Elena Ventres
President George H.W. Bush’s announcement 25 years ago that Kuwait had been liberated and offensive action in the Middle East had ended was greeted with relief in Ridgefield, the Feb. 28, 1991, Press reported.
“I know at this point it’s a conditional ceasefire and I do hope soon they can work out the details,” said Selectman Michael Venus, who also hoped “the Iraqi people and the allied countries combine to bring this Saddam to justice.”
In a talk at the Ridgefield Library covered by reporter Lois Street, professor Paul Bracken of Ridgefield discussed the Middle East situation, observing, “We’ll never have good relations with the Arabs, but we can play them off each other.”
Without cutting a dime, the school board approved the administration’s $28.3-million budget request and passed it on to the Board of Finance. But Peter Warren of the Friends of Ridgefield taxpayer group warned, “It’s going down the tubes.”
The Parking Authority was about to begin enforcement in the Donnelly Shopping Center, where Woolworth’s was and where Hay Day Market was about to open.
The Tigers’ Chris Young sank a 50-foot shot at the buzzer to beat Norwalk in Ridgefield’s final FCIAC regular season game. The shot was so spectacular it was being shown on MSG cable’s Coca-Cola High School Sports Week.
Mike Pontello’s Operation Desert Storm sign, listing Ridgefield soldiers in the war, was moved to the front of Town Hall after complaints it was illegally placed on the Community Center grounds.
The Athletic Shoe Factory at 410 Main Street advertised its spring line of footwear and casual clothes.
“Lithuanians as a society are not radicals. They are very traditional, very polite. Maybe they are too polite,” said Violeta Kavaliauskas, German teacher at Ridgefield High School. She and her husband, Bob Kavaliauskas, Spanish teacher and chairman of the school’s foreign language department, participated the previous summer in a demonstration during Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s visit to Washington.
Newcomers on Mead Ridge Lane were Lisa and Stanley Garrett. He was the pro at Silver Spring Country Club and she, the former Lisa Geveda, worked for IBM and was a Ridgefield High School graduate.
“Someone once compared hovering to patting your head and rubbing your belly, while trying to balance standing on a basketball wearing roller skates,” said Elena Kowalik Ventres of Ridgefield, helicopter pilot and flight instructor for Candlelight Copters Ltd.
50 years ago
Joann Spence
Capt. August J. Detzer of Main Street, owner of the Housatonic Valley Broadcasting Co., was planning to sell WINE-AM and WGHF-FM, both in Brookfield, to the Times Printing and Publishing Co. in New Milford. Times was owned by John W. Nash, Ridgefield native and one-time partner in The Ridgefield Press.
Officer Thomas Rotunda and Officer John Haight III graduated from the police training academy. Haight was the son of the second chief of the Ridgefield Police Department, and Rotunda became the third chief of the department.
“We teenagers of Ridgefield feel that we, too, need a place to go,” wrote Laurie Brew and Heather Enright in a letter to the editors. “You parents wonder why we do some of the things we do or just ‘hang around’ town. Well, it’s plain and clear to us that you just don’t realize we need a place to go. … Sure, we have Squash’s, The Bowling Alley, or the Pizza Shop, but do we really have them? Parents go there, too. We need a place to go where there aren’t parents.”
Thomas Nash was elected president of Mr. Melillo’s sixth grade at Veterans Park School. Vice president was Mark Ferrandino; secretary, Brian Whelton; and treasurer Pamela Lichtfuss.
Mrs. James Spence of White Birch Road was invited to enter two of her bonsai — an Andorra Juniper and a Mugho Pine — in the International Flower Show about to open at the New York Coliseum.—J.S.
The post Looking Back 25 and 50 years: Cheers for peace, boos for parents appeared first on The Ridgefield Press.