Growing Up in 50s & 60s Fairfield,Connecticut USA
Life things inspired by the artist's Hometown, found me strolling my mind she-shack, small but rich and good,
in search of tone-setters, things that present an overview of the times, before I get into OUR details,
and how they were different and how the same!
At my original site, for which I did most of the code, I featured a video of the Spectacular ”FIRE”
as a three-minute history refresher and message to our children, to end the adolescent blame-game on parents.
The file aged our and now corrupts computers, so I trashed it fast. You can find it anywhere - it was very famous in the day.
In fact, a huge body of evolution on child-bearing and child-rearing became available
and we got the idea and reached for it with both hands,
with our men home from war, safe and sound and loving us and peace and a grand life,
NOT from dumb pot , but from their war experience - seeing what the alternative looks like.
Twenty years later,”Fire” is still valid -
my grown, successful and married children could already write THEIR version of the song,
with an inescapable similarity in content, for good and ill!
~elle
This page about Fairfield would not be right without mention of the famous Pequot Library Book Sale ! By any measure, a lovely Summer Event.
Visitors from Around the World, and two blocks away, come to the enjoy the books, rare and popular, displays, breezy tents and treats.
The Scenic Drive to and from the event is half the fun!
The Westport Country Playhouse
has been a vital part of the performing arts in Fairfield County for generations, and livelier every year!
Scroll down for Writings, comment, happy nostalgia and links.
Fairfield Days, Present and Past.
Notes about the experience:
- A happy childhood, then "off to life with my new husband and great work, away from the Northeast.
-Twenty years later, the native returns and the experience as special as the books always say.
- Memories and reunions, and "the times" turn it into an adventure of a sort.
Links for:
-Civic,
-Historic,
-Commercial, and
-"just plain fun".
Stories will collect here, too, and, I hope, entertain and inform....elle.
Fairfield Girls
We are the Fairfield Girls!
We wear our hair in curls!
We wear our dungarees,
Rolled up above our knees!
We wear our Fathers' shirts!
We wear our Brothers' ties!
And when it comes to boys,
We take them by surprize!
- late fifties hometown jingle, usually phased out by prom time…only if you want to be asked - elle
POEM “FAIRFIELD GIRLS”
Our children won't believe this
They'll say it can't be true,
No one could have been that dumb!
Not in old days or new!
"But, yes, my dears, that is the fact,
I see no way to hide it,
In retrospect,sometimes preferred,
and so I won't deride it!
The typical day of the Fairfield Girl,
was like a Gidget movie!
We cared not much for goings on,
unless we thought it "groovy"
The hair must be at Shoulder length
And "Jackie-O" brunettes
Won their fellows every time
And their Father's bets!
Dope? A name for wiseguy boys
Sex, a mystery...
Violence? Not in our town
Our men were heroes, see?
Poverty?.... for other folks
Or, should it come, genteel
Rock and Roll was here to stay!
Its icons made us reel!
...
I’m likely to go on and on and on
As memory allows...I’ll share it here
To be continued. May you stop me,
With your own ideas!
Not so hard to top me - Fairfield was cool
please leave out obscene/profane.
We all did well in school.
The Fairfield page must shine and show our best.
It’s easy for a Fairfield Girl to pass the hardest tests!
I will publish your words at this page, with your expressed permission.
with your name and link, of course... or with that omission.
Fairfield is the still the Best - not afraid to shout it!
Fairfield is still so blessed, and now no one will doubt it!...~ elle
~
Bergdorf Goodman = elegance, still!
Victoria's Secret not always a fan, but could not help but smile when their latest store opened in Fairfield, times dooooo change.
Naturalizer Shoes Still doing great things for feet without sacrificing style and beauty.
Sharon Lavoie Lamb's eBay Store features some of my art,and much more!
Tiffany & Company Dare to Dream!
Friend Karen Legg's page at eBay Her 4000 sales show the value of serving Beauty on a Budget needs.
Our Music
Try this link, 1964 Top 100 Hits
Try a Search, and you will find Sound files, fast and free for instant nostalgia.
