Summer, 2004
| New & Noteworthy | ||
| Appraisal Events | ||
| Grant to SHS |
Appraisal Event at SHS Yields Fun and Surprises
Does anyone out there know that the Victorians had a passion for squirrels? No, they didn’t eat them (silly!), they kept them as pets! Think of them as large fuzzy hamsters with fluffy tails—you get the picture.
What does this have to do with SHS’s very successful appraisal day event held on Saturday, July 3rd? Well, if you had been one of the more than 100 folks who lined up to have their heirlooms appraised, you might have had the opportunity to try your best guess about the mystery item brought in by Sharon resident, Tom Trowbridge.
Most recently used as an “occasional” table on a porch, the Trowbridge’s first brought their mystery item to the historical society for identification nearly two years ago. What was it? Staff circulated digital photos of the object and there were many guesses, but not one definitive answer. This all changed on Saturday when appraiser John Stair took one look at the item and said, “Ah, a squirrel exercise cage!” Not only did he recognize the object (he spoke with such authority that no one dared to contradict), he shared some information about the oddity (judged from a modern viewpoint) of Victorian life. Without a squirrel exercise ball, how would your charming pet ever enjoy the great outdoors with safety? Eureka! The hamster “habit trail” systems have nothing on 19th century wealthy Americans. Is there nothing new in the world?
Treasures abounded throughout the day as patient attendees exchanged stories. The range of objects was terrific, from early American pottery, to black powder rifles, to pristine scrimshaw, to diamonds and pearls. John and Rick continue to remark on the high quality of the items that appeared at Sharon’s appraisal day on their WAMC radio program!
Many thanks to everyone who helped make this event a reality. Kudos to all the volunteers, to Mark at Aquarion for marking the water lines, to Marshall Miles for lending a wonderful public address system, to Salisbury Bank & Trust Company and the NewMil Savings Bank Foundation for helping to underwrite the cost of the tent, to all those who furnished the yummy party food, to Will Paley for moving the “heavy stuff”, to Heidi Hendricks for being the publicity guru, to Carter Smith for persevering with his dream to host an appraisal day, to John Stair, Rick Lawler and Steve Kahn, the appraisers who didn’t take a bathroom break all day, and to the fund raising committee who figures out just what needs to be done and does it with great good humor.
Museum Receives Grant
The Sharon Historical Society is pleased to announced its recent award of $13,994 from the Connecticut Humanities Council. The award was made possible through the Cultural Heritage Development Fund, of the Heritage Advancement Program run by the Council. The Heritage Advancement matching grant program is designed to help Connecticut’s heritage institutions address professional staffing needs previously identified as high priorities through a formal strategic planning process. Grants are awarded through a competitive process to institutions wishing to create a first-time staff position or to upgrade an existing position.
“This grant will allow the Historical Society to offer new programs and initiatives for both children and adults. In addition, it supports our efforts to make the museum more of a destination for local residents and visitors,” says Trustee Lea Davies. Surveys of community members have shown that people visit the museum primarily to attend special programs.
The most exciting part of the award for the historical society is that it is designed to enable the museum to make the expanded position a permanent change. Awards are potentially renewable for up to three years for institutions demonstrating the ability to sustain the position under the terms of the grant.
Under the leadership of the current director and skilled Board of Trustees, the museum has experienced unprecedented expansion and community support. Input from interviews conducted during the initial phases of the strategic plan suggested expanding the museum’s visitation hours and exploring new educational programs for Sharon residents of all ages. As Liz and the strategic planning committee oversee the implementation of the plan, we hope to ultimately enable the museum to develop a cohesive vision integrating mission with program and interpretation goals to provide a strong future direction for the museum.
“When those of us who have lived in Sharon for any length of time look at where the Historical Society was just a short time ago, and compare it to where we are now, the progress we’ve made is truly outstanding,” says Board president Ed Kirby. “Sharon has good reason to be proud of its museum and the services it provides.”
