My family and I vacationed at Sunrise Resort
every year since I was 5 years old till I was almost 20. We stayed there
every third week of July with the same group of people we met and became really
good friends with while staying there.
I remember going to the little
kiddie area next to the basketball court and spending the day with a bunch of
other little kids while our parents enjoyed their time by the big pool and
other amenities. My family and I, the group we always hung out with when
we were all there have so many good, fun and amazing memories of the
resort.
Our group was notorious for dressing up one day of the week and
showing up during the morning band wake up route with Coo Coo. One year,
we dressed up as the Keystone Cops, another year we dressed up as hobos and
created a little hobo camp down by the river along the route that Coo Coo would
take the band to the dining room down by the river. We would surprise him
and all of the other guests and have a huge laugh. Another year, we
dressed up as a nudist colony. We had a fence set up and all of use stood
behind the fence, and all you could see was our heads and shoulders and then
our legs. My father, stood at the end of the fence holding a guitar over
himself with nothing else on, he had on a small bathing suit behind the
guitar. It was hilarious to see all of the people's faces and the look on
Coo Coo's face was priceless. Our last year there together, and our last
dress up performance was dressing up as little people with really big
hats. We did a little dance routine behind the cabanas for Coo Coo and
the morning band, and then got to perform in the big show at the end of the
week in the clubhouse for all of the adults.
I grew up at the resort, every July. I met
so many people, had so many summer flings with girls that I had met each
time. I even met my first real girlfriend there the summer of 1989.
We dated all through high school and even went to the same college
together. Sadly, we broke up my sophomore year and her freshmen year at
school. The spa/hot tub area was the place that we always hung out
at. That was where the teens hung out, made out and were able to be away
from the parents. We would also go the the snack bar by the pool and eat
french fries and soda as a mid day snack. Those french fries were so
good, and I can still smell them.
The pool was awesome! The high diving
board was the best. I first went off that board when I was 7 years
old. It was scary at first, but so much fun. I used to do can
openers off that thing and send water splashing every where on the deck and
high into the air. Everyone wanted to see just how high I could get the
splash. Most of the time, it went higher than the roof of the
cabanas.
The softball game between the guests and the staff was awesome
too! My biggest memory of that was when I was about 15 or 16, I was
playing centerfield. A ball was hit into the gap toward the
"Frog". I ran it down and turned and fired to home plate.
Unfortunately, my throw was a little off, as the ball sailed over the back stop
and into the grassy area across the road by the pool. Yeah, I must have
thrown the ball 300 feet or more before it hit the ground.
I remember where my rooms were that we stayed in
each year. We stayed in the big white hotels over by the spa/hot tubs one
year. We stayed in the rustic cabins that were up on the hill behind the
ball field for many years. Mostly in the rooms in the lower parts of the
cabins which the doors were on the back side along the edge of the hill above the
cabins that the staff that lived on the resort stayed in. The names of
the cabins slip my mind, but I know exactly which room and cabin I stayed
in. From there, we stayed in the cabanas, our rooms were on the parking
lot side on the second floor right near the basketball court and horse shoe
pits. The arcade and ping pong tables were in the covered area adjacent
to the cabanas and directly behind the club house. Those ping pong tables
are where I first learned how to play the game of ping pong. They were
also the same tables I won my first ping pong tournament.
The resort was great for kids of all ages.
At night there were so many activities for all age groups. I remember
spending so many nights with Jock-O at the white building as you would walk
down the hill towards the dining room from the cabanas, there was a white
building on the left of the path. There were stairs to get down to
it. Jock-O would play games and run casino nights and stuff like that for
the kids. The teens got to hang out with another staff member, Rusty was
the guy who ran the teen activities while I was there as a teenager. He
would DJ at the pavilion behind the tennis courts, and we would have a dance
party. He ran all of the sports activities. He even set up movie
nights at Echo Hall.
The food was outstanding. Every meal was
delicious and the variety was perfect. The themed meals were incredible
as well. The paddle breakfast was a great tradition. Take a canoe
down the river to a field where they had tables set up and a pancake buffet
style breakfast waiting for you. The Luau was another great traditional
themed meal. The food was cooked on huge grills and you ate at picnic
tables. Music playing all the time. Just unbelievable. The
memories are amazing. I love Sunrise Resort.
I was so sad to hear that it was closing and I
am even more sad to know that it has been abandoned and unmaintained over the
past three years. It is a shame that nothing has been done to preserve
such a great place that so many people made so many memories at. To see
the pictures of it all overgrown, the pool empty, the windows broken and
buildings falling apart makes me so sad to know that I spent so many years in
those buildings, in that pool, walking along all of the roads and paths.
Heck, I even worked there for a summer, as part of the house keeping
staff. I drove around in a beat up station wagon, stopping at all of the
buildings the guests stayed in and picked up all of the dirty linen and towels
that the housekeeping girls would take out of each room. Not a great
paying job, but I loved the place so much that I didn't care about the
money. I just loved being at the resort.
I will never forget Sunrise Resort. I will
never forget all of the people I met and made so many memories with. I
will never forget the people who worked there, like Coo Coo and Jock-O and
Rusty who touched my life in such a way that it breaks my heart to know that
that special place is no longer. I would have liked to been able to take
my son there for vacation every year and show him what a fun and great place
Sunrise was.
I hope that someday, someone will rescue that great piece of
property and restore it back to Sunrise. If it was open for business
today, I would book my vacation there right now with my family and start making
more memories. I will continue to follow this story and pray that the
state of CT does something good with this land. It's too bad that it can't
be renovated and kept as a museum or something.
Thank you,
--Sean Malo
I remember going to the little
kiddie area next to the basketball court and spending the day with a bunch of
other little kids while our parents enjoyed their time by the big pool and
other amenities. My family and I, the group we always hung out with when
we were all there have so many good, fun and amazing memories of the
resort. 
The resort was great for kids of all ages.
At night there were so many activities for all age groups. I remember
spending so many nights with Jock-O at the white building as you would walk
down the hill towards the dining room from the cabanas, there was a white
building on the left of the path. There were stairs to get down to
it. Jock-O would play games and run casino nights and stuff like that for
the kids. The teens got to hang out with another staff member, Rusty was
the guy who ran the teen activities while I was there as a teenager. He
would DJ at the pavilion behind the tennis courts, and we would have a dance
party. He ran all of the sports activities. He even set up movie
nights at Echo Hall.
