Art scene takes an ‘atomic’ turn
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
Editor's note: A name was misspelled in this story last week so we're running it again - corrected.
Putnam’s status as the art nucleus of northeastern Connecticut went atomic last week as a mural was unveiled at the Painted Baker Café in downtown Putnam.
Café owner Monique Maldonado said she’d been thinking about a mural for the large space behind the long counter for three years. “People always see a blank wall and they come in and say, ‘Oh, you should put a big screen TV there’ but I said, ‘No there’s art going there’.” She wanted a futuristic city going on the wall. She wanted the mural “residents” — robots, aliens and humans — all interacting together in harmony because she believes that harmony could exist. She wanted rockets, space ships and space cars “because I grew up in the ‘60s when the whole atomic era was very popular and the Jetsons and I have always thought that was really, really cool.”
She collected pictures of items she wanted. She also wanted a kind of “Where’s Waldo” for fun, too. Details explode on the mural. And many of them are personal. The Black Hawk helicopter is a nod to her son, Nick, who flies one for the National Guard. She loves chess so some characters in the mural are playing chess. She wanted WINY Radio there, too, in addition to the Painted Baker Café. Pancakes turn into buildings and a sunny-side up egg morphs into a space ship.
The Jetsons, near and dear to Maldonado’s heart, definitely belonged on the mural. “I figured Rosie is the best, the most recognizable.” There’s a building on the mural that is a takeoff of the radioactive donut sandwich — “we took it off the menu and made it into a building.” Food is very present in the mural – naturally.
Lots of animals, handpicked, populate the mural. And for sure, “I had to have the American flag. All my parents, my grandparents were in the military and I have two sons in the military, so absolutely!”
Maldonado said she loves how the mural goes from night to day.
She said she had asked her friend Amy Brunet who created her mural in downtown Danielson and Brunet recommended Jenn Brytowski of Jennerate. Brytowski made Maldonado’s dream a reality.
Artists Elizabeth Conway and Zoe D’Elia worked on the mural for two weeks.
.
Aspinock Memories
Eastern Connecticut Trade School from days of yore
Bill Pearsall, Municipal Historian
The idea of a Trade School in Putnam started in the early 1900s. The State Board of Education was considering building three trade schools in Connecticut and Putnam leaders and citizens wanted to be considered as a location for one of the schools.
In an article on Sept. 24, 1909, the Putnam Patriot Newspaper said: “A good many of our citizens are waiting eagerly, and the less hopeful ones anxiously, the announcement of the State Board of Education, where the Eastern Connecticut Trade School is to be located.”
The article goes on to say that the State Board of Education visited Putnam and were taken in automobiles by members of the town school committee and the Businessmen’s Association to view our surrounding beautiful hilly towns. When the party reached Thompson, they were invited to visit the home of Mr. Norman B. Ream. While they were there, the subject of the location of a trade school was broached. Mr. Ream gave many cogent reasons why the school should be located in Putnam. Not just for Putnam, but the benefit of Thompson, Woodstock, Pomfret and Killingly. All immediately surrounding Putnam with easy accessibility to Putnam. So wrought up had Mr. Ream become by his pleading arguments that with a smile, he concluded by saying: “Now gentlemen the question is settled. Putnam is to have one of the three schools proposed. All that needs to be done is for the State Board of Education to publicly announce the fact.”
The State Board of Education announced in 1914 the three towns that would receive Trade Schools. They were Putnam, New Britain and Bridgeport.
The first trade school in Putnam was in Hammond Hall on Harris Street. In 1916, a new two-story colonial revival style building was built next to the high school on School Street. According to the Norwich Bulletin, the Town of Putnam boasted a state-of- the- art trade school, and with electricity being a hot new commodity, this school was a valuable resource. It featured carpentry, a machine shop, a textile department, a drafting and electronic department. Finally in 1930, an addition of an aviation mechanics section was built which turned out to be the most popular course of study at the school. The carpentry students also built houses in the area and the school was used for voting during elections. The school also offered evening classes for students.
The building, as you might remember, was parallel to Providence Street in the approximate location of the present Municipal Complex. The western end of the building bordered the railroad tracks. In 1955, hurricane Diane dumped 30 inches of rain on the Northeast causing devastation flooding in Putnam and all of Connecticut. The overflowing river followed the course of least resistance and rushed down the railroad tracks. The bank beneath the Trade School washed away causing a partial collapse of the building.
Both the Trade School and Grammar School buildings were demolished after a fire in 1977-78. The property was then used as athletic fields for the town.
Aspinock Memories graces the pages of the Putnam Town Crier to keep Putnam’s history alive.
.
Getting ready for Food Share - October and November
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
The banana boxes are ready to go for the Danielson Veterans Coffeehouse Food Share set to open at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 2.
Food Share organizer Bruce Hay said the banana boxes will be filled with different types of food for drive-through distribution at the Farmers Market Pavilion on Kennedy Drive. The Midwest Food Bank New England, out of Manchester, has already let Hay know it will be bringing a full truck. Connecticut Food Share will also be bringing a truck load Thursday. Hay will not know everything that is coming until the truck doors open.
He assesses what they have and a long line of volunteers including many veterans from the coffeehouse; get to work — production line style — loading food into banana boxes.
Some items he knows will be available this month are frozen foods (protein), canned foods, baby food, yogurt in pouches, dried blackberries, chips, pretzels, Cheez-its, iced tea. Windham Pepsi will again be donating different sodas, he said.
Hay said he’s already been contacted by the Hometown Foundation about Thanksgiving. While he’s not sure of the exact number of frozen turkeys, he believes there may be about 500 coming. He will be doing some driving in November to pick them up.
The Thanksgiving dinners will include the turkey, 5 pounds of potatoes (he hopes), cans of vegetables and Aldi’s stuffing and possibly more.
.
caption, page 5:
One of many volunteers at last month's Food Share. Linda Lemmon photo.
Rare Car Weather
It was a perfect day for the last Tri-State Cruisers Classic Car Club cruise. Dick Salvas said that more than $11,500 was raised Saturday, making the total donated to the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in the last 32 years, more than $255,000. This year's cruise was the "worst year ever," thanks to a string of rainy Saturdays, he said. Expanded photos Wed. night on our FB page. More Autumn Saturday photos on page 4. Linda Lemmon photo.
.