The move to Newtown, Connecticut in 1974. "The summer weather drawing to a close, the nights up
in Connecticut’s Berkshire Mountain Foothills were starting to get chilly.
Nevertheless, I tried out our new in-ground swimming pool, enjoying our new
place. That and I wandered around the property, down into the forest toward the
rear property line and those two babbling brooks. One of which flowed year-round
[Tom Brook], the other which flowed most of the year, except in cases of
extreme drought. Having grown accustomed to having fences surrounding our
backyards in Baldwin, I wondered where the property line was at. Meanwhile, our
new neighbors, David Lydem-a police sergeant with the Newtown Police Department
and his idiot hillbilly wife from Tennessee, both of them acted as if we were
going to be just like the radiologist and his big Italian-American family.
Naturally, they automatically assumed that we’d allow them to use our
swimming pool anytime they felt like! After all, as that whining skank of a
wife had explained to my father [assuming that he was a fucking idiot, or yes, redneck
cop like her husband], “Both their three year old, as well as their eight
year old girls learned how to swim in it”. However, neither I [as
“Frog”], nor my father or mother wanted
them to do this without our permission. Mind you, Dad had a point.
After all, if one of their children happened to have drowned in our pool while
we were not home, out family would be party to a huge lawsuit. That said, Dad
put his foot down. Telling that son of a bitch cop next door, and his fucking
uneducated, Tennessee Imbecile of a wife, “No! We are not going to
share our property and definitely not our pool.” And so, soon the problems
with our new neighbors had begun. Much the same as was back in Baldwin, before
long, there was to be another “shootout” between the “Hatfield’s and McCoy’s”. From the local teenagers,
including the Thompsons, our new neighbors on the other side, I’d soon learn the
inevitable truth. We were next door neighbors with Sergeant David Lydem, the
cop many teenagers often called “The Buford
T. Justice of Newtown, Connecticut”. 18
On a lighter note here, soon we learned about Newtown’s
local customs. Some of which were common to other communities in general. Others
which, like the annual Labor Day Parade, were unique to Newtown, and only
Newtown, Connecticut alone. Much like other towns in America, every year on
Memorial Day, Baldwin [New York] had a Memorial Day Parade. Something which
Newtown had several years before we got there in 1974, but had since done away
with. In Newtown, we had Labor Day Parade. The big whoopee-doo of the town,
every year on Labor Day Weekend, the parade signaled the unofficial end of summer
in Connecticut. A time after which the town’s kids returned to school until late
June.
Beginning on Johnny Cake Lane, a small cut-off road
located along Mount Pleasant Road, halfway to the top of that hill and just
past the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Association, the parade route followed
Newtown’s one and only Main Street. As it passed Edmond Town Hall and the
infamous, towering toward the sky, one-hundred and twelve-foot tall flagpole,
Newtown’s Citizens cheered it on. Clapping and yelling as the Striders Marching
Band, farm tractors from both the Future Farmers of America [FFA] and Four-H
Clubs, plus the Newtown High School Cheerleaders and Easton Banjo Society on
that huge hay wagon, all marched down Main Street. Best of all were the
Shriners from Bridgeport, Connecticut, the men driving around in circles in
their miniature cars as the parade moved down Main Street. Onward they marched toward
Route 302[Sugar Street] and Glover Avenue, at which time the parade route
turned left onto Glover Avenue. A main road that soon curved to the left and
became Queen Street; at which time the parade concluded at the Newtown Parade
Marshall’s Stand. The judging stand which was set up in front of the Wheeler
Shopping Center; near the [former] Connecticut National Bank and just past
Newtown Middle School. Newtown Middle School being the public school I would
soon attend. This for the first time since Mrs. Shelley had me expelled from
Kindergarten, because of my “Shenanigans.”