Regaining a graceful walk after and accident, "The Girl from Ipanema" helped:
The Girl From Ipanema
Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto
(Writer(s): Jobim/Gimbel/DeMoraes)
Tall and tan and young and lovely
The girl from Ipanema goes walking
And when she passes, each one she passes goes - ah
When she walks, she's like a samba
That swings so cool and sways so gentle
That when she passes, each one she passes goes - ooh
(Ooh) But I watch her so sadly
How can I tell her I love her
Yes I would give my heart gladly
But each day, when she walks to the sea
She looks straight ahead, not at me
Tall, (and) tan, (and) young, (and) lovely
The girl from Ipanema goes walking
And when she passes, I smile - but she doesn't see (doesn't see)
(She just doesn't see, she never sees me,...)
She was not an individual , but a mystique.....the tune in sweetwithchy minor chords that sound like the words. She would have been polite but disinterested in Heavy Metal, and Heavy Metal, oddly respectful....she was sexy and a natural, a natural woman, and a natural LADY. Not shy, not exhibitionist........ a sort of Botticelli Venus with Savvy..... Keep on the lookout, Guys....she 's back in style and that is a good sign about things.
I began the entries about this important part of Fairfield life, then realized that the Music Fan Page would show and share it better. I hope you will agree. Club links and links to audio files, and more! Watch for the fansite links! Many of our favorites are still very active, or memorialized and have been kind enough to create great online existence, so we dream again, and remember.........
Official Social Fairfield Girl Guidelines Sixties
From memories of:"on becoming eighteen"
per column,"Ask Jake", Glamour Magazine, Spring 1965(?)
- thumbnail guide to "normal social"
develop a nice speaking voice
listen
contact before visiting
thanks after visiting
polite relations with elders
legal,money,studies,medical in good order
"hello/goodbye","please/thank-you","I'm delighted/I'm sorry"
romantic life in proportion "most of the time" :-)
wardrobe and grooming for grace and appearance ~ impress,do not oppress
be able to make a good cup of coffee
pay attention to effect your presence has on people, and adjust
let your lights shine, but don 't blind others, encourage their lights, too
~
KEYWORDS FOR FURTHER NOTES , HERE AND ELSEWHERE
Greenfield Hill
organdy
mountain laurel,peonies,rambler roses, and memorial day poppies
Grange Fair
Timothy Dwight, Holy Family, Church Steeples, Windmill
little white flowers, notes in knotholes, copperhead, beardy dog, bunnies and woodchucks
Churchouse, the elvengown with buglebeads,funnyeights,patriotism,blue plaid lunchbox
"playing store"
jungle gyms
treelore
cartwheels
mountain laurel
possum, pumpkin, ballantine girl, angel in the christmas play
saint anthony, me an cookie go for a walk, snowsuits, lambies,clown pajamas
tvland......
COMMENT/STORIES, RE: Faifield Days 1947-1966
"SAINT ANTHONOTES", very casual, enjoy and comment:
Saint Anthony of Padua was the patron of our school and church in childhood, and I received my childhood sacraments there, my parents were married there, as were Peter and I and Peter John was baptized there, just before his Father left for Viet Nam...a little early, in fact,due to my husband's departure date...it was typical to wait till the three-month age for the infant and mother to be in that first true rosy time after childbirth, but Peter John was baptized on February 20th, a month and a day after his birth on January 19th, and his father off to war on the 24th, and home on December 8th with a jubilant family.
