The British came, 248 years ago. We sent ’em packing.
They came again — this time with guitars — 187 years later. We loved ’em.
Now it looks like the British are coming again. This sign now flies at the former Porch deli, on Cross Highway:
(Photo/Diane Johnson)
It certainly seems as if Gruel Brittania — the Fairfield restaurant beloved for its shepherd’s pie, fish and chips, bangers and mash, Yorkshire pudding, mushy peas, scones and more, founded by Westporter Karen Hubrich — is moving in.
And it sounds as if the target for opening is next month.
Jolly good!
================================================
Several dozen protesters gathered on the Ruth Steinkraus Cohen Bridge yesterday.
As they have every Saturday for weeks, they carried signs decrying a variety of actions by President Trump and his administration.
As with past demonstrations, there were honks and thumb’s-up signs from passing drivers.
Organizer Bean Corcoran says protests will continue every Saturday, from 11 a.m. to noon.
Among the protest targets: funding cuts to PBS. (Photo/Rowene Weems)
===============================================
Mothers Day is around the corner. (Next Sunday — get on it!)
Which means Fathers Day is not far. And that means the Yankee Doodle Fair.
The dedades-old tradition returns that weekend. Dates are Thursday and Friday, June 12 and 13 (6 to 10 p.m.); Saturday, June 14 (1 to 10 p.m.), and Sunday, June 15 (1 to 5 p.m.).
As always, there are carnival rides, games, food — you name it. Sand art is back too.
And as always, it’s a major fundraiser for the Westport Woman’s Club, where the whole shebang takes place.
Speaking of the Westport Woman’s Club: There’s a Red Cross blood drive there (44 Imperial Avenue) on May 12 (8 a.m. to 1 p.m.). They provide baked goods, too.
Click here or call 800-733-2767 for an appointment.
=================================================
Westport has Winslow Park.
Tomorrow — after 9 years of effort — Weston will have its own dog park.
Weston Dog Park opens at 22 Lords Highway East, on part of the Moore property — land purchased by the town more than 2 decades ago for $2.3 million, specifically for municipal use.
Construction, design and the first years of maintenance are funded through grants like ARPA, gifts from private individuals, and a contribution in memory of late 2nd Selectman Brian Gordon.
It will be open 9 a.m. to sunset. Click here for more information.
Plenty of Staples High School’s athletic teams do great community service work.
Few do it better than the boys lacrosse program.
Every year, they try to raise $50,000 for Sticks for Soldiers. Every year, 100% of their funds help combat-wounded veterans and their families.
This year, they’re selling custom Sticks for Soldiers shirts and hats. Orders are being taken online (click here) through May 7. (Under “team,” select “Staples HS Sticks for Soldiers 2025”; the password is Sticks2025).
The annual Sticks for Soldiers game is May 19. Hats and shirts can be picked up there.
Mary Scott Himes is this month’s gueste exhibitor, at the Westport Book Shop.
Her prints explore questions of identity and the female body.
She says, “I started making things again during my treatments for breast cancer in 2021. Cancer has taken many things from me, but my art practice is what I took from it.
“In the public realm, married to Representative Jim Himes, I play a role. I am a person whom people think they know. This leads to questions about how we create identity: how the different layers of history and mass culture and personal experience bond together to make us who we are.
“My nascent art practice focuses mostly on printmaking because I love the spatial thinking, the variety of techniques, and the collaborative creative process it offers.”
Himes co-founded and was executive director of The Unload Foundation. The Connecticut arts initiative developed educational and cultural events to raise awareness around issues relating to gun rights and gun violence.
The opening of the new Finalmente Restaurant on Post Road East — across from Design Within Reach and next to Jeera Thai — “has exceeded our expectations,” says owner Giuseppe Cinque.
He asked “06880” to pass along this message: “We are deeply grateful for the warm congratulations and heartfelt welcome we’ve received from the Westport community. It’s been truly moving, and more meaningful than we could have imagined.”
And finally … in honor of the (probable) new operator of The Porch (story above):
(From the UK to the Ruth Steinkraus Bridge — and everywhere in between — “06880” brings you Westport-oriented news you can use. Please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
Many Westporters — but probably not enough — know and enjoy Sherwood Island.
Some — but definitely not enough — know that it was Connecticut’s first-ever state park.
The beach and surrounding area was some of the first property the 5 “Bankside Farmers” occupied, when they settled in what was then Fairfield in 1639.
The Native Americans called it Machamux (“The Beautiful Land”). The farmers named part of it Fox Island, because it was shaped like a fox.
In the 1700s the area was renamed Green’s Farms, for one of the founding Bankside families.
