DHS starts Quidditch Team
This newly formed club was inspired by the ever-so popular book series, “Harry Potter.” The fascinating sport of Quidditch has started up in schools across the country and has finally made its way to DHS. The sport consists of students on broomsticks. The athletes then, abiding by the official Quidditch rules, attempt to catch the “golden snitch” which will be one of DHS’s extremely fast “trackies.” Anyone is welcome to join any of the open quidditch teams or start a whole new team, and choose positions as seekers, chasers, keepers or beaters.

The Darien High School ski team, racing twice in two days from a postponement last week due to lack of snow, faced a tough field in Greenwich, Lauralton Hall, Litchfield, and New Canaan at the Mt. Southington Ski Area on Jan. 11.

The girls varsity team finished second, losing to Greenwich. The boys varsity placed third, defeating Litchfield while finishing closely behind Greenwich  and New Canaan. 

Connecticut Deemed Worst State for Retirees

A colder climate and a high cost of living were just two of the criteria used by the TopRetirements website in naming Connecticut the worst state in which to retire this year.

When TopRetirements.com compiled the top 10 worst states to retire in 2012, two tied for the number one spot: Connecticut and Illinois. But because of its higher property taxes, income taxes and cost of living, the Nutmeg State took the top spot, according to the site. The criteria used to determine quality of retired life in 2012 were fiscal health, property taxes, income taxes, cost of living and climate.

Darien improves to 6-3 overall and 3-0 FCIAC with its defeat against Greenwich

More History of Darien

Thanks Patti Craig

You mention Harry Street. Did you know that Harry Street was a renowned jazz musician, Sax player. He was also Debbie Street father and a cousin, by marriage, to Sue Danver. If memory serves, he also started the 'Chuck's Steakhouse chain. Sal Mazzeo was Marie Mazzeo's father..ie..Marie Mazzeo Fitzsimmons, founder of Darien Lassie League.

The Fitch Old Soldier's home was one of the first of its kind in the US and the direct forerunner of the Veteran's Home, now based in Rocky Hill, CT. Many of the veterans living at the Fitch Home were subsequently buried in the Soldiers of Four Wars Cemetery in Spring Grove on the Post Rd.

Woodlawn Park was once the property of old Mrs. Irving who deeded it to the Town as 'Irvings Woods'. The DC house was constructed (I believe) on part of the site of the old dairy farm located on Noroton Ave. Barbara Wilson's father bought up the rest of the land. They had a big spread in back of their house that they raised horses and sheep on.

Tilley's Pond was once Tilley's Bird Park. G. D. Tilley was a well known naturalist and avian specialist. He made several trips to Europe bringing back specimens for dealers, collectors and zoological societies. He built the first pond in 1895 around three springs and a brook. He later enlarged and deepened the pond to its present size. Every late winter, Mr. Tilley imported swans from Holland for the enjoyment and interest of townspeople.

The first local troop of Boy Scouts was formed in 1915. There were 111 boys registered at the camp known then as the Noroton Troop at Noroton Bay, now Pear Tree Point Beach. The Darien scout cabin was built in 1927 on West Ave. on land donated by the Shaw family and funded by Edward H. Delafield and Lewis Lapham.

A Brief History of Darien

(Taken from an article by Ed Chrostowski,  former editor of the Darien Review in the 1950s)

Darien always had a variety of clubs. The Darien Community Association, then only a fledgling "Darien Improvement Association," quickly grew into one of the largest and most active.

Early in the decade, the DCA coveted an estate on Middlesex Road for a home of its own. Mrs. Allen Fort, Mrs. Harrison Henry, and Mrs. Henry K. Esquerre led scores of women in an ambitious effort that ultimately succeeded in buying the property they came to be called the ”Meadowlands." As a stately mansion in a garden setting, it soon became a hub of activity ranging from distinguished guests lecturers and academic courses to wedding receptions.

Men in the community were busy also. The Horseless Carriage Club, for example, doted on shiny old cars exhibited regularly by Brian Dugdale, John Oldrin, Willard Poole, Harry Street, Bayard Colgate, Ed Lawrence, Miley Heinbaugh, and Nelson Page.

John Oldrin was one of the movers and shakers at the Darien Library then and he ran the Red Cross for a while. It's a wonder he ever found time to polish his car.

Harry Street was busy, running the Civil Defense Organization and the Auxiliary Police Force.  Miley Heinbaugh owned the lumberyard, Bayard Colgate hailed from the toothpaste family and Nelson Page was a bi-speckled architect who designed most of the public and commercial buildings in town.

