Selected from the pages of the Windsor Locks Journal and lightly annotated by Wendy Taylor, Kent Memorial Library
November 3
Passengers on the northbound trolley car at Tracy’s switch…, were treated to the unusual sight of a wood fox in the meadow near the tracks. The fox was evidently running ahead of a pack of hounds, as their baying could be heard in the distance. The fox did not seem at all nervous, but stopped and looked over the trolley passengers who were watching him.
Suffield School will line up against Milford at Suffield Saturday afternoon with an entirely different team than that which has represented the Nutmeg school in its last five games.
Five families, including eighteen children under ten years of age, were routed from tenements in the old Methodist church building at 3:30 Thursday morning by a fire of undetermined origin, which completely destroyed the six-tenement building and its contents, resulting in a total loss of about $12,000. The occupants escaped without injury although one family on the second floor was in danger for a time.
The burned building was remodeled some time ago by the owner, John F. Barnett who transformed it into a six-tenement house. The Suffield and West Suffield fire departments responded to the alarm, but when they arrived the building was a mass of flames and could not be saved. The local branch of the American Red Cross started to-day to gather clothing and to provide quarters for the destitute and homeless tenants.
November 10
The woodpile is again becoming a popular ornament to the backyard, and he that hath a wood lot rejoiceth over his less fortunate brethren. The sound of the axe is heard in the land and the leisure hour of the school boy begins after the wood box is filled. When the evening has come the air is filled with the smoke from the sweet-smelling birch, and the smoke goes up the chimney just the same as it did when wood was the universal fuel. What a comfortable home-like atmosphere a woodpile gives to the dooryard, and the bright split wood in the old-fashioned woodshed brings to mind visions of the open fireplace surrounded by a content family.
Friends of Mrs. Juliet Blood Colyer, wife of Theodore Colyer of Milburn, N. J., will regret to know of her sudden death November 1st, following an operation and the birth of a third daughter. Mrs. Colyer taught in the west district for a year.
November 17
The tobacco warehouses are starting up to assort the tobacco for the new co-operative association, and in a couple of weeks will be going full swing. There is a something of a scarcity of help this year as many of the women that have worked in the warehouses have gone to work in the factories.
November 24
Luncheon was served at the Mapleton hall from 11 o’clock on by John Vandewater of Springfield, and the hot clam chowder, doughnuts, coffee and other good things were in great demand.
A flurry of snow early this morning gave warning that winter was on the way, and that now at any time might change a most delightful fall into a cold, hard winter.
The First Congregational and Second Baptist churches have arranged to hold union services the coming winter months and a committee has been appointed from each of the churches to complete arrangements.
Owing to the coal shortage this seems a satisfactory solution of the problem confronting these churches.