The Suffield Observer (https://thesuffieldobserver.com/2019/07/page/2/)
From the left: Kathy Remington, Kathleen Horrigan and Judy Edwards pause while planting flowers at the base of the Soldier’s Monument on the Center Green in May in preparation for Memorial Day.
This past May, my wife, Beth, and I had dinner with my cousin’s son, Presston in Brooklyn. At dinner, Presston shared his latest job adventures. For the past four years, he was one of the project managers for the new Statue of Liberty Museum. He was both excited and stressed about the project that was to officially open to the public later in the week. The following day, he would meet with reporters from the major papers like the New York Times and others as well, as setting up interviews for the major television networks.
The profits from the Holiday Tree Gala have all been returned to our community through two grants to community organizations, and an award to a graduating senior. Requests from Suffield Community Aid for their community garden and Phelps-Hatheway House for a display case to house historical memorabilia have been fully funded along with an award to High School student Brooke Tillotson. Brooke will be studying Plant Science and Environmental Sustainability at Cornell University this fall. Two other students received awards this month through the Garden Club’s Memorial Fund. Joseph LaFlamme and Jackson Smith.
Taraxacum is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, which consists of species commonly known as dandelions. They are native to Eurasia and North America, but the two commonplace species worldwide, T. officinale and T. erythrospermum, were introduced from Europe and now propagate as wildflowers. Both species are edible in their entirety. The common name dandelion is from the French, meaning “Lion’s Tooth.” Like other members of the Asteraceae family, they have very small flowers collected together into a composite flower head.
On Tuesday, June 11, the Suffield Woman’s Club gathered with special guests at the West Suffield Academy Hall to celebrate its 125th Anniversary. The Suffield Woman’s Club has a long history of taking a lead in community service, with giving back to the Town of Suffield always at the forefront. In 1894, 10 women gathered at a private home in town, to form the Woman’s Reading Club of Suffield. With programs ranging from reading, history, art and music, to lectures and community activities sponsored for the town, this small group of women also conferred through an appointed committee with Suffield’s First Selectman, and were among the first to contribute to the Emergency Aid Association since its establishment in 1903. In 1926, it was voted to change the club’s name to the Suffield Woman’s Club and to join the General Federation of Woman’s Clubs of Connecticut (GFWC/CT).
These days a few of my friends and I are participating in the Suffield bird census. We are clutching our lengthy list of birds hoping to check as many off as possible as we peruse all the open space we have here in our town. We rarely leave our houses without grabbing our binoculars, ears tuned to any bird calls which might reveal a new visitor hiding in the trees. More often than not, I have been hearing our mockingbird as he goes through his rendition of other bird calls, as they have been known to sing 200 different songs and when they exhaust their repertoire, they can even mimic car alarms. Many a birder has been fooled by his singing, but it wouldn’t seem right to have him silent. By this time of year, the mockingbirds are well-established in shrubs and thickets around town.
Three West Suffield competitors had perfect weather on May 18 for the Connecticut Masters’ Games Track and Field Meet at Veterans Stadium (Willowbrook Park) in New Britain. Sarah Seger competed in the 1500-meter race walk with a time of 17:55. Because she was the only 90+ female competitor, she finished first in her age division. Her next oldest competitor was age 67. Martha Oppenheimer (female 75-79) competed in four events.
Not many people know that two Alaskan islands were invaded and occupied by the Japanese during World War II. In June of 1942, about six months after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese took the sparsely populated Aleutian islands of Attu and Kiska.