As for my own ‘neighborly relations’ with our new
neighbors, “Buford T. Justice” and
his white trash wife and family? 19 Well… two weeks later, I was down by Tom
Brook, on OUR property, mind you. Cleaning up what I assumed was just
trash left out in the woods. Having removed an old wooden milk crate, plus an
old drinking glass with a cracked rim, and some old rusty beer cans, I loaded
the crap into a wheelbarrow and hauled it off; dumping it all into the trash
cans placed outside our garage. Little did I know that the crate and glass were
part of his eight year old daughter’s “play fort?” Walking down into the woods
she assumed were our “Shared woods” and finding that crate and glass missing,
the little bitch ran home. Crying to her Tennessee Hillbilly mother, and police
sergeant father, and yes, telling them that [I] “Broke her fort”. And yes, as
if that alone wasn’t enough, literally,
the little piece of shit told her father that I [as ‘Frog’] “Tried to rape
her”. DISGUSTING! A bloody fucking LIE at best! And yes, just
to say this all began as soon as my family set the record straight, telling his
idiot family that we DID NOT want to share our pool, and property, with
them. Something the former family not only allowed, but actually encouraged.
In the meantime, the Thompsons, our new neighbors on
the other side, had invited me for dinner. All of whom were far more
intelligent than “Sergeant Porky Pig” and his moronic family. Besides
Mr. and Ms. Thompson, their family consisted of their two teenage daughters,
Natalie-who was majoring in English Literature at a private liberal arts
college in Massachusetts, and Melissa- now in her junior year at Newtown High
School. That and their two boys, John and James. One who was rather quiet, the
other who acted tough but, at the time, seemed really cool to me. Naturally, I
was later to learn that they all smoked pot; excluding John-the younger one.
Excluding the eighth grader, James, all were highly artistic. Either they
played some sort of musical instrument; or, like the youngest boy, had acted in
the local theatre organization.
After all,
Newtown was a very artistic town.
That and a booming exurban area that was fast becoming the location of choice
for many of Fairfield County’s corporate executives, most of whom worked either
in Lower Fairfield and New Haven Counties, or in equally booming Westchester
County, New York. Many famous residents lived in Newtown, as well as in
surrounding towns such as Bethel, Redding, and Southbury. 20 Among
Newtown’s well-known residents, those who called Newtown, Connecticut home at
one time or another, is the late Alexander
Scourby. A Bible Narrator and Playwright, Scourby and his wife lived in an
Eighteenth-Century house along Albert’s Hill Road. The dirt road [at the time]
one took to get to the Upper Paugusett State Forest and the state boat launch.
That and the power station at the Shepaug Dam; the huge hydroelectric dam
separating Lake Lillinonah from Lake Zoar. That and Director Elia Kazan. A
movie director who, at the time, lived in Newtown’s Sandy Hook Section. Also
living in Newtown at one time was Opera Star Grace Moore. Back in the 1930’s
and 40’s, Moore lived in a gigantic white farmhouse. Situated along Mount Pleasant
Road atop the hill of same name, her place overlooked Taunton Pond. Also to
note here, Steven Kellogg, an author of many children’s books, also lived in
Newtown, Connecticut for a while. 21 That and rumor had it that one of the guys from
the 1960’s and early 1970’s rock band, Steppenwolf,
had rented a summer house on Butterfield Road. A narrow road off Hanover Road
which, at the time, became little more than a horse path between the east [Hanover],
and west [Parmalee Hill Road] sections of the road. However, this may have simply
been hearsay. Worthy of noting here, though. In either the spring, or summer of
1976, Steppenwolf actually did
perform in concert at our Edmond Town Hall [minus their Lead Singer John Kay
who refused to show up]. I shall discuss this more later. The point I’m trying
to make here is this. While Baldwin, Long Island, New York had a few residents
who achieved stardom, namely Dee Snider [Twisted Sister] and Taylor Dayne; Newtown,
Connecticut was simply a magnet for
famous artisans. This, I’m sure, because of its outstanding beauty and
rural atmosphere; and yes, it’s reasonably close proximity to New York City."
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