Selected from the pages of the Windsor Locks Journal and lightly annotated by Wendy Taylor of Kent Memorial Library.
March 5
A special… [town] meeting will be held…Some of the articles in the call are…Article 4, providing for storage for motor vehicles and tools of the town, is a matter of economy, as there seems to be no available storage where the town property can be stored.
Article 6, providing for the purchase of a tractor, also seems to be a good business proposition, as other places have been very successful in keeping up roads with a tractor in summer and keeping them open in winter.
March 12
To-morrow…is to be observed as a general holiday in this town and everybody is expected to get out and help clear up the trolley tracks from the Windsor Locks town line to the Massachusetts state line. No matter if you can’t shovel more than an hour you should have a share in the work…
A driving, whirling, swirling snow storm Saturday morning helped to undo all the digging out that had been done around town during the past month. …People, who the day before thought that spring had come, thought a lot of other things when they awoke Saturday and lost some of their self control and said things before they thought.
Miss Qualey, the village nurse, is in immediate need of old cotton and any old garments that can be used in sickness. Her supply has been exhausted by the unusual demand during the past few weeks.
George Matuska of this place pleaded guilty to murder in the second degree at the superior court in Hartford this week on the charge of killing his wife, Maggie Matuska, at their home…He was sentenced to imprisonment for life.
Pursuant to the vote of the special town meeting…the selectmen have purchased for the town from D. N. Carrington, a site for a garage and storage building for motor vehicles and tools belonging to the town. The lot is situated near the Arthur Sikes building opposite the freight depot, and contains seven eighths of an acre. [Ffyler Place] The building will be started as soon as the weather permits.
The engine on the Branch broke down Tuesday morning just as the first train pulled out of the station here and the trip was delayed for about an hour and a half. Some of the commuters walked to Windsor Locks and about twenty enjoyed a sleighride to the Windsor Locks station.
March 19
The…Hartford & Springfield railway company…started [shoveling] Thursday morning with a small gang of men…. There was supposed to be a volunteer force to help the company along the line, but only two or three showed up below Fuller’s corner [Main and Mapleton] … Mapleton, as usual, was very much awake and a crew of thirty-four volunteers shoveled all day.
Many barns and sheds that have always been dry before have been flooded this spring and some of the farmers are keeping their cattle on the second floor of their barn.
Henry Adams & Sons have returned from the west with two carloads of horses, which they have on sale at their Bridge street stables.
March 26
Another snow storm last Saturday netted about six inches of snow and the people who so gladly welcomed the renewed trolley service feared that another tie-up was due. Fortunately… the snow disappeared and five clear days of spring-like weather have been enjoyed, an unusual treat. A large part of the frost is out of the ground, bluebirds, robins, phoebes and other birds are here, and there seems every prospect of an early spring in spite of the severe winter.