Thursday, May 31, 2012

Memorial Day..2012..Sharon's Dedicated

Okay....the last few days have been fun, showing off a bit of the charm of living in our great little town....our annual Memorial Day Parade. To show it from a different view I think worked out alright as I have received a number of nice comments. But for today's offering, I turn to those who matter most. Our vets. To whom we honor and pay tribute.


Meet a just a few of Sharon's finest.










  Thank you gentlemen for your service to our country.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Memorial Day..2012..Sharon's People, Part 2

Okay, so my emphasis the last few days is to show you some of Sharon's best....those people who come out and support the town and its American Legion and other organizations all gathering together, first with a parade, and then with a service of remembrance to those who gave their lives in service to our country, as well to those who have served proudly and thankfully not made the ultimate sacrifice.


Look through these pictures, and see just how great our little towns people are...their faces tell the story....

Lois Russin and family.....

Kirbys

Smiling gents!

School Principal Karen Manning and friends

Kate and her sister and the guy with the best laugh in town!

The Grays and Anne Holm and more...

Our loudest cheering section!

Mike, Tracy and friend. Liz Forstman in the back..

Mr. & Mrs. Dick Hayes

Annette, Irene, Rob, Peter & Deb Reyelt    Linda

4 generations of Wike/Humeston

 Courtney Wilbur Brammer, Diorio Family, and Shirley 

Mattoons and Mary Kirby

Doc Hayden and Doc Heacox!

Mrs. Mullins, Mrs. Hayden, Heacox Family and more

Happy families!

Aux. Trooper Dennis Toginalli,  serving with pride every year!

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Memorial Day 2012...Sharon and its people..

Let me start today's post by saying I am prejudiced. Yep. I admit it. I live in, if not the best, the second best small town in America when it comes to doing Memorial Day celebrations. In the Town of Sharon, we do it right! 


From the route: the grammar school (where the kids all line-up) down over the hill on North Main into Main and south through town down to the Soldier's Monument across from the Town Clock. The setting, along the town green, is gorgeous. The homes which line the streets are so Colonial America in their charm. The flags. The buntings. The flowers. The trees. The perfectly manicured grass of the green. It is so special. Norman Rockwell would have lived here if Stockbridge wasn't his home, I just know it. At the end of May, with things so green after the long winter...........special.


But that is about the route. What truly makes Sharon special on Memorial Day is its people. Singles. Couples. Families. Kids in strollers. Grandparents on canes and walkers. Grown children here with and without their parents. Grown children home for the first time since Christmas to be with Mom and Dad. A true balance. 


I wanted to do something different this year, so I asked my son Drew to take pictures of the people, who line the parade route this year. Nobody special. Just give me a feel of what you see, what we, the marcher, the old car-driver, the volunteer fireman, the members of the ladies club, show them who "we" see.....let them see "our town".


Today I start with Mr. Tom Flanagan. As far as a know, a native child of Sharon. Now, a long way from a child in body age, but still full of the zest that is Tom (or Buck, which a few of us who've known him for our whole lives can call him). Gotta work a bit harder to get it out of him, but it's still there. Sharon flows through his veins. The northwest corner is his home. He maintained its roads for years and years when he worked for the D.O.T., on the highway crew. His daughter Diane told me he wasn't going to watch this year, but she said Dad, get out here! These are your people! Come see them! And I am sure glad he did. And judging by his smile, I dare say I think he is glad he came out too.....






Tom Flanagan, and his daughter Diane, her husband Pat, her brother Ed.....these are just some of the good people of Sharon. Not Rockwell's Sharon. Our Sharon.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Memorial Day 2012

Memorial Day 2012 was a day I shall not soon forget. It will take me probably a week, perhaps more, to put up the posts which are coming to mind. Please...everyone. I have much to share in the coming days, so please stay with the blog daily for the next week, if not longer, to see our day in Sharon. I hope to tell a different story thru pictures and thoughts.

