Monthly Archives: October 2017

Searching for a mobile phone carrier

I am furious right now. Last week my mobile phone stopped working. Thank goodness I still have a house landline. I turned the mobile phone off and back on. I took out the battery and put it back in. Still didn’t work so I called Tracfone, my service provider. I spoke with a company representative who told me to stand by a window. Turn the phone off, wait five minutes and turn it back on. “Was I certain the phone was saying No Service on the screen?” “ Try making a call.” I spent an hour and twenty-two minutes on the phone with customer service. Eighty-two minutes of my time on the phone with someone saying, “Can you turn the phone on and off?” “Can you please try and make a call?” “Do you have access to the phone you are calling about right now?”

Tracfone investigated my complaints and needed to send me a new SIM card. That mailing took another four days. I received the SIM card. I was even able to install the SIM card. I called the customer servce number as given in the instructions that came with the new SIM card.

We went over the same questions. “Do you have access to the phone?” “Are you able to open the phone?” “Can you take out the battery and replace the SIM card?” “Please wait and see if it works when you turn it back on.” “How many bars do you see?” (I am at home and not seeing any bars out of my windows.) “On the screen mam; How many bars do you see?” “No active bars. They are still gray with a red x above them and the words No Service.” “Can you please try and make a call?” “Why? There is no service.” I was disconnected three times and yet I persisted in calling them back. FINALLY, they kick me up to technical support. Technical Support manages to disconnect me another three times. I am beside myself. This should be a very easy, simple fix and it is eating up my valuable time but I am more determined than ever to get this done and over with.

I call back Technical Support. I will not divulge how I got the number. More investigation and lo and behold it seems Tracfone has changed their carrier and is no longer servicing the type of Smart Phone I am using in my area. They will send me a replacement phone. It will be basic phone and not a smart phone. “Not acceptable.” says I. If I have to send you my smart phone to receive the replacement, I want a smart phone as the replacement. TracFone changed the carrier without notification. TracFone has left me without a mobile phone for a week and it will be another week or more before I receive the paperwork and the phones can be exchanged. Let alone the inconvenience of possibly losing the photos and phone numbers on my phone. Well the policy is to only send the basic phone as the replacement. Route me to someone with more authority so I can have an equal swap of my phone. I know that TracFone is going to be sending me a refurbished phone and will be refurbishing and selling my phone so why shouldn’t I be receiving an equal phone to the one I am sending them and not a lesser quality one?

Then my call is routed to the Phillipines from where it must be checked to see if they can indeed send me the same type of phone I am sending them. How about that? The Phillipine person says they can after pretending to check with the Corporate Office in Miami, FL if I send my phone first to Plainfield, Indiana. They will send me paperwork and instructions to add more days for me to be without my mobile phone. I am not happy.

I liked Tracfone because I paid less than one hundred dollars for one year of uninterrupted service but this nonsense has ruined our relationship. Any suggestions for a new mobile smart phone carrier?

Thank you for reading and sharing my history and Norwich Community 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 View my past columns at http://www.norwichbulletin.com/section/blogs.

Audio Described Performances

If you are ever in a facility for a live performance that is audio described take advantage of it. I was recently at the Yale Repertory Theatre for a wonderful presentation of the 1882 play An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen.

The play and acting were magnificent but it was the extra offerings that I really want to tell everyone about. An extra ticket was included for each of the guide dogs that was with our group. That means that the dog was not constantly being accidently kicked while laying on the floor under the seat of their owner or being moved because they are blocking the aisle. Each dog had its own space!

Then there was a touch tour for visually impaired attendees. We were shown material samples of the costumes, some of the special effects, met some of the actors, the assistant director, technical director and some others. They were very excited and happy to describe their individual parts in the performance. It was the first time the touch tour was made available and was a tremendous gift to the visually impaired and improved the quality of the play for us all.