A favorite:
In spring we sang to Saint Anthony in three languages...English Polish and Latin, and venerated his spirit in processions in white dresses. He was the patron of lost and stolen things, and to this day, if I am underemployed enough to lose a thing, I pray to Saint Anthony and have fun with its safe return, celebrating the neat little path to the heart of the good saint, paved with the flowers and mosses of devotion for all these years. I loved Saint Anthony in a natural way because I am a "part of fortune" Cancer, astrologically. In a chart of the influence of God's stars, the "part of fortune" inclines us , re: money and material things.....Part of Fortune Cancer hates to lose things, loves keepsakes, and is often a natural repository for stuff....banker, gallery owner, and of course, I still have my baby shoes...and am usually good at carefully choosing what to eliminate without danger ...never throw the baby away with the bath water, and still cannot understand how I managed to be widowed at age 34 ..."love is a freedom song" was the motto of the day and enjoying our feminine freedom it was important not to inhibit that of our most-loved others. ........I wish I had been more possessive of the one I loved most on earth ... perhaps it would have saved us the blinding loss. But for twenty years I was able to smile as he returned from his day's work happily, on time and of his own volition....love is a freedom song.
But today's quote in my online saint's story newsletter motivated this writing.
"Earthly riches are like the reed. Its roots are sunk in the swamp, and its exterior is fair to behold; but inside it is hollow. If a man leans on such a reed, it will snap off and pierce his soul. -St. Anthony of Padua"
This concept confused me completely....survival motivates us to prosperity, and the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience made little sense to me.
Then the recession of the fifties and my parents' health problems, and there were poor days, and yet my parents sang and laughed and worked in good spirit toward better days...and I thought " "Oh that's what the poverty teaching is for....so we remember to love one another, rich or poor, and inspire one another with good heart so that we may work well toward the return of happier and more prosperous days." It also helps to prevent greed and larceny and other crimes motivated by riches.......and my Father would say at party time that it was probably meant to inspire money gifts to the church ...to loosen our wallets in the direction of collections.... :-) Of course, Mother had "that look" for our Father and Momskirt for us at such remarks ...not helpful....and he would laugh at her consternation and love us all in good humor at such moments.
The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist.
-Pope St. Gregory the Great
So I hope you will accept my apologies and ask questions, comment , and visit again, and in the meantime, be sure to enjoy the many galleries at the site.
Old Fairfield friends are most certainly invited to e-mail me esfagan@ellefagan.com, and please accept my best wishes and thanks. ~elle
The Notre Dame Girl
These times are ones of profound "growing pains" for my Church, and I like to remind myself and others that the headline-making controversies involve a very small part of our Church's spirit and works and celebrations! And our Church rejoices in God's best Justice and resolutions being brought to incidents of difficulties. I rejoice that our evolutions as a species has gotten to the level of development that allows abuses to come to light and be dealt with, rather than the broad-scale social degeneracies that left its victims without a forum or hope for justice.
Good Churches, like good Governments, last because they allow for growth and change, for improvements. They can bend, so they do not break.
I attended the Twentieth Reunion of the Class of '65 at Notre Dame Catholic H.S., then co-institutional, meaning that the beautiful campus consisted of a central area housing the Chapel, Auditorium, Gym and certain Administrative offices; the Boys' wing flew out from one side and the Girls'wing from the other.
My experience of the school was Maria Von Trapp in "The Sound of Music"....a delight! I loved my studies, and Jackie Kennedy made it fun cute and popular to be a fashion-conscious Catholic brunette, and I sang soprano, and enjoyed jumping in at a moment's notice to help with clubs, yearbook, sewing costumes for the performances, doing notes and newsletter, and theater arts...especially one role no one wanted to do...including me...but since Theater make-up was old or glamourous, it was a big chance to prance about in lotttttttsss of mascara, and show off the knees. But I must have done it fairly well, because I was honored to serve at understudy to the Title role of Saint Joan at the Men's University Theater at 17, under one of theater's biggest producers, and so met my husband on campus.....best role I never got paid to play!
And when it was done, I was happy to revert to my visual arts and writings and help with a show poster arts project there, too!
In those days, The Convent of the Sisters of Notre Dame was located on the University Campus, and their order provided our high school teachers, and devotions were a delight through them, whose founder was Saint Julie Billiart, and her motto: "Ah! Si bon est le Bon Dieu!", or, Oh!How Good is the Good God!". I loved the structure and conservatism of the Franciscans who taught at our Grammar School, but these Sisters of Notre Dame were a little more liberal, and expressed happiness more compatibly with this May-born girl.
