I was at the Thomas Nursery School (Highland Ave across from Judy and Janis’ house) when I was 4 yrs old (1946-47). I was a terrible pain, always getting into trouble. I ate their clay, chewed on crayons and hated the damn warm milk and graham crackers we got first thing in the morning, though the hot lunches were pretty good. One day I decided I’d had enough of school and quietly snuck out the kitchen door. I did NOT just wander off! Got out to Highland Ave and headed North. I figured my Mom drove me in from the South so I’d already seen that part of the road.

Eventually I got tired, right about when I got to a place where there was a curb so I sat down on it. Pretty quickly after that, a black and white came by and stopped. The policeman was very nice and I of course was very polite. Somewhere in the school year, the teachers got fed up with me eating their clay. One day when I went up to get my lunch, the lady handed me a plate with just crayons and clay on it. ROFLMAO! I slowly walked back to one of the tables, sat down and burst into wails to wake the dead. Not sure whether I ever ate the clay again though I probably did because I really did like how it tasted, lol.

Fond memories include the upright piano on the wall away from the hockey field, reciting Little Miss Muffet and singing Itsy Bitsy Spider, reading the damn Dick and Jane books which since I already knew how to read I would make fun of (they kicked me out of the reading circle so I had to go play by myself… awww) and of course, plant radishes.

Hi Kipp, You probably won’t remember this but the last time I saw you I was living in a duplex apartment with my wife, Sue Weeks, and daughter, Joy, and my neighbor had beaten up his wife. I told his three children who were all huddled in a corner to come over to my house. The neighbor who, was a large man, threatened me but let his children come with me over to my house and I called the police. An ambulance came and took the wife. One officer handcuffed the husband and another officer stood in the doorway, that was you, Kipp, and I said “Hi Kipp” come in come in. You said “I can’t I’m on duty.” I thought, of coarse, well it’s nice to see you. It had been a long time. As you were taking my neighbor away he turned to me and said, “Pete, keep an eye on my car will you” and I said okay. I’m living in the mountains of Western North Carolina married to a hillbilly, Janette, and love the country living. It sounds like you’re all doing well. Lucky county that has you watching after them. Just one last comment to, Dirk. Everyone was crazy about Teddy! An old friend, Peter.
Dirk and Kipp in the mid-70s, and Peter on his Harley, late 60s.

While not a “Rowayton Kid” myself (Norwalk), I had many friends who were, and spent enough time there to feel as if I were, too. One very good friend was Sue Harris, with whom I spent a good part of my life.

I came across an audio interview with Sue, from Virginia Voice, of Richmond. If you or any of the other Kids knew Sue you would be interested in her listening to her success story. Click on “Sue Griffin, What’s Your Story? ” at the Virginia Voice (Crick’s computer froze when I tried this; its an MP3), and enjoy the story of a Rowayton Kid who made good! J K Griffin, Colico, Italy
Click to enlarge 1961 NHS graduation pictures and the picture of Sue as she is today.

I always like to talk about the accomplishments of RowaytonKids as I have done for Heidi Westover who is the daughter of RowaytonKid, Meg Gatten, and Tom Westerling of Norwalk. You may recall that Heidi finished 15th in the Olympic Trials for the marathon in Houston in January.

Diane (Wilkinson) Trefethen, a RowaytonKid up to just beyond her 8th birthday now lives in Mariposa CA (a beautiful town at the foot of the Sierras). We have exchanged some emails lately. She was a year ahead of me, Pat, Margo and Connie, and in the same class as Judy. Diane lived on Covewood Dr off of Wilson Ave not far from Thomas School where she attended school along with Bronwyn Jones and ahead of Judy, Connie, Margo and Laurie. Our paths probably crossed a number of times as I can remember seeing the Thomas School girls walking up and down Highland Ave in the 40s and 50s to field hockey at the Thomas School (Nursery School) field up across the street from Judy and Janis’ house (the first house on Crooked Trail Rd off of Highland Ave). She actually attended the Thomas Nursery School along with me, Caroline Hoyt, and Margo but perhaps a year ahead of us.

Here is Diane at a birthday party at around the age of seven. Could she be in one of the Nursery School pictures we published here?

I asked Diane if I could post this story and she okayed it but expressed some embarrassment. Diane and I have a common bond in that we like to blog and both of us have been debating with an activist crowd of others on women’s individual right to choose… at the Woodstock CT Cafe.

I’m a curious person so I confess that I Googled Diane and discovered her in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Last August, she won the Fireworks 50 (mile) Endurance Ride, a long-distance equestrian event riding her purebred Arabian nicknamed Peekaboo (below). From the Sentinel article: “The race, which had about 50 participants …, is sanctioned by the American Endurance Ride Conference, and was created by members of the Santa Cruz County Horsemen’s Association who wanted to ride on the town’s scenic trails.”

I found a document from the American Endurance Ride Conference that showed that Diane has been riding in these long distance events since 1985. She was 3rd in a 100-mile event in 1990 and has participated in 35 long distance events over the last 27 years finishing near the top in many of these races. I get tired just thinking about these accomplishments.

Also, see Caroline Hoyt on Misty here and Becki’s and my daughter, Mariah, on Dancer here (Dancer, a thoroughbred, won several track races in PA before we got her) .

Here’s a very nice picture of Diane one her beautiful horse, Peekaboo, last August. Very impressive.

