Photo credit: Kyle Caldwell
EIGHT TAKES ON REALISM
August 21 - September 26, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, August 21 , 5-8 pm
SUSAN POWELL FINE ART
By Rona Mann Photos by Jeffery Lilly
ook, it means just one thing: FIEST ifty years in English. Cincuenta años en español. Cinquenta anos em português.
In every language, that’s a milestone. In the case of Cuckoo’s Nest in Old Saybr TAA! It’s time to party because this celebration is not just for owners Heather Emanuelson and Eddie Souza and their loyal, professional, and fun-loving staff of more than 40 employees; it’s for YOU! It’s for the customers, the people who have made the Cuckoo’s Nest wildly successful for all these 50 years. The ones who came once on vacation and returned every year after. The locals who wouldn’t miss sitting, drinking, and laughing with their neighbors and co-workers at the weekday Happy Hour. The people who celebrated holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, showers, girls’ and guys’ nights out , o r j u s t celebrated “being” at the Nest. And then there are not just families, but entire generations who call and continue to call Cuckoo’s Nest their personal go-to, introducing even the youngest members of their groups to the smiling faces, wonderful food, and always reliable fun times at the Cuckoo’s Nest.
The best stories begin with history
y, , and the history of Cuckoo’s Nest is decidedly different from your average Mexican restaura t Then again, this place is most definitely NOT average! The original owner of the restaurant in 1976 was Jim Fitzpatrick, not Mexican by any stretch of the imagination, but a local Irishman who wa ted to introduce Mexican and Southwestern food to the Connecticut shoreline. Fitzpatrick’s friends called the Irishman “cuckoo” for opening a Mexican restaurant, and the name stuck. So did the reputation as being “the” place to come for fine food, drinks, music, w, , fi r, , not that much has changed.
e e some changes of ownership along the way fty years later andfun.Now n n
There wer y..Petter McNeill was the chef for a while and eventually became Jim Fitzpatrick’s partner. McNeill also introduced Cajun and Creole dishes to the menu. They were so popular with the clientele that they remain y, , although McNeill bowed out after a few years. But who bowed in were a Brazilian dishwasher named Eddie Souza and a young server named Heather Emanuelson, who was waitressing at the restaurant to pay for her college education and an eventual car r. . The pair loved the
eer as a Special Education teacher on the menu today
restaurant so much that Eddie stopped washing dishes, Heather put Special Ed in the rearview mirror, and they became partners and bought the restaurant from Jim Fitzpatrick in 2013. Heather smiled as she added, “There’s just something about this place.”
There certainly was, as the customers barely realized their beloved place was operating under new ownership. Eddie and Heather made a good team; they still are. He is the head chef and is in charge of the back of the house, while Heather joyfully runs the
restaurant from the front, greeting customers, curating parties and banquets, and making sure the menu specials are always up to date and advertised daily or weekly.
With the additional talents of Emanuelson’s contractor husband, an outdoor bar was added just over five years ago and is a very popular addition, with comfortable seating, both indoors and out, for 50 people. Juanita, who has been with Cuckoo’s Nest for 30 years, makes all the desserts in addition to prepping and acting as a line cook. Heather makes sure that all employees are fully
Photo Courtesy Cookoo’s Nest
Photo Courtesy Cookoo’s Nest
prepped as well, with a history of the restaurant and a complete knowledge of all menu items.
So, what are you waiting for? Let’s fiesta and Celebrate 50 Years!
While every day something is being celebrated at Cuckoo’s Nest, August 9th will be the day, for as Heather says, “A HUGE Fiesta! We’ll have a mechanical bull, a live Mariachi band, cornhole, outdoor grilling, raffles, tee shirts, mugs, menu and drink specials, and it’s all going on all day long from the time we open at Noon until the sun goes down and we close at 9.”
Neither partner ever takes the restaurant’s legacy or its success for granted. “Our success is word of mouth,” Souza says, “so we work hard to please our customers. We even have many people who come here from Europe. They’re on vacation, and their friends
have told them to come here.” When asked if Cuckoo’s Nest has any competition, Eddie says, “ Every restaurant out there is competition” because he knows people are careful with their dining out dollars and like to choose a place that will give them the most for their dollar, not just in food but in topnotch service.
Heather adds that both her kids and Eddie’s have previously worked in the restaurant, and some are still there, joining others, many of whom are local residents who love working at one of the shoreline’s finest landmarks.
Photo Courtesy Cookoo’s Nest
Photo Courtesy Cookoo’s Nest
year
Cuckoo r--old
’s Nest also boasts a unique amb dbarn,andeverywherepatronsl
fame, Jack T talgic, history
r old barn, and everywhere patr y, , cartoons and fun from the brook resident, actor Art Carney had ins with Senator Chris Dodd, who wrote his there are cartoons and autographs from M Tiippit who kept Henry on the newspapers, and Curt Swan illustrator of the 1940s to the mid-80s.
iance as it is situated in a 200 look,theyaresteepedinnos-
MortW look, they are steeped in nos e wall on which former Saycribed his autograph, along s message in Spanish, and WaalkerofBeetleBailey comics pages of hundreds of f Superman comic books from
But what if a member of your party just food? They don’t have to feel left out bec
doesn’t care for Mexican cause Cuckoo’s Nest always includes choices like salads, chicken sand burgers, prime rib, baby back ribs, surf a cakes and blackened whitefish, or entree dining on Bourbon Street in the French Q
dwiches, bowls, seafood, and turf, and specials like crab es that make you think you’re Quarter ofNew Orleans.
Hea
ther Emanuelson, Jim Fitzpatrick and
Eddie Souza 2013
Peter McNeill, partner & Jim Fitzpatrick Owner and Original Cookoo.
