I whiz by the site of last Sunday’s Photo Challenge often. I never see it.
Then again, I time my Staples High School comings and goings so I’m not stuck in the early morning and/or mid-afternoon crawl through the secondary (south) entrance, on North Avenue.
That’s the narrow lane with the unmarked speed hump and the stop sign hidden by leaves.
If you wait there, you probably have time to look around. And notice the door in the fence that allows access to and from Willow Walk.
Amy Swanson, Andrew Colabella and Jonathan McClure — 3 Photo Challenge regulars — knew exactly what Seth Schachter’s shot showed. (Click here to see.)
Now the question is: Has anyone ever actually used the gate?
This week, we continue with the Seth Schachter-shots-of-wooden-fences-we-pass-every-day theme. If you know where in Westport you’d see this, click “Comments” below.
Norwalk Hospital will dedicate 2 newly renovated pediatric emergency rooms in memory of Dr. Al Beasley and Dr. Jean Beasley.
The husband-and-wife pediatricians were beloved in Westport. Dr. Al died last year; Dr. Jean passed away from cancer in 1973.
The most recent issue of Catalyst — the magazine published by Nuvance Health, Norwalk Hospital’s owner — devotes 2 pages to the Beasleys. The story notes that Al was the grandson of a Harvard-educated attorney who founded the Boston chapter of the NAACP; his father graduated from Harvard, his mother from Radcliffe. Al served 2 years as an Army reservist, the 4 years in the Air Force during the Korean War. He and Jean married while they were attending NYU Medical School.
Dr. Al Beasley was also a major benefactor of Staples Tuition Grants, in honor of Dr. Jean. (Hat tip: Burton Stuttman)
Sunrise Rotary Club sponsored a food drive collection yesterday, at Saugatuck Congregational Church. Norwalk’s great Person-to-Person organization was the beneficiary.
John (Jackie) Laux of Jersey City died June 9 in Midvale, Utah after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer. He passed at home to the tune of the Grateful Dead, surrounded by his wife Marybeth, son Robert, and daughters Kristen and Molly.
Jackie and Marybeth had recently relocated to Utah to live out his lifelong dream of becoming a ski bum and being closer to his grandchildren, Devyn and Callan Laux, and Maggie and Noelle Giusti.
Jackie was an accomplished hockey player, playing goalie for Iona College. He made many lifelong friends on the ice, a tradition that continued through his final years while refereeing youth hockey in Connecticut.
Jackie also loved golf, and was a proud member of Shorehaven Club in Norwalk. Surrounded by friends, he enjoyed the fresh air, light beers and moderate exercise, then met his children by the pool to catch a swimming, diving or tennis match.
He was always excited and proud to watch (or coach) his children’s soccer, baseball and softball games, and tennis matches. As his children grew, their joint love of sports grew into family gatherings at New York Giants and Rangers games.
Jackie’s generous personality garnered him hundreds of friends around the country. He was quick to lend a helping hand or buy a drink for a friend in need of company (or just plain fun). He connected with others instantly and deeply, and leaves behind a lasting impression on all who knew him.
Due to COVID, a private memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. on July 12 at Westport’s Unitarian Church, and broadcast via Zoom (click here for the link). Following the service, family and friends are invited to Penfield Pavilion in Fairfield (5 p.m.).
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Jackie’s name to Huntsman Cancer Institute or First Tee of Metropolitan New York.
Staples’ spring hockey team won the Southern Connecticut Hockey League Division 3 Spring hockey championship, thumping North Branford 7-0 in the finals. Incoming captains Andrew Gebicki, Jason Wolgast and Cole Feinleib led the team.
When Outpost Pizza opened in November, the main challenge was starting during a pandemic.
Owners now face a new challenge.
Last night, a driver plowed into the side of the building, located across Canal Street from Hudson Malone restaurant.
It’s hard to envision how that could have happened — given the angle of the road — but this was the scene this morning:
(Photo/Miggs Burroughs)
Westport Police say there were no injuries. They are investigating the cause.
The Westport Fire Department was on the scene too. They checked the building for structural integrity, and deemed it safe for nearby businesses to open.
In 1961, Gwen Goldman was a 10-year-old girl living on Green Acre Lane. She wrote the New York Yankees, asking to be a bat girl.
On June 23 — exactly 60 years and 4 days ago — general manager Roy Haney replied.
