Westport mailboxes have always been eclectic.
They’re big and small, artistic and generic. Some stand upright; others are packed in sturdy concrete.
In a variety of fonts, they identify addresses: the full road, or just the number.
Saugatuck Shores (Photo/Patricia McMahon)
What they don’t show is who lives there.
No names. That may be why FedEx, Amazon and Uber Eats manage to screw up so many orders.
It wasn’t always like that.
I’m not sure when the practice of putting names on mailboxes (and lawns, and next to the front door) ended. (I can guess why: security and privacy.)
But that’s part of Westport life that disappeared a while ago, right underneath our eyes, without anyone noticing.
It’s not the only one.
Who remembers the cannonballs embedded in the grass near the Compo Beach cannons, or the anchor across from Ned Dimes Marina?
For newer residents, the palm tree by the kayak launch is just a f(r)ond memory.
(Photo/Jaime Bairaktaris)
“Station cars” were once the financially prudent, low-key way dads got to the train station. Today’s parking lot is a Range Rover convention.
The Westport News is gone, pretty much. It still publishes online, and some folks get it in their mail or on their driveway (whether they want it or not).
But the local newspaper — the one whose crusading saved us from a nuclear plant on Cockenoe Island, and which covered local meetings, sports, education, arts, police and much more with actual journalists — is now as irrelevant as an AAA road map.
And you can’t buy a copy anywhere in town, even if you wanted one.
Also gone:
Leaf-burning in the fall. Apparently it releases toxic particles that can cause severe lung damage. That seems serious. But losing the quintessential smell of autumn — which no one under 40 remembers — is serious too.
Autumn ritual, back in the day.
Teachers and coaches once gave kids rides home. Today, that’s a fire-able offense.
Speaking of fires: A fire horn sounded every Saturday at noon, and summoned volunteers whenever there was a blaze. If you knew the code, you could head over and see the blaze yourself. And the code could be found …
… in phone books. They disappeared around the time of rotary phones. Along with …
… knowing your friends’ phone numbers. Kids today don’t even know their parents’ numbers. Which is okay, because …
… most tweens and teens (and 20somethings) refuse to talk on the phone. Or to anyone face to face, for that matter. They’ll text someone sitting right next to them. I wish I were kidding, but I’m not.
(Photo/Lynn Untermeyer Miller)
Gone too:
24/7/365 hours of operation at the diner. Isn’t that actually the definition of a diner?
The large cone on top of Carvel.
And the sign on Easton Road, noting the distance to Upper Stepney. Crucial information for everyone in the Coleytown area, heading up there.
Though in Upper Stepney, as in Westport, no one puts their name on their mailbox anymore.
(What else vanished from Westport, without any noticing? Click “Comments” below.)
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Mom and pop stores…all but gone; and the “personal charge,”… by, by.
Westport’s greatest loss (and it didn’t happen overnight)?
The great Italian families mostly of Saugatuck who raised everybody’s kids as if they were their own. They made sure all the core functions of town; police, fire department, school lunches, education, great restaurants and safe places to play were all covered. The latest episode in the recreation department was pretty much the last straw as far as I’m concerned.
the Italian festival. For four days in July right after the fireworks, a parade all the way down from the VFW to testing station lot, Luciano park had live music, all the Italian eateries from Arthur Ave and Brooklyn, carnival rides and games ❤️ miss it a lot
Andrew from my sanctuary way out here in flyover country you seem to be doing a pretty good job of making sure ALL the great Italian kharma has not left Westport. Here’s to you and people like you who can separate the forest from the trees.
Dan…speaking of the fire horns, they also blasted every day at 5 pm. This was a great way to signal to all the kids out playing it was time to get home, our parents were the opposite of helicopter parents. The fire horn would also sound early early in the morning when it was a snow day, and no school!
I remember a horn going off at noon sharp in the Wonder Years. The only thing I remember at five p.m., was my mother yelling at me to get my butt home.
The mini bus that gave the towns kids freedom .
The Westport News is still available at the Library
My old boss, who lived on South Compo Rd, had a pot belly stove as a mailbox. A good landmark to find his house.
I doidnt live in Westport in the good old days. I recall going to Westport to eat at The Clam Box ?
Great place. They hosted the Staples athletic awards banquets every year. Highlight of the year if you were into team sports. There were two of them, I think the other one was in Greenwich. Never went there, the one in Westport was great.
Cos Cob, technically, on the Post Road. It had a cigarette machine just inside the door, very convenient for high schoolers.
Went to a luncheon at the Clam Box (normally for out of towners rather than locals) in 1960 to hear Richard Nixon give a campaign speech. He dipped his tie in the clam chowder. Just kept on talking. My Mama was big GOPer.