 It was a gorgeous day weather-wise in the northeast, or at least in Connecticut. We started with decorating my Dad's old firetruck out in all of his festive American flags (11), loaded on my immediate family of wife Clare, son Andrew( home for the weekend from D.C.), daughter Catherine, their cousin Molly (up from Staten Island for the weekend) and Cat's college friend Stacy (from upstate N.Y., but now Stratford, Ct.), who also spent the weekend with us. Oh, and the big bucket of throw-out candy for the parade watching-kids. I said my prayers that Ol' Besse would start again (phew,thankfully she did) and off we went to town. My pic today is of the color guard and firing team from the Legion Post here in Sharon, immediately after their dedicating a bouquet of flowers to those sailors who have given their lives in service to our countries history.


Sunday, May 27, 2012

99 Main

After way too many years of virtual no one residing at one of the oldest homes in Sharon, it is soooo nice to see activity once again at 99 Main. I enjoyed their display of a nice thirteen star flag in their doorway.  Also nice seeing the new plantings out on the front step and shrubbery being cared for. Very nice indeed.


Saturday, May 26, 2012

Just down the hill...

~we find a very tasteful  entry at #32 North Main. Great clean lines with the columns. Fun wreath gracing the super door. Nice color combination. A caring touch to everything, yet tastefully simple. I love the blue-sky ceiling, seen so seldom these days. The bluestone flooring adds a very nice elegance. A favorite. 



Front Door Entrances: A Series



70 North Main certainly does have a different look than that of most homes in the area. The green now will probably be cascading in flowers in a few short days or weeks. 


Stay tuned for updates.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Doorway through time....

~It struck me as I was looking at this front door of this home, the wonderment of just whom has walked thru this doorway, or perhaps stood and talked under this porch roof, in its two hundred and sixty-seven year history. Where they tall, or were they short? Were they famous, or just common folk? Had any nervous young men met a young girls parents for the first time there? Or, what kinds of decisions might have been made? How many cups of sugar were passed out to new neighbors? How many times had directions been given? How many children asked for trick or treats? And how many times has its picture been taken (add one more), or its profile painted or sketched? 


Looking back through a keyhole in history.


Tuesday, May 22, 2012

No more frost!

Well, I think it's safe to say that the sub-freezing temperatures are now behind us. My tell-tale sign? The plantings went in at the site of the old lolly-pops by the clock tower in the center of Sharon. I believe the exact name for that garden is named for the late Joan Gurnee, wife of Hal Gurnee of Sharon. I chanced upon the plantings this morning on my way in to work. I think Kim Hohlfeld , who does some marvelous things with plantings seemed to be in charge, and there were a number of other volunteers there pitching in. My belief is that The Sharon Women's Club actually is the group which chairs this project each year. Just stay tuned a few days, or a weeks, and I bet it will be another gorgeous garden to greet passing motorists...


Sunday, May 20, 2012

Saturday, May 19, 2012

"It's Struttin' time"

"So whaddya think ladies, am I the nicest or what?

"Wait .....girls, ladies......come back....please? We'll behave....honest. We'll do whatever you say....don't go"


Friday, May 18, 2012

My....how times change!

It wasn't that many years ago that when the paint truck came to town to paint the line in the middle of the state highways, this would be the order of progression. First came a truck warning of line painting, getting cars to stay over to the side of the road. Then would come a truck with a low platform and it would have a man sit on it and he would paint the lines. He would watch for small "key" signs which would be on the side of the road, which said either solid or dashes or whatever. Right behind that came another truck with an man down on a low platform and he would set down little flags, with heavy metal bases, about every one hundred feet or so to keep cars off the paint. Then behind that would come another truck just keeping cars back and away, giving the paint time to dry. They would put go about about a mile, then go back and pick up the flags, and reload the truck getting ready to start all over for the next stretch of road.

Move ahead twenty-five years and look at how they do it today! Wow! I bet the first truck, with the paint and compressors and the man in the paint box probably cost half a million dollars. What a machine! Behind that was a truck with some bright signs just saying sign painting. No flags. No warning truck out front. No turning around. Just putting down paint.  center line plus one side line of the right.

Thursday I saw them go up thru the center of Sharon mid-morning, and I think they did probably all the way to Lakeville, maybe Canaan and probably 44 and 112 as well as 41. They were scooting right along. Today they were back down thru Sharon and did the other outside line they didn't do yesterday. Now, I am doing a bit of speculating on exactly how much they did, but lets say I would not be surprised if they had done that much in the last day.

