Avid “06880” reader Fred Cantor spent many years in Westport. He lives now in Stratford — just up the Merritt Parkway from here.
Today, Fred offers this ode to the historic road:
Sometimes it takes an outsider to remind us of the distinctiveness and beauty of something we might otherwise take for granted.
That happened some years back. A friend traveled on the Merritt — I think for the first time — and said it was one of the most beautiful roadways she had ever driven on.
This woman grew up on the shores of Lake Superior, went to college in the foothills of the Adirondacks, and has spent nearly her entire adult life in southern California, so she has been on her share of majestic roads.
That beauty of the Merritt was reinforced for me recently by the cascading leaves on a windy day from vibrant fall foliage on a trip, when I traveled the entire length of the Parkway to visit my mom. It felt almost as if I were in a scene from an MGM movie in Hollywood’s Golden Age.
I first heard about the Merritt Parkway well before I ever saw it. Friends of ours in Fresh Meadows, Queens used to go for what they called “a drive in the country” on the Merritt in the early 1960s. They would end up having a meal at a place that sounded idyllic: the Red Barn.
It would have been impossible to know back then that not too far down the road (no pun intended), the driveway entrance to our future home on Easton Road would be the distance from the Merritt Parkway bridge of a Y.A. Tittle to Del Shofner pass (and that I would go back and forth through that underpass countless times).
Merritt Parkway bridge. (Photo/David McKenzie)
The bridges that pass over the Merritt are visual attractions in their own right. Their fascinating back stories (along with other interesting history) can be found here.
Today, sculptures like this one atop the James Farm Road Bridge near our home in Stratford catch our eye:
(Photo/Fred Cantor)
Of course, that “drive in the country” is not quite the same today with the increased traffic. But if you go on an off-hour, I still highly recommend driving on the Merritt, as opposed to I-95.
(Click here for a 2009 “06880” story honoring the Merritt Parkway.)
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