In 1965, Saint Julie Billiart was not yet canonized, and I was so delighted to find she'd "made the grade", that her profile follows here, with a referencing link:
(also called: Julie Billart, Mary Rose Julia Billiart,Julia of Billiart)
Memorial: April 8.......canonized 22June 1969 by Pope Paul VIF
Profile:Founder Sisters of Notre Dame - Namurs, Belgium
Motto: "Ah! Si Bon Est Le Bon Dieu!"
Born: 12 July 1751 at Cuvilly, diocese of Beauvais, department of Oise, Picardy, France as Mary Rose Julia Billiart...took vows at age 14 Crippled:1773, stunned while seated next to her Father, who had been shot at, she remained partially disabled till
Miraculously healed June 1, 1804
Ministry: begun before, continued during the French Revolution,with help from friends, began the first convent of Sisters of Notre Dame October 15,1804,first centered at Amiens,but later, Namurs, and established 15 convents by the time of her
Death: from natural causes (while praying)April 8,1816, at Namurs, Belgium
Patronage: against poverty, bodily ills, impoverishment, poverty, sick people, sickness http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintj69.htm
related links ~ past and present
Town of Fairfield, Connecticut Website
Sandra Dee includes links to Bobby Darin and Troy Donahue sites
Gene Pitney my page, links to Official Site,
for Connecticut's R&R Hall of Fame member, includes fan club data, performance dates/ticket info......
yesssss! he's still doing us proud !
Jan & Dean New, since the recent passing of the genius, Jan
Artsfriends, divergent and treasured, to start:
:Charles Wildbank, internationally-renowned fine artist, has just completed murals for the new Queen Mary II,was Yale-trained, and enjoys life beautifully, though born profoundly deaf. Enjoy a visit to his site:CharlesWildbank.com
Robert Conrad Ledoux is doing New England Lighthouses, and is also very well-known and successful, in a range of architectural art and more, loves his Winnebago.
Today in History May 24
1844
Samuel Morse transmitted the first telegraph message, in which he asked, "What hath God wrought?"
1883
The Brooklyn Bridge, linking Manhattan and Brooklyn in New York City, opened to traffic.
1899
W.T. McCullough of Boston, Mass., opened the first public garage. One could rent space for selling, storing and repairing vehicles.
1935
Major League Baseball
1941
Bob Dylan (Robert Zimmerman) was born in Duluth, Minn.
1958
The United Press and the International News Service merged to form United Press International (UPI).
1976
The British and French Concordes made their first commercial flights.
2000
Israeli troops pulled out of Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.
1947
World Statistics
Nobel Peace Prize:
American Friends Service Committee (US) and British Society of Friends' Service Council (UK)
* Britain nationalizes coal mines (Jan. 1).
* Peace treaties for Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Finland signed in Paris (Feb. 10).
* Soviet Union rejects US plan for UN atomic-energy control (March 4).
* Marshall Plan proposed to help European nations recover economically from World War II (June).
* India and Pakistan gain independence from Britain (Aug. 15).
* The Dead Sea Scrolls are discovered at Qumran.
U.S. Events
U.S. Statistics in 1947
President: Harry S Truman
Vice President: none
Population: 144,126,071
Life expectancy: 66.8 years
Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 6.1
More U.S. Statistics...
* Hollywood "Black List" created by HUAC.
* Truman Doctrine proposes "containment" of communist expansion (March 12).
* Taft-Hartley Act passed. Background: Labor Unions.
* Jackie Robinson joins the Brooklyn Dodgers.
More History...
