Monthly Archives: January 2017

Getting Ready for the Bird Count

It is almost Wednesday, February 1st, 2017 and casual bird watcher and feeders in Norwich, CT know that from 6PM – 8 PM at the Norwich Agway, 217 Otrobando Avenue there is going to be a tremendous, free of charge bird feeder, food and accessories presentation of information by one of their suppliers but the real reason for the crowd is the humungous one-night-only sales after the presentation. No where in Eastern CT will you find better sales on bird seed, corn, suet, wildlife equipment, treats and more. They also have great give-aways! Reservations are not required but they serve refreshments so an expected head count is nice for them to have in advance. Call Agway at 860.889.2344 or email them at norwichagway@gmail.com or check out their sales at www.norwichagway.com.

Seniors, adults and kids of all ages are welcome and accommodated. Last years star of the night was an 8 or 9 year old that watched the birds with a great-grandparent. Observing birds gave them something to do together, observe, talk about and research. The two shared a great bond and knew so much more about bird species and what was happening ecologically around them because of the bird watching. A school project on birds was also displayed at the Senior Center and then at the Library. I hope they will be back this year.

This has been a mild winter, so far, but fresh food for the birds never goes to waste especially this time of the year when it is almost time for the Great Backyard Bird Count that takes place on Presidents Day Weekend February 17 – 20th. Everyone can be a citizen scientist by taking a real-time snapshot of bird populations. No camera needed. Just count the birds on the ground during a fifteen minute period and report the sighting online at www.birdcount.org.

Anyone can take part from beginners to experts. It is now a world-wide program happening everywhere on the same weekend so if you have family or friends anywhere in the country or the world you can all participate in the same activity at the same time and check out each others results being added to the official counts in real time too.

Participants are not required to travel anywhere. I look out my kitchen window to the backyard for a morning count of the birds at one feeder. It just happens to be where I drink my morning coffee. I do a later count out of my front window. During my break I sprinkle cracked corn on the lawn and see who shows up to the feast. I keep a supply of cracked corn in the car so I can stop at Brown Park or Mohegan Park to feed and count the ducks. I don’t mind having to pick up or deliver people to places I don’t need to be at myself just so I can bird count at different locations. Waiting, does not have to be boring.

Each report submitted during the Great backyard bird Count helps the researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society learn how the birds are doing and how we can better protect them environmentally. Last year more than 160,000 people submitted their observations and this year you can be a part of it. Please visit www.birdcount.org for more information, bird lists and educational and promotional resources for homes, organizations, classrooms and businesses.

Thank you for reading and sharing my blog freely with your family or friends or anyone you think might be interested or in a position to take on some of the suggested projects. Don’t hesitate to contact me for further information. I am happy to pass along anything I can. Together we can make a difference. Email comments on this blog to berylfishbone@yahoo.com

The DNA results are in

The results are in! Yes! I spit in the tube and sent it off to AncestryDNA. I have 0 (Zero) shared ancestors. 0 (Zero) starred matches. No DNA circles. 6,528 possible 4th cousins or closer, 12 possible 3rd cousins and 1 possible 2nd cousin. Not one name was familiar to me but I am in the process of messaging each and every person on the list. I will let you know what happens.

I was very excited to find out my DNA ethnicity. I have watched the television and facebook advertisements and anxiously awaited my surprises. I was ready to be shocked. I was hoping to be shocked but that was not to be. I am 97% European. 93% European Jewish 2% Italy/Greece 1% Iberian Peninsula <1% Ireland. The other 3% is Middle East and <1% Caucasus.

European Jewish means my ancestors were mostly located in Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Hungary, Israel but may have also settled in Germany, France, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Romania, Bosnia, Serbia and Estonia. No far reaching and traveling ancestors there. Italy/Greece might have been a stray sailor perhaps?

The Iberian Peninsula? That is in the area of Spain and Portugal between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean on the other side of the Pyrenees Mountains.

Trade could be responsible for the 3% Middle East too. The traders could have been from Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Israel, Iran, or Pakistan. Yes I remember reading about the trade routes.

According to Ancestry, my people of the European Jewish Region, are much less mixed than most other regions and similarities to other DNA profiles are rarely seen. From a collection of 195 people a reference panel was built and all comparisons are to it.

Was it worth it? Yes. It puts to rest the questions of where my ancestors came from. I may still not know their names or identities but now I know where they lived. Give it a try.

BBBS January 24

Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) is coming to Norwich, CT but not for the reason that you might be imagining. They are not coming with a program of youthful support. They are coming to Norwich, CT to accept our donations of old clothing, drapes, curtains, linens, tools, books, small household items like toasters, knick-knacks, dining ware and toys on January 24th because of a company called Hartsprings Foundation from Springfield, MA. Check out their website and information at www.hartsprings.org.

