Finishing pg 1 10-26-23
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Finishing
touches
adorn mural
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM —The Boxcar Mural is in its final week, honoring the work of Putnam’s Favorite Daughter, children’s book author Gertrude Chandler Warner.
Over the weekend a couple dozen renditions of the Boxcar Children’s book covers began gracing the 290-foot wall that runs along South Main Street, below the Gertrude Chandler Warner Boxcar Children Museum.
Lead artist Elaine Turner said there were 161 Boxcar books, 19 of them written by Warner. The covers, numbering 24 or 25, were done by various artists including school children. The project was funded by sponsorships, Turner said.
Interspersed among the covers are important scenes from the books, for example a map of what the children’s world was like in the books and the "found pile."
This week, muralist Emida Roller provided finishing touches and connected all the artwork, giving it continuity from end to end.
Once all the covers, done on strong Polytab material, were “glued” to the wall with 100 percent acrylic gloss gel medium, they received a sealing. Then they were sealed again when the entire wall was sealed. And in the nick of time, too, as temperatures started to drop this final week.
Turner said this all came together in three weeks. The “smooshing” of the background colors kicked off the project Sept. 27. At that point the group didn’t even have the Polytab on hand, but it all fell into place.
“Three weeks is all we had,” she said.
The town will hold a dedication or ribbon cutting (or both) in mid-November, she added.
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rain pg 1 10-26-23
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Rain Fest
Even Willy Wonka couldn't keep the rains away from the Great Pumpkin Festival. Despite the rain, the train excursion was full and folks filled the streets and Rotary Park. More photos on page 4. Expanded photo array Wed. night on our FB page: Putnam Town Crier & Northeast Ledger. Linda Lemmon photo.
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third pg 1 10-26-23
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caption: Menounos
3rd-place finish for Menounos
at ECC championship
The goal was in sight but turned out to be just a little out of reach.
Junior Christian Menounos had hoped to bring home to Woodstock Academy a boys’ cross-country ECC individual championship on Thursday. He had to settle for a third-place finish.
“I was leading for the first two miles but I just blew up a little in the last mile. It just wasn’t my day but it was a solid effort,” Menounos said.
Menounos finished in 16 minutes, 44 seconds, 15 seconds back of East Lyme junior Sean McCauley. Griswold freshman Tycen Labelle placed second.
Woodstock junior Colton Sallum was seventh and senior Charlie Caggiano placed 21st.
The efforts meant the Centaurs as a team finished in third among ECC Div. I teams and fifth overall.
For Menounos, it could mean a re-thinking of his race strategy.
“I was in a situation where (McCauley and Labelle) were just riding my shoulder and making me kind of do all the work. I had to dictate the pace. I don’t really like that situation. I need to learn how to get over that,” Menounos said.
Coach Josh Welch said it’s something Menounos will have to work on.
“He’s been putting himself in that position (dictating the pace) a lot and it may not be the best strategy for him to do that. He tends to pull it out fast and tries to take it out of (his opponents) in the first mile and it just doesn’t work well. They have similar strengths to him,” Welch said.
What the Centaurs coach was hoping to see at the ECC Championship was Menounos hang back just a bit and then push his competitors in the second mile.
“Going into the (Class MM championship on Saturday), he should go out and follow somebody for once. He tried to get out quick (Thursday) because of the U-turn start that’s unique to say the least,” Welch said.
The league was forced to re-configure the course a bit due to some additions on the Norwich Golf Course. The facility planted trees on the hill in which the runners ran down shortly after the start.
The start had to be moved below that hill with teams on the right side starting positions having a much straighter line to a corner the runners all had to pinch in to.
Those teams on the left, where Woodstock was placed, were actually up a bit on the hill and had to quickly get down to the bottom to avoid being caught up in a pack trying to make the corner.
“I didn’t really like the start because it was tilted. I like the start from before with the downhill at the beginning. Since I was on the tilt, I had to sprint faster to get to the front. Before we had a downhill to get momentum into the uphill. We didn’t have that this time,” Menounos said.
Menounos was in the lead early but McCauley caught him around the two-mile mark and passed him and Labelle got past in the last half-mile of the race.
“Sometimes, It’s just not the right day,” Welch said. “He has put a ton of work into that moment. Fortunately, he gets another (ECC championship) next year. It’s hard to have it not all be there but he had a solid race.”
Another runner who had a solid race for Welch was Sallum who finished just 29 seconds behind his teammate.
“I felt really good about that,” Sallum said. “It was a really tough course and came up on me quickly. The whole race seemed like it was done in like five minutes.”
Welch thought Sallum had a great performance.
“You could see him fighting to stay up there and that gap between him and Christian has come down quite a bit,” the Woodstock Academy coach said.
The Centaurs finished fifth overall as a team with 102 points behind East Lyme (27); Ledyard (86); Fitch (88) and Norwich Free Academy (91).
“It’s alright,” Welch said with a shrug of the shoulder. “We were missing our fifth runner and that was unfortunate because we would have been close to second. Everybody out there did their absolute best and we had runners getting their personal bests on what is the hardest course of the season.”
The meet did count toward regular season standings.
Due to displacement, the Centaurs did finish ahead of NFA among Division I teams and finished 2-4 for the regular season in the division, tied with NFA and Fitch behind 6-0 East Lyme.
The league is now in the rearview mirror with the Class MM state championship at Wickham Park now looming on Saturday in Manchester.
“(This result) gives me motivation for next week. I want to put a better effort in. I’m just going to use this as motivation and try to bounce back,” Menounos said.
The Wickham course is substantially easier than the Norwich Golf Course.
