An ode to Auntie

   I believe most of my writings are being transformed telepathicly through my Aunt Connie, who was the last girl born from David & Alice on my birthday, May 11th. Now that she's not with us, I'd like to share some of her Musings. This one relates to the church in Warren, which was started in 1750 by the Strongs along with the Paine, Curtiss, and Carter families. My Aunt was a member for over 90 years.
 
   "I was not a regular attandant, as my parents had problems of getting us all readyat the same time, due to the fact that the women wore long dresses with numerous petticoats underneath. There were no restrooms or water.
    The minister was given a small pittance, people brought cords of wood, a dressed chicken, ham or beef. Also, live chickens and a cow so he would have milk and eggs. He had his own horse and buggy which he used to make callson parishionersthat lived miles away.
    The sexton at the time Robert Perkins who owned the town store. He was around 50 years old, and his countenance was always stern. When he looked at you, you'd better behave. The kids were afraid of him. He particularly did not like our family, probably because the boys [ my uncles] always gave him such a hard time, even though their mother was his sister, who never knew what went on.
    The night before the Fourth of July at midnight, the church bells would toll. The sexton, pulling on his pants and taking a lantern would hustle up to the church, he lived in the next house west of the parsonage. When he got to the church, the bells stopped tolling. He checked the interior and the exterior of the church, not finding anything or anyone  around, he left for home. No sooner had he gotten in bed then the tolling began. Again he went through the the same ritual and still could find nothing, so he he went home again.Ten minutes later the bells tolled again.' Someone is playing tricks and by gum I'm going to find out this time'. So cautiously he looked around to find the culptit. In doing so, espied arope lying on the ground. He followed it into the church which had been tied to the bells and put underneath a window. He then cut the rope, closed the window and went home to bed.
    No one ever knew who the culprits were, although they suspected my brothers. They had hidden every time the sexton came, no doubvt scampering up the hill by the academy where they could watch the sexton come and leave.
    The midnight tolling of the bells would happen at different times of the year. Years later my brother , Nate, told me the story asw he was a party to it.
    
     In more recent years, mid 80's, thats 1980's , Eric Sloane started a revivel to sound the bells again on the Fourth, and they continue to present day.

comming back Strong

    The first Strong to come toAmerica was Elder John , who came to Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1604 And lived in Northampton. One of his descendants, Elizabeth Strong, was the mother of Nathan Hale. I was named after him, as was my father: Nathan Hale Strong. I also married a girl who went by the name of Mary, but that was her middle name. Her first name is Elizabeth....then becomming Elizabeth Strong. We had two daughters, and after we separated, they moved to Massachusetts,now living with my grandchildren in and around Northampton.

    I lived the first year & half in a quaint little house just off  Lake Waramaug, which is named after the great Chief Waramaug. My family, having help settle that area , and lived at what was know as 'The Sachem'. An Indian name for gathering of the 'Tribe'. The first ancestor to live in Warren was Phillip Strong who married the first white child born in Warren.  Now knowing how 'active' the Strong men were with women, that's how I got my Indian blood from ancestors of the 'Chief' himself.
   My grandfather, David, who lived on Above All Mt. in Warren, which the family owned, moved to Woodville and became the first caretaker [Ranger] of the State Parks. Lake Waramaug being only one of them. As it turns out my father after returning from WW2, married a young widower Gertrude Wilson from Warren ,with two youg daughters of her own, then proceeded to have four children of their own.[rememember I mentioned the way the Strong men were 'active'] I being the last one born at 11:30 a.m. in time for lunch on Mothers' day & the only boy.....! He also became a Ranger & ended up careing for most of the Parks in the area. That's when we moved to Cornwall Bridge to the Housatonic Meadows State Park of over 5000 acres, and we all grew up there.
   
     I moved back to the house on Lake Waramaug 23 years later, to start another chapter in my life.