Owner Pete Aitkin wants to add some new “flashback” items to the Black Duck menu.
And he needs “06880” readers’ help.
“Many readers have fond memories of the Big Top,” he says, referencing the beloved, mouth-watering burgers-and-more joint on the Post Road and Roseville Road that is now (aaaargh) McDonald’s. “Some even worked there.”
Pete wonders: What kind of ribs did they serve? Baby backs? Beef? He thinks they were pork spare ribs. Any info on sauce or seasoning would be great too.
Email duckpeter78@gmail.com, or call 203-227-7978.
Yesterday marked the start of another school. It’s different than any that came before. But — as students, staff and parents saw yesterday at Coleytown Elementary School — some things never change:
(Photo/Stephanie Mastocciolo)
The Artists Collective of Westport knows about shows. So they’re proud to collaborate with the Remarkable Theater on a showing of “Best in Show.”
The drive-in movie — a biting satire about dog shows — will be shown Thursday, September 17 at 8 p.m. at the Imperial Avenue parking lot. The gate opens at 7.
The big day is Tuesday. Nearly 6 months after closing — and a week after the original date — students return to Westport schools.
Many things will be different. They’ll attend in shifts: half in classrooms, half studying remotely. Desks will be 6 feet apart. Some hallways will be one-way. And those are just a few of the changes COVID has wrought.
Some youngsters have not even driven past their schools in half a year. To remind them of what they look like, here is a special “Friday Flashback” drone gallery. All images are courtesy of multi-talented and spectacular Staples High School senior Brandon Malin. (Click on or hover over any photo to enlarge.)
To start off, here’s the school he’s headed back to:
Bedford Middle School
Coleytown Middle School (construction project)
Coleytown Elementary School
Greens Farms Elementary School
Kings HIghway Elementary School
Long Lots Elementary School
Saugatuck Elementary School
Bonus feature: Greens Farms Academy (All drone photos/Brandon Malin)
The Westport Farmers’ Market is between seasons. But they never stop helping their shoppers — or their farmers.
At a time when healthy, fresh food is especially important; when supermarket shopping carries risks, and purveyors — like all of us — have been rocked by COVID-19, the Farmers’ Market has a plan.
Just click here. Scroll down; click on a logo to select a vendor (there are 8: Calf & Clover Creamery, Seacoast Mushrooms, Wave Hill Breads, Farmers & Cooks, Two Guys from Woodbridge, Paul’s Custom Pet Food, Herbacious Catering and Ox Hollow Farm).
Place your order. Pay directly on their site, by Wednesday noon. You’ll receive info about your scheduled pickup time by 8 a.m. Thursday. (Delivery is available too — but only in Westport.)
If you’re picking up, at the appropriate time head to the Winter Farmers’ Market site: Gilbertie’s Herb Gardens, 7 Sylvan Lane South. Your order will be bagged and waiting outside. Only the vendor and you will touch your bag.
Bring your own totes, if you’ve ordered several bags. “Bring your patience too,” the Farmers’ Market says. “We will figure this out together.”
Seems like the Farmers’ Market has already figured out most of it. Now all we have to do is order — and thank them, and their awesome farming partners.
Alert reader Marshall Kiev passes along a great summary of the relevant small business relief portion of the recently enacted CARES Act.
“This relief package should be an important lifeline to many small businesses in Westport – coffee shops, butchers, hair salons, etc.,” he says. “Let’s get the word out to everyone. Many of these businesses are shut down, and owners may not be aware of the available funding.”
Many shuttered Westport businesses can benefit from recent legislation. (Photo/Katherine Bruan)
I’ve written before about Cup of Sugar: the fantastic local group providing deliveries of food, medication and anything else for people in need. (Just click here, then click “Request a Delivery.”)
Nick Ribolla was ready to graduate this spring, from Columbia University. He’s finishing online, but wants to help his home town. He signed up with Cup of Sugar. Still, he is eager to do even more.
He has a lot to offer. He’s sharp, multi-talented, funny and fun. (He’s also got plenty of experience with kids, as a longtime camp counselor).
Nick can help youngsters via Zoom with humanities (“especially English and creative writing”), and Spanish. He’ll also help them manage their workloads. “Whatever I can do, I’ll do,” he says simply.
Call or text: 203-451-9453. And of course, say “gracias.”
Nick Ribolla
The Westport Police Department has put together some great videos. A variety of Westporters (see how many you know!) offer messages — “stay strong!” “keep your distance!” “keep buying local!” — via their Facebook page.
Just search on FB for “Westport Police Department.” Or click here for the latest (with a cameo by yours truly); click here for another, and click here for the first.