Economics
US GDP (1998 dollars): $244.6 billion
Federal spending: $34.50 billion
Federal debt: $257.1 billion
Consumer Price Index: 22.3
Unemployment: 3.9%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.03
Sports
World Series
NY Yankees d. Brooklyn Dodgers (4-3)
NBA Championship
Philadelphia Warriors d. Chicago Stags (4-1)
Stanley Cup
Toronto d. Montreal (4-2)
Wimbledon
Women: Margaret Osborne d. D. Hart (6-2 6-4)
Men: Jack Kramer d. T. Brown (6-1 6-3 6-2)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Jet Pilot
NCAA Basketball Championship
Holy Cross d. Oklahoma (58-47)
NCAA Football Champions
Notre Dame (9-0-0)
Entertainment Awards
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren
Music: Symphony No. 3, Charles Ives
Oscars awarded in 1947
Academy Award, Best Picture: The Best Years of Our Lives (Goldwyn; RKO Radio)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Andre Gide (France)
1947 Tony Awards
Miss America: Barbara Walker (TN)
More Entertainment Awards...
Events
* The Yankees beat the Dodgers in seven games in the first televised World Series.
* Meet the Press debuts on NBC. The first news show will become television's longest-running program.
* Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire opens at Broadway's Ethel Barrymore Theatre, with Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski and Jessica Tandy as Blanche DuBois. The play wins the 1948 Pulitzer Prize.
Movies
* Gentleman's Agreement, Miracle on 34th Street, Great Expectations, The Bishop's Wife
Music
* Doris Day, "Confess"
* Al Jolson, Al Jolson Album
* "Woody Woodpecker"
* "A Fellow Needs A Girl"
* Frankie Lane, "That's My Desire"
* Glenn Miller, "Glenn Miller Masterpieces Vol. 2"
Books
* Saul Bellow, The Victim
* Gerald Warner Brace, The Garretson Chronicle
* Martin Flavin, The Enchanted
* Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl
* Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano
* Thomas Mann, Dr. Faustus
* Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism
Nobel Prizes in Science
Chemistry: Sir Robert Robinson (UK), for research in plant substances
Physics: Sir Edward Appleton (UK), for discovery of layer that reflects radio short waves in the ionosphere
Physiology or Medicine: Carl F. and Gerty T. Cori (US), for work on animal starch metabolism; Bernardo A. Houssay (Argentina), for study of pituitary
* The carbon-14 method of radiocarbon dating is developed by Willard F. Libby (US).
* The microwave oven is invented by Percy Spencer (US).
* John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain, and William B. Shockley (US) develop the transistor. Background: Computers and Internet
* Captain Chuck Yeager, USAF, breaks the sound barrier in the the X-1 rocket-powered research plane at Muroc Air Force Base, California (Oct. 14). Background: Famous Firsts in Aviation
* Thor Heyerdahl crosses the Pacific in the Kon-Tiki.
Deaths
* Henry Ford
* Max Planck
Who shares your birthday?
Today's Birthday May 24
-Jean Paul Marat, French revolutionary (1743)
-Lillian Gilbreth, Invented Ergonomics with husband, Frank...engineer (1878)
-Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov-novelist,First SanctionedUSSRNobelLit.Prizewin (1905)
-Bob Dylan, Rock singer (1941)find his autobiography
-Beatrice Lillie, comedienne known for her glamour flair, charming contradictions
-Queen Victoria...the famouse romance with her Albert, produced 9children! The mother of sociological / political engineering, the marriages of her children made a great and awesome weaving of multi-national European Nobility, acutely dramatic as the First World War made them a very complicated corps, to put it mildly.......(Alexandrina Victoria), 1819 - 1901). She was the daughter of Edward, duke of Kent (fourth son of George III), and Princess Mary Louise Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.
Early Reign
Victoria's father died before she was a year old. Upon the death (1830) of George IV, she was recognized as heir to the British throne, and in 1837, at the age of 18, she succeeded her uncle, William IV, to the throne. With the accession of a woman, the connection between the English and Hanoverian thrones ceased in accordance with the Salic law of Hanover. One of the young queen's advisers was Baron Stockmar, sent by her uncle, King Leopold I of the Belgians.
Her first prime minister, Viscount Melbourne, became her close friend and adviser. In 1839, when Melbourne's Whig cabinet resigned, Victoria refused to dismiss her Whig ladies of the bedchamber, the accepted gesture of confidence in the incoming party. The Tory leader, Sir Robert Peel, declined to form a cabinet, and Melbourne remained in office.
