The Historical Society is once again sponsoring a Holiday Decorated Door contest. Photo submissions of your door may be made from December 1 – 31. The photos submitted will be on display during the month of January in the Town Hall lobby. There will be a ballot box available at the display and everyone is encouraged to cast their vote for their favorite decorated door while they are at Town Hall. First, second, and third places will be announced in the Gazette. Our goal is to promote pride in our community and good cheer among neighbors. We also want to highlight creativity and fun.

To enter, just decorate a door for the Holidays. It could be your front door, pet door, garage door or even your outhouse door. Have fun with it! Take a picture of your door and email it to me at suemh35@yahoo.com, and I will come and photograph it for you. Then, come January, be sure to go to Town Hall and vote for your favorite Hampton Holiday Door decoration. Happy Holiday!

Dear Auntie Mac,

Our family is as jolly as the rest of the world during the holidays and we display our festive spirit with wreaths on our doors, reindeer in our yard, and candles in our windows. And we admire those who do so much more to spread cheer throughout the season with extravagant light displays for the enjoyment of all. However, our neighbors multiple, multi-colored lights that begin to blink before Thanksgiving and continue until after the New Year keep me up at night.  Would it be too Scrooge-ish to approach them and suggest – can you turn them off after ten o’clock?

Merry Christmas!

My Dear Neighbor,

Auntie Mac would be a holiday-smothering wet blanket if she did not applaud those who, like yourself, leap into the seasonal spirit with as many visual aids as possible—including, but not limited to, faux wildlife on the lawn. And she does dearly love to travel through the center of town in the evening and see the heartwarming display of window candles in the stately houses that line Main Street. She concurs, however, that exposing one’s neighbors to an environment similar to a runway at Heathrow Airport from October until Groundhog Day can test the serenity of even the most fervent of Yuletide devotees.

Your neighbors, I assure you, will be more than happy to make sure that you, as their closest audience, receive nothing but joy from their yearly gift to the utility company. Approach them and their display with the awe it deserves, and ask politely if they would consider turning it off after 10pm. This is an absolutely reasonable request, and if your neighbors have lived in town for more than a month they know that few will pass their house after that hour anyway. Offer to purchase, as a Christmas gift, a timer for this very purpose. All the while marveling at the ingenuity of the inflatable elf, the star of Bethlehem that blinks out “Away in a Manger” in Morse Code, the LED-infused split rail fence. Humble yourself at the magnitude of bulb clusters, acknowledge the hours it took to drape the boxwood with the net of blinding chartreuse, commiserate with the eldest son regarding the nasty fall he took while positioning Santa in a lawn chair on the roof. Follow up with a delivery of baked goods to their doorstep, just to insure that neighborly goodwill extends through the non-illuminated months.

Holiday etiquette dictates that lights may go up the day after Thanksgiving and be taken down before January 6^th, which is Three Kings Day and the last of the 12 days of Christmas. Auntie Mac understands that some may want to extend this timeframe; still, she urges moderation and restraint. All our reindeer, at some point, need to return north. And any reflection that we engage in during the dark winter months should now be turned inward; it will keep us all warm.

Your Auntie Mac

The Selectmen wish all Hamptonites a prosperous, healthy and happy Holiday Season. As I travel near and far, visiting my family, I’m constantly reminded how special our own piece of the Connecticut Quiet Corner is, and the charge of responsibility that comes with sustaining our Home. The Board of Selectmen will be unrelenting when it comes to ensuring the safety of our community and maintaining the high quality of life that is Hampton.

These Will Always Be Our Priorities,

Allan Cahill for the Board of Selectmen

In arguably the most egregious act of local governance in recent memory, Selectmen purchased a bucket truck for $173,690 on October 30 without meeting to determine financing, without funding approval from the Town’s fiscal authority — the Board of Finance, and without a vote of the taxpayers, as required by State law.

The unprecedented action was met with alarm and disappointment by members of the Board of Finance at their November 19 meeting, who expressed grave concern over the Selectmen’s failure to follow fiscal procedures, and voted unanimously to hire an attorney to help the board proceed with an appropriate response.

“The Selectmen disenfranchised voters from approving the purchase and circumvented the finance board from fulfilling their statutory duty to decide on how to finance it,” Vice-Chairman Kathy Donahue said, referencing the uncertain costs of the delivery of emergency services when the ambulance corps disbands in April, a circumstance weighing heavily on the minds of many citizens, especially our elderly population.