He thanked her for her letter. But, he said:
While we agree with you that girls are certainly as capable of boys, and no dobut would be an attractive addition to the playing field, I am sure you can understand that in a game dominated by men a young lady such as yourself would feel out of place in a dugout.
I don’t know how Haney was so sure Gwen would “understand.” But she overcame her disappointment — and, probably, many other gender-based barriers — and went on to spend more than 30 years as a social worker.
Now married, Gwen Goldman McLoughlin retired in 2017 from Stepping Stones Preschool. She was highly regarded by her Westport Public Schools colleagues.
The other day, Gwen got another letter from the Yankees.
This came from the general manager too — the current one. Dated June 23, 2021 — exactly 60 years to the day after his predecessor’s — Brian Cashman noted that he was born 6 years after Haney had written.
But, Cashman said:
Here at the Yankees, we have championed to break down gender barriers in our industry. It is an ongoing commitment rooted in the belief that a woman belongs everywhere a man does, including the dugout. And despite the fact that 6 decades have passed since you first aspired to hold down the position as a New York Yankees Bat Girl, it is not too late to reward and recognize the ambition you showed in writing that letter to us as a 10-year-old girl.
So — noting that he has a daughter himself, and acknowledging that “some dreams take longer than they should to be realized” — Cashman invited Goldman to be the Yankees’ “honorary bat girl for the day” for tomorrow’s (Monday) game against the Los Angeles Angels.
Goldman — whose daughter Abby had sent Haney’s letter to Cashman — was both stunned and thrilled by the invitation.
“It is my honor and my dream,” she said. “I will be there!”
Gwen Goldman McLoughlin gets the news she’ll be Yankees’ bat girl.
She’s not the only one excited by the honor. Pitcher Gerrit Cole says, “I only get to play 32 games a year. So the other 130, I’m working the dugout. I can show you all the sneaky routes and quick ways to get in, when you have to give the balls to the umpire, where you keep the bats in case their broken. I can help you out with the flow.”
Goldman’s star turn is the first for the Yanks’ HOPE (Helping Others Persevere and Excel) Week. For 12 years, the program has highlighted inspiring individual stories.
Speaking of inspiring: Click below for a great tweet from the Yankees.
In 1961, 10-year-old Gwen Goldman penned a letter to the Yankees expressing her dream of being a bat girl. The response she received from the GM at the time still hangs on her living room wall.
EXTRA INNINGS: Because this is “06880” — “Where Westport meets the world” — there’s one more local connection to this story. I first heard about it from Julia Schorr, the team’s social media coordinator.
A lifelong Westporter, Julia graduated from Staples High School in 2016.
All season long, parishioners and clergy from 4 Congregational churches (Saugatuck, Greens Farms Congregational, Norfield and Wilton), plus United Methodist Church, gather on Sundays at 8:30 a.m., at Compo Beach near the cannons.
It’s BYOC (bring your own chair). You don’t need a beach sticker — just tell the gate attendant you’re attending the service. Dress code is casual; flip-flops and nice shorts are fine. (Hat tip: Karen Como)
Sunday morning service at Compo Beach. (Photo courtesy of Saugatuck Congregational Church)
Henry Wynne stumbled in the Olympic Trials 1500 meter race. But the 2013 Staples High School and 2017 University of Virginia graduate — now sponsored by Brooks Running — qualified for the finals nonetheless.
The big race is tomorrow (Sunday, June 27, 7:40 p.m. EDT). NBC Sports airs it live. Westporters will be tuning it, to watch Henry reach his Tokyo dreams.
Henry Wynne (Photo/Will Hoffman for Runner’s World)
Every 2 years, Art Committee members conduct a town- and school-wide inventory of every object in the Westport Public Art Collections.
This year is the most comprehensive yet. They’re not only updating locations, but also measuring every object in the database and cared for by the town.
Including the Compo Beach cannons!
(From left) Eve Potts and her sister Marion Morra take the measure of the Compo cannons. (Photo/Kathie Motes Bennewitz)
Can guess the width, length and depth of the entire monument? Click “Comments: below.
On July 1, the non-profit organization — currently focused on Westport, Weston, Easton and Fairfield — merges with the Monroe Land Trust and Tree Conservancy.
That adds another 20 acres to ALT. They will own or manage more than 2,000 acres of conserved land, with a total membership of over 1,700 people.