Hartsprings Foundation, Inc is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising funds for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Western and Central Massachusetts and Nutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters in Hartford, CT.

Big Brothers Big Sisters is a great organization filled with loving and caring individuals. There was once a very active program in Norwich, CT but like so many other programs it fell away. But still Norwich is remembered for the generous hearts of its residents. So whenever there is a need for funding, organizations place collection boxes in Norwich, CT and take our castoffs away to be sold by weight and volume for profits to be used in other cities and towns.

For Hartsprings to pick up donations at your home just call them at 1.888.413.2227 or visit donations@hartsprings.org 72 hours in advance of the desired pickup date. Then place the boxes, bags or large items on the curbside clearly visible from the street by 8 AM on the pickup day. Attach a paper clearly marked “BBBS” to the donation and you are done. Now how easy was that?

I just hope that at least some of the money that will be made on what is collected in Norwich, CT will somehow be returned to our community. It is a worthwhile cause but aren’t the residents here worthwhile too?

A Piece of Family History Without a Parallel

Some of the most interesting history of Norwich, CT is incomplete and fires up interest in discovering the rest of the story. Perhaps this article from January 28, 1848 is “A Piece of [your] family history without a parallel.”

On this 27th day of January, Anno Domini 1848, and in this our goodly, thriving city of Norwich, in the State of Connecticut, is living an aged gentleman, the progenitor, of five generations, all now living. He, (that is the said progenitor or ancestor,) was born on Sunday – his wife was born on Sunday; and he had a child born on every day of the week, commencing with Sunday morning and ending on Saturday night. All the first-born of the five successive generations were born on Sunday – all are males and all bear the same name, and all are now living. Of these, the last born is the son of the fourth or fifth (we do not know which) child of her parents. – The oldest of the five generations, is ninety-six years of age – the youngest is between two and three months old, so that the distance which separates the two extremes, is but less than a century.

What a world of history, written and unwritten, has been enacted within the period which has thus transpired since the birth of the great great grandsire and that of the great great grandson. With the latter, we have not had the pleasure of an acquaintance; but with the former we meet almost daily in our walks through the streets; and there is one place above all others, unless we except the house of worship on the Sabbath) where he is sure to be found as often as the various election days come round, and that is, at the polls. – At our last Town Election, his was the first vote deposited in the Ballot Box; and from the time he was made a freeman, down to the present, he has never failed to be present at the Annual State Election, and to give his vote for the men and the measures approved by his judgment. Perhaps it will not strike our democratic friends quite pleasantly, but we cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of adding, that this venerable , intelligent, and most exemplary citizen is a Whig – a Whig of the staunchest sort, tried and true as steel.

If this is in fact a story from your family or a friend, please let me know as I am curious to know how many more generations it lasted or if this was the end.

Thank you for sharing my blog with your friends. Email comments on this blog to berylfishbone@yahoo.com
View my past columns at http://www.norwichbulletin.com/section/blogs

Take a Hike June 3rd 2017

Kick off your hiking adventure season with National Trails Day June 3, 2017. If you already have something planned, bring your activity along on this adventure in Norwich, CT. Your hike in Norwich, CT can be as short as 10 minutes or you can spend the entire day walking, hiking, biking, and exploring. No matter what you choose, you will not be disappointed.
National Trails Day is nationally coordinated and designed to unite all muscle-powered trail activities with the goal of connecting more people to trails. By coordinating a wide array of trail activities on a single day, National Trails Day attracts new trail users and helps connect existing trail enthusiasts with local clubs and organizations with the hopes of creating trail advocates and stewards. The task to protect and maintain more than 200,000 miles in the U.S. is a collaborative effort among government, trail clubs, organizations, trail advocates and stewards.

With the encouragement of the promotional program called the Last Green Valley, Norwich, CT added a whole bunch of walking trails throughout the city to the existing clearly marked hiking trails in Mohegan Park. Look up just under some of our street signs are Norwich’s own hiking trail plaques and there are new brochures to help you find your way about the city should you choose to hike Norwich on your own. Escorted tours of designated Norwich, Ct areas are available in October during The Last Green Valley promotion “Walktober.”
Coincidentally Mohegan Park published its new brochure in 2016 with its maintained trails marked in red, blue and green and has maps of the park posted at all entrances and the park center.

No worries if you will not be in the Norwich, CT area, visit www.nationaltrailsday.americanhiking.org to find a program near to wherever you are going to be.

Communicate Sponsor and Empower

In past blogs I have written about the differences and importance of Marketing, Advertising and Branding to the City of Norwich, CT. I identified Marketing to be the management process of moving goods and services from concept including product identification, and distribution channels using promotional and development strategies to reach the customer.
Advertising was identified as the act of calling public attention to a product, service or need through paid announcements in the media such as newspapers, magazines, radio, television, internet, billboard or convention.

