March 11, 1868 was important in one Norwich, CT community. According to the Norwich Bulletin article the embankment on Chestnut Street with a long history of cave-ins fell again on a Monday afternoon.

The break occurred where there was a large old oak tree. I can’t imagine what size it must have been for them to call it large and old. The earth in falling left the roots on one side bare. Witnesses said the tree swayed a moment and fell.

There was a small group of workmen directly beneath the tree and before they could escape or were even warned of the danger “the tree was descending with fearful rapidity.” None were injured as

happily some of the larger branches caught in a small nearby tree and the force of the fall was broken. The escape of the men was called “almost miraculous.”

Out of curiosity I checked the weather which was wet and annoying to many of the area farmers but what really disturbed me, so I feel compelled to share, were the reports of hoards of spiders throughout the area. So many that there were articles in many of the major newspapers and helpful hints to remove the nests and eggs from your garden.

“It is best to remove old leaves and twigs from the domestic areas of the garden as soon as the rains stops or in the early morning when the dew is fresh. The wetness will help the leaves and loose dirt stick together for easier removal.”

Indoors all should sweep with a damp but not wet broom in the corners of all rooms and to pay particular attention to areas hidden from general view such as under the bed and above the doors.

Inside cupboards and drawers should be emptied completely before cleaning and relining with fresh cloth.

All chimminies should be cleared of spring nests and cleaned thoroughly to prevent fire.

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 .

Rain is nothing new to the New England spring or summer. Keeping kids entertained on a rainy day is nothing new to parents either. So every once in while we need a reminder of what kept our grandparents entertained so we can discover it again. And so it is once again time for the Soap Bubble Races!

I found these directions in the May 25, 1911 Norwich Bulletin.

Soap bubble races are great fun and are exciting up to the very last minute. You can be only an inch away from the goal and lose by the bursting of your bubble.

Each contestant should begin by folding their own fan from a single sheet, Finally a use for the reams of junk mail wasted on me! I used bubble solution that I happened to have but you can always spend a little time in the kitchen creating your own solution. The ingredients are certainly simple enough I just never have a bottle of glycerine handy. Can’t find the bubble wand? Make your own wand out f pipe cleaners or use a straw to blow your bubble. Hint: use a slow, steady, gentle and even breath to get a big bubble.

The contestants should start evenly at one end of the room while at the other end of the room is the winning line. A seam on the carpet or even a piece of very visible string.

At the given signal each player blows a bubble and then shaking it to the floor fans it toward the finish line. The fan is used to keep the bubble moving toward the goal line and up from the floo . If the bubble bursts before any bubble has crossed the line, the player may go back to the starting line and begin again. The first player across the line is the winner.

To make the game more difficult, the bubble may be required to pass between two upright posts, instead of merely just crossing a line. A small table flipped upside down perhaps?

Another version of the game is to have a bubble blown be midway and players must fan the bubble in opposite directions until a goal is scored. Bursting the bubble on purpose earns a penalty.

Cats and dogs cannot be penalized for bursting bubbles.

My neighbor and I had a blast practicing our bubble blowing skills before the races too.

Relax, the skies will soon clear and we will all be able to enjoy dry and sunny weather again soon.

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 .

Help! Help! I have a tiny segment of Norwich, CT history that needs your help! Or the help of someone you may know!

Back in May 1916 Hydris Film Studios of Mt. Vernon, NY shot a film here in Norwich, Ct. The film was called, “The Romance of Norwich.” A largely amateur cast was headed by Margaret Kelly and David Sheehan. This was back in 1916 so its not the actor from Game of Thrones. Thank you for checking.

When it played for two weeks at the Auditorium Theatre the members of Norwich, CT society could see themselves on the street by the corner of the Shannon Building and in the crowd in front of Saint Patricks Church during the wedding scene. There was even a brief glimpse of the locals coming out of the Auditorium Theatre after viewing the pre-view production.

Did anyone keep a scrap book or a diary of the time? I have the newspaper write-ups but they are rather general and I am looking for more specifics.

According to the newspapers of the time, my only source of information, it was a really excellent film due its clear and distinct pictures in every scene and the well acted amateur cast had many well-known Norwich people.

Does someone locally have a copy of the film? Is it silent or a talkie? Has anyone got any family stories they would like to share of an ancestor being in the film? I have written the current Hydris studios but am very uncertain if they have anything at all to do with the Hydris Studios of 1916.

My brief glance around the internet turned up nothing and I won’t be able to get to the NY archives to search around there for a while. So help! Lets join forces and see if we can’t discover a copy of the film and have a local showing.

There was a very indistinct and grainy photo of a frame of the movie in the 1916 Norwich Bulletin but it became to me only a variety of gray shadows when I tried to make it clearer.

My thanks to all in advance for your willingness to help.

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 .

Weird. Weird. Weird and scary. I was out of town and had to make an on-line Amazon purchase. A purchase under ten dollars but I would be needing it when I returned home. Not a big deal. Annoying but not a big issue. That night I get a message my order has been processed and sent.

The next day I get an e-mail from Amazon that my order has been canceled and I need to give them my credit card number again, blah, blah, blah. I go to my wallet to check the number and the expiration date as I have been known to not switch to a new card when it comes in the mail. Nope all looks right. I know I have enough in the account to cover the amount. So I call the bank, the number on the back of the card, and ask if there is a reason the charge did not go through. Is there a problem with my account that I need to look into? After checking my information thoroughly, she looks up my account and says it looks like it went through, everything is fine and the company must have their wires crossed. Whew.

There are few things more frightening than being told your bank card or credit card isn’t valid when you are out of town.

