To Newtown, From Gwen I have lived in Newtown for 25 years. As a child growing up in Weston, CT an amazing treat was when my parents and their friends would pile all us kids into the station wagons for a ride to Newtown. We’d see a movie (2nd run) at the Edmond Town Hall and go out for pizza at the Pizza Palace. Heading back home on Poverty Hollow Road I’d lean my head into the car window and think someday this would be the kind of town I’d like to live in. It had a charm like a little miniature Christmas village on a fire mantel. At 21 I landed my first full time job with benefits and decided to fly the nest. My mother told me to get a realtor to help me find my first apartment, but first I had to decide what town I wanted to call home. Easy … Newtown. Two weeks later Newtown, CT was officially my hometown. 13 years later I got the nesting bug and bought my first house; In Newtown of course. My realtor said, “Now you watch, you’re going to get married”. Took a few years, but she was right and we were, to quote my husband, “So blessed” to have our two kids. This is the kind of town that if the wind blows in the right direction you can hear a distant “Moo”. The town is 60 square miles and the largest in Fairfield County. The Wall Street Journal called it the Greenwich of Northern Fairfield County. I always love how you can be on line at the grocery store and a dairy farmer could be in front of you and the President of Duracell right behind you and everyone would just stand in line together and chat about whatever. I never locked my car door until I married my husband … being from New York he was not nearly as trusting as I was. My neighbor two houses down never locked her house, ever. When I pet sat for her and asked for the house key she said, “Honestly, I cannot tell you where it is.” A Norman Rockwell kind of town is how I would describe this place, until … December 14, 2012. My Mom visited us for our daughter’s 5th birthday this past May. She was significantly moved by how friendly the whole town was. She said “Hello” to a contactor in the Sand Hill Plaza and he chatted her ear off for 20 minutes. I said, “That is the thing about Newtown, which has always made it so special to me. But now we all share a common denominator, which is December 14th. We feel even closer with each other due to a shared experience. We have cried, are still mourning and consoling together … as a community.” I told her about two recent events in the last 6 months I will never forget … Registering our daughter for Kindergarten and being on line at the local deli before work and a Newtown police officer getting inline behind me. I saw the Newtown badge on his left arm, felt the tears immediately spring to my eyes, the gratitude and sympathy of what he experienced swelled in my chest. I was too choked up to say what I wanted to say, “Thank you.” To quote the wrist band on my arm, “12-14-12 Courage, Strength, Community”.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Jun 2013 23:04:59 +0000
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