Branding is the marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme.

Today I am adding Promotion, Sponsorship and Empowerment to the mix.
Promotion is an activity that supports or provides encouragement to further a cause, venture or goal. For example, “disease prevention and health promotion.” You want to stop disease and you want more people to enjoy good health.

Sponsorship is supporting an activity, event, individual or organization financially or by providing goods or services. A sponsor is the individual or group that provides the support.

My personal favorite is the empowerment portion. Empowerment is giving individuals or groups the authority or power to do something. Empowerment is a process that encourages others to become stronger and more confident.
In business and government empowerment is encouraging others to make decisions that will benefit others.

It is not necessary for a single individual, group, business or government to do all of these things. But for a successful community to grow there must be all of these things as well as collaboration, cooperation and communication. Not more definitions you say! Sorry but on the up side these are the last definitions per say. Collaboration is the action of working with another to produce or create something. Cooperation is the process of working or acting together for common benefit. Communication is the exchanging of information between parties. Communicating is making and maintaining the connection between the parties.

Now can we please work on our communication skills to empower our residents, businesses and leaders to collaborate, sponsor and promote their goods and services so the City of Norwich, CT can build a marketable brand of collaborative fiscal responsibility and residential empowerment for the good of us all?

W. T. Olcott

Every January I write a tribute to William Tyler Olcott. An attorney who in 1902, with his wife Clara Hyde of Yantic chose to make their home at 62 Church Street (the Glebe House) in Norwich, CT. At the time it was a common two and a half story house with an elaborate wide cornice with heavy dentils.

Olcott was born January 11, 1873 and became a gentle and observant man. At 36 he developed a love of astronomy and observing variable stars after attending a lecture by Edward Pickering in 1909. In 1911, he and Professor Pickering founded the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). To popularize the field of amateur astronomy Olcott published several books including one for children , “to blaze a trail for you among the stars in order that you might know your way about the night sky and easily come to know the many objects of beauty and interest that darkness reveals to us . . . “

To the back of his home Olcott added a wooden observatory, with a revolving hexagonal tower perched behind the roof. Sadly, the observatory was removed by the Otis Library when they used the house as a children’s library.

William Tyler Olcott died July 6, 1936 but his name and the work of the AAVSO continue on.

NASA named an impact crater on the moon in his honor for his dedication to space observation. Per NASA the crater lacks any significant appearance of erosion from subsequent impacts, and its features are relatively well-defined. The rim edge is generally circular, with a slight outward bulge to the northeast and a larger bulge to the south. It has an outer terrace and slumped edges along the inner wall. Several low ridges lie near the interior mid-point, with the western pair near the center and the eastern peaks offset towards the eastern rim.

The satellite craters Olcott M and Olcott L form an overlapping pair along the southern outer rampart of Olcott, with the smaller member of the pair Olcott L overlapping Olcott M. The satellite crater Olcott E is partly overlain by the eastern rim of Olcott.
Wouldn’t it be great if Norwich, CT in some small way paid some kind of a tribute to this man of science? Perhaps an observation field for people to set up telescopes to watch the skies for variable stars?

John Bull’s Love Story

I like a good story and history presents many of them. This is a particularly romantic tale from a newspaper called the Saturday Evening Mail, of January 7, 1871. It was titled An Indian Romance.

“A young mechanic of Norwich, Connecticut, named John Bull, lately became enamored of an Indian maiden who dwelt in a wigwam just out of town. It was there that she braided her mats and wrought her ornaments of beads for the market of the pale faces. In her romantic retreat, the ardent youth sought out his “dusky mate,” and wooed her to become his own. He found her “willin’,” and took a lover’s pride in lavishing upon her such gifts as his slender purse could buy. He no doubt clothed her with all the graces which poets and romance had bestowed upon bright Alfarata, faithful Pocahantas and other unsophisticated daughters of the forest.[Bright Alfarata is the Indian girl who sings the praises of her warrior while she travels along the Juniata River in a popular parlor song of 1844]

But Bulls hopes were destined to fade and his dream of romance to be changed into a very ugly reality. A few days ago his adorable daughter of the forest visited the city, and with the proceeds of her traffic and the pawning of her lover’s gifts, got gloriously intoxicated, and stood on her head in the open square. In this unseemly attitude she lost forever the affections of the youthful Bull. His dream of delusion is over and he goes round the dull mechanic once more a sober citizen of Norwich.”

I had never heard “The Blue Juniata” and was surprised to learn it was the first commercially successful song written by an American woman, Marion Dix Sullivan and was mentioned in the autobiography of Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens). Roy Rogers and the Early Sons of the Pioneers recorded it in 1937 and it is now available to be heard on youTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hEl25cJET8. A response to the song was written by Rev. Cyrus Cort in 1865.

