While looking for a list of the disc golf facilities in Connecticut I came across a very informative article in the Connecticut Coast and Country 2018-2019 Annual Tourist Guide page 50 by Dirk Langeveld, titled “hitting the disc golf links.”

Langeveld wrote a thorough description of the game in three short paragraphs.
1. The game disc golf is “a series of a metal baskets mounted on a pole with chains hanging down over it referred to as ‘holes’”
2. “Walking between the ‘holes’ provides good low-impact and gives your brain a workout as you strategize how to reach the hole.”
3. “The rules of the game are to toss the disc into the basket in as few throws as possible, starting
at the tee and taking subsequent shots from where the disc lands.” Fewest number of tosses wins.

Langeveld then went on to describe 23 disc golf courses already established in Connecticut with brief descriptions of their good and bad points. I am happy to list the courses but you’ll have to read his article to learn about the good and bad points of each course.

1. Camp Brook, 316 Ashley Road, Canaan, 18 and growing hole course
2. Camp Sloper, 1000 East Street, Southington, 18 hole course
3. Center Springs Park, 39 Lodge Drive, Manchester, 9 hole course
4. Cranbury Park, 300 Gruman Ave, Norwalk, 18 hole course
5. Coss Farms, 201 Rhodes Road, Tolland, 18 hole course
6. Crystal Pond, 305 Crystal Pond Road, Woodstock, 18 hole course
7. Davis Forest, Salmon Drive, Brooklyn, 18 hole course
8. Ecker Hill, 248 West Street, Vernon, 18 hole course
9. Fairfield University, 1073 North Benson Road, Fairfield, 18 hole course
10. High Plains, 525 Orange Center Road, Orange, 9 holes
11. Hop Brook, 4 Straits Turnpike, Middlebury, 11 hole course
12. Lufbury Park, Off Cheshire Road, Wallingford, 18 hole course
13. Millwood Creek, Heather Glen Road and Fox Run Lane, Groton, 20 hole course
14. Nichols Field, 180 Falls Road, Haddam, 18 hole course
15. Page Park, 60 Dewitt Drive, Bristol, 18 hole course
16. Panthorn Park, 485 Burritt Street, Southington, 18 hole course
17. Pomfret Recreation Park, 576 Hampton Road, Pomfret, 9 hole course
18. Rockwell Park, 448 Park Street, Bristol, 18 hole course
19. Sherwood Island State Park, Via Sherwood Island Connector, Westport, 18 hole course
20. Veterans Memorial Park, 4600 Park Ave, Bridgeport, 18 hole course
21. Waveny Park, Lapham Road, New Canaan, 12 hole course
22. West Thompson Lake, 449 Reardon Road, North Grosvernordale, 18 hole course
23. Wickham Park, 1329 West Middle Turnpike Manchester, 18 hole course

I have now played Disc golf once. It is so low impact, it is hard to believe its a sport. The afternoon I played was more like a stroll in the woods directed by a saucer sized frisbee aimed in the direction of a basket I could not always see. There was no heavy bag to carry and my jacket didn’t get in the way. Our frisbees were brightly colored and designed to be hard to lose. I am told that some players carry a sleeve of different weighted frisbees but we did just fine with a single frisbee apiece.

The nets are higher than I could reach but trapped frisbees were easily jostled loose. Clear areas would make the game a bit boring so having trees and growth make the course challenging.
No trees, bushes, birds or other critters were harmed by our afternoon of play.

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

File this blog under more things Beryl was not aware of and never thought to question. According to a November 8, 1897 article in the Norwich Bulletin quoted from Tidbits and I have no idea where they got their information from.
“Tattooing among ladies is held in higher esteem abroad than in this country. Queen Olga of Greece has an anchor tattooed on her shoulder, as a token of affection for her father, the late Grand Duke Constantine of Russia, and Princess Waldemar of Denmark, wife of the sailor son of King Christian, is also marked in like fashion, with the addition of a crown. Princess Chimay’s tattoo mark is an initialC below a crown. It is said that Lady Randolph Churchill is the only living woman in the English peerage who has been tattooed. The idea occurred to her while traveling in India. She sent for an artist, who submitted designs, and suggested the symbol of eternity – a snake holding its tail in its mouth. As a rule a gold band covers it, and only personal friends have seen the design.”