Marriage to Albert
In 1840, Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Albert, with whom she was very much in love, became the dominant influence in her life. Her first child, Victoria, later empress of Germany, was born in 1840, and the prince of Wales, later Edward VII, in 1841. Victoria had nine children. Their marriages and those of her grandchildren allied the British royal house with those of Russia, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Romania, and several of the German states.
Through Albert's efforts, Victoria was reconciled with the Tories, and she became very fond of Peel during his second ministry (1841- 46). She was less happy with the Whig ministry that followed, taking particular exception to the adventurous foreign policy of Viscount Palmerston. The resulting friction was a factor in Palmerston's dismissal from office in 1851. The queen and Albert also influenced the formation of Lord Aberdeen's coalition government in 1852. Royal popularity was increased by the success of the Crystal Palace exposition (1851), planned and carried through by Albert.
It began to wane again, however, when it was rumored on the eve of the Crimean War that the royal couple was pro-Russian. After the outbreak (1854) of the war, Victoria took part in the organization of relief for the wounded and instituted the Victoria Cross for bravery. She also reconciled herself to Palmerston, who became prime minister in 1855 and proved a vigorous war leader.
Widowhood and Later Years
In 1861, Albert (who had been named prince consort in 1857) died. Victoria's grief was so great that she did not appear in public for three years and did not open Parliament until 1866; her prolonged seclusion damaged her popularity. Her reappearance was largely the work of Benjamin Disraeli, who, together with William Gladstone, dominated the politics of the latter part of Victoria's reign.
Disraeli, adroit in his personal relations with Victoria, became the queen's great favorite. In 1876 he secured for her the title empress of India, which pleased her greatly; she was ardently imperialistic and intensely interested in the welfare of her colonial subjects, particularly the Indians. Victoria's relations with Gladstone, on the other hand, were very stiff; she disliked him personally and disapproved of many of his policies, especially Irish Home Rule.
In her old age, Victoria was enormously popular. Jubilees were held in 1887 and 1897 to celebrate the 50th and 60th years of the longest English reign. The queen was not highly intelligent, but her conscientiousness and strict morals helped to restore the prestige of the crown and to establish it as a symbol of public service and imperial unity.
Bibliography:
See her letters (9 vol., 1907 The Girlhood of Queen Victoria (extracts from her journal, ed. by Lord Esher, 1912); biographies by Lytton Strachey (1921, repr. 1960), Stanley Weintraub (1987), and Dorothy Thompson (1990).
2003 How Our Schools Rank Nationally
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news/package.jsp?name=fte/smartstates/smartstates per cnn netscape October 6, 2003 States Ranked: Smartest to Dumbest
The smartest state in the union is Massachusetts.
The dumbest, for the second consecutive year, is New Mexico.
These are the findings of the Education State Rankings, a survey by Morgan Quitno Press of the public school systems in all 50 states. States were graded on a variety of factors based on how they compare to the national average. These included such positive attributes as per-pupil expenditures, public high school graduation rates, average class size, student reading and math proficiency, and pupil-teacher ratios. States received negative points for high drop-out rates and physical violence.
How does YOUR state rank?
Massachusetts
Vermont
Connecticut
Montana
New Jersey
Maine
Pennsylvania
(tie) Wisconsin and Iowa
New York
Nebraska
Minnesota
Indiana
Wyoming
Kansas
Rhode Island
Virginia
Maryland
Delaware
Michigan
North Carolina
Ohio
Alaska
North Dakota
Utah
New Hampshire
Illinois
Missouri
West Virginia
Idaho
South Dakota
Oregon
Washington
Texas
Colorado
Georgia
Kentucky
Arkansas
Oklahoma
Florida
South Carolina
Tennessee
Hawaii
California
Arizona
Alabama
Louisiana
Mississippi
Nevada
New Mexico
You are welcome to enjoy this Puzzle Script from Jigzone.com "Fairfield Springtime ".