Kids love Cuckoo’s Nes a menu crafted just for t sopapillas (fried dough) and even mac and chees Feliz (very happy).’’ Spe the bar room every Mon $5. red or white Sangria (smiles) on the shoreline fdraftbeer , $2. of
eaking of happy
st, with always so much to see and do, and them, featuring quesadillas, nachos, tacos, ), chicken fingers, cheeseburgers, penne pasta, se. So, everyone in your party will be “Muy y, , don’t miss Happy Hour in nday-Friday 3-5 PM, featuring $5. Margaritas, ff r, , and the biggest “sonrisas” e!
August 9th may be Cuc celebration as well. Gra some new ones. It will dining, drinking, and lau that could have been just Cuckoo, and that’s why wonderful nest.
so many people come to be part of this crazy t another Irish bar
Cuckoo’
’s s Nest is waiting for Exit 66 on Rt. 95, North or S you at 1712 Boston Post Road in Old Saybr
ckoo Nest’s 50th anniversaryy, , but it’s YOUR ab some friends or come alone and make be pure joy , great food, a great day of ughing all at that special place on the shoreline r, , but the owner was, well, y, , roook, just off South www.cuckoosnest.biz (860) 399-8189
Eddie Souza and Heather Emmanuelson today
A crisp, cool morning accompanied my approach to the bog today. I felt a kind of expectancy; my body began to fall into jibe with the wild. I slow down—not just in pace, but in thought. My senses are awakened by the sounds, smells, and sights that evoke a sense of belonging—a feeling of home. No matter how tired or troubled I am when I take to the woods along the bogs’ edges, my life feels better. Henry David Thoreau understood the value of this homecoming.
“We need the tonic of wildness, — to wade sometimes in marshes where the bittern and the meadow-hen lurk and hear the booming of the snipe; to smell the whispering sedge where only some wilder and more solitary fowl builds her nest, and the mink crawls with its belly close to the ground. At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be infinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable.”
I often wonder what Thoreau would think of how we live today—the constant chatter and pings of our over-computerized, fast-paced existence. I’ve read his words and carried his thoughts with me on these walks. He felt out of step with his own time; imagine how much more out of step he would feel in ours. Even in our most private moments, we struggle to escape the digital world. I bring my phone with me, yes. Still, there is no service here, no interruptions, only the wild around me and the occasional kindred soul yearning for a different rhythm of meaning, beauty, and communion in the natural world. I sometimes envy Henry—or perhaps more so, the time in which he lived. But maybe that’s just perspective. A century and a half later, I turn to the woods as he did.
What I first noticed was that mushrooms heralded the beginning of the season. In a place dominated by gray, taupe, various shades of green, and brown, the mushrooms burst with color and festivity. Yellow. Red. Squat and stumpy ones, as well as long, lanky, sunny orange strands. I wonder whether they’d taste as delightful as they look. I adore the way they surprise you. They blast onto the scene unannounced. It’s a lovely mystery unfolding before your eyes. As I kneel to take a closer look, to snap an image, I can see minor bite marks—evidence of other lives that braved a bite. My mind swirls with wonder at the hidden creatures feasting. Their stories unfold out of sight. I smile at the thought.
The sounds of a bog are buzzing and present the whole time. I step into a live orchestra, where the air is thick in a symphony of sound and emotion. The instruments are a woodpecker tapping, performing its daily chore of finding food. The chickadee’s deep hums ending with the inquiring call, the trill of the red-winged blackbird, the call of the wren, an exquisite aria of chirps and vibrato—reminding me of how my father lovingly named them the Caruso of
the bird world. Yet the chorus belongs to the bullfrogs. A rich tapestry of off-tune stringed instruments, baritone croaks, and poignant summoning evokes deep emotions that resonate within me. Like a band poised to perform, the music begins—pulsating through me in waves, a sea of yearning.
As I glance towards the water, the sunlight dapples leaves, and on a half-submerged log, a cadre of turtles basks. On the other end, a group of ducks. The turtles, perfectly still and serene, blend into the landscape, but the ducks are a different story. They shift, edging away from the crunch of leaves in the woods. Me! One by one, in a graceful parade, they wade calmly in what must be warm waters after days of sunlight and hot temperatures. I smile again, surprised by the ease with which it happens out here. I mean no harm, yet their instinct tells them to move. Am I not of this kind of nature? That question lingers as the path bends ahead, my steps pulling me closer to the stillness I seek.
A few hundred feet ahead, just before the woods give way, a bridge stretches across the bog’s shimmering surface, dotted with large lily pads and graceful yellow lotus flowers, swaying gently among the water grasses. This spot usually teems with life, but today it feels muted. Glancing at my watch, I realize I am half an hour later than usual. The old saying about the early bird drifts through my mind. As I scan the far end of the bridge, I spot a Great Blue Heron—majestic and still, a living statue poised above the water.
It stood there, measured but casual, as if the entire bog was its kingdom. I watched for a long moment, feeling an unexpected intimacy settle inside me. That bird was not merely waiting; it was present. A reminder—silent but resolute—that there is a power in stillness and patience I have yet to attain. Even after I leave him behind, the stillness shadows my walk-through the pines.
As I carefully navigate the pine needle-strewn trail, trying to avoid twisting an ankle, I step over the tree roots that crisscross the path in a tangled, primordial network of silent communication. Rising above ground, this vast, ancient web reveals the subtle structure that sustains all this vibrant life. I begin to wonder:
What would it feel like to be a tree? Steady. Slow. Unflappable. Reaching for the stars while rooted below, nourishing the earth at my feet. What do they whisper? Perhaps: pause. Witness. Breathe.
Often, it is the quiet life that does the heavy lifting.
In that moment, I realize—just beyond conscious thought—that the scents of these woods lead the way, even more than the sights. There’s a humus-rich, earthy undertone, a quiet base layer holding the whole experience together. My sense of smell is always keen—sometimes sharper than sight—working in the background yet often guiding these short walkabouts. Today, that base layer carries a sharper note—resinous and clean—almost like Pine-Sol. I’m smelling the concentrated oils of pine needles underfoot. The scent carries me instantly through time: first to the tiled restrooms of grade school, but more vividly to sunlit afternoons spent squishing mud between my fingers in search of orange salamanders. A discovery was always just around the next tree.
