History remembered, history lost

I grew up in Moodus on Sillimanville Road.  I periodically visit your website and have been meaning to write to you to say thanks for writing the history of Moodus, the way it really was -- the good, the bad and the ugly. Upon reading all the stories and articles over the years I realize I truly grew up at the wrong time to be in Moodus.  I grew up at the end of the Summer Resort heyday, and watched it all slide downhill from there. 

I remember the Soda Shop, and I remember getting groceries from Uncle Albert (Pear) as I used to call him.  I went to Synagogue when it was on North Moodus road, my Bar Mitzvah was there.  I worked for a short time as Pistol Pete's sidekick up at Banner Lodge.  I remember the Weiner Resort, Banner Lodge, Grand View, Klar Crest, all of them.... and I saw each, one by one, close and wither away. 

I remember the old downtown, I was old enough to ride my bicycle there stopping for a soda at Weinstein's and then heading on down to Neptune Avenue to meet up with John Bielot.  I remember the town being leveled too.  Just one day it wasn't there anymore.  

I even remember getting fresh eggs from Simon's farm and being shown how to "candle" eggs. I remember Jack Banner getting so annoyed because Pistol Pete and I couldn't seem to catch who was putting the row boat into the pool at night.

Yes, memories of Moodus are mixed for me.  I had some fun, but even at a young age I could see and recognize the town being destroyed, the history being lost. I remember the arson fires at Wieners and also at the place next door to Debowsky's house.  My dad had his first heart attack while up on our roof with a hose putting out the embers from the two fires that were landing on our house. I think one of the Bungalows across the street also burned (forget the names of the family that owned them). 

I graduated High School in 1976, did some college in Hartford and joined the Navy leaving Moodus in 1977.  I never looked back. Well, I say never, but I visited once or twice and I came back to bury my parents in late 2000 and early 2001.  It's seems like only the cemeteries can be used as landmarks anymore as people don't tend to build or pave over them.... yet.

I do have hopes that the children of those who moved into the area in the 80's and later, to the new Moodus, create new memories -- ones of growth and building up, and maybe adding to the history of the area.  From what I saw in 2001, they pretty much have a clean slate to work with. 

Again, thanks for the website,

 --Miles-Kevin Baron

Really fresh chicken at Budka's

My Czech grandparents owned property in the Rocky Hill Road/Lake Bashan area of Moodus from 1930s onward. A relative still owns the property. Sent there as a child from Michigan in the 1940s (w/o parents).

I remember Weinstein's drug store in Moodus Center (where fireworks were purchased) as well as the Grand Union store in the village, a local doctor (could his name have been Dr. Horsefeathers?) who came up one day to examine me thoroughly in what much have been a concern about polio.

Czech relatives owned a boardinghouse (possibly Julia Budka's from your photos) where my older cousin & friends went to help prepare meals, including plucking feathers from the place's freshly killed chickens. Also remember that the evening's activity frequently was a walk to Mr. Bailey's ice cream store at a reservoir. Day events including swimming & soapy baths in Lake Bashan as our farmhouse had an unreliable water supply.

--Rhona N.

Soapy baths in Bashan Lake

My Czech grandparents owned property in the Rocky Hill Road/Lake Bashan area of Moodus from 1930s onward. A relative still owns the property. Sent there as a child from Michigan in the 1940s (w/o parents).

I remember Weinstein's drug store in Moodus Center (where fireworks were purchased) as well as the Grand Union store in the village, a local doctor (could his name have been Dr. Horsefeathers?) who came up one day to examine me thoroughly in what much have been a concern about polio.

Czech relatives owned a boardinghouse (possibly Julia Budka's from your photos) where my older cousin & friends went to help prepare meals, including plucking feathers from the place's freshly killed chickens. Also remember that the evening's activity frequently was a walk to Mr. Bailey's ice cream store at a reservoir. Day events including swimming & soapy baths in Lake Bashan as our farmhouse had an unreliable water supply.

--Rhona Neuwirth

Rest Farm

I want to bring to your attention a resort missing from your list: Rest Farm. Rest Farm was located on Bashan Lake Road and consisted of a large main house and 8 bungalows. A few of the rooms in the main house and all the bungalows were rented by the week, month, or summer. My parents took me there every summer as a child, starting, I believe, in the late 1950s.

My parents, The Kaplans, and another couple, the Ondriseks, purchased Rest Farm from a Mrs. Karas sometime in the 1960s. A few years later my parents sold their share to the other couple who continued to operate this small resort until sometime in the 1980s. At some point after my parents sold their share its name was changed to, I think, Four Seasons.

During the 1960s and until it closed, Rest Farm was rented to Czech families from New York City (by the way you misidentify bohemians as Hungarians; in fact, Bohemia is part of what is now the Czech Republic (the western half of the former Czechoslavakia). It is likely that Czech families had been going to Rest Farm even before this period, as I suspect it was the presence of Czechs that initially lured my parents to Moodus. I also believe that the previous owner, Mrs. Karas, was of Czech descent. You may also be interested to know that many of the Czechs, families, retiring couples, and their adult children eventually moved to Moodus and the surrounding area after spending their summers at Rest Farm.

Rest Farm was once of those resorts that, as you mention on your web site, had once been a farm. There were a number of chicken coops and sheds of all sorts, a barn on the property, which I as a child from the city, loved to explore. I hope you will consider adding Rest Farm to your list. If there is any additional information you'd like about Rest Farm, please feel free to email me.

--Sincerely, Jerry Kaplan