Longtime residents think of it as the “new” skating rink.
Newcomers assume it’s been here forever.
In fact, this year the Westport Police Athletic Rink at Longshore celebrates its 25th anniversary.
That’s right. Every winter since 1997 — with support from Westport’s Parks & Recreation Department — the PAL has operated one of the town’s best family (and solo) activities (and bargains).
Skating at the Longshore PAL rink. (Photo/Michael Wisner)
That first year, a small rink was set up in the parking lot next to the Longshore Inn.
But — thanks to generous donors, and a huge demand for wholesome, fun outdoor entertainment — a larger rink was purchased.
The rink is a magnet for all ages.
In its 5th year, the rink was expanded to its current size: 75 feet by 144 feet.
The rink is versatile. In addition to public skating, lessons and private party rentals, it’s also used by area hockey teams.
Hockey at the Longshore PAL rink. (Photos/Larry Untermeyer)
For lesson information, call 203-341-5090. For party and event info, email wpalrinkparty@gmail.com. For the rink’s website, click here.
Of course, the rink is not the only PAL project. Established in 1948, they run youth programs in football, cheer, basketball, rugby, wrestling, lacrosse and track and field.
The PAL awards annual scholarships too.
And of course, they do all the heavy lifting for Westport’s annual July 4th fireworks show.
This week though — with the opening of the 25th Longshore skating season — the focus is on the PAL’s rink.
Everyone has a favorite PAL skating rink story. Click “Comments” below to share yours.
I was so excited to announce yesterday that Staples High School’s Candlelight Concert will be streamed, that I gave the wrong date.
It’s not Christmas Day. The correct date for the streaming is Thursday, December 23,(8 p.m.). To access the stream that day of the concert (recorded earlier), just go to www.StaplesMusic.org.
The Unitarian Church of Westport’s Community Carol Sing is set for this Sunday (December 19, 4 to 5 p.m.).
It’s COVID safe: outdoors in the large parking lot (10 Lyons Plains Road).
A French horn will accompany songs (words provided), with everything from classic carols and fun favorites to Hanukkah songs. Hey — it’s the Unitarians!
Everyone is invited.
PS: There’s hot chocolate too.
There’s no need to dress up to join the Unitarian Church carol sing. But you can.
=======================================================There’s no better new activity for young kids than chess. It teaches a variety of skills, in a social environment.
And what better way for youngsters to learn than from others just a few years older?
Westport Continuing Education introduces a new after-school program for 1st through 5th grades. “Chess Buddies” pairs students from the Staples Chess Club with aspiring grandmasters (or anyone else who wants to learn).
The program begins next month, in all 5 elementary schools.
Stapleites will be paired with adult teachers, who assist. The cost is $169, for 8 sessions. Click here to register. For more information, email conted@westportps.org, or call 203-341-1209.
Staples Chess Club members Oscar Scher, Oliver Saitz and Jordan Chiu-Skow.
Here’s just one of 6 turkey vultures that stopped this week at Elmwood Road.
Photographer Franco Fellah — who snapped this amazing “Westport .. Naturally” shot — says, “They are magnificent, a bit spooky, but certainly majestic.” He estimates their wingspan at about 7 feet.
FUN WESTPORT FACT: Westport’s own Kelli O’Hara starred in the 2008 Broadway revival of “South Pacific.” (She was Nellie Forbush, however — not Bloody Mary.)
If you were a certain age a few years ago, you may have heard of the Walters.
The Chicago-based band — whose harmonies are reminiscent of the Beach Boys, and whose music has been described as “cardigan rock” — recorded a few songs. The first — “I Love You So,” released in 2014 — did the best.
The Walters’ founder — 2010 Staples High School graduate Walter Kosner — helped the group do some guerilla marketing, on places like Reddit, In 2016 they booked a too-ambitious 3-month tour. It burned them out. Members went their separate ways.
Four of them — minus their lead singer — eventually reunited. They played under a new name: Corduroy.
Kosner moved to California. He had a few side gigs, but the steady income from the Walters’ streaming helped pay the bills.
Recently — suddenly, and out of the blue — labels began calling. There was renewed interested in the Walters. Kosner had no idea why.
Turns out that TikTok gave the group a new life.
A few fans posted videos there, with background music from “I Love You So.” Younger people discovered the song, then used it for their own videos; The Walters started trending; that led music lovers to Spotify and Apple Music, and bam!
The Walters are bona fide internet sensations: over 200 million Spotify streams, and more than half a million TikTok videos. By comparison, The Weeknd’s “Save Your Tears” soundtrack is on just over 130,000 TikToks; Ariana Grande’s “34+35” is featured in 184,000 videos.