Once again, Dr. Scott Gottlieb appeared on a Sunday morning news show, direct from his Westport yard.
This morning, the former FDA commissioner told “Face the Nation” that coronavirus restrictions should remain in place ahead of a “difficult April,” and that the US might have “millions” of cases over the next few months.
Coleytown Elementary School art teacher Deb Goldenberg is working with her colleagues around town to help every school share positive messages — through art, of course.
Students are drawing or making designs, then adding brief ideas like “Spread kindness and love.” They’re encouraged to experiment with patterns and fonts. Messages will be included with the school’s Morning News.
In today’s Persona interview, Jimmy Izzo discusses why shopping local is more important than ever. Click here for a clip, then download the app for the full Q&A.
Jimmy Izzo
And finally, if you’re missing a loved one — well, in a pandemic, just follow doctor’s orders.
From the 1950s through ’80s, Westport junior highs fielded interscholastic athletic teams.
Bedford and Long Lots — and, after it opened in 1965, Coleytown — competed against junior highs from Darien, New Canaan and Greenwich in football, boys and girls soccer, boys and girls basketball, wrestling, baseball, softball and track.
Competition was intense — both within the league, and to win the mythical Westport “town championship.”
Interscholastic competition ended in 1983, when Westport schools moved from a junior high model, to middle schools. Ninth graders went to Staples High, and competed on their own freshman teams.
But in the 1950s — and perhaps earlier — local elementary schools had their own intra-town sports teams. I have no idea when they began. By the 1960s, they were gone.
I don’t know what sports they involved either — except for boys basketball, as shown by this Saugatuck Elementary School photo provided by alert “06880” reader Fred Cantor.
Fred adds that a scrapbook from Coleytown Elementary School’s first year — 1953 — describes a girls kickball competition between that school and Bedford El.
If you’ve got stories about elementary or junior high sports teams, click “Comments” below.
Today could have been tough. With their building closed due to possible mold issues, Coleytown Middle School 6th and 7th graders moved to Bedford Middle School. Eighth graders headed to Staples High. No one knew what to expect.
The day went great. Staff adapted. Students smiled. There were warm welcomes all around.
And it started even before the Coleytown youngsters entered their new schools. This sign outside Bedford said it all.
The Minny Bus stopped running in the 1980s — long before Jaime Bairaktaris was born. But the sign — across from Coleytown Elementary School, advertising the bus service that once shuttled folks around Westport — has always fascinated him.
In 1963, Fred Cantor’s parents moved to Easton Road from Queens. Two years later he graduated from Coleytown Elementary School, just down the street.
To mark that 50th anniversary, a small group — Fred, Nancy Saipe, Leslie Schine, Andy Lewis, Jeff Wilkins, Dan Magida and Cherie Flom Quain — arranged a literal stroll down memory lane. Principal Janna Sirowich and her assistant Carol Borrman helped them take a tour of the current school on Tuesday. Here’s Fred’s report:
Coleytown was K-6 during our time there — the peak years of the baby boom era. Our 1965 photo shows 97 kids in 6th grade. We had 3 teachers, so that’s 32-33 students per class!
Coleytown Elementary School’s graduating 6th graders, in 1965.
Most in our group had not been back inside in decades. Some long-lost or fuzzy memories were jogged during our visit.
There was no formal auditorium at Coleytown. The gym with a stage on the side doubled as the auditorium. We had an annual Christmas concert there. Parents sat in rows of folding chairs on the basketball court.
The gym/stage space brought back memories of a graduation ceremony. Boys and girls walked in from the playground. We were lined up by height, from shortest to tallest.
The rear view of Coleytown Elementary School, before expansion and modernization.
Walking down the corridors and visiting old classrooms evoked other images from the distant past:
Nap time in kindergarten, where kids stretched out on giant towels.
A particularly unruly 3rd grader who was disciplined regularly by having his desk placed in the hallway.
Developing a newspaper-reading habit for current events discussions, by clipping stories on topics like civil rights and space exploration.
Everyone remembered recess fondly. Popular games were 4-square and “maul the ball carrier” (tackling the kid with the ball — an activity schools might not embrace today).
Report cards have certainly evolved over 50 years. Our 5th grade math classes were divided into “fast,” “high average” and “low average” tracks. We were also graded on “penmanship.”
Fred Cantor’s 5th grade report card. It’s quite a bit different from those used today. According to teacher Miss Belz, Fred “made good progress this year.”
At this stage of life, thinking back on those early childhood years elicits thoughts of classmates and friends no longer with us.
Those feelings were particularly poignant this week. Our classmate Andy Lewis — who looked very forward to the tour — died of an apparent heart attack just days before he was to head to Westport.
