The Essex lawn signs pictured along Main Street, opposite Champline Square, along Grove Street and next to Book Hill Road.

There is a smoldering controversy about the “kid safety” lawn signs that have been posted along the streets of Essex recently.  All the signs carry the same message, DRIVE LIKE YOUR KIDS LIVE HERE.

The sign postings are the work of the Essex Police Department with the assistance of the Essex Boy Scouts. To date the Police Department has distributed dozens of signs to Essex residents, although a few appear to be coming down because of local protests.

For example, there used to be lawn signs out in front of Essex Town Hall and the Essex Library, but now they have disappeared.

A Sign Enthusiast Speaks Out   

One of the sign posters who is proud of her positing is Luisa Kreis Whiting, who lives on Main Street. “I love the signs,” she says. However, she adds, “Some people in town don’t like them.”

In encouraging the posting of the signs, the Essex Police Department has gone about it very carefully. Signs are only given to a home owner who requests one. It is not like the haphazard postings of campaign signs during election time, or the real estate “open house” signs, which also sometimes go up without permission.

Police lawn signs in Essex with their message, DRIVE LIKE YOUR KIDS LIVE HERE, most likely will be around for awhile.

The LOCAL VOICES at the Ivoryton Library reading event (left to right) State Representative Phillip Miller, Pamela Nomura, Beverley Taylor, Joan Wyeth and Peter Walker

“Why did we pick this Sunday with so much going on?” Ivoryton Library Director Elizabeth Alvord asked herself before last Sunday’s afternoon program at the Ivoryton Congregational Church got underway.

But she did not need to worry.

No less than forty people showed up to hear five readers present their selections of poems and others musings. The topics ranged from the shop worn to the original, and in all it was a literary sweep of life’s joys and adversities, with far greater emphasis on the latter.

The five performers in the program were State Representative Phil Miller, poet/professor Pamela Nomuna, and poet/performers Beverley Taylor, Joan Wyeth and Peter Walker.

The lead off performer was Beverley Taylor, who holds a senior position at the Ivoryton Playhouse. Ms. Taylor read a third person account of the laments of a “been there, done that” kind of woman, who now at fifty years of age, is well hardened by life’s difficulties, but is still soldiering on.

Ms. Taylor’s reading was polished and professional.

Next on the program was Phil Miller, who brought a very different theme to the program. Although the other performers tended to personal, self-revealing selections in their presentations, Miller spoke exclusively about the life style and noises of the Barred Owl.  This particular breed of owl is common in this area, according to Miller, and he estimated that there are no less than eight Barred Owl families in Essex.

Miller characterized the Barred Owl as a “mysterious, nocturnal bird,” which lives primarily on insects rather than small animals. He stressed that the Barred Owls’  “hoots and yowls” in the night were very distinctive, and in a fitting climax to his presentation he gave his own imitation of the Barred Owl’s full throated hoot and howl. The audience loved it.

Next on the program was Joan Wyeth, who was by far the youngest of the performers. She read, somewhat too rapidly, a personal account of the woes and irritations of an American family, with some keen insights in her subject matter. Her entire reading was completely original.

Number four on the program was an established poet, Pamela Nomura. Not only has she taught poetry at Wesleyan University, she is a published poet. One poem of hers that she read was called, “The Rain.”   Two stanzas in the poem tell the story:

I can’t work today, miss.
It’s raining, and it’s 2 years to the day
since your mother has not answered
your calls. And you wonder if it’s raining
in Puerto Rico, if it’s falling through

the shining leaves
and pinging onto the tin roof
of the yellow house
where the phone is ringing.

Concluding the Ivoryton Library program was the well established poet and performer, Peter Walker. Walker in his remarks complained that when it comes to popular music, the people who write the words should be more celebrated  than those who write the melodies.

Walkler then read some of his own poems, mixed with those of others. Also, he spoke of a safari in East Africa that he once went on, where he saw his own face implanted on a Serengeti cloud.

Ivoryton Library Director Alvord appeared to be generally pleased with this “bold” event, and more such programs may be coming up in the future.