I quietly advise myself to look up and fully drink in the cacophony of this lush world. I let go of my wandering thoughts, focusing on the essence of life unfolding before me. That’s when I see it: — something so diminutive that it nearly escapes me. It leaps over my shoe and lands gracefully on a leaf beside the trail.
A Peeper!
Making its spirited journey across the path. This little creature is no bigger than my pinky finger, yet it moves with an undeniable sense of purpose. It carries a truth: we are part of nature, not apart from it but of it. Unlike this small being, we often become tangled in the pull of modern life and forget our instinctive, intuitive selves. And just like that, I remember—the return to wild places is not an escape, but a remembering.
As the tiny peeper slipped into the green tangle, another quiet thought surfaced. Barely the length of my fingertip, yet fully woven into the pulse of the bog.
Its call is soft, yet it lingers in the air—quiet, insistent.
Quincy Bog, Rumney NH.
What is Greg Drinking?
Long View Ciderhouse
There are certain sensory-based things that, in my mind, are intrinsically linked to a particular time of the year. Daffodils blooming through soggy green grass in late March, wild honeysuckle running along the roadways in June, the crackling of a fire pit in late September, and the Christmas tree smells wafting about in December. For August, a time when many farms and gardens in the Northeast are peaking in productivity, there is something of a fruit and vegetable fervor that makes you dream of bushels and boxes of everything you were patient for all season. Seamus Heaney, in the poem, ‘Blackberry Picking,’ refers to the first few bites of the hand-picked gems as being “like thickened wine, summer’s blood was in it.”It is that kind of immersive branch-to-bottle approach that guides the artisanal apple growers at Long View Ciderhouse.
If you have ever been a guest at Saltwater Farm Vineyard, you will notice that we do our best to offer a little something for everyone, from a diverse cheese/charcuterie/snack corner to a fridge bearing almost every type of Connecticut craft beverage that isn't wine. Hard cider has long been a staple on that list, especially when we can find something that checks all of the dietary sensitivity boxes (Long View Ciderhouse products are all glutenfree, nut-free, dairy-free, and vegan). Yet our partnership with this month's featured beverage is relatively new. The introduction was made possible by an industry partner (specifically Barry, owner and all-around champion of Kent Falls Brewing) and, as such, leapfrogged the usual backand-forth process of tracking down samples and meeting with sales representatives. After a few texts with Jeff Rodgers (more about the Rodgers family connection to the vineyard to follow), we had locked in our first order, which Jeff himself promptly delivered. A really nice touch that added a friendly face during the facilitation. The next delivery came with the bar manager, Sabrina, and a few of her friends. The resulting frivolity ended up being shared glasses of wine and a quick Polish dance lesson for my daughter, Maeve! I guess you could say they have really earned their spot on the menu!
On to the contents of the cans in question: we currently have poured the Sweet Farm and Green Tea Peach offerings from them. The former is clearly the flagship cider and is everything you want a semi-sweet cider to be. Light and fruity with tingling effervescence, highlighting the light golden colored contents. It is fruity enough to satiate the patrons put off by the relatively drier nature of our wine offerings, yet not so sweet that a seasoned cider aficionado would turn up their nose. The green tea-peach version is a blend of their estate apples and peaches, combined and then steeped over whole green tea leaves, culminating in a bright and herbaceous celebration for your taste buds. Less cloudy and for sure a little more bite, this was truly unexpected in both the depth of flavor and brightness on the palate. Culturally in America, a lot of craft ciders tend to placate the ‘sweeter is better crowd,’ and that makes sense overall, given the relationship we have with sugar. Yet even a brief bounce around Europe will showcase some traditional cider makers that take the task of making beverages that can hold their own in any public house very seriously. I would say that Long View Ciderhouse, born out of eight generations of toiling in Southington soil, falls into this category.
The land they draw their fruit from has been operating as a farm since it was purchased and planted in 1809. The Rodgers family married into the land ownership a hundred years later and immediately expanded both the land they possessed and the sheer volume and diversity of crops planted. What exists today is 275 acres of (twenty varieties) apples, (fifteen varieties) peaches, as well as nectarines, apricots, plums, pumpkins, flowers, and herbs. The flagship produce (apples and peaches) can be found in supermarkets throughout Connecticut. Truly an impressive and hyper-local success story with, pun intended, roots that go deep. So, in the year that our nation celebrates 250 years of the American experience, maybe consider quenching that summer thirst with a beverage born out of the boundless optimism that hopefully always defines our spirit.
Gregory Post is a sommelier and manager at Saltwater Farm Vineyard, affiliated with Kingdom of the Hawk Vineyard.
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just north of the Coast Guard Academy where we service all of our vessels. Cross Sound Ferry operates the large ferries between New London and Orient Point, carrying passengers, cars, and trucks. It is our largest company serving over a million passengers annually. . This is the company y that was formed when my father and grandfather bought out the aging New London Freight Lines in 1975. “ He talks a bit of history about this: “Cross Sound Ferry came to be when and it origginally was an operation that emissions of the ferry
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Getting My Licks In
by Rona Mann
I hate to go out of the house without makeup.
Yet, I always second-guess myself by thinking, “I’m only going to the supermarket for two things, in and out. I won’t see anyone I know.”
And voila! I always do. And that someone is usually younger than I, cute, and well put together, hollering for all to hear, “Hi Rona! I could just tell that was you coming down the aisle.” Wonderful. But I mutter my thanks, cursing myself for the pale face, pale eyebrows, hair stuffed into an elastic, sitting unceremoniously atop my head, say a few words, and make a quick retreat. So the next time I needed something and just “ran out,” I made darned sure I had makeup carefully applied, clean clothes, and nicely arranged hair. Saw no one, knew no one. I thought I had nailed it. Then a stranger in the checkout line looked straight at me and said, “Say, you look like you’re old enough to remember. Remember when we got Green Stamps for shopping?” Sadly, I did.