New & Noteworthy
Seasonal Greeting Cards
A series of four photographic greeting cards of scenes from the Sharon tree lightings of 2000 through 2003 will soon be available from the Sharon Historical Society gift shop. The photographs will be printed on a high quality, textured card stock and will be available for sale individually and in sets. The photographs were taken by Sharon’s own Walter Schwarz, photographer and graphic designer. Walter and his wife and partner, Linda Swenson, are donating the use of the photographs to the museum as well as their services as liaison to the printer. The idea to turn these images into cards was the inspiration of Wanda Moeller. Stay tuned for more information and order forms.
Weaving and Coverlet Exhibit
As pictured in the last edition of the Sharon Archives, work on researching and designing the museum’s newest exhibit is well underway. Visitors to the museum may look forward to seeing weaving being done on a large loom typical of the earliest period of textile manufacture in America.
The new exhibit will also contain many objects related to processing fibers from plant to textile. Spinning wheels, click reels, flax breaks and spindles will all be on display. The
Society’s collection of woven coverlets will also be featured.
Hands-on experiences for all visitors will include the opportunity to try drop spinning and do basic weaving with paper and fiber. Watch for a listing of special programs on textile fabrication appearing in the autumn issue of the Archives.
Attention Gift Seekers!
The museum’s gift shop continues to expand in both space and merchandise. We have a wide selection of home décor objects including woven textiles, folk art birdhouses, handmade candles and soap, “vintage” metal signs, old-tyme metal beach pails, as well as the work of local artists Cathy Clegg and Mary Anne Carley. Hand wrought iron hooks and trivets by local blacksmith William Trowbridge are also on display.
There are toys and games for the children on your gift list, including marbles, paper dolls, Jacob’s ladder, and the ever-popular ball and cup game of skill and dexterity. A selection of jewelry based on the best in design from museum collections across the United States is also available.
Recollection of Childhood in Sharon, 1930s…...
By Richard Barnett Dakin
Occasionally a historical “treasure” drops into the collective “lap” of the Sharon Historical Society. What is a historical treasure? In the business of making sense of the past, a historical treasure is something that illuminates what has been in a way that makes the past seem real—and, forgive the word choice—present. It is an object, a story, a memory that provides a context and relationship between today and yesterday. Dick Dakin was born in Sharon in 1926. He attended Sharon Center School and Housatonic Valley Regional High, graduating in 1944. After a stint in the Navy, he taught school in Cornwall and Goshen.
Recently, the museum was the recipient of a copy of Recollection of a Childhood in Sharon, 1930s. Written purely for family use, it provides a wonderful and personal picture of life in Sharon seventy-odd years ago. We are grateful to Mr. Dakin for permission to reprint a portion of his recollections, and obliged to him for thinking of the SHS archives as a repository for his story.
Do you ever have a yearning to “write it all down?” Even better, do you ever wish that someone had written it all down for you? If you need a little encouragement, or a place to write, let us know.
What else is history if not the collection of our own individual stories?
Introduction
I got myself into this project by talking too much. “When I was a kid…” finally brought forth the challenge from my kids to tell it like it was. Following is a rather disjointed chronicle of events that happened in my youth and a few episodes in my later life. Since I am not sure of what the statutes of limitations are, this is not a tell-all tale. The fact that I have trouble remembering what I had for breakfast and trying to recall events that happened 60 plus years ago accounts, in part, for inaccuracies and fuzzy details. A slight attempt to some form of chronological order has been made. More importantly events and incidents are mentioned as I remember them, not necessarily in a particular order. Writing this has been fun. Read and enjoy, don’t try to analyze and gain meaning — as there isn’t any.
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I entered the Housatonic Valley Regional High School, then in its second year of operation. I started in a normal size class but by the time 1944 rolled around our class had dwindled to 54 members, the smallest size class ever to graduate from H.V.R.H.S.. I was the only boy from Sharon to graduate that year along with six Sharon girls. Certainly a great deal of trepidation was felt as we met many new people from surrounding towns. I have many life-long friends as a result of this experience. I’ll say more about high school later.
In the spring of 1942 I started working as a bellboy in the Sharon Inn. This was a large wooden inn at the Main Street – Amenia Road intersection. I was a Jack-of-all-trades while working there. Manpower was very limited and a person wore many hats. Wartime restricted travel and therefore, our clientele was rather limited. My hours were long and wages were short, about $15 per week plus tips, if any.