The Board of Selectmen first voted to purchase the truck on October 7 in order for the Town’s Highway Department to remove approximately 250 trees identified this summer as hazardous, a result of drought and gypsy moth infiltration. At the same meeting, Selectmen voted to schedule an October 24 Special Town Meeting for taxpayer approval of the purchase, a measure which is legally required in order for the Town to expend funds that exceed budgeted appropriations by $20,000.

The Board of Finance, when first apprised of the plan at their October 8 meeting, requested documentation on the additional costs associated with the equipment, such as insurance and workman’s compensation, and a financial analysis of comparable options, such as leasing a truck, out-sourcing the services, purchasing a used vehicle, collaborating with other towns, or taking a loan for the expense until uncertainties, such as State aid for roads and the delivery of emergency services, are resolved. Members were also concerned with the safety of the road crew, as the new bucket truck is three times the height of the equipment in use. Based on discussions which continued at a subsequent meeting on October 21, the Selectmen voted to cancel the Special Town Meeting to approve the purchase, and residents and officials present left with the understanding that the decision on the truck was postponed, though tree removal would continue, through some means, in the interim.

However, at the Selectmen’s meeting of November 7, under the agenda item under Old Business labeled “Tree Truck”, First Selectman Allan Cahill announced that the bucket truck was purchased using $82,000 from the Capital & Non-Recurring (CNR) Account for Trucks and Equipment, $70,000 from the appropriations taxpayers approved for the paving of roads, and $21,690 from the First Selectman’s salary line, an amount he has yet to earn. Documentation acquired by the Gazette shows that a proposal, along with detailed specifications for the truck, was prepared by Freightliner of Hartford on October 4, 2019, and that the truck was purchased on October 30 with Cahill, Selectman Bob Grindle, and Treasurer Ellen Rodriguez signing the checks.

While the penalty for violating the statute governing expenditures appears to be a civil action, finance board members were focused on establishing policies and ordinances to protect the appropriations approved by the taxpayers, and to ensure that something like this never happens again. Voter approval for the purchase of land and equipment, even with CNR accounts designated for those expenses, is also a long-established practice of the last several decades, and has, till now, been employed by Cahill, who declined comment, throughout his tenure.

Stan Crawford was the only member of the finance board to defend the Selectmen’s actions and to object to seeking legal counsel. “We don’t want to go down that rabbit hole,” he cautioned, to which member Kathi Newcombe replied, “We’re already in the rabbit hole. We didn’t put ourselves there, but it’s our responsibility to hire an attorney for guidance on the appropriate way to get out.”

Representatives from the Town of Windham’s Tax Collection Office met with residents at the November 7 Board of Selectmen’s meeting to present information on the services they are now providing to Hampton’s taxpayers. Windham Tax Collector Gay St. Louis and Deputy Collector Zayne Ring distributed pamphlets pertaining to the their office on Main Street in Willimantic, including the names and contact information for all tax collection personnel, office hours, and instructions on methods of payment.

Real Estate tax bills will still be sent in two installments after Hampton’s budgets are approved, with due dates of July 1 and January 1. Motor vehicle and personal property tax bills will only have the July 1 installment. Payments can be made online at www.hamptonct.org, or over the phone with a credit-debit card by calling 860-465-3029. Payments can be mailed to: Hampton Tax Collector, P.O. Box 923, Willimantic Ct, 06226, or in person at the Tax Hall at 979 Main Street, Willimantic. Hours are Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 8AM to 5PM, Thursday from 8AM to 7:30PM, and Friday from 8AM to noon. In addition, the tax collectors will be collecting payments at the Hampton Town Hall on January 16, 2020, and on July 14, 2020, from 10:30AM to 12:30PM. Checks will still be made payable to the Town of Hampton.

The Town voted to outsource tax services at a July 9, 2019 referendum as a cost-savings measure. Hampton signed a three year contract with Windham, saving approximately $10,000 annually in the salary line, in addition to the costs of maintaining the office, $12,000 – $14,000 a year. Convenience is an additional benefit: the Windham Office is open five days, and 42 hours, a week, as opposed to Hampton Town Hall’s 16 weekly hours. With the State urging Towns to look toward shared services, Chaplin and Scotland have also taken advantage of the services Windham provides and report a high degree of satisfaction.