Years ago, supermarkets primarily, but also department stores and gas stations, “paid” you to shop at their establishments with what were the very first loyalty programs. Today we get gas points, and we’re supposed to be forever grateful.
Actually, Green Stamps go back much further than I do. Popular from the 1930s until the late 1980s, the stamps were introduced by the Sperry and Hutchinson Company, whose rewards catalog bragged it was the largest publication in the United States, issuing three times as many stamps as the U.S. Postal Service.
My dear mother bought right into it all. She shopped every store that gave S & H Green Stamps, bringing them home to be licked and affixed to the collectors’ books, and guess who she recruited to do the licking? I hated those things; the sheets of stamps seemed endless, and the taste was awful. Why we didn’t get smart and use a sponge is beyond me, but it wasn’t for me to ask. I just kept licking, and my mother just kept stockpiling the books, bribing me with the reward that, “When we have enough, we’ll go to the Green Stamp store.”
I was never sure what “enough” was, but when my mother finally announced it was, off we went to the Green Stamp store, a wondrous shrine of small appliances, toys, furniture, and rows and rows of brand new, gleaming “stuff” that people thought they needed and worked so hard to get.
The Green Stamp store was akin to one of those game arcades you find at both beach and boardwalk. You spend a fortune playing skeeball, throwing rings, or executing some other game of skill, carefully amassing piles and piles of points, which get you piles and piles of prize tickets. However, when you finally went to redeem them, you got a Spiderman toothbrush for 525 tickets or perhaps a cheesy lamp for 2500 tickets.
Well, the Green Stamp store played the exact same game. I can’t remember any of the “stuff” my mother got “for free,” but I do remember her handing me a big pile of filled books, telling me they were mine to spend on anything
I wanted, my payment for all that licking. Sounded like a fair deal to me, but when I looked throughout the store, scouring each shelf, anything halfway appealing was way beyond the small stash I had in my hands. So, I settled for a basketball. I didn’t play basketball. I wasn’t more than 4 ½ feet tall, and we didn’t have a basketball hoop in our driveway, but I got it anyway. It was a prize I earned for all that licking, and it powered me to “Gotta get more stamps. Gotta lick ‘em. Gotta get something even better next time.”
It was S & H Green Stamps fait accompli! Suck ‘em in, promise even greater gifts for “free.” Shop more, buy more, lick more. What ended my addiction was finally going off to college and into a different world of consumerism. So, yes, I am indeed “old enough to remember,” and thank the good Lord I do. I still have a mind that fires on all cylinders and memories on which I can still reflect. The only thing that bothers me is that I have absolutely no idea what happened to that basketball, and I really don’t care.
There! Got my licks in.
a book review by Laurencia Ciprus / photos courtesy of the author
Sharing the Stoke: Surfing's Global Legacy
Until I read Glenn S. Gordinier's book – a slavishly meticulous labor of love, crafted in concert under the creative direction of fine artist and activist Pamela Pike Gordonier– I never understood the pull of surfing. Why would a sane someone totter on a slab of wood in the middle of the ocean and plow into a highrise of water? GSG's prologue Epiphany pulls you into the religious passion of surfing like a riptide. A wave will never again be just water. It’s all about the stoke he felt that first-time he stood up against that wall of rolling glass at 16.The stoke is the visceral electric jolt overtaking the soul. The surfer stops thinking and surrenders to a merger with the wave. Now 77, the stoke has kept Glenn firmly on his board for more than half a century: 12 months a year in the face of the most extreme weather conditions.
who transitioned surfing from sacred practice to modern movement. The ancient Polynesians gave the sport its first soul: he e nalu, wave sliding. This was not solely recreation, but a complex cultural act braided into status, ritual, bravery, and communion with the sea. In Hawaii, chiefs once rode long, heavy olo boards while commoners rode shorter alaia boards, turning the wave into both playground and proving ground.
Next came the individual pioneers, each like a different kind of wave.
I've personally been stoked. A lifelong downhill skier, I can instantly flashback to that subsuming sense of euphoria when I was plunging into a vast run of mountain, cold air and a vertical drop down a frozen ocean of ice crystals... on blissful autopilot in an altered state. That's also the stoke. Except, unlike Gordinier's wall of wave, the mountain isn't moving. A deep bow and respect for surfers. I held onto that feeling throughout the balance of the read and found the book something singular to be savored...swell by swell...chapter by chapter.
Before the saga merges into its global chorus, Gordinier makes room for the human sparks
George Freeth, the Irish Hawaiian waterman celebrated by Jack London, helped introduce surfing to Southern California and became one of the first professional lifeguards, reportedly saving dozens of lives before dying young in the 1918 influenza pandemic. Duke Kahanamoku, Olympic swimming champion and Native Hawaiian ambassador of aloha, carried surfing across oceans with the authority of joy itself, demonstrating the sport in California and Australia and turning a board into a passport. Tom Blake followed as a legendary inventor, stylist, and tinkerer, helping lighten boards and pushing surf culture toward the modern equipment age.
Surfing lineage is neither male nor mythic. Isabel Letham, a teenage Australian who rode tandem with Duke at Freshwater Beach in 1915, became known as the mother of Australian surfing, while later female competitors and teachers pushed against the rigid assumption that the lineup exclusively belonged to men. These pioneers matter because they prepare the reader for what follows: Gordinier is not simply cataloging organizations or chapters. He is tracing how each one charges human impulse—the desire to meet moving water and rise—keeps being handed forward, altered, democratized, and rescued from narrow ownership.
