around East Lyme. She has been running around town snapping photos, from the kitchen crew at East Coast Taco to DOT crews in front of her house.

Evening performances are at 7 p.m. on July 25 and 26 and 2 p.m. on Sunday, July 27. The troupe has moved from the middle school to the high school auditorium this year to accommodate larger audiences.

All tickets are $10, and as a donation to the Tommy Fund are tax-deductible. Tickets can be purchased at Mr. P’s Fine Wines and Liquors on Flanders Road in East Lyme. For more information and a letter from Stephen Schwartz to the theater group, go to www.flanderscommunitytheater.org or call 739-1247.

Cast and Crew of Flanders Community Theater – partial list of Working cast and crew

Peter Doherty, Ironworker

John Charland, Parking lot attendant, Stone Mason

Kathryn Sassu, Project manager

Paul Ciccone, Corporate executive

Julie Fryburg, Teacher

Anna Doherty, Emily Lattanzi, Newsgirls

Bev Schryver, Supermarket Checker

Brian Shaw, Boxboy, Migrant Worker, Mason singer, Salesman

Jisue Kwon, Singing Migrant Worker

John Charland, UPS man

Amy O’Neal, Housewife

Carol Glynn, Political Fundraiser, Waitress

Ellie Hazan, Singing Millworker

Carol Geluso, Telephone Operator

Joanne Kasprzak, Receptionist

Leigh Rinehart, Telephone Solicitor

Steve Lattanzi, Pianist

Peter Doherty Retired

Marisa Glynn, Rachel Kwon, Lily Fryburg, Brian Shaw, Teens

Nate Whipple, Second Fireman

Peggy Mosely, Cleaning Woman

Nate Whipple, Ex-Copy Boy

Jodie Lattanzi

Musicians

Karen Ciccone, keyboard, recorder
Stephen Lattanz,: keyboard
Michael Frost, guitar
Roy Schryver, bass
Marty Wirt, drums

Director/Producer Carol Glynn
Producer Carol Geluso
Musical Director Karen Ciccone

Seniors Stay Sharp on Driving Rules - AARP Recognizes East Lyme Senior Center

Suzanne Thompson — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:42:00 GMT

Senior centers are hopping places these days, and the classes offered aren’t just your grandmother’s canasta club. Some of the most popular courses offered at the East Lyme Senior Center are the Mature Driver Safety classes offered monthly.

The center serves as host for the AARP Driver Safety, the the nation's first and largest refresher course for drivers age 50 and older. Some people might remember “55 Alive,” but now it’s simply called the driver safety program and has been taken by millions of motorists around the country since it started in 1979. It also can be taken online at AARP’s website.

The eight-hour course is offered in two 4-hour sessions, usually on subsequent days, during the daytime, in the East Lyme Library conference room. Space is limited, so advance reservations and payment of the $10 fee are required.

“All of us, not just people over 50 or 60, can use a refresher course on driving, particularly as traffic gets crazier on I-95,” said Cathy Wilson, East Lyme Senior Center director. The center has been hosting the class for at least 13 years, as long as she’s been there. Frequency of the course has increased and she is considering offering evening sessions in response to increased demand.

Drivers age 55 and older have more accidents per mile driven than adults 30 to 54, according to the AARP website. The key is “miles driven,” which tends to be less in a driver’s later years. The accident rate rises sharply at age 75.

The biggest cause, according to AARP, is failure to observe the right-of-way. The second most common cause of driving accidents by seniors is making improper left-hand turns. These result from not obeying the turn signs and signals, trying to make the turn from the wrong location, or misjudging the speed of oncoming cars.

Ann Rose of Mystic has been teaching the classes for at least six years on both sides of the Thames River. She and Dick Harrington are regulars as AARP instructors in East Lyme.

Joan Smith, Niantic, 90, decided it was finally time to semi-retire some months back after organizing the program in the state and being an instructor. So, she’s assistant state coordinator of the program. She also continues to drive.

The coordinators and instructors, who are required to complete extensive training and follow AARP’s detailed Driver Safety Program manual, are volunteers.

Seniors, especially the men, can think they already know everything, Smith said - or at least more than the instructor leading the safe driving refresher course.

But she often has stumped both men and women by asking if they know the best way to stop quickly with ABS brakes, now standard on most cars. Pumping the brakes, which works on disc brakes that most adult drivers grew up with, isn’t the right answer.

Smith said she gets a lot of blank stares, too, when she asks people if they know what to do if the car is hydroplaning, or traveling out of control on wet surfaces. Not only senior citizens have learned what to do from listening to her.

“‘Grandma saved my life today,’” Smith said, recounting what her then 16-year-old grandson told his mother. Just a few days after he’d gotten his driver’s licence, the teen found his car hydroplaning and remembered that she had told him not to slam on the breaks or jerk the wheel in that situation.

While the popularity of the course is driven largely by discounts that people age 50 and over can get from their car insurance carriers, Smith and Rose said anyone who attends comes away with new or refreshed insights on safe driving and why it is particularly important for aging Americans.

Being able to continue driving safely is key to helping older Americans maintain their activity levels and interests, Rose said.

“There are no exams at the end of the course,” she added, which also appeals to adults.

The AARP instructors often will start the session, though, with a quiz. This quickly helps many seniors who think they know it all and just came to get the insurance discount realize otherwise.

Another answer that has changed over the years is “How do you calculate the safe distance between your car and the one you are following?”

Driver education courses used to make it complicated with equations, which are distracting enough to cause an accident or make one miss their exit. The rule now is to make a three-second count between the cars, which works at any speed, according to AARP.

Other area communities that host the course include Groton Long Point, Ledyard, Montville, Mystic, New London and Old Lyme.

For more information go to www.arp.org and for East Lyme Senior Center, go to www.eltownhall.com

Lyme Street Merchants Stroll for Cats

Interactive Desk — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:38:40 GMT

Many of the eclectic shops that line historic Lyme Street, in Old Lyme, CT, will keep their doors open on Thurs., July 24, from 5 to 8 p.m. so feline-friendly shoppers can take a Lyme Street Stroll to benefit the TEAM Mobile Feline Unit.

Participating merchants will offer art, jewelry, fashion, gourmet food, table linens, and more for purchase, and a percentage of the sale of all the items will help TEAM help cats.

The nonprofit TEAM Mobile Feline Unit, a project of Tait’s Every Animal Matters, Westbrook, was launched in 1997 to end feline overpopulation in Connecticut by making spay/neuter and vaccination services affordable to needy pet owners and those caring for stray and feral cats.

Since then, more than 115,000 cats have been altered and vaccinated on-board. TEAM vets continue to perform 40 to 60 surgeries daily, and travel to more than 35 communities statewide.

The TEAM fee of $67 per cat includes spay or neuter, exam, vaccinations (rabies, distemper, upper/lower respiratory infection), nail trim and ear mite treatment if needed. The program is for any Connecticut cat, aged 16 weeks or older. For information call 1-888-FOR-TEAM (1-888-367-8326) or visit www.everyanimalmatters.org.

Participating Merchants: donating a percentage of sales and silent auction items.

Gourmet to Go

Patricia Spratt for the Home

EF Watermelon

Cooley Fine Art Gallery

Diane Birdsall Gallery

Bee & Thistle Inn ....Boules party

Old Lyme Inn .......live music on the terrace

diane birdsall gallery

10 Lyme Street

Old Lyme CT 06371

860 434 3209

dianebirdsallgallery.com