Land trusts preserve land through purchase, conservation easements or donations of property. Preserved properties are important habitats for plants and wildlife. They protect water quality, agricultural land, and scenic and historic places. For more information, click here.
Aspetuck River, at the Newman-Poses Preserve (Photo/Seth Schachter)
The Planning & Zoning Commission has some interesting proposals to consider.
On Wednesday (June 30, 12 noon), the Regulation Review Subcommittee will discuss possible changes related to improved recreational opportunities and amenities, to complement the Senior Center.
They’ll also talk about expanded outdoor dining regulation impacts, in consideration of creating more permanent rules. Click here for more information.
On July 8 (6 p.m.), they’ll review a text amendment and application to redevelop 1460 Post Road East — the current site of Julian’s Pizza, BevMax and more — to accommodate a new medical office tenant. The existing medical marijuana dispensary would remain. Click here for more information.
1460 Post Road East. Rio Bravo restaurant closed last summer.
Tomorrow (Sunday, June 27) is National Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Awareness Day. To raise awareness, Westport’s Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 399 is supporting a 10-mile march.
It begins at 8:30 a.m. at Darien VFW Post 6933, and ends at the Westport VFW Post on Riverside Avenue. Click here to donate.
This week’s #FridayFlowers project has special resonance for the Westport Garden Club.
Their latest work, at the Nevada Hitchcock Park on the corner of Cross Highway and Weston Road, includes perennials from members’ gardens. The flowers promote pollination — and the park commemorates Nevada Hitchcock, a founding member of the club.
“The Breakfast Club” is the quintessential high school film. More than 35 years after its release, it still nails the experience.
Of course, some things have changed since 1985. You can learn how on Monday. The classic movie is Monday’s (June 28, 8:45 p.m.) Remarkable Theater feature. It will be preceded by a short video starring 12 graduates from Staples High School’s Class of 2021. Click here for tickets, and more information.
On Thursday, MoCA Westport hosted a reception for its summer exhibitions: “Love Wins” (a mural created in conjunction with Westport Pride), “Unfit for Print” (including Staples High School graduate Noah Fox), and “Élan Vital” (with the works of 11 artists selected by Staples alum Max Teicher and Emily White). Works of the Congressional Art Competition are also on view.
The exhibitions run through August 21. Click here for details.
Owner Bill Taibe took a risk — opening a new restaurant in the midst of a pandemic — but it’s paid off. His fun, creative take on Mexican fare packs in crowds every night next to Barnes & Noble. (Or, as much older Westporters remember it, in “the old Town Hall”).
There’s plenty of room for outdoor dining. Plenty of music. And plenty of great food!
And finally … happy 78th birthday to the great British jazz/rock/R&B musician Georgie Fame. He’s still performing, with the likes of Van Morrison, Bill Wyman and Alan Price.
He’s probably best known for his “Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde.” But my favorite is this 1964 classic, “Yeh Yeh”:
PS: Yeh, yeh, it’s hard to hear the lyrics. Here you go:
Every evening, when all my day’s work is through
I call my baby, and ask her what shall we do
I mention movies, but she don’t seem to dig that
And then she asks me, why don’t I come to her flat
And have some supper and let the evening pass by
By playing records besides a groovy hi-fi
I say yeh yeh, and that’s what I say
I say yeh yeh
My baby loves me, she gets a feeling so fine
And when she love me, she makes me know that she’s mine
And when she kisses, I feel the fire get hot
She never misses, she gives it all that she’s got
And when she asks me if everything is okay
I got my answer, the only thing I can say
I say yeh yeh, that’s what I say
I say yeh yeh
We’ll play a melody and
Turn the lights down low so that none can see
We gotta do that, we gotta do that
We gotta do that, we gotta do that
And there’ll be no one else alive
In all the world ‘cept you and me
Yeh, yeh, yeh, yeh, yeh
Yeh yeh, yeh yeh
Pretty baby, I never knew such a thrill
Just thought I’d tell you, because I’m trembling still
But pretty baby, I want you all for my own
I think I’m ready to leave those others alone
Don’t need to ask me if everything is OK
I got my answer, the only thing I can say
I say yeh yeh, that’s what I say
I say yeh yeh, that’s what I say
I say yeh yeh
We’ll play a melody and
Turn the lights down low so that none can see
We gotta do that, we gotta do that
We gotta do that, we gotta do that
And there’ll be no one else alive
In all the world ‘cept you and me
Yeh, yeh, yeh, yeh, yeh yeh, yeh yeh
Oh pretty baby, I never knew such a thrill
Just thought I’d tell you, because I’m trembling still
But pretty baby, I want you all for my own
I think I’m ready to leave those others alone
Don’t need to ask me if everything is okay
I got my answer, the only thing I can say
I say yeh yeh, that’s what I say
I say yeh yeh, that’s what I say
I say yeh yeh, that’s what I say
I say yeh yeh
That’s what I say, I say yeh yeh
That’s what I say, I say yeh yeh
That’s what I say, yeah
Posted onJune 26, 2021|Comments Off on 0*6*Art*Art*0 — Week 66 Gallery
From Longshore to Sherwood Island to Old Hill, artists found inspiration around Westport this week.