There was only one snag: They broke up 5 years ago.
No problem!
Kosner recruited the singer back. Now they’re making new music. Soon — signed to Warner Records — they’ll start recording again.
Walter Kosner (back row, center) and The Walters.
And touring. They’re playing dates from New York to Los Angeles.
Thanks to social media, they’ve got fans all over the world. Some of the most avid are in Indonesia and the Philippines. In the new year, the Walters will make their way there too.
The genius of some famous people — Van Gogh, Emily Dickinson, Galileo — became apparent only after their death.
Twenty-six years ago — after working in group homes for adults with special needs — Deborah Gallon heard about an opening in the Westport Public Schools.
She’s been a special education paraprofessional here ever since.
Deb has impacted countless lives: students she’s worked with one-on-one, and in student skills and mainstream classes. Colleagues in special ed and other departments. And every student, from all walks of life, with whom she has worked as Best Buddies advisor, for so many years.
That club — part of an international organization founded by Anthony Kennedy Shriver — pairs students who have intellectual and developmental disabilities, and those without.
The Staples chapter is particularly active. Members go dancing, bowling and ice skating, and to dinner and movies. Deb takes officers to annual meetings in Indiana, where they meet other Best Buddies members from around the world.
Deborah Gallon, in front of the Best Buddies showcase at Staples. (Photo/Dan Woog)
“I’m really, really going to miss those kids. I love them!” Deb says. “They’ve been a big part of me.”
Inspired by her enthusiasm and organizational skills, every principal and townwide special ed director has been very supportive of Best Buddies. Parents help tremendously too.
On January 1, Deb Gallon reluctantly leaves Best Buddies, and the rest of her Staples family, behind. She and her husband put their house on the market. They’ll head to Charlotte, where much of her family lives. Her husband — a chef — is having a food truck built there.
The Stratford native also leaves behind her Cornerstone Christian Church in Milford, and the Storehouse Pantry there that she directs.
“So many people need so many things. There are so many homeless and hungry people in Connecticut,” she notes. “It’s been eye-opening.
“I just pray God sends me where I can connect with kids, and people in need. I wouldn’t be me without that.”
For over a quarter century, Deborah Gallon has inspired and uplifted Staples High School. She’s done the same in her church and community.
She’s asked for nothing in return. And we probably have not thanked her enough for all she has given us.
Which is why Deborah Gallon is this week’s Unsung Hero. Best wishes to you in retirement — although there’s no doubt you’ll be as active in North Carolina as you are here.
(Do you know an Unsung Hero? Email dwoog@optonline.net)
Tickets went fast for this weekend’s Candlelight Concert.
But Westporters — and everyone else, around the world — can watch it online. A tape of the 81st annual event will be streamed on Thursday, December 23 (8 p.m.).
Like the concert itself, it’s free — a gift, from the Staples High School music department. The link will be available at StaplesMusic.org.
Steve Ginsburg spent 10 great years with the ADL: 4 in Chicago, the last 6 as director of its Connecticut chapter.
His most rewarding times were helping people in crisis — CEOs, school principals, teenagers being bullied or accused of bullying — work through their issues.
Now, the Westport resident is doing that full-time.
Ginsburg is a co-founder of August. It’s a national strategic communications firm, helping people and companies in difficult circumstances tell their story with clarity and integrity.
His area of expertise is “diversity and bias.” For example, he cites a university campus roiled by accusations of racism. He can guide the many stakeholers — students, professors, administrators, trustees — as they speak to the media.
“At ADL, I loved working with media,” Ginsburg says. “I saw the importance of them doing their job well — and what can happen when they don’t.
“Our society is very polarized. When news breaks, there’s often a rush to judgment. But things are not always what they first seem. Society benefits from accurate, fair reporting.”
Justin Paul has been very generous with his time. The Tony, Oscar and Grammy Award-winning co-songwriter of “Dear Evan Hansen,” “La La Land” and “The Greatest Showman” — and 2003 Staples High School graduate — has returned often to his alma mater (and Coleytown Middle School) to share insights and tricks of the trade with the next generation of talented Westporters.
For the rest of us — who aren’t still in school — there’s a new online course.
Paul and his writing partner, Benj Pasek, offer a month-long online class: “Songwriting for Musical Theater.” It’s immersive — 7 to 10 hours a week, for 4 weeks — that provides students with the foundation to write their own musical (including 2 original songs).
Click here for details. Who knows? Maybe after writing your musical, “You Will Be Found.”