The play was also audio described which even though I am sighted person I take advantage of whenever I can. Not enough theaters offer audio description. It is very easy. When you pick up your tickets at the box office you ask for the head set and in most cases you swap your ID for the ear piece. It is already preset to a particular channel and you don’t have to do anything other than put it on your ear. I like the one with a single ear piece. I hear the actors with one ear and the describers voice in my other .

Audio description is an art of using the natural pauses in the dialogue to insert descriptions of the visual elements. The descriptions may be the actions of the actors, appearances of characters, body language, costumes, settings, lighting, etc. The describer and the actors do not speak at the same time. It is not intrusive and may just direct your attention to something you might not have otherwise noticed.

Andrea Miskow was the audio describer of the day and is a successful working actor in New York and SanFrancisco when not describing for plays at the the Hartfrod Stage Company, Yale Repertory Theatre , Second Stage Theatre, The Public Theatre, Signature Theatre, Theatre Breaking Through Barriers, Broadway and the Lincoln Center Festival.

For more information about the Yale Repertory Theatre’s Accessibility Program, please contact Laura Kirk, Director of Audience Services at laura.kirk@yale.edu.

Greeneville Halloween Parties

Residents in Greeneville, CT once knew how to celebrate Halloween. Not that they don’t now but back in the day the report in the Norwich Bulletin of a party in the November 1, 1906 says it better than I can.

“An Old-fashioned Halloween party was held in the dparlors of the Greeneville Congregational church on Friday evening and was very largely attended. The parlors were beautifully decorated with oak branches, cedar trees and the pumpkin moonshine was conspicuous in the branches, making a very novel sight. During the evening the following games were played: Halloween Pie, Miss Taylor; rhymes, crusts, pans, bobbing apples, Hugh McComb; tub apples, the three steps, Mrs. McComb; book of fate, Miss Lillibridge; book and candle, tub candles; paring apples, Mrs. Young; the twelve candles, Mrs. Matthews; the three dishes, Mrs. Gilchrist; games of letters, Mrs. Zahn: walking down stairs; the eleventh gamewas a ghost fire and dance, which was followed by fortune telling.

2nd Part – Little Annie; ghost parade; tableau; witch’s cauldron and witch, lines from Macbeth. Ghost stories were then told by the witch, after which there was organ music. The party then sat down to supper, at which cakes were passed around containing coins, rings and other mystical articles. The party was a very pleasing affair, due to the committee in charge.”

It was interesting to learn the rules for some of these decorations and games. Write a fortune on a tiny piece of paper you roll up and place in a walnut shell you have carefully opened emptied (using the nut meat for baking I suspect) and glue back together. Oat cakes with peanut butter sound good. They are really pancakes but a pretty substitute could be waffles. I might add a dash of honey with the peanut butter. Hot gingerbread with marshmallow frosting inbetween the layers is listed as another traditional treat. Acandy pull is described as lots of fun but do you know where all those pulling hands have been?

How times have changed with a Fortune cake. A plain cake cut into squares. Into the even numbered squares a girls fortune written on a piece of paper and into the odd numbered squares a boys fortune is written.

A “Novelty Party” requires score cards and a different game at each table. The two having the highest score progress to the next table; the prizes may be halloween favor boxes filled with candy and chestnuts. To find partners, have the score cards tied, two with black and two with yellow ribbons. The two colors play with each other, the black against the yellow, etc. Different games like casino, pit, old maid, rhum, hearts, 500 or whist may be played.

Different stunt games can be fun too. Biting an apple hanging from a string attached to the ceiling with hands behind your back, to get a lucky ten-cent piece. Spearing peanuts, hunting partner peanuts. Shell peanuts and save the shells. Write girls names inside shells and tie together with ribbon or string. Hide in difficult places and set the boys hunting for their female partners; stringing glass beads; jackstraws or other stunts. Pumpkin and squash pies should be served with brown bread if oat cakes are not served.

Hide a ring, thimble and penny and send your guests in search for them. Find the ring – A speedy marriage, the thimble finder will be an old maid. Find the penny to be wealthy.