The Sherwood family settled on Fox Island, and acquired the nearby gristmill. They shipped kiln-dried cornmeal to the West Indies. Oysters were harvested from the Mill Pond.
An early view of the Sherwood Mill Pond gristmill.
Their Fox Island farm, meanwhile, produced onions and potatoes, which were shipped to New York.
In the 1900s, the state tried to acquire land for the park. Wealthy landowners in the area fought against it.
The first parcel of park land was acquired in 1914. But it took 23 years for the entire park to be assembled, and open to the public.
But why did the early settlers call it “Fox Island”?
Here’s how it looked in 1934 — 3 years before the state park opened — in a fascinating aerial view, found and shared by alert “06880” reader Mary Gai:
Fox Island (now Sherwood Island State Park). Burying Hill Beach is at the right, beyond the brook.
But that raises an important — and probably unasnwerable — question: How did farmers in the 1600s know what it looked like from the air?!
Eight-five years later — in 2019 — both Sherwood Island and Burying Hill had changed.
The state park no longer looked like a fox, as this second aerial image (also discovered by Mary Gai) shows:
Meanwhile, here’s one more bit of trivia: What is the official name of the Sherwood Island State Park beach?
If you know, click “Comments” below.
(Friday Flashback is one of “06880”‘s many regular features. If you enjoy this — or anything else on our website — please consider a tax-deductible contribution. Just click here. Thank you!)
The Westport Library has plenty of both. And right now, viny is on display on the main floor, near the reference desk.
The collection ranges from classics like Bob Dylan’s “Blonde on Blonde” and Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon,” to newer releases like Hozier’s “Unreal Unearth” and and Beyonce’s “Renaissance.”
There are over 100 records across 9 genres: rock, pop, R&B, hip hop, jazz, folk, blue:s, country, and local artists (including the Library’s home-grown “Verso Records: Volume 1.”
Patrons can check out up to 3 records at a time, for up to 10 days. For more information on viny collectng, click here.
Also in the Library of Things: 2 Nintendo Switch consoles, plus 50 games like Mario Party, Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Pikmin 4, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and more.
Westport Library vinyl and video game collections.
Speaking of music: Jeff Franzel — the Westport native and current Saugatuck Shores resident who played piano for the Hues Corporation (“Rock the Boat”), Les Brown, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Mel Torme and Bob Hope, then wrote hits for Taylor Dayne, the Temptations, NSYNC, Shawn Colvin, Josh Groban, Placido Domingo and Clay Aiken — recently received his first Grammy Award nomination.
It’s for his song “Big Mama-Latto,” in the Best Melodic Rap Song category. (The multi-talented Franzel is a rapper too.)
Earlier this fall he won the Netherlands’ Edison Award — that country’s Grammy equivalent.
Jeff and his wife Joanne went to Amsterdam for the ceremony. (Hat tip: Prill Boyle)
Remarkably, they’re not the only field hockey champs in town.
Yesterday, Greens Farms Academy won captured its first-ever New England prep title. The Dragons edged New Hampton 1-0, in the Class C final at the Ethel Walker School.
Almost as thrilling was the reception home. After getting off I-95, the team received an escort back to GFA by the Westport Police.
Greens Farms Academy: New England field hockey champs!
PS: Congratulations too to senior Grace Almeida. GFA’s all-time leading scorer will play field hockey next year at Brown University.
As audiences laughed, applauded for and loved Staples Players’ production of “Elf,” they had one question: Where was the peppy, great-sounding pit orchestra?
Conductor Lauren Pine and her 16 musicians were nowhere to be seen.
With no room on stage, they played from the band room, down a hallway behind the stage.
Staples High School’s “Elf” pit orchestra, in the band room.
They were hardly out of sight, out of mind. Despite the distance — and thanks to a TV monitor — they did not, um, miss a beat.
The show was particularly meaningful for bassist Larry Perlstein.
Exactly 50 years ago — in 1974 — he was a Staples junior, playing in his first pit for Players’ production of “Oklahoma!”
His daughter Avery is now a junior herself. She runs lights for “Elf,” carrying on the family tradition.
There are still 4 chances to see the show that has the entire town buzzing. performances are set for this Thursday and Friday (November 21 and 22, 7 p.m.), and Saturday (Nofember 23, 2 and 7 p.m.).Click here for tickets. Though some shows may be sold out, tickets are often available at the door.
Robert Haydon Jones, Jr. died peacefully on November 10 in Fairfield. Alice, his wife of 50 years, was at his side. He was 86.
Born in New York City and raised in Westport, he was a graduate of Staples High School, Portsmouth Priory (now Abbey) in Rhode Island.
He left Miami University in Ohio before graduation, when he married Carol Lindblom.