At the end of an appearance in 2018 at Staples High, Justin Paul played piano as students sang the “Dear Evan Hansen” classic, “Waving Through a Window.” (Photo/Kerry Long)
Everyone is in the gift-giving mood. Even the Westport Transit District.
As a holiday gift to residents, they offer free rides to users of the Wheels2U shuttle service. The service starts Monday (December 20), and is good through December 31.
Wheels2U Westport is the WTD’s on-demand, group ride, door-to -train platform shuttle service.
The free rides to and from the Westport and Greens Farms stations are not just for commuters. If you’re seeing a show, museum, the Rockefeller Center tree or friends: hop aboard the shuttle, and the train.
If you’re in the service area, use the Wheels2U Westport app to request a pickup between 5:45 and 9:45 a.m., and 4 and 8 p.m., 20 minutes before you’d normally leave.
Back in the (Clam Box) days, there was an exit from that parking lot in the back, onto Long Lots Road.
Years ago, it was sealed off. The only exit and entrance was via Post Road East.
There may be another exit in the future. In a different spot: the upper parking deck.
Planning & Zoning Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals permission has been granted to expand the upper deck by 18 spaces; reconstruct and extend the existing retaining wall; install a planter and landscaping — and add gated, emergency access to Long Lots. It would only be used by fire, police or EMS vehicles, as a secondary exit route.
The request for a zoning permit awaits P&Z Department approval.
A view of the 877 Post Road East upper parking deck, from Long Lots Road.
And finally … Steve Bronski, a co-founder member of the British synth-pop trio Bronski Beat, died Thursday, at 61. Click here for a full obituary. (Hat tip: Amy Schneider)
In August of 1958, Charlie Taylor, his parents, and younger siblings John and Fran, moved to Westport from rural western Kentucky.
Charlie Taylor, in the 1959 Staples yearbook.
It was a culture shock for the Staples High School sophomore. He found friends on the football team and Downshifters hot rod club, and retains a fondness for the town.
Though long removed from here — he’s had successful dual careers with Vanderbilt University and as a Nashville singer/songwriter — he is an avid “0688o” reader and commenter.
But Charlie never lost his love for his hometown of Mayfield either. Last week, the community was one of many devastated by tornadoes that swept through Kentucky and neighboring states.
Now Charlie is trying to help. He writes:
Mayfield was like Mayberry. You got caught doing something wrong, you were disciplined on the spot — and sent home to get disciplined again.
It was a town and area built on your word, and a handshake. It was a part of Kentucky ignored by the state politicians — until my grandfather’s friend Alben Barkley became vice president under Harry Truman.
Cattle, hogs, corn and soybeans were our crops. Young boys like me hunted, fished, and grew up in Boy Scouts learning to live off the land.
Mayfield had a good education system by today’s standards, with music, history, civics and government courses that taught critical thinking skills. 4-H and Future Farmers of America were popular Mayfield groups.\
We rode bicycles, and learned to drive stick shift cars and farm equipment at 12 years old. We played sports in each other’s backyards, and were gobsmacked by Elvis, Jerry Lee and Chuck Berry in our teens.
People bought on credit at retail stores — especially our farmers. People helped each other. They elected the toughest guy in town sheriff: “Hoot” Spillman. There was one squad car for the whole town.
Those towns rarely exist anymore. And now the Mayfield I knew literally does not exist anymore either. There is nothing left of the downtown. Many residents escaped with just the clothes on their backs.
A small part of the immense destruction in Mayfield, Kentucky.
This could happen anywhere. Governor Beshear is doing a great job on the ground, as is President Biden. But much more help is needed.
“06880” readers: Please do what you can!
Click here to contribute to the state’s official relief fund.
Posted onDecember 14, 2021|Comments Off on “06880” Podcast: Rex Fowler & Dodie Pettit
It’s tough to cram half a century of music stardom — and a spectacular new musical about Dracula — into a half-hour conversation.
But that’s what Rex Fowler, Dodie Pettit and I did in our latest “06880” podcast, at the Westport Library’s Verso Studios.
He’s the co-founder of Aztec Two-Step, the internationally known folk-and-more band. She’s a longtime Westporter/Broadway singer and dancer who — while married to fellow actor/singer/Staples High School graduate Kevin Gray — collaborated on that Dracula show. (Not the one that flopped on Broadway.)
Now Dodie and Rex are married too. They perform together as Aztec Two-Step 2.0. And they recently unveiled the soundtrack of their “Dracula” musical at their Westport home.
Click below to listen to their fascinating stories about life on stage, and here.
Comments Off on “06880” Podcast: Rex Fowler & Dodie Pettit
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