Even with the suspension of the broader Halls Road Improvement effort (the Zoning Overlay proposal), town officials have expressed support for pursuing sidewalks along with better lighting, crosswalks, bike paths and beautification.
Reassessing how to move forward must include involvement by all members of the [Old Lyme] Board of Selectmen and a clear definition of the expectations from a reconstituted Halls Road improvement Committee.
While town residents have previously stated their support for Halls Road improvements, property owners, business owners, and town agencies must have a greater role/voice in any plan.
Please note the following points/proposals:
Timeline: The overall Halls Road plan is anticipated to be a multi-year process with various phases.
Funding: Securing grants and other funding sources is a key aspect of implementing.
Consensus: Any appointment to a reconstituted Halls Road Committee must receive the approval of all the select-people.
Pamela Pike Gordinier’s “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round” in acrylic & charcoal is one of the signature paintings of the “Expanding Visions” exhibition at the Lyme Art Association (LAA.) Image courtesy of the LAA.
OLD LYME—On Saturday, June 14. an Opening Reception and awards ceremony for both the “Expanding Visions” show and the Hudson Valley Art Association’s 92nd Annual Juried Exhibition will be held at the Lyme Art Association (LAA) from 5 to 7 p.m. All are welcome and admission is free.
The shows run through July 17.
A third show titled, “WET: A World of Water,” will also be on view and runs through June 27 in the Association’s Mile Brook Gallery.
Artists between the ages of 5 and 18 painted and drew pieces depicting life in and around the water.
The awards ceremony for the youth show will be held during LAA’s Family Day at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 21.
The exhibitions will be on view at the Lyme Art Association, located at 90 Lyme Street in Old Lyme, CT. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday.
Guess what is happening the next day for these (and all other) Lyme-Old Lyme High School seniors! All photos by Michele Dickey.
OLD LYME — On Wednesday evening, the seniors from Lyme-Old Lyme High School (LOLHS) took the streets — Lyme Street, that is — to celebrate their penultimate day as students at the school.
This car proudly displayed the Class of which these LOLHS seniors will be members for the rest of their lives.
They held a carefully planned parade in their decorated cars traveling slowly down Lyme St., ably supported by Old Lyme’s Police, Fire and Ambulance Departments.
Banners displaying the ‘Class of 2025’ were everywhere.
The soon-to-be-graduates, who will celebrate their Commencement Thursday evening, June 12, were cheered on by parents, friends and community members all along the parade route.
Smiles abounded in this vehicle.
The residents of both Lyme and Old Lyme took this special opportunity to wish the seniors well in the next chapter of their lives.
Vehicles came in all shapes and sizes!
Congratulations to all the LOLHS seniors on their impending graduation!
A view of the parade down Lyme Street.
We hope you (seniors) enjoy the Thursday evening post-graduation festivities … and here are a few more photos from the parade for you and all our readers to enjoy!
Enthusiasm for the next day’s graduation ceremony was visible everywhere.
So much to celebrate!
Old Lyme emergency vehicles particpated in the parade. First a firetruck …
… then an ambulance, and then several more.
Our photographer, Michele Dickey, celebrated the soon-to-be-graduates—and one in particular—with her grandchildren, Cecilia and Luca.
Olivia Lathrop, granddaughter of Jerry and Dee Vowles, grabs a brass ring from the carousel purchased for her mother on what Jerry Vowles called “a crazy whim.” All photos courtesy of the Vowles.
OLD LYME—This carousel is turning 100.
On Saturday, Carousel Shop proprietors Dee and Jerry Vowles will ring in the centennial summer with free rides, 100 cent ice cream and hot dogs, t-shirt raffles and a celebration of the simple pleasures in life.
“The carousel just brings happiness to a lot of kids and families,” Dee Vowles said.
The merry-go-round at Sound View Beach has been spinning in its current incarnation since 1976, but the Vowles said the origin of the 20 painted horses goes back about a century.
The Allan Herschell carousel was outfitted with a Coney Island brass ring dispenser when the horses first came out of the gate around 1925, according to specifications laid out by Jerry Vowles. A diesel engine propelled them while the steam-powered whistle of a calliope provided a soundtrack that would last for generations.
Those celebrating the carousel’s 100th birthday will have the opportunity to suggest names for 16 of the horses. Monikers have already been bestowed on Rainbow, Magic, Buttercup and Sundae.
While the amusement ride still boasts original parts that helped the couple narrow its date of origin to 1924 or 1925, the circular march of time is evident in a soft-start electric motor, teflon bearings and digital music.
Jerry Vowles said the couple disassembled and restored the carousel from 2008 to 2009. That’s when they used parts newly manufactured from original molds to replace some elements of the carousel.
The Vowles bought the carousel operation in 1987 from Paul Bennanato. The merry-go-round had arrived in Old Lyme just over a decade earlier to replace the late 1800s-era model that had been there since 1948, according to Jerry Vowles.
The couple’s daughter, Jennifer Lathrop, was an infant when they purchased the carousel.
“It is her carousel,” Jerry Vowles said. “We bought it for her when she was two-months-old, kind of on a crazy whim.”
Dee Vowles said Lathrop and her brother Jay help out their parents while nephew Tommy Logio serves as manager.
“So it’s definitely been a family affair,” she said.
A busy evening in 2022 typifies summers in Sound View at the Carousel Shop.
She said other family members and friends who help the couple open and close the shop every year—including sister Ree and honorary sister Roe—will make the trip to Sound View for the carousel’s birthday celebration.
“We’ve seen in the 37 years we’ve been here a real following,” she said. “People appreciate us being here, and having a good time at the carousel.”
The Carousel at Sound View Beach 100th Birthday Celebration will be held on Saturday, June 14, from 2 to 4 p.m. at 75 Hartford Avenue.
Witness Stones Poets (left to right) Antoinette Brim-Bell, Rhonda Ward, Marilyn Nelson and Kate Rushin will read tributes in verse to enslaved people remembered on Witness Stones plaques. Photo courtesy of Witness Stones Old Lyme.
Free Admission to ‘Their Kindred Earth’ Photography Exhibit on African-American History to Follow
OLD LYME–Witness Stones of Old Lyme will celebrate Juneteenth with jazz music and poetry at the Florence Griswold Museum from 2 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, June 22.
The museum will offer free admission from 3 to 5 p.m. to view the closing day of Their Kindred Earth: Photographs by William Earle Williams, an exhibition that seeks to deepen understanding of sites of enslavement in Old Lyme and beyond.
The museum will be closed on the federal holiday, which falls each June 19 to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans.
Sunday’s event on the museum’s north lawn will feature music by the Avery Sharpe Quartet and readings by Witness Stones Poets Marilyn Nelson, Kate Rushin, Rhonda Ward, and Antoinette Brim-Bell, according to the event listing on the museum’s website. The poets will present tributes in verse to those remembered with Witness Stones plaques.
Witness Stones Old Lyme for five years has been marking local sites of enslavement with brass plaques. The group during that time brought in the four poets and several successive classes of middle school students from Lyme and Old Lyme to help tell the stories behind the plaques.
Three of the markers are located on the Florence Griswold Museum’s front lawn to honor those who labored in a house that once stood where the Griswold House is now located, according to the museum.
William Earle Williams, the museum’s artist in residence, will be on hand to sign copies of the newly released exhibition catalogue, Their Kindred Earth. Copies will be on sale at the event and in the museum shop.
Seating for the music performance and poetry readings will be provided under a tent and additional lawn chairs are welcome and encouraged.
The museum is located on 96 Lyme St. In the event of rain, the celebration will be held at the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, 2 Ferry Road.