Crossroads Hardware – stopping in on Saturday mornings and shmoozing with Jimmy and AJ Izzo. It was the true heart of Westport for so many years.
Great “Country” restaurants, like the Three Bears and the Red Barn.
Love the mention of the Upper Stepney sign! I have a photo of that.
While the world of sports has improved so much since our childhood in terms of the significant increase in girls’ participation thanks to Title IX, one local change that left a void in my opinion was the elimination of junior-high varsity sports programs. Junior-high soccer gave a late bloomer like me an opportunity to develop. And, quite frankly, it was simply a lot of fun representing your school.
If there is sufficient money in the Board of Ed budget to fund roughly 40 varsity sports programs at Staples, couldn’t some money be found to fund a much smaller range of varsity sports at the middle school level? At the very least, how about an annual Bedford-Coleytown challenge in different sports?
Go Colts
I was lucky enough to grow up a block east of the river and 300 yards from Saugatuck Elementary School (Bridge St.) My classmates were a true mishmash of society. Jewish kids, black kids, Puerto Rican kids and kids whose families had immigrated from Mexico and Cuba. And nobody cared. We were all colorblind and that’s the way it was..All our homes were wide open to everyone and our mothers were home and keeping an eye on all of us. Fond memories of Jackie, Yvonne, Louie, Jojo and Alberto and all the rest. I wouldn’t change one minute of my childhood.
AWESOME…..Animal
At the end of our lane, there were three houses. The family names were Black, Mills and Rich.
We found it amusing that the order of the boxes ended up Rich Black Mills.
How about that little repair shop on the Post Rd kind of near Mitchell’s that repaired lamps, radios and all things electric? I don’t remember the name but I used to bring things there in the 80’s and early 90’s. Anyone else remember it?
I remember it well. It was wonderful to have to have it here. Now, you hardly can get any repairs for anything anywhere.
Beacon Electronics, I believe.
Yes.
Frond memories! LOL
Let’s see….
The Big Top Shoppe at the corner of Roseville Rd and Rte 1 (great flame cooked hamburgers).
The five o’clock siren, which was the daily test of the old CD/Fire siren that was on Rt 57 opposite Weston Center.
Westport Pizzeria, West Lake Restaurant, Fine Arts Movies and the Remarkable Book Shop.
And all those telephone poles that used to run down Main St.
The sound of gas powered leaf blowers…. N O T
I would never have known the names of most of the people living on High Point Road, including the Woog’s, without the names on the mailboxes. It would have just been a street full of anonymous people.
The pay phone on Main St across from the old Westport Pizzeria. I was walking by there the other day and remembering using it as a kid in the 80s!
Erin, are you on “Blue Bloods?”
Klien’s Stationary Store, Westport Hardware, Westport Bank & Trust, Shilespky’ Clothing, Tracey’s Men’s Store, The Max’s Meat Market, Greenberg’s, Bulikite’s Corner Store, Bridgeport Hydraulic on the Post Road, Fine Art’s Stationary, Scheafer Sporting Goods, The Dress Box, Famous Artist School and so many more. “Those were the good old days my friend, who thought they would ever end.” I lived in Westport when it was the artist and Broadway tryout town. Wonderful memories of a life that has passed.
Both set of Great Grandparents, Grandparents, and Parents all lived here. My siblings and I still do, but miss what it was.
Thankfully, Westport Hardware is still with us.
Right with you Helen. I remember all you listed. Thanks for the memories.
My dad had a great station car, a little light blue Simca. It looked like the kind of car that could drive on land and water. And when I was in high school I could drive him to the station (early in the morning) and use the car for school and then pick him up at night.
But I actually could just drive him down to the end of East Ferry Lane and he would go across the walking bridge to the station.
I know this has been discussed here before – but someone mentioned Fire Whistles. I remember being in Mrs. Dunnigan’s 6th grade class and she could tell us exactly where a fire was by the pattern of the fire horn.
I remember a pet store on the Post Road and Maple Avenue. I believed they specialized in fish. We got a couple of goldfish there as well as some guppies, which rapidly reproduced. The store owner recommended we get a beta fish(?) which would eat some of the guppies, but the guppies found a way to kill it. I’m not sure that was the lesson my p[rents envisioned me learning. The store closed around 1960.
Also remembered Louis Engle, who sold collectors coins (and stamps?) from a second floor location on Main Street near the Y.
Anyone remember the Stage Door restaurant? A picture of it is one of Westport’s official pictures, and hung on the wall of the Peppermill restaurant.
How about this one. On the corner of the Post Road and Bulkley Avenue North there was a place that sold blocks of ice I guess for your Icebox.
Phone numbers that began with letters. Locally they were CA7 -****