A compact but admittedly dense read, Sharing the Stoke presents the global history of surfing— from Africa to the Pacific Islands and Australia— not as a narrow sport story, but as a many-voiced cultural atlas presented in manageable bites. The chapters move from ocean access and inclusion to surf travel, theraputic modalities, environmental regeneration, preservation of heritage, and greener surfboard production.
One moment the reader is delving into the history of women learning to claim space in the lineup through Las Olas Surfing for Women in Mexico and California; the next, young people
Waves Lobitos
Glenn Gordinier
are finding confidence and water safety through the Surf Bus Foundation in Los Angeles, The Wahine Project in Pacific Grove, Havana Surf and Calle 70 in Cuba, or the Black Surfing Association on both coasts. This range alone widens the frame: surfing belongs not only to bronzed professionals in glossy magazines, but to children, women, families, Black surfers, Cuban surfers, and communities who have too often been told the ocean was not theirs to experience.
Other chapters push the diversity of content even further. SurfAid carries the reader to Indonesia’s Mentawai Islands, while Waves for
Groundswell Society, and Moy Hill Community Farm all demonstrating that surfers are often first witnesses to coastal damage— and sometimes even acting as first responders.
By the time the book details heritage keepers such as the California Surf Museum, Surfing Heritage and Cultural Center, and Na Kama Kai, and green producers such as Firewire Surfboards, Shapes By Ry, and SeaTrees/Sustainable Surf, the subject has expanded from pastime to planet-wide movement.
A historian and writer of numerous other volumes, Gordinier compiled this enduring compendium as a preview to the upcoming May 2027 exhibition he is meticulously curating at Mystic Seaport Museum, which will showcase all aspects and artifacts of the history of surfing and arrayed in generous gallery spaces.
Development links Peru and New York City; Blue Health stretches the story from Donegal, Ireland, to Iran.
The healing chapters introduce surf therapy as serious work: The Wave Project in Cornwall, Warrior Surf Foundation in South Carolina and Guatemala, and Waves for Change in Cape Town all show surfing as a tool for rebuilding trust, easing trauma, and strengthening bodies and minds. Here, too, belongs Bethany Hamilton, the Hawaiian surfer who lost her left arm in a tiger-shark attack at 13 and returned to the water with astonishing speed, turning survival into a public example of courage, faith, adaptation, and athletic grit.
The environmental chapters resonate and turn the wave into a warning bell, with Surfrider Foundation, Save The Waves Coalition, Wildcoast/Costa Salvaje, Surfers Against Sewage,
momentum and releases it like a set wave breaking at full force.
But the book stands alone as a charged, salt-sprayed manifesto: part history, part travelogue, part personal love letter, part call to arms. Its final stretch is electric because Gordinier does not let surfing remain a static postcard image or a nostalgic memory of boa rdwalk summers.
He transforms the final chapter into a live wire, connecting the ancient thrill of riding waves to the urgent future of the planet itself. By then, the reader has traveled through inclusion, courage, therapy, culture, craft, activism, and preservation; the last chapter gathers all that
Surfing becomes more than sport. It becomes witness. It becomes rescue. It becomes inheritance. The board is no longer just a board, but a slender instrument of joy, protest, healing, memory, and stewardship.
That is the current running through the closing pages: if the ocean gives the stoke, then surfers owe the ocean protection, reverence, and fierce attention. Gordinier’s ending crackles because it refuses to drift gently to shore. It paddles harder, stands up taller, and rides out with spray in its teeth, asking the reader not merely to admire the wave, but to answer it. I'm more than half tempted to pull on a wet-suit, head to Rhode Island, and find my ocean stoke this summer...Glenn S. Gordinier is that convincing!
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ships and selling the goods on the ship on the open market. “The big thing was rum and wine.”
Colonel Samuel Webb of Wethersfield is second in command of a regiment under Ebenezer Huntington. He writes about surviving the Battle of Bunker Hill in Boston in 1775 - just grazed by a bullet, he said. Webb served as an aide to Generals Israel Putnam and George Washington (who he crossed the Delaware River with at Christmastime to attack the Hessians: German soldiers serving under the British Crown at Trenton, New Jersey). After being captured in a Long Island, New York raid and being held prisoner for three years, Webb would go on to lead his regiment again, Cregeau added. He also held the Bible at Washington’s inauguration in New York City in 1789.
Seth Harding is a “colorful character” and excellent sea captain who is appointed by Governor Jonathan Trumbull, Sr. to serve as captain of “the unusual U.S. Navy frigate named the U.S.S. Confederacy.” He is soon frustrated with outfitting the ship (built on Mohegan Tribal Land on the shore of the Thames River on what is now called Preston), Cregeau said. “A supply chain crisis was extreme in the American Revolution, because we’re at war. You’ve got a British blockade.”
Getting the rigging set, the sails, bringing the furniture and the cannons proved challenging. “The book shows how he (Harding) and members of the Marine Committee, those who, like Joshua Huntington living behind us here in his house, were frustrated with how they were getting the ship ready to actually set sail.”
Meanwhile, Jedediah Huntington continually multi-tasked: advocating for his soldiers’ health and welfare, while also trying to be a good husband to his wife, Faith (who he married in 1766) and being a caring father to his young son, Jabez.
Already suffering from manic depression during April, May and early June, Faith took her own life after seeing the carnage from the Battle of Bunker Hill at Thanksgiving time in November 1775.
It was important to include Faith Trumbull Huntington in the book “for her own stature as the daughter of the governor, as a talented artist
The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill, June 17, 1775, is a dramatic painting by John Trumbull. It shows Major General Joseph Warren mortally wounded at the Battle of Bunker Hill, with British Major John Small preventing further violence. Celebrated for its depiction of heroic sacrifice, it’s housed in major museums such as the Yale University Art Gallery and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. A larger 1834 version is at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford. Trumbull’s sale of engraving rights for this and a related painting helped launch his career.