When a job opportunity came up to work in the A & P for the grand sum of $.65 cents per hour I jumped at the chance. Although I worked in all areas of the store, I was primarily assigned as a butcher’s helper. Dave Duffy was the store manager and Ray Carpenter was the meat manager. The store hours were 7:30 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. every day and until 9:00 on Saturday. Cleanup took place after closing, making a long workday. Thursday was my day off.
At first there was plenty of meat to fill the display case but as rationing took over and shortages became commonplace such items as tripe, pig’s feet, and sauerkraut occupied more display area. It got so that we would invite people into the cooler to see for themselves that we had no meat. Deliveries finally had to be made at night so customers would not stampede the store.
There was a separate showcase for fish. Fresh fish was delivered on Thursday and displayed on crushed ice. Some fish such as mackerel had to be cleaned out and beheaded for the customer. By Saturday afternoon most of the fish had been sold so that the case could then be washed. Hot water was necessary for this activity and it was one of my tasks to build a wood fire in the hot water heater in the basement. Every inch of this case had to be scrubbed and rinsed, a job requiring several hours.
One phase of my employment was that I was to be sure the hamburg trays were always full. Prices ranged from 29 cents to 39 cents way up to 49 cents per pound for this commodity. Turkeys, chickens, and ducks were all sold by the pound with head and feet on and guts included. I soon learned how to draw a foul and cut up a chicken. Thanksgiving and Christmas we worked overtime cleaning turkeys and getting them ready for customers.
In the fall of 1943 Ray went [away for two months] and I had to run the meat department alone. I would come to the store around 6:00 a.m. and get whatever was available ready then come back after school and carry on with other jobs. I survived the Thanksgiving rush by myself although we did not have as many birds to prepare. I got a small bonus from the
A & P company for my efforts. If it had not been for the war I would probably be a fat, happy butcher, long since retired.
On the grocery side of the store the clerk would wait on the customers. If they wanted a can of peas you went and got it then the next item and so on. The price of each item was then recorded on the side of the brown paper bag used to carry the groceries, totaled, and collected. The A & P was a cash and carry store. One learned how to add correctly and hurriedly. A few customers would pay in advance and you would simply deduct this purchase from their credit as carried in their account.
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Time to regress again. During high school days it was quite fashionable to skip days. After all, your parents wouldn’t know. Not so, with John and Dick Dakin. One cousin, Ed, was the Vice Principal and another cousin, Jo, was the secretary to the principal. If we were not in school or misbehaved while there, a phone call home clarified the problem.
On the positive side of this arrangement, we rode to the high school with Jo almost every day thus saving a long walk to the bus. Jo and Peete lived in the cottage so we would walk up there, then on to school. Ed Dakin left the high school in 1942, as did several other faculty members, to go into the Navy.
War years limited the amount and type of activities available to young fellows full of p--- and vinegar. Gas rationing, no tires, and no cars put a crimp in extracurricular activities. If a fellow was able to get a car for evening use, it was an unwritten law that he would have five or six passengers. Bob
Constantine from Lakeville often had use of his father’s wheels. Ralph Loper, not only had use of a car, he also had farm gas ration stamps. He was akin to King Tut. There was a gas station down in Amenia Union, where you could obtain gas without ration stamps. It paid to know the right people.
Most of the fun activities took place in New York State. After all, the drinking age over there was 18, but who was counting. Bars and roadhouses from Amenia to Millerton made their money on Connecticut youths. Places like Manning, Sharkeys, Brick Block Hotel, and Sam Parker’s were frequented by many of the youths from Connecticut.
A Friday night activity looked forward to eagerly was the Square Dance at the Ellsworth Grange. Walt Sheldon’s band played and many Dive for the Oyster and alamands left rocked the hall. I used to ride up to the dance with Doug Conklin and his wife. Great fun for a reasonable price.
Although I enjoyed high school I did not do well academically. I was too busy having fun I am sure that the fact that we were at war and I would be going into the service shortly after graduation and the fact that someone was going to try to kill me had some affect on my scholastic achievement. The day after high school graduation I did receive greetings from The President of the United States, my draft notice. Ten days later, June 28, 1944, I was inducted into the U.S. Navy.
