To the too-long list of grammatically incorrect Westport street signs, add:
The Westport Country Playhouse is located at 25 Powers Court. The Dressing Room restaurant is adjacent: 27 Powers Court.
That’s “Powers” Court — named for (I am told) the Powers family who once owned the land.
Not “Power’s” Court. It’s not named for the actor Tyrone.
Even if he did appear at the Playhouse, back in the day.
The Powers family still lives in Westport on Saugatuck Shores. That’s Shores, not Shore’s.
Was this any relation to the Powers that put together the purchase of the Land that is now Longshore?
Will we be changing it to West Port any time soon???????
When I ws a wee lad and a “soda jerk” at
Gray’s Drug Store on Main St. Tyrone
came in for breakfast, totally hung over, during his run at the Playhouse. His wife,
Annabelle, did too, but never with him.
It was circa 1945. And I have no idea why I wrote this or why I’m posting it on 06880.
I’m convinced that somewhere out there is a misguided English teacher (not in the Westport schools, of course) who somehow convinced a whole mess of kids that any plural must have an apostrophe-S. This sort of craziness with plural words just happens waaay too often.
You’re right, Mark. Teacher’s teach our kid’s these silly thing’s.
My haughty doctor showed me the very expensive scrapbook he had made. The embossed leather cover had the words “Patient’s Letters.” That must have been one prolific patient!
I think Vic Powers played third base for the Yankees for a time in the 60’s.
Good memory, Dude. But it was 1951-53.
And he never really made it to the Yanks. They traded his minor league contract to the Philly A’s in ’53. And it was first base.
But you’re amoung the 2% who even remembered him.
I must be wearing orthopedic shoes because I stand corrected. But I could have sworn that Vic was traded from the Kansas City Athletics to play third base for the ailing Clete Boyer in the mid-1960’s. But the Dude Abides.
Has anyone ever tried to order a sign for the front of their house from almost any mail order company? The choice will be “The Smith’s Home”, no other option!
And I believe Westport has the best school system (I went on to become an English major at college) but when we’ve been trying to find classmates from Staples 1960 for our 50th reunion in June, the yearbook had at least 10-15 misspelling of names in the Senior section! It’s difficult to find “Steve Mechlin” for instance when it finally turns out that his name was spelled “Maechtlen”! We used our P.I. caps and did finally find 96% of our classmates, but who knows if the 20 still missing have misspelled last names? 🙁
And about the sign near the Playhouse? More “Power’s” to you, Dan.
I remember Vic Power, Gary. Very flashy fielder at 1b. Pretty good hitter with a weird stance. Made a couple of all-star teams. He was Puerto Rican, very dark and the first black player ever signed by the Yanks. He was traded to the A’s because he had had an unabashed penchant for dating white women. The bad old days.
Hmmm… I’d always heard Elston Howard was the first black player on the Yankees. Wikipedia agrees: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_first_black_Major_League_Baseball_players_by_team_and_date
The Yanks were certainly not at the head of the this movement…
No, the Yankees were not at the forefront but the Red Sox passed on Jackie Robinson and were the last team to actually sign an African-American.
This is a long way from errant apostrophes but….Vice Power was the first black player signed by the Yanks but Ellie Howard was the first black player to actually play for the Yankees. Power, who probably played about 10-15 years in the major leagues, mainly for KC and Cleveland, was traded to the then Philly A’s (an apostrophe!) before ever playing for the Yanks. Howard was signed around the same time as Power and came up in ’55, I think. I saw Power play often. Quite a showman.
I should have checked the web first. The Yanks wanted to sign Power in ’49 but decided that he needed a year in the Mexican League first. They didn’t sign him until a few weeks after signing Howard. Consensus was that Power would have been promoted to the Yankees before Howard had he not been traded. What a long journey from Power’s Court to Vic Power.
Power to the people!
Actually we had stop with Tyronne Power before Vic too. Beauty of this blog.
Tom has nailed it, Dan. Power was signed before Howard but, as we noted above, never played in the bigs. ( No ‘)
Oh, you power-hungry people!
“06880” reader Mary McGee writes:
A little background on Powers Court.
Did you know twins Dave and Dean Powers? They went through the Westport schools and might have been around your age (in other words, very young). Their grandfather owned the property on which the playhouse now sits and for which Powers Court was named.
Dave Powers and I have been friends for several years and Dave moved near our house in the Cape, so we see him often. When I heard that he was “the” Powers, I excitedly asked him how that came to be. He replied simply that his grandfather once owned the land, but I couldn’t get him to elaborate. My sense was that he didn’t think it was all that exciting or interesting.
His mother, Eunice, was a teacher in several Westport schools. She was also a piano teacher and organist at a local church. She is now pretty frail and lives in Saugatuck Shores with Dean Powers, a landscaper.