Below: John Trumbull-self-portrait in middle age. Gift of Marshall H. Clyde, Jr. Photo courtesy of Yale University Art Gallery
who will inspire John Trumbull, but also because of her mental health history,” as it is not addressed much in colonial American history, Cregeau said.
“She (Faith) was essentially an ‘army wife,’ who became so flooded with anxiety about the possible loss of her spouse and other family members that she was overcome with depression and took her own life,” said Dr. Hall, a trauma psychologist. “It shows that mental health is just as important as physical health and that ‘war-related trauma’ is a real thing to be respected and understood. Ironically, none of the men that Faith was so terrified of losing in the family, including her spouse, were wounded or killed in the war. She was the only one who lost her life over the anxiety and depression she felt after seeing the aftermath of battle.”
“I thought it was interesting to discover how society responded to her (Faith’s) mental health and her suicide, that she did have obituaries and sermons from churches that said, ’Let us honor her for what she did do in her life,’ that they didn’t try to shun or forget her,” Cregeau said.
Jedediah found love again in 1778 when he married Nancy Moore (who goes by Ann).
Throughout the course of the war, Jedediah, an introverted organizer, also becomes a close confidant of Washington’s. “And as a testament
to that, Washington appointed him collector of customs in New London,” said Cregeau, adding that this is the reason Jedediah moved out of his Norwich home in 1790.
Blind in one eye due to a childhood accident, John Trumbull still joined the war and became a colonel in the Continental Army in 1775. “It’s a testament to his patriotism,” and sense of adventure, of wanting to get out of “small-town Lebanon where he grew up and see what’s out there in the bigger world,” Cregeau said.
As a 19-year-old aide to Washington for 19 days, John works as a cartographer drawing maps, but decides he doesn’t like it, so he “just goes back to being in the regular army.”
Later, John becomes an aide to Generals Horatio Gates, Benedict Arnold and John Sullivan.
In his published memoirs as an old man in the 1830s, John credits his mother for massaging his skull as a small child upon the advice of doctors to prevent future epileptic convulsions, and his sister, Faith, an
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Jabez had just been made sole Major General of Connecticut militia. Here he is showing us his well-fitted troops ready to defend the Connecticut coastline. Portrait owned by the Connecticut State Library. Below: Trumbull painted Samuel Blachley Webb’s portrait around 1790, while working on a series capturing the faces of Continental Army veterans. He hoped to use these portraits in larger paintings about America’s fight for independence. This work is just one example of how Trumbull honored the people and events that shaped the nation.
“incredible artist,” who inspired him to become an artist, Cregeau said. “I think that’s so beautiful.”
Thinking of John’s memoirs and famous paintings in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda and other museums, Cregeau said, “Isn’t it amazing the power that he can put into a painting about a battle” since he fought in the Battle of Rhode Island in Portsmouth in 1778, which overlooks scenic Narragansett Bay in Newport. Interestingly, John never painted that battle. Cregeau surmised that perhaps it was too painful to remember the violence that occurred.
Writing his book was humbling, Cregeau said. “These people were making real history. I’m just telling the story. They could have lost this house, their farm, their lives. What if the British had raided here and burned this General Huntington house down like they did part of New London? There was some concern about kidnappings and raids by the British,” because they did it in 1779 along the Fairfield County shoreline. “That happened a lot,” he said, adding, “They took a lot of risks.”
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The Cheesemonger
Deana Simmon, The Cheese Shop of Centerbrook
The American Road Trip of Cheese
Deana Simmons/The Cheese Shop of Centerbrook
Through winding backs road to the rolling pastures, every small town in America has a “cheese” story to tell. From the rocky coast of New England to the green hills of Wisconsin to the rugged valleys of California, American cheesemakers are crafting flavors that reflect the land, the people, and generations of tradition.
So, buckle up! We’re hitting the road in search of the people and places that make American cheese so remarkable. It’s not just a road trip, it’s a journey through farms, family, and unforgettable bites.
Vermont has earned a reputation as one of Americas best cheese making states. Why? Because nearly every ingredient for great cheese making comes together here.
Early Beginnings: Dairy farming has been Vermont’s identity. Early settlers from England, France and the Netherlands established farms across the Green Mountains and valleys and cows quickly became a part of the agriculture. By the 18th century dairy products, especially butter and cheese became Vermont’s foundation. In the early 1800’s many small farms produced their own cheese and butter. It was a way to utilize surplus milk. By the mid 1800’s cheese and butter became cash commodities, and many farmers began to sell or trade their goods in local stores.
Eventually this led to large, centralized creameries producing butter and Cheddars and with the introduction of refrigeration at the turn of the century it pretty much wiped out the small farmstead cheese makers. Small batch farmstead cheese using traditional methods was almost lost. That’s until the early 1990’s when the next generation of cheese makers returned to traditional ways of farming and making cheese, largely due to the rising cost of fuel, milk etc. they began to make smaller batches of specialized cheeses, and the artisanal cheese market was reborn.
Why is Vermont ideal for cheese making? The rich mineral soil of Vermont’s Green Mountains supports the pastures and in turn supports the diet of the cows, goats and sheep that graze on them. As the old saying goes, you get out what you put in. With pastures full of nutrients and flavor the result is flavorful milk. And that’s exactly what you need to make exceptional cheese.
Seasonal Changes: With small microclimates across the state and distinct seasonal changes allow for a diverse grazing environment. In other words, the change of season helps to replenish the pastures. The cool, humid climate also plays a role in cheese aging. The humidity-controlled caves mimic those across Europe. This allows the cheese to develop unique complex flavors.
The Crowley Cheese Factory, the oldest running dairy farm, still making cheese today., Healdville, VT ca:1920 Today, Vermont is home to many well know creameries - Jasper Hill, Cabot and Vermont Creamery, just to name a few. But there are many small over-looked creameries quietly crafting exceptional cheeses. These cheesemakers offer everything from fresh Chevre to rich alpine-style cheeses.
