The Stonington Intelligencer

Scene & Herd
Round the Borough

Scene and Herd is always looking for photos of events happening in the Borough or involving Borough residents elsewhere. If you have any digital photos you think we might be able to use, please send them to Ned Davies at dimber@aol.com (we prefer jpg format) with relevant information about who's in them and what they were doing there, as well as a name to credit for the photo. We are desperate, for instance, to get photos of the upcoming Saltmarsh Opera opening night, since we're out of town that Columbus Day weekend.

18 September 2007
(scroll down for pictures from earlier this month)

The past weekend began as a rainy one but the weather later cleared up magnificently. Saturday morning we had the parade of Special Olympics athletes – sailors participating in a regatta sponsored by the Stonington Harbor Yacht Club – which featured athletes, torches, fancy cars and, as all true parades deserving of the name must, fire engines. The parade started at the Yacht Club, where a large tent had been erected for the festivities preceding and following the regatta, and went up to Wadawanuck Square before turning back down Water Street.

Getting set up in front of the Stonington Harbor Yacht Club

Stonington Borough burgess and Special Olympics volunteer Bob Scala

Yachtsman extraordinaire Spike Lobdell suited up for inclement weather

Stonington Harbor Harbormaster Eric Donch, who's clearly not looking to sneak up on any mooring cheaters, with
Assistant Stonington Borough Fire Chief Billy Texeira

The parade beings, with a police car and an honor guard

Spike Lobdell pulls the Ship of State (doesn't this remind you of David Rathbun coaxing his cow
Petunia – I think that was her name – in many 4th of July parades?)

There were lots of exotic and presumably very expensive cars in the parade –
I think this one's a Ferrari, but I'm afraid they all look like Honda
Civics to me, so if I'm wrong, don't shoot me!

A Maserati – or maybe just a Miata, what do I know?

Fire engines are like fireworks – they sparkle irresistibly

And where there's a parade, there are usually politicians – from left to right, Burgesses Bob Scala (in orangish coat), Bill Geary (in yellow slicker), and Scott Bates (with baby carriage), Borough of Stonington Warden Don Maranell (in suit) and former Warden and current State Senator Andy Maynard in windbreaker

A vintage Maserati, I think – but it could be a Studebaker, like the one left on Diving Street

The Special Olympics athletes returning on Water Street – congratulations to all who sailed and helped!

•

Later that Saturday, the Borough was invited to the opening of a new art studio/gallery at 145-D Water Street, Stonington, which will feature the works of artist Guido Garaycochea, originally from Peru via Chile. ("D" means down the alley that goes down what used to be the railway right-of-way.) The current exhibition is entitled "Latins in the Borough".

Down the Alley to the Garaycochea studo/gallery

At the opening

The artist himself, Guido Garaycochea, beside one of his favorite pieces in the exhibition

•

10 September 2007

Busy, busy time in the Borough these past few weeks, the conventional end of summer. Here's a bunch of photos of various people and places, more or less in chronological order, from top to bottom.

(To see last month's Scene & Herd, click here.)

Crowds at the Stonington Farmers Market

Dan & Islay Pearson (I think I got her name right – I know it had to do with whiskey and Scotland) at the Stonington Farmers Market

Former SoCa resident Marianna Wilcox-Streeter and current SoCa resident Susan Alter at the Market

Environmentalist Kate Robinson, who was naturally suspicious about being tapped on the arm and hearing "Smile", as she bought a raspberry pie

•

Labor Day weekend was of course the Feast of the Holy Ghost, and we stopped by the kitchen of the Portuguese Holy Ghost Society on Saturday night to check up on the Sisters of the Skillet, who are famous, er infamous, for their antics around the mammouth task of cooking on Saturday night for literally hundreds to enjoy Sunday after Mass.

Chorizo and other stuff waiting to go into the soup

Can you imagine peeling that many potatoes???

The Sisters of the Skillet while the evening is still young (cue "Bad Boys" theme from COPS)

The Holy Ghost crowns in the front room

Tables of Portuguese sweet bread to be auctioned

Sunday, in front of the Portuguese Holy Ghost Society clubhouse in Main Street, Stonington Borough

Crowds enjoying the Holy Ghost soup on Sunday

Sue Cordeiro demonstrating her enthusiasm for waiting tables at the PHGS

Folks from the Westerly Band enjoy the meal

Gail Woodrow enjoying the luncheon soup

One of the special families

Father Sebastian of St Mary at the Holy Ghost luncheon

•

Borough benefactor Wynne La Grua and her accomplice-in-tax-collection Tom Crimmins
in front of the planned Maurice La Grua center in the old Atwood foundry building

This is what we saw, peaking through a window into the Foundry – not very tidy, we all agreed

Mrs La Grua was tempted to climb in and start the clean-up herself !

But instead of straightening up the Foundry floor, Mrs La Grua was urged to drop by the spruced-up
shop in Water Street and try out the old cash register

The new La Grua's shop, fresh-painted with a new wood floor

New items for sale at La Grua's include this shellwork wastepaper basket

And this very cool shellwork mirror, all done by hand by a local artisan whose name I have, I apologize, temporarily misplaced (call 860-535-1030 for infomation and prices)

Another cool item we came across is this nautical chart shirt of Stonington waters, available in Large and Medium sizes, short and long sleeves, from The Hungry Palette, 105 Water Street (and check out their new website, too, at www.hungrypalette.com) – oh, and sorry for the crummy
photo, which was taken by a cellphone

•

The Stonington Historical Society held its annual meeting in the garden behind the Captain Nathaniel Palmer House on Saturday, 8 September 2007 at 3 pm, opening with remarks by Society president Michael Adair

Stonington Historical Society president Michael Adair

SHS Executive Director Mary Beth Baker

Historical Society stalwarts Elsa Cole, Emily Lynch and Scottie Breed at the annual meeting
(and a new, hard-bound edition of John L. Davis's Davis Homestead edited by Mrs Lynch will
be out shortly)

Betsy Wade and Jim Boylan, looking fit as the proverbial fiddle after a quick little stay in Yale-New Haven Hospital,
were thanked for their tireless efforts on editing and publishing Historical Footnotes,
the Society's excellent and award-winning bulletin

Evelynn Lyons, retiring vice-president of the Society, received an award and much thanks for her
collaboration and hard work on nearly every aspect of the Society's mission, including the
Dinner Dance, the SHS scarves, public affairs and much more

The Grapery, which, it was widely noted, had at last been graced with its first grapes – needless to say, they were sour

New Stonington Historical Society boardmembers: Stephen Bentz, Nancy Wells and Julian Gillespie

Docent Toddy Agranwitch, who we were very upset to learn will be leaving Stonington
soon for Boston ("I need to go into the shop for a tune-up" was her excuse), with SHS director Mary Beth Baker

The elegant Doris and the eminent doctor & past president Norman Boaz, at the SHS annual meeting