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

People love to recall the ‘old days’ and then retell what they have heard told or watched for themselves on movies and television that may or may not have any tiny kernel of truth. The following was written by H. L. Reade to the November 22, 1897 Norwich Bulletin. His letter was lengthy but it was the part about, the old brick oven, that caught my attention so I had to share it with you.

“One other thing. Almost everyone attended a Thanksgiving service in their home church. In all the old farm houses of the long ago there was a brick oven built in connection with the chimney. Once in each week this was heated by building in it a brisk fire, and when the bricks were sufficiently hot, removing most of the coals, and then on the bottom oven placing whatever was to be converted by the baking process into suitable food.

On Thanksgiving mornings the oven had extra heat, and when church time came the substantials for dinner were put therein and the door sealed with ashes. Many times the entire family started for the meeting house.

The good minister had prepared his Thanksgiving sermon. For weeks the choir had met to rehearse their Thanksgiving anthems. The house would be wellnigh full, and with prayer, and talk and song an hour or more would be crowded with what many times thrilled and always helped the devout listeners.”

Of course there was also a recounting of the church service and the sharing of hymns, prayers, family tales, and treats of sweets, apples and walnuts long into the night.

My thanks to all who read this blog and share it far and wide, and for the blessings received by myself, friends, family and strangers and my prayers for all that health, peace and kindness find a home here on earth. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

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

The residents of Norwich, CT have a long history of having giving hearts, but by 2018 the articles in the newspapers are just a few sentences that are glanced at quickly and dismissed. I wonder if there would be more interest if events were still reported in the detail of this article from a November 24, 1897 Norwich Bulletin.
THANKSGIVING CONTRIBUTIONS. School Children Donate Quantities of Provisions for City Mission Distribution.
The rooms of the City Mission on Main Street were the scene of an unusual activity on Tuesday and the aggregation of provisions of all varieties would remind one of a country store. The custom, which was instituted a number of years ago of requesting the school children throughout the town to bring contributions of provisions to be used in furnishing Thanksgiving dinners for those unable to buy them, has grown almost beyond the dreams of the originators. The scheme met with favorable opinion at the start and the custom, a very beautiful one, has become a very important aid in the work of the city mission.
The stores continued to pour in all day Tuesday the total amount being considerably in excess of that received in any past year. City Missionary G. W. Swan being out of town for the past few days, the work of arranging for the distribution-quite an arduous task- was very capably performed by Miss Nannie B. Ward. There were thirty-five bushels of vegetables, 100 pounds of fresh fish (donated by a gentleman for his two children), four dozen chickens, besides quantities of bread, fruit, cake, jelly, apples, cookies, rice, grapes, tea, coffee, sugar, flour, and in fact everything which could be used in preparing a dinner for Thanksgiving.
The schools which contributed were the Broadway, Roath Avenue, Boswell Avenue, East Broad Street, Laurel Hill, Greeneville, West Side, Norwich Town, Falls and East Great Plain, and it is expected that between 250 and 300 families will receive the provisions which will be distributed today.

All year long the Norwich Soup Kitchen is open to donations of all kinds from warm clothing to canned goods and gift cards that can be used for personal items. Even your store plastic bags can be used again rather than tossed out. Please consider making giving a part of your families tradition.

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

I spent a few hours reading past copies of the Norwich Bulletin and came across this article from November 12, 1897. Please, please believe me that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Flim Flam Game Worked Again. Baltic Street woman buys paper and envelopes supposed to contain money – swindlers escape.