Today, thanks to the Vermont Cheese Council, which was founded in 1997, you can hit the Vermont Cheese Trail and discover one of the best culinary road trips in New England. A self-guided tour of more than 40 artisanal cheese makers spread across the state. Vermont Cheese Council also sponsors a Cheese Makers Festival each year on the farm at Shelbourn Farms. The year’s event is the capstone to the Vermont Cheese Week which takes place the week before. Both events are open to the public. Http://vtcheese.com/festival/
Did you know? Vermont has the highest number of cheesemakers per capita in the United States.
So, if you’re feeling adventurous and ready to start your own road trip – gas up the car and head to Vermont. There’s a world of cheese just ready to be discovered and it’s just a hop, skip and a jump away.
01Concerts In The Garden | Chester
Leif Nilsson Spring Street Studio and Gallery Presents
7 - 10 pm $20 donation - BYOB and picnicOutdoor Bistro Style Seating in the Amphitheater Rain or shine!
8/1/26 - Righteous Continentals
7-9
24th Anniversary Potato & Corn F North Branford CT
Friday 5pm -10pm, Saturday 11 am - 11pm , Sunday 11am-6pm Augur Park- 290 Forest Road
8/8/26 - Driving Route 9 Yoou Can Xray
8/15/26 - Someone Y
8/22/
8//2222//2 2 The Bargain Trrick
8/29/26 - Old Dog New T - 6
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y, , no pets or unattended children allowed r, , Connecticut 06412 gettable day fir
North Branford, CT’s POCO Festival features live music, food and local vendors, plus family-friendly activities ff f with spectacular reeworks for an unfor y.
9
Cookoo’s Nest|Old Sabrook, CT 1712 Boston Post Rd, Old Saybrook, CT
50 Year Celebration. August 9, 2026 | 12pm - 8pm
2026 Grassy Strip Music Series |Madison,CT
Madison Beach Hotel 94 W Wharf Rd,
T PrizesGiveawaysT BIGGESTFIESTA YearInTacos!!!W
Join us on August 9th to celebrate our 50th Ye Ta Wee’re having the TA OF THE YEAR!! Live Music, Mariachi, Bull Riding, Games, Teequila
Prizes, Giveaways, T Promotions, and of course fantastic food!!!
Thursday
The Grassy Strip Music Series returns to Madison Beach Hotel with free outdoor concerts every y, , late June–August.
“This summer’s line-up is incredible,” said General Manager John Mathers.
“The weekly summer experience at Madison Beach Hotel has truly become a time-honored tradition on the shores of Long Island Sound.”
Shows run 7:30–9 p.m. with food and drinks for sale.
Thank you to our Grassy Strip 2025 Sponsors who help to support our concert series.67 Main St (Foot of Main), Essex, Connecticut,
Mystic Seaport Museum
’s Spouter T Summer Friday Music Series |Mystic CT
all summer!
event.
Mystic Outdoor
8-9 y l|MiCT Art Festival | Mystic CT Downtown Mystic, Stonington, CT 06355
One of the oldest and largest outdoor art festivalsintheNorth-
east, the Mystic Outdoor Art Festival lines the streets and sidewalks of downtown Mystic each August with thousands of original works from artists acr y, , plus food and music.
oss the country
14–16 HiCT Harwinton CT
Black Bear Music Fest |
Mystic Seaport Museum’s outdoor music series is back at Schaefer Taavern, Fridays from May 22 to September 11 (except July 3). Free museum entry starts at 5 p.m.; bring a blanket or chair for lawn seating. Enjoy live music by the waterfront ll! Experience a weekend of rock, blues, folk, and bluegrass—perfect for music lovers and summer fun in Connecticut. .services@mysticseaport.or availability at visitor
The Harwinton Fairgrounds 150 Locust Road Harwinton, CT
Black Bear Music Fest returns at Harwinton Fairgrounds! Enjoy over 50 bands on four stages, with on-site camping, food trucks, and family-friendly activities. Experienceaweekend
15 Dragon Boat & Asia
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8am - 4pm Mortensen Riverfr
300 Columbus Boulvard, Hartford
Festival| Hartford CT ront Plaza d, CT
Year
Experience Connecticut’s oldest an Join the annual Riverfront Dragon Boat and Asian Festival in Hartford every August, drawing over 70 teams from the Northeast and beyond. Ye r--round programs and team-building classes welcome all skill levels—try dragon boating for fun, fitness, or competition!
p
nd largest dragon boating hub!
7
College Str Franz Ferdinand: Greater Glasgow Cultural Exchange Franz Ferdinand returns with their six studio album, “The
reet Music Hall |New Haven e xth
14-15 Oyster Fes
Fri, Aug. 14, 2026 5 – 10pm Sat, Aug. 15, 2026 4 – 10pm
stival| Milford
The Milford Oyster Festival is one Connecticut’s largest single-day fo festivals, drawing tens of thousand to historic downtown Milford and FowlerFieldDozensofEastCoast , Human Fear.” Know for their energetic an innovative sound, the band explores themes of fear and vitality through catc producer Mark Ralp this album captures celebrates the band’s
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CT of ood ds t eativity
hile live bands, a classic car show
wler Field Dozens of East Coast ster growers shuck on the harbor w, , an y.
2 Ch Rd Th ts-and-crafts marketplace, and a kayak race fill the day
2-23 Wiine Festival | Clinton, CT hamard Vineyards, 115 Cow Hill d, Clinton, CT
22
chy songs and bold rif wn nd fffs. Recorded with ph and featuring new band members, the thrill of overcoming challenges and s enduring cr y. .