Another old-time weekly highlight, the Kiwanis Club lunch, seems familiar decades later in a different venue because some of the same senior members are still in regular attendance. The men lunched at Howard Johnsons on the Post Road and there were many newcomers, including retired police chief John Jordan, on hand.

Across town, the ranks of the Lions Club were a bit thinner and the group had to meet in the evening because the members were unable to leave daytime jobs. In the ranks were Frank Hermes and Woody Kurtz from a Glenbrook variety store, pharmacists Phil Varnum and Ray Humiston, Bill Shaberg,  Johnny Keane, Lyman Mallett, Selectmen Peter Sweeny and a handful of others, including the Darien review editor.

The Lions operated the refreshment stand and helped to direct traffic and parking at the Ox Ridge Hunt Club's annual horse show and for their  efforts  shared in the hot-dog receipts.

With World War II still a fresh memory, veterans groups were particularly active and the rosters of Darien’s three volunteer fire departments were almost identical to those of the town's three post offices.

Sal Mazzeo, policeman Bill Dance and his wife Alma and brother Chauncy, also a cop, were leaders in the American Legion Post and nagged State Rep. Thomas "Cap" O'Connor to pressed the Governor for funds for veterans housing.

As a result, “Cap”, the retired New York City fireman with a thick Irish brogue, was instrumental in the town acquisition of the Fitch Home for Soldiers that the Navy used for radio training school during the war.  Located at the corner of West and Noroton Avenues, it became the site for the Allen-O’Neil housing complex.

Most of the Fitch buildings were demolished, but two were spared. One still serves as a key 2-story brick apartment building and the other, formerly the chapel, was moved across the road and is now a headquarters for another active club, The Veterans of Foreign War.

It took some doing to get the chapel and move it and the VFW held all kinds of raffles and contests to raise the money.

Charles Ertelt, Joe and Irene Winter, Bill and Cy Stoler, Joe Palmer, Fred Baur, and John Tait led the business group in the Noroton Heights. Charlie is remembered for the way he nagged the neighborhood kids to stop spinning around on the soda fountain stools in his drugstore, Gilbert Pharmacy.

Of Course, Wee Burn Country Club flourished after having moved from its original nine-hole digs on the Post Road, where Gennaro Frate, later a state representative, was pro.

Edgar Auchincloss was turning his family farm, Keewaydin, Into the Darien Country Club. He raised the funds by inviting 250 Darien families to become charter members by posting $1,000 each. If memory serves, Al and Anita Brunner and realtor Holly Seely, Anita's brother, were first in line.

Up on Middlesex Road was the magnificent Ox Ridge Hunt Club where Otto Heuckeroth, and Felicia Townsend developed equestrian's like Ronnie Mutch and George Morris who went on to national and international competitions. After the stables burned down in a spectacular mid-decade fire, Ox Ridge rose from the ashes, like a Phoenix, bigger and better than ever.

And there was Tokeneke Club, where people like bankers Bill Jones and Don Blodgett basked on the beach; the Noroton Yacht Club where the Dorrance, Cox, Aymar, Franklin, Tweedy, and Crimmins families were prominent, and the Darien Boat Club, just getting underway, at Pear Tree Point with George Brencher, one-eyed Bill Loeffler and Lou Maynard at the helm.

Curiously, Woodway Country Club on the Stamford town line had its beach club at Shippan Point and Wee Burn’s is in Rowayton.

Yes, contrary to occasional outward appearances, the town of Darien really was well-organized in the 1950s.

I do know every one in the picture; Janet Martin, Mary Bass, Heidi Gerber and Suzanne Ferree. And I know that Goody took the picture. What a great shot. Enjoyed it a lot. Patti Craig

Tim Potts, founder of  Dark Field Technologies, won the 2011 Pipeline Award for Most Promising Technology Product of the Year in Hartford on October 27. His company designs and builds high-resolution laser and camera systems for solar panel inspection and defect detection.  Way to go Tim!

Beth Shaw and Jan Hon

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Member of the Class of '69? Send us your news and pictures.

Casey Nickerson is on a Round-the-World sailing trip aboard a sailboat he owns jointly with a few other guys including Jeff Salzman. 

See where they are now. 
 
He has posted photos and blog entries which will continue to appear over the duration of the circumnavigation of Planet Earth, which is scheduled to last until March or April of next year.

Here is his website:    www.wildtigris.org

 Post reunion party- Steve Craig, Janet Martin Fisher, Suzanne Ferree Kent, Wendy Ashcroft, Jenny Bates, Heidi Gerber, Anne Back Price, Patti Shaw Craig