The Windham Tax Collectors encourage Hampton residents to call 860-465-3029 or 860-465-3023 with questions or concerns.

Like the history of the town and the nature that surrounds us, travel has proved a popular topic throughout the Gazette’s publication. We’ve always shared our family vacations with readers, annually summarizing them. Our trip to Ireland, however, couldn’t be covered in one month, so we spread our experiences there over four issues, and while we’ve always received positive responses to articles on everyone’s travels, none has ever met such enthusiasm as Ireland, with many townspeople telling us they looked forward to the next chapter. We can’t explain this reaction, though there are quite a lot of people who have traveled to Ireland, and there are even more who would like to. Despite all this coverage, I would feel remiss if I didn’t dedicate a column to the plants there, as I have for others throughout the country, describing the colonial gardens of Williamsburg and the wildflowers of Texas, the allees from California’s palms to Savannah’s live oaks.

The value of the soil to the Irish is, of course, legendary, and evidenced everywhere, in the acres of pastures where grazing sheep are more plentiful than people, in the Burren’s tradition of winterage resulting in a blanket of wildflowers across the limestone, in the protected peat bogs that supply the fuel for hearths, permeating the air with a distinct scent. We learned of the relevance of their crop cultivation in history class when we studied the Potato Famine and its impact on immigration; and the cultural lessons of our generation included the inherent philosophy expressed by the Irish patriarch in “Gone with the Wind” with the line, “Why, land is the only thing in the world worth workin’ for, worth fightin’ for, worth dyin’ for, because it’s the only thing that lasts” nearly as famous as “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.” I can only account for my affinity for the soil from the cultures I’ve inherited.

It’s called the Emerald Isle for a reason. The everywhere green of the commonage acres sets the stage for the brushstrokes of gardens, and validates the claim that green is the calming color, the color of peace. It’s not limited to views of the pastureland. We’re enveloped in green from branches crossing over narrow roads rimmed with ferns, moss frosted rocks, hedgerows and tapestry hedges. The variety of green finds a near parallel here only in spring, when the earth and the buds burst forth with shades of jade and sage and chartreuse, emerald and kelly green, celery and olive and lime, mint and moss. These are the colors of the patchwork squares which cover the Irish landscape.

Flowers are omnipresent, spilling from stonewalls and from window sills, pastel and jewel colors painting gray rocks. Gardens spread across yards and in strips separating village streets. Wildflowers sprinkle themselves in pastures and dust the strands, sweep along fiords and rivers, soften the mountains and the cliffs overlooking the ocean, while formal displays cascade from bridges and decorate the religious grottos discovered on lawns and in the wilderness. Visiting in June, we saw many of the same flowers we left in Connecticut – dame’s rocket, roses, cranesbills, peonies, and lupine – in hues I’ve never seen, butter yellow, plum purple, cherry red. Wildflowers grow in profusion – daisies, magenta foxgloves, ruby, ivory, and rose centranthus, white umbels of valerian and heliotrope, angelica and cow parsley, towering thistles and mulleins, and carpets of buttercups and clovers the color of crushed strawberries. Some of our cultivated flowers grow wild in Ireland, compliments of a temperate climate and the infamous and incessant rains; fuschia grows along the roads, and rhododendron dots the landscape nearly as abundantly as sheep.

The third distinguishing characteristic of Ireland’s landscapes—rocks — and lessons on utilizing them. Stones comprise the ancient relics of pagan rituals and monastic settlements, old dwellings and chapels, castles and towers, bee hive huts and white-washed stone cottages. They delineate gardens and yards, border roads and form bridges, and compose one of Ireland’s most charming aspects – the stonewalls criss-crossing the countryside. The irony of the threat “Hell or Connaught”, the Cromwellian “choice” given to the Irish of death or exile to an unforgiving land, is found in the flora that flourishes there, the result of winterage, the seasonal grazing of cattle explained to us in a pub in the Burren where I remarked on the most beautiful bouquets I’ve ever seen. With rain draining rapidly on the limestone, collecting in calcium-rich pools, and the earth retaining its warmth, the cows consume the grass and contribute the fertilizer that creates a carpet of rare wildflowers, the farmers capitalizing on their resources centuries prior to scientific explanation. Irish roots are anchored in soil that is thoroughly respected, and entwined with grit.