Rock Of The 80’s |Feat. China Crisis, Big Cou Va Woorks
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inlatesummer p Connecticut-made wines against t backdrop of a historic Clinton orc r, , pairing tastings fr across the state’s wine trail with lo food trucks, artisan booths, and li Veendors | Live Musi Arts & Crafts
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28 Goodspeed Music
The Snow Goose A New Mus
Novel By Paul Gallico
On England’s windswept coast, re sive artist Philip and resilient Frith an unexpected bond after rescuing wounded snow goose. Woorld W approaches, their friendship trans them both, leading Philip on a cou geous mission to Dunkirk. Experi a moving new musical with a soar score.
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Aug 28 - Oct 18, 2026 | The Goodspeed - 6 Main Street, East Haddam, CT 06423
cals | East Haddam CT sical Based On The ecluh form g a Waar II sforms uraence ring
Experience a powerr-roocka Sevendust and Theor Of Deadman share stage! Sevendust, kno for their explosive en gy and fiercely loyal f ting music, signature They’ll deliver tracks showcasing the band ing them, Theory Of A the chard rom ocal ive ic | A
Sevendust & Theory Of A and The Icicle W , The V Country apors, The Icicle W TheV
Relive the MTV 80s era with the ROCK OF THE 80s TOUR! Experience a night packed with classic hits from China Crisis, Big y, Vaapors, Woorks, all on one stage. This 2.5-hour show brings the best of the decade’s pop and rock—get ready t dance, sing along, and be transported back to the u gettable sounds of the 80s! 29 A Deadman:TheDea ToourWith TooDust untryy, , o unforad /
A house night of r
eativity and spirit.Join ner as ry e the own r-
fanbase, brings over 30 years of hard-hite hooks, and a legacy of sold-out shows. s from their acclaimed new album “ONE,” d’s unwavering cr n-Deadman delivers their chart-topping
elease, “Funeral Songs, V
epic double bill—two iconic bands, one unfor
om their latest r fr ock. W hits and wittyy, , anthemic r Wiith multi-platinum sing “Bad Girlfriend” and “Rx (Medicate),” this Canadian p house promises a set packed with fan favorites and new ro re Vool 1.” Don’t m rggettable n power gles like r-w songs miss this night!
Glow Paddle | Niantic CT
119 Oswegatchie Hills Road Niantic, CT
More Than a Paddle. It’s an Experience.
Glow Paddle Nights at Three Belles Outfitters in Niantic let you kayak after sunset in illuminated boats, turning the water into a glowing r-
Yooudon’tneedto be a photographer or painter to appreciate the beauty of farm barns. These iconsoffarminglife
cutBarnT
life, and enjoy the unique calm of night on the water world. Start with a gour
met seasonal meal, then paddle under the evening sky as your kayak casts vib lights. Paddle along Niantic’s shore and Smith Cove, r.
brant underwater watch for marine
(4-6 visitors) Fridays 8:30pm-10pm according to su person($110withdinner)
Plenty of experiences to explore: Paddleboard Y
PaddlewithDinner
icons of farming life have caught the attention of Connecticut historians, who created a ConnectiTrrail. Use the trail and its maps countryside at your own pace. The trail highlight barns at farms and farm stand historic sites. for more Information. ww 203-562-6312.
s to explore this beautiful l has seven routes that ds, orchards, wineries, and ww.connecticutbarns.org
Essex Steam T Trrain & Riverbo
oat | Essex
person ($110 with dinner) Yo o r, , Hike and Paddle with Dinn w..threebellesoutfitters.com
more. www
10NorthW The Maritime Aquarium| Norwalk CT WaaterStreet Norwalk, CT 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily
Our exhibits provide people of all ages with entertaining, educational, and emotional experiences to instill a sense of wonder at nature’s diversity and a sense of responsibility for conservation.
unset – $75 per www Y
oga, Sunset ner and so much on (2.5 hours total time).
Our immersive exhibits feature over 6,800 animals! Yoour Long Island Soun begins along a freshwater river and the shallow w salt marsh, then moves into deeper and deeper ha the open ocean. w..maritimeaquarium.org/visit-us
nd journey waters of the abitats out to
The Eric Sloane Museum| Kent, CT 31 Kent Cornwall Rd, Kent, CT
The Eric Sloane Museum celebrates the life and w America’s most beloved artists and authors. Brow paintings, early American hand tools, the recreate Cabin, and the nearby Kent Iron Furnace ruins. O through Sundays, 10 a.m.–4 p.m., May through O
work of one of wse Sloane’s ed Noah Blake Open Fridays October.
Essex Steam T Caboose W andW – Mondays (Closed T A 1 Railroad Avve, Essex, CT
June 22 – August 28: Thursday Tuuesday Weednesday) Weeekends: August 5 & 6
Trrain & Riverboat adventure is perfect for large groups – a beautiful train ridetothedocksoftheBecky
ride to the docks of the Becky Thatcher riverboat to a relaxing cruise on the Connecticut River and a return train ride back to Essex Stati A
The Carousel Museum | Bri 95 Riverside Avve. Bristol, CT | 860-585-
stol CT -5411
Step into the whimsical world of The Museum in Bristol, where beautifully r vintage artifacts, and interactive hibilbhi qg
exhibits celebrate the artistry and history of these timeless treasures.
Open W
10 a.m.–5 p.m., and Sunday day
New England Carousel estored carousel animals,
Weednesday–Satur y, , y, , noo –5 5 p.m. Closed Monday and Tu y.
Tuesday
The Thoreau Bridge|W
Waashin
120 Bee Br Waashington Depot, C gton Depot CT CT (860) 868-9131
Open d
ook Rd, W
Discover Footbrid Hidden V Spannin Thoreau woodlan peaceful Connect g the Shepaug River eserve, W V
daily from sunrise to sunset r the 134-foot Henry David Th dge, a scenic suspension bridge Vaalley Pr Waashington De r, , it feature quotes on its railings and con nd trails. Enjoy beautiful views, l walks, and a true hidden gem icut.
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