Give each male a needle and a piece of thread. The first to succeed will be the first to marry. The awkward manner in which the men attempt to thread the needle furnishes amusement to the guests.

Raisin Race – String raisins in middle of a string a yard long. Two persons each take an end of the string in their mouth. Whoever chews the string and gets to the raisin first wins.

Pumpkin Alphabet – Carve letters on pumpkin and set pumpkin on a table. Blindfold guests and give a hatpin to stick in the first letter of their Halloween Name.

Dough Test – Make dough of water and meal. Make small balls and stuff with amounts of coins written on pieces of paper. Win the amount on the paper.

Meeting your fate – Have guests fill their mouths with water and walk around. The first person they meet will be their fate.

Saucer game – fill four saucers in a row. Fill one with dirt, another water, another a ring, a fourth a rag. Blindfold guests and lead them twice around the table. Then ask them to put out their hand. If they first put their hand in the dirt they will be divorced, the water will travel, the ring will be married, the rag will never marry.

Barrel Burning

Its almost November and here come the stories of the barrel burnings. We have all grown up seeing the photographs and perhaps a few have heard the stories from their grandparents or great grandparents. Like most stories the lore has made the stories bigger and better than their probable reality and we have heard only one side of the story. Do the photographs tell the story? The whole story? Or is there more?

I found this more to the story article in the November 29, 1902 Norwich Bulletin where the “Police are Thankful Thanksgiving is over.”

Annoyance by barrel gangs and unreasonable residents departed with Day of Blessing.

Perhaps no one is more thankful that Thanksgiving is past than the policemen, especially those on the outskirts of the city, for they have been bothered for the past three months by the boys pilfering barrels. It keeps the bluecoats on the guard all the time, but despite that fact they are unable to cover all points of their district at one time, and the youngsters will manage to arrange their visits so that they will not collide with the cops. The boys do all their work between 5:30 and 9 o’clock, and while they worked they worked lively this season. Many were stopped by the police, but more escaped their notice, and about those who did escape the police were always sure to hear, for the householders, unmindful of the fact that they leave their ashbarrels in unguarded places, expect that the patrolmen can divine where the receptacles were carried, who took them, and can secure their return. Such appeals were not infrequent, and have been rather monotonous during the past few weeks, and now that the great barrel burning event is over for this year, a large weight is off the minds of the police.”

Indian Leap Plan

Never, ever ask a question you don’t want an answer to. The question is what do you, the public think of the plan for Indian Leap that was presented to the public October 11, 2017.

Personally I found it not only to be a flat presentation but a boring and unimaginative site plan. There is very little money to be spent so those in charge decided that eliminating the brush, planting grass, placing a few boulders, making a walkway that meanders around for a bit, painting the bridge, and creating a parking lot for six to eight cars and installing a fancy porta potty ought to do the trick with a few signs with as much misinformation about the history of the site as possible.

How sad is it that is all Norwich residents can come up with? I think its very sad. Wasteful of my tax dollars and above all insulting to residents and visitors alike.

What would I like to see for the same amount of money? A port-a-potty in an unobtrusive, but convenient location. The planned parking was not the best plan but fine for what is there and convenient for the two local restaurants as well.

The locations of the planned observation sites will be fine. The tie up sites for water crafts are much needed. So there are some good points to the plan. But to make the site more interesting to the walkers and hikers and other visitors then I would like to see some of the Indian lore legends and tales that may have been told around the campfires told through some statues placed among the trees and rocks. The benches might be in the shape of the spinning wheels of the old mill. There was enough work for six wheels to operate at a time. A huge number at that time. The story of how Leffingwell was paid by the British to operate the paper mill could be told on a plaque placed strategically near a stand of trees. The herb plots popular in the 1800’s in the area of the Falls are long gone but certainly a tribute to them could be re-established. If there is so much hue and cry for an outdoor performance area than why not keep it in the historic character of the area by just installing a cement stage the size of a 100 year old tree trunk on which people can expound to their family and friends. The image of the trunk could also serve as a reminder of the clear cutting that was done throughout New England. If there was any extra money I’d love to see reminders of the abundant wildlife that once roamed our area peeping in and out of the greenery, plantings and rock formations.