“I would like to see Christian drop down to the low 16’s and at Wickham Park, I think he can absolutely be in that neighborhood. I want to see Colton get up there, too, and would like to send the two to the State Open. I think Colton has a really good shot if he works his tail off between now and then. I hope our two seniors (Caggiano and Joel Koleszar) end on a really high note,” Welch said. “I would like them to have a good taste in their mouths as they move on.”
Girls’ Cross-Country
Senior Julia Coyle was beaming as she crossed the finish line at the ECC girls’ cross-country championship meet. Coyle strode across in 21 minutes, 22 seconds, good enough for a fifth-place finish.
“It’s actually great,” Coyle said of her finish. “These were like the perfect conditions to run (Thursday). There was a great energy here, everybody was so excited to run; nervous because this course is known to be tough but we just went out and did our thing.”
The fifth-place finish, Coyle admitted, was a little unexpected.
But when she got to the course, she felt really good.
“I had a vision that I was going to get, at least, top 10,” Coyle said. “I knew going in that was what I wanted. I stayed true to myself and that’s most important when you are running.”
Woodstock coach Joe Banas saw the same thing. “Her head was into this. I saw it early on as she was warming up. I asked her if she was ready and she said ‘This is it. It’s going to happen (Thursday)’ and she followed through,” Banas said.
A big key for Coyle and the rest of the team was the hill work that the team had done in preparation for the ECC and State championship meets.
“I have to talk to the coaches about that, it’s one of the main things I have to say ‘Thank you’ for. We work hill repeats at Fiberoptics on the weekends and without that, these hills would have been much tougher. I felt my training from that, definitely, was utilized here,” Coyle said.
Banas said he and Welch tried to simulate certain sections of the Norwich Golf Course and Wickham Park courses by working the hill located near the Pomfret business.
“If you don’t, when you get here, if you’re not prepared, you’re not going to perform. (The Norwich Golf Course) is a roller coaster of a course. This isn’t Harkness (in New London) which is pancake city,” Banas said.
What may make it even better for Coyle is that she picked a good day to have one of her better outings.
Banas was watching alongside Ned Bishop, a Connecticut College cross-country coach and Banas knows Coyle is interested in Conn College.
“I said nothing but nice things about her,” Banas said with a smile. “To have her do this in front of possibly her coach next year was great.”
And it could say good things for the Class MM state championship meet at Wickham Park in Manchester on Saturday.
“I told her if she had this kind of effort at the Class meet, I think she could punch her ticket to the State Open (on Nov. 3 also at Wickham),” Banas said.
Sophomore Olivia Tracy placed 21st for the Centaurs.
“That’s pretty good,” Tracy said. “I just have to keep showing up and keep training. Keep putting in the work.”
Woodstock was again missing its third runner due to illness which helped to knock them back to ninth overall as a team and third in Div. I. The meet does count to the regular season standings and the Centaurs third-place finish left them with a 2-4 Div. I record.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
Captions inside: Senior Julia Coyle (center) and sophomore Olivia Tracy try to get to the front of the pack at the beginning of the ECC girls’ cross-country championship meet.
Junior Colton Sallum successfully navigates the last big hill of the day at the ECC championship meet. He finished seventh.
Photos by Marc Allard.
because pg 2 10-26-23
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Given that each option is equal in price, when flying shorter distances, I always wonder if it is better to Check-In my luggage or Carry-On? There are advantages and disadvantages for each …
Checking-In more luggage than you are Carrying-On, offers the biggest advantage in that, once the bag is tagged and headed on the rolling belt to the hidden luggage airport highway system, you, as a traveler, are free from schlepping a bag around with you while you navigate on your journey. You can move, with ease in an airport restaurant or gift shop. When trying to make a tightly timed connection, you can run faster in the airport and take the escalators rather than searching for elevators. And, perhaps even more importantly, you can board the airplane with little angst for where you will be able to find space for your Carry-On bag in the overhead bins. The biggest disadvantage to Checking-In more luggage than you Carry-On is that, at your final destination, your luggage may not arrive, if at all, at the same time as you do…
Carrying-On luggage, rather than checking it in, offers a big advantage in that whatever belongings you want to take with you on your journey, you can; ensuring that both you and your belongings arrive together, as a complete package. But lately, for me, this advantage is diminishing in importance as the disadvantages of Carrying-On my luggage seem to be growing exponentially…
I used to not mind that I wheeled around the airport a Carry-On sized bag while I waited to board my plane. But since it is of the utmost importance, as blared out of the airport loudspeaker every 20 or 30 minutes, to “Stay with your luggage AT ALL TIMES”, it has become a bit of a nuisance to roll my Carry-On bag with me when I buy chewing gum or use the restroom or grab a glass of wine or check the departures board. By the time I have navigated through my connecting flight, with my Carry-On bag ever present at my side, I am annoyed and wondering if I really needed to pack anything other than what would fit in a small backpack. Finally, and perhaps what I would consider, lately, the biggest disadvantage of Carrying-On a bag, is that if I board the plane with a group that is not in the top 3, there isn’t room, in the immediate vicinity of my seat’s overhead storage bin, for my bag. If I had known there wouldn’t be room in my overhead bin space before getting to my assigned seat, I would have sneaked it in somewhere ahead of me because needing to place my bag in an overhead space that is BEHIND my seat, ultimately means that I end up being one of the last ones to depart from the plane, lest I try to weave my way through the throngs of lined-up passengers headed in the opposite direction! And if I have a tightly timed connection, with my ‘finally retrieved’ Carry-On bag in tow, I may not be able to even get MYSELF there fast enough…
Either? Or?
Kathy Naumann, possessor of NATURALLY curly hair and the understanding that you can’t control everything!
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