Two well dressed strangers called at the house of Mrs. Thiel on Baltic street Thursday forenoon selling paper and envelopes. They had eight sheets of cheap paper and eight envelopes each in a large yellow envelope. They placed a $10 bill in an envelope and sealing it placed it in a bunch of envelopes, offering Mrs. Thiel her choice of any envelopes in the lot for $5, claiming that each contained a sum of money. To make the purchaser sure of winning something they finally offered for $10 to throw in ten envelopes.
The woman paid the money and took the envelopes. The men drove off cautioning her not to open the envelopes until they had gone. When she opened them they contained nothing but the paper and envelopes. The police were notified and the men were traced in the direction of Taftville but nothing was learned of them there. This game is so old and has been so often exposed that it is strange that anyone should be taken in by it especially in a city.

In 2018 you may be approached on the phone, the internet, Facebook, e-mail, even by regular mail, television or an advertisement. Stor
ies are geared to tear at your heartstrings, you may even recognize a location as being in the news recently. Do not send cash, or check, or give a stranger access to your bank account, or your social security number. Please don’t be a modern victim of an age old scam.

Support your own community where you can see how the funds you donate are spent, purchase locally too. Invest in the community you live in to make it a better place to live.

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

To enhance life in Norwich, CT there are more groups and committees than ever before. Brand new groups all dedicated to doing the very same things that the old and existing committees are already doing.

I don’t get it. I just don’t get it. If you are going to create a new committee then why not do something new? Diversity is a new vocabulary word in Norwich, CT. There is a whole committee dedicated to discovering there are diverse ethnic groups and churches in Norwich.

I was really hoping to see that instead of creating more festivals supporting out of town vendors and performers, a calendar of all the ethnic festivals supporting the existing groups, neighborhoods and churches would be published. Even if it did not have the specific date and details it would be good to know when all the dinners are, the craft sales, public celebrations and parades are.

I not only want to buy local, I want to support locally too. I enjoy going to the Polish Church on the second Friday of each month, and the Italian, Greek, and Russian festivals. But there are so many more I am not aware of ! I am all for supporting the bars in downtown Norwich but maybe we could support some of the other bars and churches in other parts of the city as well?

I’d love to see a Chinese New Year Parade for example. Are dances held any more? Are there performances and story times from “the old country” being held anywhere?

How about the production of a Norwich Passport that could be stamped when our ethnic restaurants or stores are visited? Irish, Korean, Mexican, Middle Eastern, Chinese, Italian, Greek and all the ones I didn’t mention.

In 1950, Marjorie McCune was teaching third grade at the Falls School in Norwich, CT. The population of Norwich was rapidly expanding with immigrants speaking different languages and practicing different customs in their homes. To celebrate the diversity, students from all grades brought dolls to school dressed to represent the different nationalities. It was so unusual at the time that even those without students in the school attended and wrote letters to the local paper about how wonderful it was. Why not do something similar now? Perhaps not in school but in storefronts throughout the city? Maybe dolls, or staged scenes or mannequins with fashions? I would not object to seeing a store front of a tropical country perhaps sponsored by a travel agency while I shiver in my jacket.

Doing the same things over and over again is very nice but you can’t expect that doing the same things over again, the same way but calling it something different is going to get a different result. Be the change that you want to see.

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

With grateful thanks to the eagle eyes and great memory for details of Mr. R. R. Russ I recently learned more about Norwich, CT local resident and WWI casualty, Private William Morton Durr. He has an honor stone near the Norwichtown Green on the property of the First Congregational Church. The members of the Workers in Training Class placed the stone to honor their friend, first club president, Sunday School Officer, and Christian Endeavor Society member on May 31, 1925. They also planted a Colorado Spruce with the stone with the hope it would grow tall and strong and protect those who sought shelter beneath its limbs.

In my book, Legendary Locals of Norwich, CT I shared what little I knew about Pvt. Durr. He was the first in his family to complete his education, was valedictorian of his Town Street School class and was an active member of Jesse E. Hyde’s Sunday School class.

In February 1918, 19 year old Durr enlisted in the United States Army. By April he was part of the 28,000 man 3rd Division in France. On July 23, 1918, after several days of fierce fighting and facing heavy machine-gun and artillery fire, Private William M. Durr was killed in action. His body was not recovered.