Firemen's parade, carnival kick off

WINSTED — One of the Laurel City’s most celebrated traditions is in full swing this weekend at Rowley Field, where the annual Winsted Firemen’s Carnival is lighting up the east end of town.

As always, the carnival runs through Saturday, with a highlight being the Firemen’s Parade, which kicks off at 6 p.m. Saturday. Fireworks will be held one night only this year, on Friday at 9:30 p.m.

Volunteer firefighter David Sartirana said this year’s parade marshal will be the people of Northwest Community Bank, which is celebrating its 150th year in business this year. 

“We felt it was fitting to honor them,� he said. “They will have representation in the parade on Saturday.�

The bank this year released a new book, “Two Paths to Community,� celebrating the first 150 years of the bank. The bank was formed as a result of the merger between Winsted Savings Bank and Mechanics Savings Bank. This weekend’s celebration is part of a series of events planned to commemorate the anniversary.

Saturday’s parade begins on Division Street, travels west on Main Street and ends at the carnival grounds on Rowley Street. Trophies will be presented to fire departments at 9:30 p.m. on the carnival grounds. The Winsted Fire Department will also draw winning tickets in this year’s raffle.

A children’s carnival matinée will be held Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m., with reduced prices for rides and food. One lucky boy and girl will each receive the day’s prize — a new bicycle — in a random drawing.

For more information, call the Center Firehouse at 860-379-5155.

Latest News

South Kent School’s unofficial March reunion

Elmarko Jackson was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American in his senior year at South Kent School. He helped lead the Cardinals to a New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) AAA title victory and was recruited to play at the University of Kansas. This March he will play point guard for the Jayhawks when they enter the tournament as a No. 4 seed against (13) Samford University.

Riley Klein

SOUTH KENT — March Madness will feature seven former South Kent Cardinals who now play on Division 1 NCAA teams.

The top-tier high school basketball program will be well represented with graduates from each of the past three years heading to “The Big Dance.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss grads dancing with Yale

Nick Townsend helped Yale win the Ivy League.

Screenshot from ESPN+ Broadcast

LAKEVILLE — Yale University advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after a buzzer-beater win over Brown University in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, March 17.

On Yale’s roster this year are two graduates of The Hotchkiss School: Nick Townsend, class of ‘22, and Jack Molloy, class of ‘21. Townsend wears No. 42 and Molloy wears No. 33.

Keep ReadingShow less
Handbells of St. Andrew’s to ring out Easter morning

Anne Everett and Bonnie Rosborough wait their turn to sound notes as bell ringers practicing to take part in the Easter morning service at St. Andrew’s Church.

Kathryn Boughton

KENT—There will be a joyful noise in St. Andrew’s Church Easter morning when a set of handbells donated to the church some 40 years ago are used for the first time by a choir currently rehearsing with music director Susan Guse.

Guse said that the church got the valuable three-octave set when Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center closed in the late 1980s and the bells were donated to the church. “The center used the bells for music therapy for younger patients. Our priest then was chaplain there and when the center closed, he brought the bells here,” she explained.

Keep ReadingShow less
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

Keep ReadingShow less