Recollecting Memories of a Recreation Center in a Small Village Just 2 hours from NYC (in CT)

There will be a whole exhibit of summer good times in the Northwest Corner of CT (towns like Salisbury, Sharon, Canaan and So on) in mid-July  2017 (at Noble Horizons, a senior home and nursing facility in Salisbury CT).

It didn't take long for me to think of a memory to catch like a firefly and put it down on paper. I am hearing fireworks in NYC now so want to check those out (even online on the Macy's FB page or was that NBC's?) Anyway, Happy Recollections of Your Own and thanks to Everybuddy who made my summers and every other season of my youth rather 'sparktacular'...safe, simple, super fun and worth being sentimentel about...

I recall a carnival a few savvy women put together at the Falls Village Recreation Center... to raise money for a good cause. If they want to share details, they will hopefully, but there were rides and treats (the Best Strawberry Shortcake for instance with nice biscuits, fresh strawberries in their juice (okay maybe mixed with frozen...) and whipped cream.

A whole series of Rec Center stories could be written from the years when Jane ( modified name, and she was our gym teacher for years too) was the life guard and offering heaps of cool things like water ballet, diving (even competitions which my Mom Mary Palmer Sr helped judge since she had a knack for even doing back flips at age 56! with a 'few extra lbs..like 50 maybe). 

We got to make marionettes which I think Sue and her crafty brother (and Jane's partner Ben--modified name) helped assemble only to have some vandals make a mess of all our hard work. Well, the swimming lessons led to me Almost getting my lifeguard training but I got Poison Ivy from head to toe removing a tree that fell during a summer storm. I was biking in those days not only to the Rec a mile from my house (which we used to walk to as kids down Mosquito Alley), but to Barbara Borland's (yes who was married to Hal Borland the naturalist and author.)

Once I got caught on one of those late afternoon crashing thunder and lightning storms. When I made it to her porch, she opened the door and declared that I looked like "A Drowned Rat!' I was just glad to be alive. When I finally got to be the recreation director out of college, I tried to keep up with the high standards of what I'd had. We managed one overnight camp out, no one was into dances there in the one room center building with cement floor and two bathrooms.

The shuffleboard was hardly used anymore. Swim lessons were the extent of the water offerings, not swim teams as we had with Cornwall when I was eager to do backstroke and realized how hard it was to swim in a lake! Jane (modified name) was good to me over the years to go boating on Lakeville Lake since I'd always thought it'd be nice to know how to canoe (and learn basic water safety, which of course with our son Kaelan's passing at the Falls helping friends in dangerous waters) could be a reminder to people near and far to have better plans for accountability and for communities to make it clear where no swimming is allowed, especially with high or fast water or where there are currents.

Okay, so the good ol' days are a source of joy for many and the friends I made before I left the area for high school in New Haven and Fairfield after a year at Housatonic are still sources of inspiration. Many went into fields of helping others, rearing kids and being very cool people (not as easy as it looks even with modern conveniences like cell phones. I still remember the Rec Phone number now--I won't mention it in case it's somebody's and I'll double check with a friend of old.

We'd only have to dial five numbers using 4 instead of 824 since the whole town and the next one had that exchange. If we wanted to save money  (a dime or maybe a quarter to make the call on the Pay Phone) we'd let it ring once and hang up and our Mom, who was basically a mother to all of our friends as needed for feeding at the rec or closer to our house, would call us 'right back' (give or take a half hour if she was doing a haircut.) 

Lots of love to the ol' gang...it was fun seeing Jim Lawson at HVRHS for his art show and knowing he's done well with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Art Gig but he teaches motorcycle riding now too. I just got to wish Jen, Jane and Ben's amazing daughter, a Happy 30th on FB...and so I feel somehow the happy endings out number the valleys many of us have weathered. Let's hope more good can keep growing for the youth and people at all stages of life there in the scenic and friendly tri-corner and yes NW Corner Area.