Perhaps the interest in Ireland is due to the many residents of Irish descent. When we polled Hamptonites on their heritage, Irish was named more than any other culture, so many seeds scattered across the world after the Great Hunger. Of course, you don’t have to be Irish to visit Ireland, but if you are, you must. And having gone, you’ll want to return. One neighbor said it’s that Ireland is not so much a place as a feeling. I’d forgotten. I remembered the beauty, but I’d forgotten. Forgotten how rooted you become — listening to the roar of the ocean from the cliffs, witnessing the rise of the stone-stitched pastures, discovering the deeply spiritual places which appear in clearings with the dissipating mist – how rooted in your understanding of their reverence for this piece of earth, and their grief in leaving it. We returned to all of the places my mother visited – the Ring of Kerry, Cashel, Connemara, Glendalough, Achill Island – and she was in every one of them, as were my ancestors, who let me place my feet on the soil for a while in very meaningful ways.

Merry Christmas everyone. May the spirit of those who were once part of your celebration be with you still, may you gather with family and friends somewhere that invites return, and in the new year –

May the road rise up to meet you,

May the wind be always at your back,

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

The rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

One Mississippi. Two Mississippi…BOOM! All the chickens hiding in the red coop bunch closer together. Two black cats in the yellow house next to the red coop jump down from the bed where they’d been resting and run for cover. Every bee in the white hive next to the yellow house clusters a little tighter. The last, late season storm pushes through our small town, escorting summer out. Trees sway in the brisk wind. Fat, cool rain drops puddle in every crack and crevice. Watermelon and flip-flops are replaced with sweaters and soup.

Strong wings carry migrators to their temporary homes. “We’ll be back in the spring,” all seem to call as they depart. An explosion of vivid orange, yellow and burgundy, softly dots the autumn sky, each tree standing a bit taller in a proud display of brilliant color. “There you go!” chickens hear as they dart toward treats being offered. No picking them up right now. Molting has begun making skin sensitive as old feathers fall to accommodate warm, downy new ones. “Don’t worry my babies, they’ll grow back,” older, wiser eyes wink assurance to younger, less confident flock mates. ‘First-timers’ find comfort in the gesture.

Clucks and squawks and caws fill the crisp air. Feathers mix with fallen leaves and are piled together. One chore down, still to stack wood. Still to collect the rest of our garden harvest. The season has changed, bringing a night sky where the afternoon sun used to be. Air will soon be icy. A final look around. The hive is heavy and can barely be lifted. Plenty of honey will make for hardy bees during winter. There’s one at the entrance! Four perfect wings and a plump body, active. An ear pressed to the side of the hive — buzzing inside confirms colony health. Wings, once active in summer, used to dry nectar for honey and fan in cool air, stay still. Only flight muscles vibrate, creating plenty of heat in the hive.

Time for preparation is upon us. Focused but not hurried. Dry bales of straw are purchased and line the walls inside the red coop. Must be careful not to mix in hay. Premium straw only to protect delicate lungs. Freezer’s been stocked with fresh eggs – whipped and salted they’ll last for months. Garden vegetables made into stews and sauces share space in the freezer. Black cats in the white house enjoy the wood stove warmth. Invitations are received and given. Holiday plans are made.

Still and quiet is our town now, covered in a soft blanket of wintry white. “Cock-a-doodle-doo!” calls the rooster in the yard next to the yellow house. “What is this stuff?” he seems to be asking. Snow plow and shovels clear the way. Guests will soon be arriving. Aromas escape an oven crack, tickling noses and watering taste buds. Reds and greens, ribbons and bows. Candy canes. Cake. A season of peace and thanks giving. The opportunity to secure roots. To grow stronger, To emerge re-energized and rested in the spring. Lingering hugs given with sincere appreciation for journeys taken. Prayers lifted for those not present.

Feeling blessed and happy in this yellow house with the white hive next to the red coop. Enjoying each season bestowed upon our small town. Reminiscing that summer waterfall hike with our kids (all my love to you two), looking forward to many more strolls in the autumn colored forest with a friend and her horses (so enjoy hanging out with you – special thanks to hubby’s helping hand), remembering happy smiles and shared meals with Z, our friend and neighbor (come over any time) and knowing springtime motorcycle rides with my honey are just around the corner (Love you! You’re the best!).