My last email exchange with Andy was about our Coleytown experiences. He said he’d walked home for lunch “if the menu was bad, like fish sticks.”
Andy’s sudden death is also a reminder that we never know what the future holds. We should be grateful for every opportunity to reunite with old friends.
Old friends gather in the Coleytown Elementary School gym (from left): Cherie Flom Quain, Fred Cantor, Jeff Wilkins, Nancy Saipe, Dan Magida, Leslie Schine.
With the budget season in full swing, the Board of Education presents its figures to the Board of Finance this Thursday (March 29, 7:30 p.m., Town Hall — it’s a public meeting).
Among the key points to be made by chairman Don O’Day:
The Board of Ed has weathered 3 years of budget reductions. Each year, its budget has been reduced by the Board of Finance and RTM to levels below the contractually required salary increases for the union staff (94% of the total 872 Board of Ed employees). In response, they’ve cut — while delivering great services. That quiver may no longer hold any arrows.
This year, the Board of Ed made the very tough decision to reduce staff — and not through attrition. They did it before the Board of Finance and/or RTM told them to — to $300,000 below the contractual salary increases. They hope that in return, the Board of Finance affirms the budget — resisting the temptation to cut further, for the sake of cutting.
(Staff has been reduced by 28 positions — 3% — since the market crash of 2008. Enrollment, meanwhile, is up by 50 students.)
The Board of Ed denied a proposal to add more money to the budget, in order to lower elementary school class sizes. Yet as enrollment increases, and dollars become scarce, larger classes loom at Staples. We’re talking 25+ in some required subjects.
Coleytown is the #1 middle school in the state, according to Conncan.
Once again, Westport is at the low end within its District Reference Group (similar towns), for annual budget increases. And once again, Staples is rated the #1 high school in Connecticut — and Coleytown and Bedford are the #1 and #2 middle schools, respectively, in the Conncan assessment.
In addition, the Board of Ed switched insurance carriers. Meanwhile– pretty impressively — overall health benefit costs have been held flat.
The Board of Education’s goal is to do whatever it can to save money — without impacting services. Starting Thursday night, it gets the chance to hear what the town thinks of its plan.
Westport boys and girls — and their parents — knew Ted Lowry and his wife Alice as Coleytown Elementary School bus monitors.
What a shame they never heard his whole story.
Lowry — “Tiger” in his boxing days — was the only fighter to go 10 rounds twice with future heavyweight champ Rocky Marciano. Against Joe Louis, Lowry recalled, “I didn’t hit the floor, and I didn’t take a beating. He said I would go places.”
Lowry served in World War II with an all-black airborne unit. He fought for his country — and rode in the back of a US military bus, while German POWs sat in front.
Ted Lowry, training young boxers. (Photo courtesy George Ruhe/New York Times).
A longtime resident of Norwalk, Lowry mentored hundreds of youngsters — in boxing, and in life. He was a successful businessman — he started his own construction company — and on his 80th birthday in 1999 he was honored by the city for his athletic and civic contributions.
Norwalk picked the right man.
He fought 144 times as a professional, and was knocked out just 3. He recounted that career in an autobiography he completed at 86, God’s in My Corner: A Portrait of an American Boxer.
Boxing historian Mike Silver called him “a boxing treasure, one of the last links to boxing’s great golden age of talent, activity and popularity.” Connecticut inducted him into its Boxing Hall of Fame in 2008.
Larry Johnson — one of his Lowry’s mentees, now CEO of Norwalk’s youth enrichment program Character Under Construction — said that Lowry turned around the lives of youngsters involved with drugs and alcohol.
Ted Lowry, proudly wearing a shirt honoring his 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion. (Photo courtesy New Haven Independent)
“He always invited me to the gym no matter what was taking place in my life or what I thought of myself,” Johnson told Boston.com. “He always accepted me and told me I was a champion.
“Tiger Ted said that although he was never a world champion, the fact he did the best he could made him a champion in life. His autobiography was his legacy and his mission — to plant a seed in young men that they should never give up.”
Boxing writer Robert Mladninich said: “Although he never got the break that would put him in the big time, he was not a bitter man. In fact, he was the eternal optimist. (He said), ‘See, now I’m sitting in the front of the bus.”
Sure, it was a Westport school bus — not the US military. But to the end of his life, Ted Lowry continued doing good things for people, quietly making sure they were safe, and helping them grow up in whatever way he could.
“Tiger” Ted Lowry died last month, of heart failure. He was 90 years old.
He is buried in Westport’s Willowbrook Cemetery — just a mile or two, as the bus drives, from Coleytown Elementary School.
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