The now gone artform house was once set up to be an information center and historic display area but the remnants of the mill could be re-purposed as yet another tribute to once was but in the more recent past.

No matter what is done to the falls area the neighbors will be much appreciative of the clean-up of the area.

Clear Doors

Often the front windows and doors of business establishments are covered with stickers and posters and cause observers to wonder why the fronts of the business are made of glass if they are going to be so covered with solid materials we cannot look through to see the business itself.

In this November 24, 1902 article, A Peculiar Accident, from the Norwich Bulletin is the tale of what happens when glass doors were rarer than they are today and not yet cluttered with ads, posters, and stickies. Fingerprints were cleaned away and clear polished glass was something to be proud of.

Taftville Man Walked ThroughGlass Door of East Main Street Store.

A Taftville man found himself in a peculiar predicament Saturday evening as the result of which a storekeeper is considering the advisability of placing a sign on his door which will read, “Store Entrance, Look Out For the Door.”

The Taftville resident was going into the store in the Steiner block on East Main Street where the door is one large pane of glass, the wooden frame of the door being quite narrow. Just inside the door stood the proprietor, and the purchaser, supposing the door to be open crashed through it in his endeavor to get into the store. He shattered the glass in the door and cut his face and hands quite badly, besides causing no small amount of excitement. The affair was purely an accident.

Today I imagine there would accusations, an insurance investigation, blame being placed on the shop owner, the door installer, the window manufacturer and I can’t imagine who all else might become involved.

Designing an Auto Tour

The date was September 13, 1907. The guests of General W. A. Aiken were the Executive Council of Civil Service League. All in attendance were prominent men in their respective fields of law, business and literature. Men such as Attorney General Bonaparte, R. W. Glider of Century Magazine; George W. Burnham, Jr., of Baldwin Locomotive Works; R. H. Danna, Boston; Atty. Ansley Wilcox, Buffalo; and Prof. C. N. Gregory of Iowa College.

So what were they shown and how would the tour of Norwich, CT be different today some 110 years later? Their auto ride began by entering Norwich from Groton over Laurel Hill, riding through the commerce area and up Broadway to the Norwich Free Academy with a tour of Slater Museum given by Principal H. A. Tirrell. Then they were driven to the more historic portions of the city mostly in Norwichtown. Returning to the scene of Uncas’ famous leap at the Falls, stopping for a moment at his monument on Sachem Street and then a short stop at General Aiken’s home before returning to the Griswold Inn.

So how would the tour be different today? When regular and famous people come to our fair city what do we show them? How do we describe our city? Where do we begin our tours? Where do we encourage them to stretch their legs? Have a break? Enjoy a snack or meal? Who do we introduce them to? How well do we know our city that we can answer questions about it? Are there places more photographic than others? Do you know where there are unusual businesses that could tempt your visitors curiosity? What do you like to see when you visit other places? What do you look forward to doing when you are away from home? Consider taking a break in Norwich. Go to a part of the city you are not all that familiar with and walk around. Are there any festivals happening there? Is there a park? What are the local restaurants like in that area? Did you find a new place to eat or skate or walk or boat or canoe or sit and contemplate in? How can you work toward the improvement of your little pocket of Norwich? What can you do? Now get busy.

Hannah Ocuish and Eunice Bolles

Deep in the document vault of the Leffingwell House Museum in Norwich, CT is a small pamphlet titled, A S E R M O N PREACHED AT NEW – LONDON, December 20th, 1786. OCCASIONED By the EXECUTION of Hannah Ocuish, a Mulatto Girl, Aged 12 Years and 9 Months. The sermon was preached by Henry Channing as he spoke for “God admonishing his people of their duty as parents and masters.”

It is a tale suitable for telling in the autumn as Halloween and spooky, scarey tales are being repeated. However this tale is fact. It is not a Norwich tale but it is one of Southeastern Connecticut.