Rest now. Be easy. Be joyful. Enjoy every minute of every season. See the colors and inhale the fragrances. Perfect what it’s like to really live. Have peace in your heart. Give blessings to all. And lastly, don’t forget to embrace the wings and feathers in your life.

Cindy Bezanson

A String of Pearls

The New York Times named it one of the most picturesque roads in New England, where the bridge crosses over the river curving through a valley of pastures and marshes and twisting into the woods. Spring comes first to this area, in the scarlet flush of brambles and greening sedges. This summer the town purchased the acreage south of the bridge, and a few years ago voted to secure the development rights to the north. Protection of this pastoral place has always been important.

Owners of the farm that once comprised the entire area have also preserved its character. Currently, Chad and Betty Caffrey, who have creatively repurposed other elements of the farm, are repairing the enormous barn. Prior to the Caffreys, the Gardners raised sheep here and hosted Sheep Dog Trials. From 1958 to 1984, Oscar and Hazel Filipeit managed a dairy farm of eighty cows. The Filipeits bought the farm from William Pearl who, with his wife Mildred, raised three children: Joyce (Rodriquez), Joanne (Page), and Bill Pearl. Joanne recalls:

I loved living on the farm. We played up behind the barn on the big rock, in the brook, explored all the woods, fished in the Little River. We had Holstein cows, chickens, lambs when I was little. I was told they had a few pigs before my time. I know they had horses because I remember Dad burning a large hive off the side of the stall. They took that down to add the little milk room. I remember them removing the trees and the stone walls from the two big fields below the house. He grew corn there.

Her cousin, Dorothy Vander Muellen, writes:

Behind the farm house stood the old gray weathered barn with the out-house sitting close by. How I hated to use that outhouse having visions of big spiders sneaking up under me! The barn had a concrete aisle up the middle with troughs running the length of them, separating the cows from the aisle. Uncle Bill hand milked a cow one day and invited Joyce and me to stand there along with multiple semi-tame cats while he squirted streams of warm milk into our mouths. Messy, but fun!

William Pearl inherited the farm from his parents, William Austin and his wife, Mabel. Their children were Beatrice (Thayer), Dorothy (Overbaugh), Eleanor (Moon) and Bill. Their grand-daughter, Mrs. Vander Muellen, the family historian, chronicles her mother’s memories in one of her several books on the subject:

Will would be up to milk the cows before 5 a.m. in those days that was all done by hand…After breakfast, Will would return to the barn and fields to continue with the unending chores that farm life demands…caring for the animals, doing maintenance and repairs on equipment, plowing or sowing, cleaning out stalls…the farm was one of the last places in Hampton to be hooked up to electrical power because of the cost to bring lines down the hill to the valley.

In the Introduction of the appropriately titled “A String of Pearls”, Mrs. Vander Muellen writes, “One of the pictures that hung in my parents’ house was an old and faded watercolor painting of the home in which my mother grew up. It is titled, “the Jewel Case”. When I looked at that old picture it was easy to conjure up an image of a string of pearls in their protective box…the idea of a jewel case was, to me, an apt image for the home which sheltered my mother and her family in the early years of the 20^th century.”

Across from “the Jewel Case”, the North Cemetery rises in mysterious tiers, many of its ancient stones marking the resting places of several of the Pearls, one of the town’s founding families, Timothy Pearl settling in Hampton in 1712. The union of his son, James, to Jane Orcutt in 1763 provided the family with their link to the Mayflower. The marriage of their grandson, John, to Maria Jewett in 1847 linked them with another early family, the Jewetts. The Hampton Pearls descend from their third child, Austin, whose son William ran the farm we feature this month. Though many descendants of the family remained here, their surname is no longer Pearl. Scarpino, Colburn, Becker, Krupula, Artz, Burnham, Rodriguez, Demontigny, Haddad, Hoffman, Freeman, Moon, Palmer, Buell – Pearls all, several still among us, as well as in our memories, and theirs. Here, members of the family reflect on “Growing up Pearl in Hampton”.