Collections Connection by Marge McAvoy
Dotting Our "I"s and Crossing Our "t"s (or How We Are Striving to Become More Professional)
The long dormant Collections Committee at the SHS has been awakened with a mission. You all have been so generous with your donations that we were in danger of disappearing beneath a pile of presents! We realized we needed to get to work.
There is a legal process that should be followed whenever any item is given to a museum. With the acquisition a few years ago of our "Past Perfect" museum software and the recent resurrection of the Collections Committee, we are now carefully following that procedure. To illustrate it in a way that just might make it more interesting for you, we will follow the progress on a package received in January 2004 from a Mr. R. Bruce Wood of Philo, IL.
A few weeks ago, the Collections Committee (Barbara Bartram, Pam Haft, Francoise Kelz, Lori Lewis, Marge McAvoy and Meg Szalewicz) gathered around the work table up in our new work room, pulled Mr. Wood's package out of the pile of presents, and began the debate about whether or not we could and should accession his gift into our collection. The package revealed an old soft leather wallet. The letter accompanying the wallet explained that he had bought a collection of old papers at an auction, and that the wallet was wrapped around some of the papers. Mr. Wood is apparently and fortunately an extraordinarily curious man. Instead of discarding the wallet, he looked at it carefully, discovering that it was stamped with "A A Hotchkiss, Maker, Watertown, Connecticut" and "Henry Munson, 1842". His curiosity about the names eventually led him to us after an arduous search, and the wallet duly arrived in the mail.
So, the question before the committee members gathered gawking around the table was - do we keep it? It has to meet a few criteria: Does it pertain to Sharon? Most definitely! Is it unlike anything else in our collection? Yes! Is it in good shape? Excellent! We put it to a vote, after much oohing and ahhing (we museum types get carried away easily), and the decision was unanimous. This is not always the case, and we do get into some heated discussions sometimes, but the wallet was a shoo-in.
The little leather wallet is now officially item # 2004.13.01. Its number is unique, and tells us that the wallet was accessioned in 2004 by the 13th donor of the year (Mr. R. Bruce Wood) and that it was the first item he donated in the year 2004. It has its number painted on it in tiny, tiny figures, has had its photograph taken, its identity entered into the computer, and is awaiting assignment to its permanent location here in the museum. It's officially ours, and we are very grateful to Mr. Wood and all the rest of you who realize the need to preserve the history of Sharon. Keep those gifts coming!
List of 2004 Accessions to the Sharon Historical Society Collection (To Date)
| Donor | Object(s) |
| Bartram, Barbara | Smoking cap;Child’s suit belonging to Clark Juckett, c.1880s. |
| Bushnell, Nancy | Framed ad for Barnum Richardson Company |
| Carberry, Vincent | Photo of Sharon Home Guard |
| Chumas, Donna | Autograph books; Sharon school photos |
| Gall, Elizabeth | Field Guide to American Houses: The Old House Journal |
| Gereg, Stuart | Wallpaper samples |
| Hall, Betsy | Map of Hillside Cemetery |
| Hart, Lyn | 2 woven coverlets (plus additional coverlets for teaching collection) |
| Holst-Grubbe, Reidar | Iron kettle used in WW II |
| Hotchkiss Library | Annual meeting report |
| Jenkins, Sally | Sunday Republican magazine |
| Kelz, Francoise A. | Hair combs; woman’s blouse, hiking breeches |
| Kenny, Theresa | Cherniske family papers |
| Lisle, Laurie | 2 dolls with china heads |
| Majdalany, Jeanne | 1874 Sharon map; Annual Reports, Town of Sharon |
| Nickson, Janet | Skeins of wool from St. John’s farm |
| Peterson, Marie | Milk bottle; black wool piano cover |
| Rick, Walter & Millie | Village Tea Room sign; cigar box |
| Smith, C. Carter | WW I posters; Eisenhower poster |
| Snyder, Bettie | Sharon PTA Play programs |
| Stackpole, Margaret | Emory family photos and papers |
| Van R. Hoogendyke, M. | Postage scale; trading stamps; postcards; plaster friezes |
| Wood, Bruce |
Hotchkiss wallet, 1842
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