The annual Wakeman Town Farm Christmas tree lighting celebration — a fun family affair filled with music, a bonfire and homemade treats — was one more victim of COVID.
But the tree is still lit!
Bill Constantino (a Wakeman relative), WTF steward John Montoni and Bert Porzio’s great tree company made sure of that.
“We see it as a beacon of light and hope,” Wakeman Town Farm says.
Westporters can enjoy it — from the safety of their cars — any evening.
Or you can just appreciate it here:
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Just a thought:
With substantial snow predicted for Wednesday night, does that mean there’s a possible school snow day on Thursday?
Or with everyone now used to distance learning, will officials simply say, “Everyone work from home!”?
If that’s the case, then the end of snow days — a wonderful winter tradition — could be an unintended (and really bad) long-lasting COVID consequence.
Winslow Park snow day, March 4, 2019. (Photo/Molly Alger)
Last month, “06880” featured “Feliz Navidog.” The picture book by Ari Halper and his Saugatuck Elementary School daughter tells the tale of how Santa’s pet dog saves Christmas. (I won’t give the ending away. But it’s a quick read.)
Sales skyrocketed. Among the purchasers: Lori Levine van Arsdale.
She’s not the only one enjoying the book. Watson van Arsdale seems to have found a kindred canine under the tree.
(Photo/Lori Levine van Arsdale)
Yesterday I posted 2 photos of last night’s spectacular sunset. This morning I added 2 more.
All were taken by (or on) the water.
But nature’s beauty was on display all over town.
Chuck and Mimi Greenlee live way north (well, near Merritt Parkway Exit 41, anyway).
Here’s their view:
(Photo/Chuck Greenlee)
And finally … here’s a salute to Raymond Egan. He wrote songs for vaudeville and Broadway, from World War I through the Roaring ’20s and depressed ’30s.
Egan lived in Westport, and died here in 1952, age 61. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.
Among his tunes: the 1921 foxtrot “Ain’t We Got Fun,” “Kaiser Bill,” “You’re as Welcome as the Flowers in May,” and the gruesomely titled, absolutely non-PC “Mammy’s Little Coal Black Rose.”
Fun Fact #1: Egan’s song “Hand in Hand Again” was remixed and covered by Midnight Syndicate on their album “The 13th Hour” in 2005.
Fun Fact #2: Egan’s son Ron, who grew up in Westport, is now a professor of East Asian languages and cultures at Stanford University.
(Hat tip: John Kelley)
Raymond Egan also wrote another hit song- “Till We Meet Again”. When we purchased Egan’s Frazier Peters house some years ago to prevent its demolition, Amanda Egan very kindly presented us with an original copy of the sheet music to this standard. A gift we very much treasure. And, if I am not mistaken, I believe I am writing this note from the same room he used as his music studio. A lot of art history for an onion farming town!
Doug,
I thought I remembered a Ron Egan in my 1966 Staples class. Checking yearbook online, I was correct, but he’s not the Stanford prof. It would seem said professor is the songwriter’s GRANDSON: re Bridgeport Post 12/16/1961, p. 5 (online at Ancestry) where it would seem the Stanford Egan had the lead role in Amahl and Night Visitors at Trinity Church, being noted as son of Mr. & Mrs. Raymond Egan of Westport, the senior Egan being the church’s assistant organist. The prof may have finished up at a private school before going to U of Washington. At the moment, I am only aware that Staples yearbooks for 1964 and 1966 are up at Ancestry, just FYI.
Regards,