Author: Webmaster (Page 23 of 96)

Bob Mitchell

June 7, 2023 /

Bob Mitchell Obituary

On Sunday, June 4, Bob Mitchell, long-time member of the Darien Men’s Association and its President in the 2007 – 2008 period, passed away peacefully. Bob was active in the DMA for many years and was the Grand Marshal of the Darien Memorial Day Parade in 2018. It was perhaps a gift from God that last week he would ride shotgun as part of the DMA parade entourage, partnering with John Schlach and waving to his many friends and colleagues for the very last time. Please view the attachment for information on the wake and burial arrangements.

A very good man. We shall dearly miss him.

DMA

Fred Smith

June 5, 2023 /

Former DMA member Fred Smith died on August 21, 2022 at his home in the  Lathrop Community in Easthampton, Massachusetts. Before moving to  Massachusetts in June 2019, Fred and his wife Marny chose the Memorial Garden  at First Congregational Church of Darien, where they had attended church services  for many years, as their final resting place. There are no longer any Smith children  living in Darien, but the time had come to finally bring Fred’s ashes to the garden.  Marny, together with Hobie and Chuck Smith and Fred’s stepchildren, Shep, John,  Jim, and Jennifer, and Ed Bryan all gathered on June 4th in the afternoon to spread  his ashes in the garden. A stone brick bearing his name has been placed in the  garden path. 

The family members hope that Fred’s DMA friends may find a brief moment to visit  the garden (pictured below, courtesy of Alex Garnett) to sit on the garden bench  and recall the good times they spent with Fred bowling or playing bridge.

Hiking: Mianus River Park, Stamford CT, June 8, 2023 at 10 a.m

May 31, 2023 /

Hiking: Mianus River Park, Stamford CT, June 8 at 10 a.m.

Mianus River Park is a 391-acre nature preserve on the Stamford /Greenwich border. The park, one of a series of green areas in the Mianus River Watershed, features a two-mile stretch of the beautiful Mianus River, forest lands, vernal pools, glacial outcroppings, varied wildlife and rolling hills. The trails are good but feature the usual rocks and roots and some elevation change but anything steep is in short spurts.

We rate this hike of about 3.5 miles as easy to moderate and it should take us about 2 hours to complete. Dogs on a leash are welcome (there are many dog walkers here!) and, of course, bring a spouse or friend to enjoy this hike.

There will be an optional lunch after the hike at Zody’s 19th Hole Restaurant at the E Gaynor Brennan Golf Course near the Park and Stamford Hospital.

DIRECTIONS:

We will meet at the Merriebrook Road entrance to the Park in Stamford. Both Waze and Google Maps respond to “Mianus River Park”. There is parking on the right before the bridge over the river. Do not park on the roads in the area which are marked and patrolled.

CONTACTS:

Dave McCollum

Bob Plunkett

Golf June 6, 2023

May 31, 2023 /

Golf, June 6 – tee time 8 a.m.:

Peter Carnes and Bob McGroarty have scheduled our first golf outing of 2023, for June 6 starting at 8 a.m. at Oak Hills Golf Course, 165 Fillow Street, Norwalk. We have a limit of 24 golfers so if you’re interested get your name on our sign-up list this week. As of this writing there are 3 spaces remaining. Golf will be followed by an optional lunch. Come and join us for this always popular and fun activity! Any questions, please contact Bob McGroarty: rgmcg@me.com

Memorial Day Parade May 29, 2023

May 24, 2023 /

Community Service: May 29, Memorial Day Parade 

Our last Community Service event will be marching in the Darien Memorial Day Parade on May 29.  Some of our members have reasons they cannot walk the entire parade route, but we have arranged cars to drive you along the parade route. So, all DMAers who want to participate can do so. Travel in style! Please complete the survey sent by email so that we can get a count of how many of you would like to ride in one of the cars. 

Frank DeLeo

Book Club: The Wager by David Grann, Oct 11, 2023

May 10, 2023 /

The author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost City of Z returns with a rousing story of a maritime scandal.