The Juniata River is a tributary of the Susquehanna River in central Pennsylvania. Juniata was called Onajutta on a 1655 Dutch map of the area in honor of the Indians who lived on it, the Onajutta-Haga, meaning vertical or standing stone people who called the waters the River of Sorrow.

Thank you for sharing my blog freely with your family or friends or anyone you think might be interested or in a position to take on some of the suggested projects. Don’t hesitate to contact me for further information. I am happy to pass along anything I can. Together we can make a difference. Email comments on this blog to berylfishbone@yahoo.com

Official Hot Drink of Norwich, CT

It is going to happen on Tuesday, January 3, 2017! The Norwich City Council and Mayor are going to declare Hot Cocoa the official “Hot Drink” of the city. While the declaration is all in good fun I hope that the local restaurants will take this as a promotional opportunity to promote their menus. After the holidays, winter can be a bit dreary and this can add a little fun and a bright spot.

I have been campaigning for this declaration since 2008, when I thought that the history of the Christopher and Elisha Leffingwell chocolate mill established in 1770 could be a great introduction to the wide and varied manufacturing history of Norwich, CT.

The small mill in Norwich, CT helped to produce the over 320 tons of chocolate demanded by the 1773 colonial population. “Chocolate nuts” were off-loaded, roasted, shelled and ground into chocolate when the ships reached North American eastern ports. The resulting chocolate was irregular in appearance and slightly gritty in texture but when mixed with hints of cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg, milk, sugar and water it was ready to be drunk as a staple with any meal, as a military pay ration and as a medicine.

While some recipes for hot cocoa have very exotic ingredients such as eggs, wine and chili peppers. I like the basic envelope mix with a basic dash of vanilla, a pinch of cinnamon and a touch of nutmeg but I encourage individuals, families and restaurants to create their own favorites.

In 2010 The Stir published 12 Heavenly Ways to Spice Up Hot Cocoa and they were not wrong.
I just open an envelope but they start from scratch by combining 1/3 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder, 3/4 cup of white sugar, and a pinch of salt in a saucepan. Blend in 1/3 cup of boiling water. Simmer and stir for about 2 minutes, then stir in 3 1/2 cups of milk and heat until very hot, but keeping it just below a boil. Remove from heat and add in 3/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Serves 4.

Mexican Hot Chocolate: Add 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon and a pinch of chili pepper to your favorite.

Toffee Treat: Stir in butterscotch chips into the original hot cocoa until melted, top with whipped cream, and then sprinkle with crushed toffee bar pieces.

Cookies & Cream: Crush Oreo cookies and sprinkle them on top of the whipped cream.
Holiday Hot Cocoa Crush up pieces of hard peppermint candies (approximately one per cup), stir into the chocolate, and add 1/2 teaspoon of peppermint extract for good measure. Sprinkle any leftover candies over the whipped cream.

Raspberry Heaven: Pour raspberry liqueur (preferably Chambord) into an original hot chocolate for a decadent drink. Garnish with a piece of crystallized ginger, if desired.

White Delight: Heat 6 cups of milk and 2 cups of heavy cream until bubbles form, then pour over 12 ounces of white chocolate (finely chopped) in a medium heat-proof bowl. When it begins to melt, stir to combine, then whisk in 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Continue whisking until light foam forms. Serves 8.

Frozen Hot Chocolate: Mix 3 ounces of your favorite high-quality chocolate (melted) with two teaspoons of store bought cocoa mix and 1 1/2 teaspoon of sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring until well blended. Remove and slowly add 1/2 cup of milk, stir until smooth, and then cool to room temperature. Then blend mix, 1 cup of milk, and 3 cups of ice in blender until smooth. Top with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

Sexy Citrus: Add in 2 strips of orange peel and 2 strips of lemon peel to 4 ounces of melted semi-sweet chocolate, 3/4 cup half-and-half, and 3/4 cup of milk, over heat. Remove peels after 2 minutes and add Brandy and Limoncello to taste.

Rise & Shine: Add 1/2 cup of hot coffee to 1/2 cup of milk. Mix in 1 1/2 teaspoons of unsweetened cocoa, 1 tablespoon of grated milk chocolate, and sugar to taste.

Russian Hot Chocolate: Mix together 2 ounces of Kahlua, 1 ounce of vodka, and 1 cup hot chocolate made from milk.

Peanut Butter Better: Melt peanut butter cups into your favorite hot cocoa for a candy-inspired beverage or mix in a teaspoon of your favorite powdered peanut butter.

Country Cocoa: Stir in maple syrup to your original hot cocoa for a completely different (yet delicious) version.

What’s your favorite variety of hot chocolate?

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