Moving back to Westport, Bob was hired by advertising firm Ogilvy, Benson & Mather. He spent his career on Madison Avenue agencies alongside giants in marketing, advertising, public relations and literary publishing. Malachy McCourt was a good friend, until his death earlier this year.
Bob founded his own shop, Robert Haydon Jones & Associates, in Westport in 1972. He helped create a new genre of customizable, direct-to-customer, targeted-outreach marketing tools.
He crafted “some of the greatest direct marketing strategies ever conceived,” said Denny Hatch, editor of DM News.
A fundraising letter aimed at holding President Nixon to account in 1972 started “Dear Fool.” It broke response records, and became a major fundraising package.
He was passionate about baseball. Generations of young players around Fairfield County still talk about his coaching of their Babe Ruth, travel and Collegiate Summer League teams.
In the 1980s and ’90s he helped revive the Over-18 Westport Advertisers club, which barnstormed throughout New England.
After stepping back from coaching, Bob became a youth and school umpire. He called his last game well past his 80th birthday, finally retiring in 2020.
His family says, “One of Bob’s greatest journeys was forging and maintaining the path to sobriety, a journey for which he was often armed with vats of coffee for his regular meetings. He found great solace in his community, and was always willing to talk to and guide others navigating their own rock bottoms.”
In addition to Alice, Bob is survived by brother Christopher “Kit” of New York and Westport; sisters Jeremy of Philadelphia, Jude Anne of Norwalk, and Pam of Fairfield. He was predeceased by his youngest brother, Jeffrey.
He is also survived by sons Andrew (Francesca Gori-Montanelli), Evan (Margaret Mitchell-Jones), Charles and (Meg), and Robert H. III (Sylvia); stepdaughter Catherine (Sean Beaudoin), and stepsons James Lewis (Noel Casiano) and Tom (Kim), along with 8 grandchildren, 3 step-grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren, spread across 4 continents, along with numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.
His decades-long companion and trusted aide, Henry Glasford of St. Kitts and Bridgeport, who stood by Bob’s side throughout his decline and into his final days, also survives.
A funeral service for Robert Haydon Jones Jr. will be held this Friday (November 22, 10 a.m.), at Assumption Church.
After the service, his wife Alice will host a celebration of life gathering at her Fairfield home.
The family asks that any memorial donations inspired by Bob’s memory be directed to the study and treatment of Prader-Willi Syndrome, a cause to which he and Alice have dedicated decades to supporting themselves on behalf of their son Beau.
Bob Jones
===============================================
A dog, low tide, sunset … what could be more natural for our “Westport … Naturally” feature?!
The high school troupe punched way above their weight, thrilling last night’s audience with a Broadway-quality presentation of “Elf: The Musical.”
It’s fresh, funny and festive — a perfect, high-energy and wholesome respite from reality, and a great way to begin the holiday season a couple of weeks early.
The show continues today (Saturday, November 16, 2 and 7 p.m.) and tomorrow (Sunday, November 17, 2 p.m.). There are performances next weekend too, on November 21 and 22 (7 p.m.) and 23 (2 and 7 p.m.).Click here for tickets. Though some shows may be sold out, tickets are often available at the door.
“Elf” cast members take their bows last night. (Photo/Dan Woog)
=================================================
The Westport Board of Education hosts a “community conversation” for all residents this Wednesday (November 20, noon to 1:30 p.m., Westport Library).
Any school-related topic can be raised.
Velma Heller — former RTM moderator, and longtime Westport Public School admistrator, will facilitate the event.
31 men and women have just graduated from Westport’s Citizens’ Police Academy.
They spent 8 weeks learning all about the Westport Police Department’s many functions, including criminal investigations, specialty units, forensic science, financial scams, motor vehicle stops, and post-arrest procedures.
They also participated in firearms familiarization, rode with patrol officers, and received “stop the bleed training.”
A buck jumped in, then became trapped for a day inside a half-finished cement foundation. Two members of the Fairfield County Hunt Club horse barn team provided hay bales.
Public Works Department employees and Westport Animal Control officer Peter Reid began assembling a ramp from the bales.
Suddenly, the buck ran at the wall, and jumped out cleanly. “He just needed the right motivation,” Julie Loparo reports on social media.
Deer trapped in foundation. (Photo courtesy of Westport Front Porch, via Facebook)
================================================
Longtime Westporter — and elected (Representative Town Meeting) official — Dick Lowenstein reminds all candidates for office earlier this month: It’s (past) time to remove your lawn signs!
This photo is from yesterday afternoon:
(Photo/Dick Lowenstein)
Today’s weather is perfect to get out, get ’em — and sotre them for the next campaign.
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.
