Monday Morning Poem: Maiden Name

by Philip Larkin
Marrying left your maiden name disused.
Its five light sounds no longer mean your face,          
Your voice, and all your variants of grace;
For since you were so thankfully confused
By law with someone else, you cannot be
Semantically the same as that young beauty:
It was of her that these two words [...]

Monday Morning Poem: Summer Sun

by Robert Louis Stevenson
Great is the sun, and wide he goes
Through empty heaven with repose;
And in the blue and glowing days
More thick than rain he showers his rays.
Though closer still the blinds we pull
To keep the shady parlour cool,
Yet he will find a chink or two
To slip his golden fingers through.
The dusty attic spider-clad
He, [...]

How to Make a Daisy Chain

The wild daisies are flowering in abundance here in central Connecticut. Here are instructions for making a good old fashioned daisy chain.
1. Pick some daisies with long stems.
2. Use your thumbnail to slit the stalk about 2 inches below the flower.
3. Thread the stalk of another daisy through the split part of the [...]

Almost Heaven: Near Death Experience, 19th century style

This is a true story about a woman by the name of Anna Mathewson, who was born in Coventry, CT in 1810. Anna grew up healthy and strong, but at the age of 24, things took a turn for the worse. Her health was described from that time on as delicate, and from [...]

Crazy Lorenzo Dow: American original

During the 19th century, many an American mother named her new baby boy Lorenzo Dow, after a flamboyant preacher from Connecticut. The namesake of all these sons was born in Coventry in 1777, where he spent his youth much tormented by religious uncertainties. At the age of 21, he joined the [...]

Lorenzo Dow loves Peggy

Quoted from Legendary Connecticut by David E Phillips
Despite his unattractive physical appearance, his eccentric behavior and his wandering ministry which kept him from home for long periods of time, Crazy Dow was married at least twice and made his permanent (if that’s the correct word for it) home, at various times in his life, in [...]

Romantic Lorenzo Dow

After Peggy died, Lorenzo became acquainted with a young woman named Sally, from the Colchester, CT area. One night he took her for a buggy ride and tried to get her to accept his marriage proposal. He had already made arrangements with the Rev. John Whittlesey to marry them as soon as the girl said [...]

Bad Girls: Hannah Cranna, the witch of Monroe

Hannah Cranna, the witch of Monroe
Originally uploaded by katknit.
Monroe, CT is a small rural town in the western part of the state. Hannah Cranna is one of its most illustrious and colorful 19th century characters.
Hannah’s real name was Hannah Hovey, the Cranna likely added as her reputation grew. A widow, she lived at the [...]

True Crime: Lethal Guardian, by M. William Phelps

Lethal lawyers
“She didn’t pull the trigger but she did pull the strings.” So remarks one of the insiders about the woman who wanted her sister’s child so badly that she was willingly to do anything to get her. Lethal Guardian is the story of a murder for hire and the investigators who were [...]

Thanksgiving Memories: The Manchester Road Race

For many Americans,  a traditional Thanksgiving morning is spent cheering on the home team at a football game. For my family, and many others in Connecticut and southern New England, we have a special tradition of our own, the Manchester Road Race. Since 1927 (with a hiatus of 10 years during the depression and WWII), [...]