In 1741, the British vessel the Wager, pressed into service during England’s war with Spain, was shipwrecked in a storm off the coast of Patagonia while chasing a silver-laden Spanish galleon. Though initially part of a fleet, by the time of the shipwreck, the Wager stood alone, and many of its 250 crew members already had succumbed to injury, illness, starvation, or drowning. More than half survived the wreckage only to find themselves stranded on a desolate island. Drawing on a trove of firsthand accounts—logbooks, correspondence, diaries, court-martial testimony, and Admiralty and government records—Grann mounts a chilling, vibrant narrative of a grim maritime tragedy and its dramatic aftermath. Central to his populous cast of seamen are David Cheap, who, through a twist of fate, became captain of the Wager; Commodore George Anson, who had made Cheap his protégé; formidable gunner John Bulkeley; and midshipman John Byron, grandfather of the poet. Life onboard an 18th-century ship was perilous, as Grann amply shows. Threats included wild weather, enemy fire, scurvy and typhus, insurrection, and even mutiny. On the island, Cheap struggled to maintain authority as factions developed and violence erupted, until a group of survivors left—without Cheap—in rude makeshift boats. Of that group, 29 castaways later washed up on the coast of Brazil, where they spent more than two years in Spanish captivity; and three castaways, including Cheap, landed on the shores of Chile, where they, too, were held for years by the Spanish. Each group of survivors eventually returned to England, where they offered vastly different versions of what had occurred; most disturbingly, each accused the other of mutiny, a crime punishable by hanging. Recounting the tumultuous events in tense detail, Grann sets the Wager episode in the context of European imperialism as much as the wrath of the sea.

A brisk, absorbing history and a no-brainer for fans of the author’s suspenseful historical thrillers.

HIKE LARSEN WILDLIFE SANCTUARY,   APRIL 27, 2023 10:00 AM

April 15, 2023 /

   HIKING 

      LARSEN WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

    FAIRFIELD, CT

    APRIL 27, 2023

10:00 AM

 

The Larsen Sanctuary is owned and run by the Connecticut Audubon Society and was a gift from Roy and Margot Larsen in the early 1960s after the construction of I-95 eliminated about half of Audubon’s sanctuary in coastal Fairfield. It consists of 155 acres of varied terrain with little elevation change, several ponds and streams and very well maintained trails. We will be hiking about 3 miles which we should complete in about two hours as there will be many places to stop and observe wildlife. What you say, “wildlife on a DMA hike?” yes indeed there is here. We saw birds, turtles, a snake and an active beaver pond during our pre-hike. There is a pair of nesting Barred Owls on the property and the center also has a birds of prey compound which we may be able to see as well. This should be a terrific hike!

 

The Sanctuary is located at 2325 Burr Street in Fairfield which is north of the Merritt Parkway. Google “Larsen Wildlife Sanctuary”. There is plenty of parking, a nature store and bathrooms. NO DOGS permitted on this hike but please bring spouses and/or friends!

There will be NO LUNCH after this hike so that hikers will also be able to attend the Current Affairs meeting at 2:00 that afternoon.

 

PS-The director of the Fairfield region of Connecticut Audubon is Amy Barnouw, the daughter of John Schlachtenhaufen, who guided us on our pre-hike!  Thank you Amy!

Trip report:

The forecast for today was occasional showers with a probability of rain of about 50% during the hike two hour window of 10-12 am. However, at about 8:30 the skies opened up in Darien which apparently had a sobering effect on many DMAers desire to hike. Your hiking captains, Robert and Dave, were not deterred and headed up to Fairfield ready to push ahead. 

As it turned out, five other DMAers were not deterred either and the seven of us set out pretty much on schedule to tour the spectacular Sanctuary. The weather was just fine for a hike, cool but no rain. We set out on the main trail and detoured for a one mile trip through Deer Meadow (no deer!) before resuming on the main path which then took us past two beaver ponds and into the forest of giant trees and many streams and ponds. We hiked 3.2 miles in under 2 hours.

The overcast weather kept more than hikers inside, most wildlife stayed away too! We did see two Canada Geese, a few birds and a squirrel. Thanks to all who turned out!

The next hike is scheduled for Monday June 5 at a site TBD. We will hope for a better forecast!

Dave McCollum

Robert Plunkett

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