And far beyond. There’s a piece of aboriginal art in our gallery today — a first for “06880.”
As always, thanks for your submissions. Watercolors, oils, charcoal, pen-and-ink, acrylics, lithographs, macramé, jewelry, sculpture, decoupage — send it in!
We are particularly interested in student work, and art from readers who have not submitted before.
Some of you are professional artists; most are amateurs. Experience does not matter! Email dwoog@optonline.net, to share your work with the world.
“Longshore Sailing School, Another Westport Gem” — pastel (Roseann Spengler)
“Rock Face at Sherwood” (Elena Nasereddin)
“Summer Stroll Bouquet” — Old Hill neighborhood (Irene Mastriocovo)
Westporters of a certain age remember Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s “Our House.”
It’s a very, very, very hummable song about a “very, very, very fine house.”
It’s also 50 years old.
To celebrate the golden anniversary of its golden oldie album, “Déjà Vu” — and, of course, to promote a deluxe re-release of the original, complete with demos, outtakes, alternate takes and perhaps flowers in the vase you bought today — Warner Music commissioned Jeff Scher to create an animated version.
He was a Staples High School sophomore when “Our House” floated onto record players across America. Now he’s a filmmaker/animator, working in a Cross Highway studio a few steps from his house.
Which, interestingly, is now the house of “Our House.”
Scher says:
Graham Nash wrote the song for Joni Mitchell in 1969. The house was her Laurel Canyon home where they lived at the time.
While it’s a very fine house, it didn’t quite fit the needs of animation, which was to read instantly as a kind of icon for anybody’s house. So after a dozen attempts, I realized that our house could be that house.
What could be more universal than a Federal style farmhouse? And the minute I started cutting it out, it felt right.
Jeff Scher has created a very, very, very fine video.
To go along with his — well, you know — house.
BONUS CUT: The video was animated by hand using cut paper, on black felt under a camera with a traditional animation stand. The style of cut paper was inspired by former Weston graphic designer Paul Rand, who often used it in his work.
So many Westport businesses start out in one place, then end up another.
From Earth Animal and Calico (very recently) to Mitchell’s (now at its third site) and (Viva Zapata (original location: Post Road near the current Playhouse Square), even the most established establishments have wanderlust.
Generations of Westporters remember Sport Mart on Main Street. Before that though, it was in Sconset Square. (The shopping plaza was then called by the much more normal local name “Sherwood Square.”)
(Photo courtesy of Paul Ehrismann)
After moving a few hundred yards west in the 1960s, the old Sport Mart became many things.
But the first place where Westporters once bought tennis racquets, skis and other sports equipment has returned to its roots.
Today it once again serves athletes of all abilities.
Click here to help support “06880” via credit card or PayPal. Any amount is welcome, appreciated — and tax-deductible! Reader contributions keep this blog going. (Alternate methods: Please send a check to “06880”: PO Box 744, Westport, CT 06881. Or use Venmo: @blog06880. Or Zelle: dwoog@optonline.net. Thanks!)
GET THE “06880” APP
The “06880” app (search for it on the Apple or Android store) is the easiest way to get “06880.” Choose notifications: whenever a new post is published, or once or twice a day. Click here for details.
To celebrate the golden anniversary of its golden oldie album, “Déjà Vu” — and, of course, to promote a deluxe re-release of the original, complete with demos, outtakes, alternate takes and perhaps flowers in the vase you bought today — Warner Music commissioned Jeff Scher to create an animated version.