The strawberries were ripe and plentiful in the summer of 1786. Picking the strawberries was a cherished chore for young children. If you didn’t come back with a full basket to be made into pies, jams, and jellies there was always the chance you would not be sent again to pick the delicious fruit or be given a slice of pie or a bit of the sweet sauce.

So off into the nearby strawberry field went 6 year old Eunice Bolles, daughter of a prominent New London family and from another home twelve year old house servant Hannah Ocuish.

Ocuish had not been raised with civility and kindness. At only six years old she was removed from her mother and brother and placed by the courts as a bound servant with another family. By twelve Hannah was tough and determined to succeed. If filling her basket meant taking the strawberries picked by another smaller girl than that was what you had to do. And she did. Hannah took the strawberries from the basket of Eunice Bolles.

Eunice went home with a small amount of berries and told her mother about the bigger girl. Hannah was confronted and punished for her theft of the berries. But Hannah had a memory.

On the morning of July 21, 1786, Eunice Bolles left her home to go to school. Around 10 am her bruised and broken body was found face down next to a stonewall on the road leading to Norwich from New London. It was obvious the killer had placed stones on her body to make it look as if the wall had collapsed on top of her.

Hannah had been seen in the area so she was questioned but her answers were obviously not the truth. She was taken to the Bolles home and when she saw the body she quickly confessed and was brought to trial. Emotions ran high and even the judge was near to tears at times. Calm throughout it all was Hannah.

Perhaps the days she spent in the jail without chores to do were the most carefree of her young life. On December 20th 1786 Hannah was led from the jail to the scaffold built on the lawn of the New London Meetinghouse. There she waited patiently and listened attentively as Henry Channing ranted for over an hour about the fate of children who did not attend church regularly and how sparing the rod would spoil the child.

Eventually he ran out of the fire and brimstone and all but screamed “Hannah, the time for you to die is come.”

With calm composure it is reported that Hannah walked to the gallows and thanked the sheriff for his kindness to her.

There is much more detail to this tale than I can write in this blog and it is not the only frightening and true tale of local mischief and mayhem. Instead of telling the same old stories all the time lets examine our own history for some forgotten tales.

Halloween Cake and Feathers

My favorite holiday is Halloween and I collect old and new ideas, recipes and helpful hints so imagine my joy when I read in the Norwich Bulletin of October 19, 1905 these two very “Helpful and Edifying Facts for Women.” ok men, you can learn them too.

Halloween Cake
Cream one-half cup butter and one and one-half cups sugar, then add one egg and beat until creamy; now add one teaspoonful cinnamon, one-fourth teaspoonful each of cloves, allspice and mace, one cupful seeded raisins, floured, one cupful sour milk, two cupfuls entire wheat flour, and one-third cup white pastry flour into which sift one half-teaspoonful baking soda; beat thoroughly and bake in a loaf about half an hour. When cool cover with a maple marshmallow icing, and decorate with marshmallows cut into quarters. For the icing place one pound marshmallows in a double boiler, add one-half cup water; when melted beat thoroughly and add one tablespoonful bakers chocolate melted and one tablespoonful vanilla extract.

I can in all honesty say no one has ever asked this of me (thank goodness) but in case someone asks you the correct way “To Prepare Feathers.”

I have had at various times several inquiries as to the method of preparing feathers for bedding, and have come across the following hints, which I gladly pass on for the benefit of those who may have feathers to preserve: –
The one and only way to prepare fresh-plucked feathers for cushions is as follows: All the feathers must be carefully sorted over by hand. The biggest feathers must be stripped of the quills; In fact, any of them that are big enough to strip must be done, as the quills contain a certain amount of moisture. The very smallest do not matter. When this is done, carefully place them all in a large canvas bag and then ask the baker to put them in the oven for twelve minutes or so, as that destroys all insects and dries up any moisture there may be left.

Norwich Nuggets

Just another Admin Blog Sites site