My mom’s mother, Evelyn Estabrooks, came from a long line of Pearls. Evelyn was the Postmaster so I got to know a lot of folks in town. I grew up in a house my great grandfather, Austin, built in 1880. Next door was my great uncle Rueben’s small farm. So I was surrounded by family and got away with nothing. If I did something wrong my parents would have known about it before I got home. To this day the family gathers each July to celebrate and catch up with many cousins. I think as we age we value more those close family ties.

Alan Freeman

It was nice to be a Pearl. Between the family and pumping gas at the Hampton Hill Garage – I knew everyone!

Bill Hoffman

Growing up in Hampton as a Pearl has been very special to me. In my early years, I knew all the people on Main Street as several of them were cousins. As kids we always felt safe walking to school to friends’ houses as everyone knew you and watched over you. As they say, it takes a village. My parents have always been into volunteering. They were very active in the Grange, Ladies Aide to the Congregational Church, the fire department and ambulance corps, and the Leslie Jewett Post of veterans. I remember them being very proud of the fact that they could honor our Hampton hero who was also a relative. That post of brave vets was responsible for the beginning of the Hampton Chaplin Ambulance Corps.  I am proud to carry on my father’s fire department and ambulance service along with my husband, daughter, step son, and niece. I am proud of my family and their many years of volunteering. I will continue to do what I can to keep that tradition going. 

Dale M Pearl DeMontigny

My mother was born in “Uncle Will’s” farmhouse in 1920. She would tell stories of sliding down Hammond Hill on sleds after school. That must have been some ride. We were related to half the town, which was not a big deal until I got into college and people found it hard to comprehend. Cousins made up the elementary school! When I was 15, Oscar Filipeit asked me to run the farm while he went on vacation for a week. Why not? I did chores with him for a few days and off he went. My mother would drive me down at 4:30 a.m. and drop me off with my bike to come home. I also mowed cemeteries, so I went from the farm to the North Cemetery. I mowed the grass over many relatives!

Ralph Scarpino

I grew up in a grand Victorian house my grandparents bought right after they were married.  We were fortunate to live right next door until we moved in with my grandmother after my grandfather passed away.  I loved having my Nana Pearl around caring for us, teaching us about cooking, gardening, church and singing, telling us stories about the old days. It was the best childhood ever. I was in one of the largest elementary school classes which contained five Pearl cousins! Four Hampton siblings had their offspring in one class: Arthur Pearl’s granddaughter, Alma, Will Pearl’s grandsons Bill and Neal Moon, Evelyn Estabrook’s granddaughter, Jo Freeman, and me, Reuben Pearl’s granddaughter. We were related to everyone!

Nancy Hoffman Burnham

I am always drawn back to my teenage years, a time when I realized what I had as a family was special. Before that it was just — normal. I first felt like I was related to everyone in town. It was probably a little bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. I couldn’t keep half of the relationships straight. I was often surprised to find out who I was related to. Didn’t have to end in Pearl. The Jewetts were also a part of our reunion until recently. The Krupalas were also part of our extended family. The Pearls just had our 80th Reunion, which means it’s been going since 1939. We’ve kept historical data since the beginning of our reunions: births, deaths, marriages. Tradition is what I was raised on. The history of our family may not be unique, but it is a history passed down from my relatives by conversations.

Neal Moon

Being a Pearl growing up in Hampton meant being literally related to almost half the town! Not a bad thing really since that half was related to me. It meant looking at old and, at the time, current photos of Family Reunions and thinking, “We have a bunch of people in our extended family!” Riding my bike around town after hearing stories from Grandma Estabrooks, daughter of Austin and Mary Pearl, meant I could see buildings that my Great Grandfather had helped to build. What a sense I had of really belonging here, right here, because so much of my family had settled in Hampton long ago.  

Jo Freeman

The first thing I can think of is FAMILY. I grew up in the same house with my grandparents Arthur and Estella Pearl. We had many relatives who lived in Hampton.   My Grandfather’s brother, Uncle Will and sister Aunt Evelyn Esstabrooks, both lived near the center of town. My dad’s sister, Aunt Alice Krupula, remained in town and another of his sisters, Aunt Idamay Richmond, returned to Hampton after her husband died. My Grandmother’s sister, Aunt Bertha Burnham, also remained in town. I had a lot of cousins in school with me. My sister, Dale DeMontigny, as well as her daughter Becky still remain in town. My daughters, Cindy Palmer and Kathy Arzt, both built houses in town and now live in Hampton along with my Grandson Brady.