The finished product sure looked nice where I saw, near the plaza. It will come in handy on foggy days and nights, and make it all safer for all of us. I saw a third truck with bags of something that I bet was the reflective particles, that they mix in the paint, and reflect when headlights hit them. Another pretty neat thing. In the old days, I remember a man shoveling the particles onto the wet paint from the back of a truck by hand. Progress. Some of it it pretty darn cool!




I sure wish the board of finance in the Town of Sharon would see to it that our selectmen have the necessary funds so they can get our curves and intersections and blind areas get a center line down, so our roads can be that much safer. I've been threatening to go out and paint the center line on Roeske's Corner myself, just so cars will be more apt to stay on their side of the road. I can't count how many times I have been run off into the grass on that corner. I have a little spray rig for doing small parking lots. I could do it myself. Come on finance board. Make it happen....sooner than later!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

A work of Beauty



We have stone walls on our property, which were built by farmers clearing the land to make pasture land. They bear no resemblance to this wall, which was built to be the piece of art, the thing of beauty, that it so obviously is. I seldom speak of wishes, but I wish I had stone walls like this one. Amazing.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Not so whoopee...

So in my stroll yesterday I came across a not your typical sight. I whoopee pie with very little eaten from it. Really? A whoopee pie not eaten? Boy, it must have been really bad.




Bet the crows and the ants had a quick meal once I left the area....

Sunday, May 13, 2012

EMS Numbers

Well, I got some interesting photos today, but I feel moved to make a public service  announcement on behalf of the volunteer fire department and ambulance squad here in Sharon first. If you haven't already done so, GET YOUR HOUSE EMS NUMBERS ! TOMORROW! Why wait a day longer? That ten dollars you may spend at the Sharon Pharmacy could save your or a loved ones life tomorrow!


Seen below you see proper installation for the numbers. These numbers are on a location off Fairchild Road in Sharon. If it's an ambulance call, or a fire call, or police, in the middle of day, or night, these numbers will bring help to the proper location. How can you not make this investment? Come on people. Please. Make the investment. And make it today!






Saturday, May 12, 2012

Awesome Spring Evening!

Pssst! Don't tell my wife, whatever you do. She said, "stay in the driveway. Don't go walking up the hill". She went off to 5:30 Mass. I was dying to go for a walk. I got to the end of the drive, felt good and said, well I'll just go to Jimmie and Donna's, which is just up the hill about , oh 6-700 feet.....Next thing I know, I am at the intersection. Oops. The reason I am not walking far is because my back has been out since last Thursday (a week plus) and after a visit to the emergency room yesterday morning, I am now on "pain management" pills for a few days. The Dr. told me to do some elementary yoga stretches today, and the one I did really felt good. So, I walked up to the corner, a bit farther to the swampy area, and then turned around and came back. It was so lovely out, and it felt so good to be out for a bit. I had my phone with me if I needed it, or someone needed me, and I got back about 45 minutes after leaving. By no means brisk, but extremely enjoyable. Walking on Jackson is so pleasant. I met a cyclist, saw another one from a distance, met a neighbor with her new labrador puppy, another couple out for a walk as well, another friend out for a walk, and a bunch of nature (birds, frogs, rabbit, deer and I think that was about it).

I felt so good. I hope tomorrow is another good day. This back business stinks. Need to get some advice on exercises or yoga or whatever, so I don't get as bad as I have been this past week. Got to do it. Got to!

The colors are back!

Camofulage

Spring colors

Catching some rays...

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Fill The Truck!

The little guys ( 5, 6, 7 year olds) at St. Bernard's Roman Catholic and The Sharon Congregational Churches are working together to help their neighbors. There are way too many hungry families right here in our immediate area (more than many of us know) and they are collecting food items to be passed along to the very needy. If you can offer some food items (anything will be appreciated), please drop it by the old fire truck turned giant food cart....


The truck is currently parked at the front of The Sharon Congregational Church, where it will be till the end of the month. I believe they are going to have it up at the shopping plaza this coming Saturday morning, but I 'm not positive.













Learning to help their neighbors, and at a very young age. Great teachings.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Around town on a rainy night...

So where am I?





































Ballot # 172 for the day

I'll let you fill in the caption........



Water trough plantings