The next day, I get another e-mail from Amazon my order is waiting to be sent and I need to verify my financial information or my account will be canceled . This time I check the return e-mail address and forward the notice to Amazon customer service with a note that this is SPAM and they are free to trace it back.

When I returned home my purchase was waiting for me and the purchase showed on my bank account the same day I made the purchase.

Just because something looks real at a glance does not mean it is real at closer inspection. If you don’t think it looks right, don’t open it. Don’t automatically answer a question because someone asks. Especially if its about your financial information. Report it to the company you are attempting to do business with. Go to their website to report it. Do not reply to the questionable e-mail. Do not call the numbers on the questionable e-mail.

Don’t hesitate to call customer service at the number on your credit, debit, bank card or you associate with your account. Don’t be embarrassed to ask for someone who you can understand clearly.

If you think you do not have the time to spend straightening the matter out at the beginning, you probably will have even less time straightening out your accounts later. Be suspicious. Trust no one. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

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 .

A recent visit to the Garde Theater in New London scored for me a a Spring Fresh 2019 Issue 1 of edible CT East with some of the yummiest fresh produce recipes. When Edible Nutmeg became too large to handle, Edible CT East was formed with lots of the same names and supporters.

If you are into photography you need to check out the Farm-to-Camera works of Adrien Broom. Simple, direct, complicated and beautiful all at the same time. I am a fan.

Joy Bauer and Lucy Schaeffer made me hungry with simple recipes. For example their twist on tuna salad was to make it Wild Salmon & Chickpea Salad to serve 1 or 2 . 6 ounces of wild boneless or skinless salmon ( canned or fresh), 1 can of garbanzo beans (rinsed and drained), chopped onion, chopped red bell pepper, olive oil and red wine vinegar. Whisk and mix cover and refrigerate. Serve over lettuce or in a sandwich. I might add a few more herbs but you get the idea. What a great way to make canned salmon palatable.

Tumeric is the latest healthy craze and recipes put it in the most unlikely places. It is not as strong as my dislike of cilantro, but I still find it hard to swallow. I will admit it is an interesting tea flavor but for me it loses any health benefits by the sheer amount of honey I need to put in my cup to drink it so I almost skipped their recipe for Ginger Tumeric Cherry Tea.

(My neighbor and I had the best chat over this tea I would never, ever have tried on my own.)

One teabag, of black or green tea (regular or decaf), ¼ teaspoon ground tumeric, ¼ teaspoon ground ginger, pinch of ground black pepper and 2 ounces of tart cherry juice.

Boil six ounces of cold water, add the dry ingredients and steep the lot for 3 -5 minutes. Just enough time to heat the cherry juice on the stovetop or microwave and then strain the tea and the cherry juice into a large mug to enjoy. The color of the tea is beautiful and the cherry juice moves the tumeric into being a delightful background flavor.

From one of their advertisers I learned of the Litchfield Distillery Bourbon whiskey and from an article I learned how to display and use and passforward my vintage dish wears.

Grab a copy the next time you are at the Garde in New London for more of the recipes and articles and join me as I chomp at the bit waiting for the next issue.

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 .

Is it ok if I do a little self bragging? If its not, stop reading right now, because this blog is all about me.

In particular the 1988 me. Yes I have been around that long and have I got the proof of it.

This trip down memory lane began as I was throwing away papers. The type of papers that collect over time in manila envelopes and are shoved into file cabinets or between books on book shelves and forgotten. Anyway, I was making an attempt to clean out a file drawer and found an envelope from the Southeastern Connecticut Tourism District. The District was headquartered in the Olde Towne Mill in New London and this was all so far back in time the area code for their phone was still 203.

The Southeastern CT Tourism District back then was comprised of maybe three paid staff and the rest of us were volunteers from each of the member towns representing both our business and our town. We took turns and met opportunities with enthusiasm and professionalism. As representatives of our towns we recognized what tourism and “heads on beds” meant to our individual and collective economic bottom lines. We all knew that while we were competitors, we also had to work together to reach the greater level of success we wanted to achieve. So we worked hard, fought a lot amongst ourselves to create a better end product and built the biggest and the best tourism district of its time.

For some what began as a volunteer act became a business – small number brochure placement and delivery, step-on guide services, and catering coordination. National and International marketing became a reality for Southeastern Connecticut.

The envelope was a treasure trove for me of only a vague memory. There was the original letter of congratulations that the Norwich Walks I had written and submitted for the best walk in New England for Walking World Magazine, New England Walking Atlas, had been accepted to be published by McGraw-Hill in the fall of 1988.

Apparently I also wrote a number of articles about Norwich and surrounding small towns for the 1989 Mobil Travel Guide too. Keep in mind this is well before there was even a thought of a casino in this area. In the envelope I found some of the galley notes with pencil marks, questions, answers and corrections.

Best of all I found references to places no longer considered worthy of being part of the modern walking tours . Who else remembers the 1660 John Baldwin House at 210 West Town Street when it was open to the public and frequently had demonstrations of hearth-baking and weaving?

The Buckingham Memorial building at 307 Main Street was open to the public and served as a memorial to all Norwich veterans and a Senior Citizen Center. Not in these notes but I even recall when there was an out door tourist information center on the front lawn there in the early 1970’s.

To be honest I don’t recall some of the details I wrote about. There were regular noon-time concerts at the Brown Park Gazaebo? I do remember when Capt. Glass offered boat tours up the Thames River. But am at a loss now about a tour of the banks of Norwich over the years?

I wrote about walking, construction, facelifting, renovating, plenty of parking, friendly merchants

and an assortment of brochures being available at the Norwich Area Chamber of Commerce on Main Street.

Ah well, reliving those memories was fun. Look how far we have progressed since then. Sigh.

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 .