Andy Rooney once talked about his self image as an old man who, in his mind’s eye, envisioned a much younger man. I think all of us from the 40s, 50s, and 60s do and feel the same. I guess the way I think of myself is a composite of all of these images. The last, by the way, was the morning we said good-bye to Janis. Obviously I was a little disheveled from Janis’ visit in August 2011; but, in my next picture I will look alot younger. The middle picture is me sitting on the front step of the youth hostel in Tangiers, a cross-road in my life in July of 1966 after which everything went in a different direction. This was the dividing line between my less responsible youth and the monastic life style that I took on in building a career as a molecular biologist. But this wouldn’t have been as satisfying without Becki who showed up at the time of the first picture on the left, bottom row. Today I became a grandfather for the 6th and 7th time. My son, Drew, and his wife, Michelle, had twins, Kate and George, in Dallas.

from Crick

How come I never got into any of these pictures. I must have been camera shy. This not my 12th birthday party. The uncertainty of when lies in the observation that the girls are wearing coats; but I can’t imagine any other occassion where I would have a party. If it was my birthday, this would be on or around September 8th 1955. These scenes are definitely in our house at 28 Bryan Road. The cat in these pictures is our cat “Stop” – his brother “Go” wouldn’t have allowed this.
The boys: (back row left to right) Billy Jenkins, Len Calendriello, Paul Tebo, Rick Amon, (front row left to right) Johnny Fogel and name forgotten (possibly Bill Love). Can anyone tell confirm how old we were. I’m leaning toward near the beginning of 6th grade at Rowayton School.
The girls: (back row left to right) Sue Harris, Patty, Roussie Flora, (front row left to right) Connie, Joan Kushman, Margo, Pam Jones. That’s a pastel of my sister Phoebe on the wall done by my mother. (see some more below)
Left to right: Billy Jenkins, name forgotten (possibly Bill Love), Pam Jones, and Sue Harris. Patty and Margo are in the background.
Left to right: maybe Rick in the background, Joan Kushman, Johnny Fogel in the background, Lenny Calendriello, and Margo.

Also from Flip: Dad passed away in 1976, so mom’s been on her own for over 30 years. She had a great life, traveled a lot. She stayed in the same house in Rowayton for 46 years.

Flip sent this link to Betty’s obit.

from Flip Amon

Hi RowaytonKids!

This is Flip Amon on behalf of all the Amon Boys. I wanted to mention that our mom, Betty Amon, died on Thursday… 95 years old. I’m not sure how to put up info on the site other than commenting on someone else’s thread, but wanted to let you all know. All four of us will be in CT for the wake and funeral this week. Rick is the only one still living in CT (Stratford) and is closest to the details. Here’s his email… rickamon@optimum.net

For any in the area or otherwise able to make it, here are the details…

A notice will be run in Connecticut Post (Bridgeport) and The Hour (Norwalk)
on Monday 16 April.

Tuesday 17 April – wake … 4:00pm – 8:00pm
Redgate – Hennessy Funeral Home
4 Gorham Place
Trumbull CT 06611
203-372-3587
www.redgatehennessy.com

Wednesday 18 April – funeral mass 11:30am :
St. Lawrence Church
505 Shelton Avenue
Huntington CT 06484 (or Shelton CT 06484)
203-929-5355
www.diobptstlawrenceparish.net

The picture attached is the last time I saw my mom – in Shelton CT on February 12. She was waving and blowing kisses that day. That’s Mom with myself and my daughter Jessica.

I’ll get back to you all again in the future to update you on our whereabouts, but wanted to get this info to you right away.

Blessings, Flip Amon, Oviedo, FL flipamon@cfl.rr.com

Well, it is snowing again here in Mariposa Temperature was 30°F at 0700.

Today the stuff is really WET. Sierra Cement we call it. Skiing in it is like skiing in mud.

This is the stuff that collapses roofs, downs trees, takes out power lines.

I looked at the Döppler maps and this storm is supposed to take roughly another sixteen hours to pass through. I hope the temperature goes up so I don’t have to shovel off the roof.

I see it is warm (50s) in Connecticut today, albeit mostly overcast. In New England they have a saying. “If you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute.” I think Down Easters have convinced the whole nation to follow their lead

I grew up in Connecticut. During those first 18 or so years of my life, we had only two (2), real snow storms. One when I was about four and one when I was eighteen. Oh sure, we had a number of “snow days” but they were really “ice days”. I remember waking up in Winter to see that Steuben had come through during the night and turned every tree, every blade of grass, every fence post into a crystal work of art. When I was a teen, we lived on a small hilltop. One morning, after an ice storm, the road down the hill was encased in ice. Since they didn’t cancel work, just school, at 7am, my dad got in his Tin Lizzy and headed for the train station. About 1/3 of the way down the hill, the car started to slide. By the time it came to a stop at the bottom, it had pirouetted a full 360° as well as performing several marvelous swings back and forth across the roadbed. It didn’t move for a while. I guess Daddy was regaining his composure. Finally the car started up again and slowly crept to the end of the street.

The temperature is rising. Another few degrees and the snow will become rain. Then everything will become “schlumpf”, just like Spring in New Hampshire.

I love the perspective I gained growing up in New England.

Here is Perry Seiffert, Mike Newman, and others with the tennis courts in the background at Bayley Beach.

This is Lola Seiffert with the Bayley Beach Pavilion and Roton Point in the Background.

Left to right: unknown, Perry Seiffert (face hidden; in blue shirt), Mike Newman, Joan Bryan (red), Carol Meier (blue) and Camilla Sloat (white).