My second thought is COMMUNITY. My dad was involved with the Leslie Jewett American Legion Post. I remember him maintaining the guns that were used in the Memorial Day Parades, cleaning them before and after their use. We also kept the flag that was placed by the Veterans Memorial in the center of town. I would take the flag when I went to meet the school bus and place it on the flag pole in the morning. In the afternoon I would take the flag down and learned how to properly fold it. I also helped place flags on the graves of our veterans before each Memorial Day. As kids we would all march in the parade and look forward to getting ice cream from Uncle Henry Moon’s trunk at the end. Many people remember the annual chicken barbecue the Grange put on each Memorial Day. My dad cooked the chicken and my mom coordinated the rest of the dinner. Of course we all helped with preparing and serving it. Most of our involvement was with Little River Grange. My parents as well as Grandparents were all active in the Grange and I have followed in their footsteps. My mom organized many fundraisers and dinners which we all helped with. Mom also was in charge of the Holiday Bazaar for many years. I was involved with the Little River Juvenile Grange.

In a way, Family and Community were really the same thing in Hampton. You may not have been a “Pearl” but we all were part of the community family, helping each other when needed. I may not have lived in Hampton for many years, but I still feel that I am part of Hampton. You can leave Hampton, but it never leaves you.

Alma Pearl Graham

Whenever there’s a local election, the Gazette is delivered to every household in Hampton so that residents may familiarize themselves with the municipal ballot. We trust you’ll find the rest of the November issue as informative and encourage you to subscribe so that you can receive our community newspaper, free of charge, every month.

In 1843, Governor Chauncey Cleveland issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation from his home here in Hampton. One-hundred and seventy-six years later, we still have a lot to be thankful for in our rural hamlet. The pages of our newspaper provide plenty of proof – news of our nature preserves and community institutions from the volunteers who protect and promote them, the contributions of youth and of veterans, those willing to serve as elected officials, a neighborly barn-raising – these are among the articles of interest contained in this issue.

We live in one of the loveliest towns in New England, and this year our community calendar features familiar places, Goodwin Forest and Trail Wood, Little River and Fuller Brook, illustrating the natural beauty of our town and its seasons. We thank the artists who contributed their paintings and photographs and those who have supported them, and the newspaper, through their purchase of the calendar.

Annually we publish a list of our patrons in recognition of the generosity that makes it possible for us to report and deliver the news of the town to its residents. We have provided a coupon and an addressed envelope in this issue for the convenience of those who would like to contribute; thank you in advance for your donations. We extend deepest gratitude to our advertisers, whose goods and services we are proud to promote. We thank those who patronized the Memorial Day Chicken Barbecue as well as those who helped us with this annual fundraiser; and those who visited us at the Fall Festival and participated in our community polls and in composing our community poem. It is your continued participation — through sharing your stories, from backyard chickens to far flung adventures, your talents through poetry and photography, your interests with articles on nature and history, your accomplishments and your opinions — which makes the Hampton Gazette a community newspaper. We thank you in this month of Thanksgiving, and throughout the year.

The Hampton Gazette

The polls will be open for the Municipal Election on November 5, from 6AM to 8PM in the Community Room at Town Hall. The Registrars will hold a limited registration session from 9AM to 5PM on November 4 for those whose rights as to age, citizenship, or residence matured after the October 29 deadline. Election Day Registration is available on November 5 in the Registrars’ Office only to those who apply prior to the close of the polls. Absentee ballots are available from the Town Clerk during regular Town Hall hours, and curb-side voting will be available during Election Day.

Something new to our municipal ballot this year is the inclusion of a local question: “Shall the Town of Hampton transfer $35,305.03 of unexpended funds from the 2018-2019 school year budget to the Hampton Elementary School Capital and Non-Recurring account to pay for future capital projects/purchases?” Along with electors, citizens who are not registered voters of the town and are named on the last certified Grand List as owning at least $1000 worth of property can vote on this issue.

There is also a write-in candidate this year, Peggy King, who is running for the Office of Town Clerk. This, however, is not a first in Hampton. Maurice Bisson was elected Selectman as a write-in candidate in 2003, a feat which placed Hampton on the national political map when the New York Times deemed his victory worthy of “all the news that’s fit to print”.

Dayna Arriola & Mary Oliver