Story Shards: Two Wrasslin’ Cats. History Layers, Food Entrepreneurs

Choose. Choice. Which way? This way.

Food. Startups. Micro-entrepreneurs. Farms. People to grow business. Resources.

Bruno. Larry. Color. East Haddam, top of the hill, around the corner from Shagbark. Now. Composite image, CB.


You are here. (I am.)

Old house, new colorful venture. The owner is a molecular biologist, retired from Pfizer. (Surprise.) And evidence of layered human history has been found on the site.

East Haddam, then. You are here. Framed image from

East Haddam, then. This structure (seen behind the oxen team) is now Two Wrasslin' Cats Coffeeshop and Cafe. You are here. Framed image from “your friends at East Haddam Historical Society” on a wall inside includes a reflection portrait of Brian Scott Smith.

Podcast overview: Because of COVID-19, food scene changing, adapting, phone is ringing for help. Where do I find chicken, farms around me? Twenty-three kitchen members, “I need help, where do I find someone?” Commercially licensed kitchens, access. Ooh, this is good, an interview with Click Willimantic, a cooperative kitchen, be a member and use a kitchen, benefits include garden, orchard, education. Access to fruit, local producers, farms, chefs. (By the way, her background is in nonprofits not food. Wishing for a list of all mentioned in the podcast.) Network and shared information, business tips swapped. Interview and podcast by Brain Scott Smith.

Collaboration, communication, stories told, cross-pollination. Business, food and history, architecture. Generating revenue. Food surplus. Help to expand a garden. Food trucks growing business, mobile community. Ask.

But first, a podcast. Two, actually.

“On the podcast we talk with @CLiCKwilli [Click Willimantic‘s Twitter handle] about their organization and the food businesses they have helped launch locally. Plus we take a look at other stories from around the region.
https://youtu.be/gIAoliBEUqY”

And and update April 24. 2022; dig in progress.

On site in East Haddam. Link to story, updates.

Plantsville (Southington). Small structure formerly a service station, then a gardening business. Now simply there. Waiting.

Such as: Visit town transfer stations. Some have book sheds, take and go treasures. Those items too useful to discard, and literally one human's trash is another treasure. (Another story, about a gorgeous oak file cabinet thrown out and vintage fire suppression device in original box found in a bottom drawer.)

As with walking or riding and looking around (owl feather, glass milk bottle, a deflated balloon with a contact tag attached, Girl Scout project. Even a blue crab that probably fell off a boat being towed to the river), there is treasure to be found by noticing. In the mud, prints of a turkey just before one flew off, like a basketball with wings across the Sebethe River behind a landfill. Canoe launch area woods and water, but so much human trash. Plastic, cups, flotsam and jetsam and uglification.

Geese honking alarm and approach of two leggers; possible danger. So, stayed away, returned to vehicle. Birds are courting, nesting. Leave them be. Over to Vets Park, Middletown.

Stubby and Sallie Ann. Vets Park.

Stubby to far left, and Sallie at Vets Park Memorial. Sallie is memorialized at Gettysburg National Military Park, met on several trips to learn more about human history after living in Tidewater Virginia.

From the past visits, interviews, explorations. Shards of stories. Wondering about the nozzle-like bit on the industrial-size antique chainsaw displayed on a shelf at the back wall, Lock, Stock & Barrel Farm Supply in Bethany. Asking later on the drive as ideas float up; answer “it's a handle”–then thinking, what? That nozzle-like stub? (Would not want to be on that end, the helper.)

Seen above (look up) at Lock, Stock and Barrel Farm Store in Bethany. Linked to YouTube video showing how this two-man chainsaw works..

Related LSB story (2015) linked here.

Here is Antique Trader site with an image of this in action. (Commentary about use included that the younger person would hold this side as the more experienced human did the sawing.)

Along the way, talk turns to road trips, past and future. Cross country drive that will include Northwest Florida, future. Cross Creek, Majorie Kinnan Rawlings. Old Florida. Chincoteague, Assateague. Rich Hill, blue crabs and southern Maryland. Then memory of long-distance night drives to do the miles, two people take turns. Sleep, rest. Drive, get there. Sleep. Truckers and courtesy at night. Blink, blink. Professionals. At dawn as a passenger again, the marvel of seeing an owl flying across a meadow, a bullet-like form seen in profile. Real. Ahead, Chincoteague and Assateague. Maybe re-visit Fort Pickens and the history of Geronimo, Pensacola. Blue Angels, Naval Air Station. Seville Square. Is the coffeeshop with the plant that moves still there? The flea market in an old factory, small food section indoors with partions for vendors. Outdoors, a mashup of items for sale, including odd tropical plants at the time.

Last, but certainly not least. Ahead, on the life list.

New Departure, Meriden, Connecticut. Then. Note the inner courtyard area of the building. Still there. Imagine offices, industrial shops, brewery. gatherings. Views west of traprock mountains. Floors that can stand tremendous weight. A quality market and Brimfield-like flea market, indoors and outdoors. Food trucks.

Now. My office. Inside the front tower structure at Pratt Street, Meriden. Formerly New Departure building, prior to that a woolen mill. Scouting for office space, loading dock, unique setting and history of the building. Access to every highway. Parking galore but also walkable, bike-able, and a horse-drawn trolley route that once ran in front of the building is now being transformed into a trail. Wouldn't this be grand for Friends of Meriden Public Library's bookstore? I miss the people and books, conversations and all during the current Meriden Public Library's expansion.

Left, aerial view, year unknown of New Departure. Right is Google Map view. from research and writing. Image linked to a story about New Departure, more history. CB/MDP

Jot that idea down, pin to paper before thought is lost. Catch up. Track down. Listen. Catch the thread before it dissolves. Yes, still wearing a mask and avoiding crowds, working remote (but have since 2009 mostly). Listening to wastewater reports and keeping an eye on all, including biodiversity and zoonotic news, ticks, emergence of viruses due to climate shifts. (Was that a winter? The ground seemed to not have a hard freeze for long, central Connecticut.)

Resources: For a day of immersive learning, Tantaquidgeon Museum: overview and hours linked here. Also see the MDP A Resources page. This story updated 3/20/2022; Connecticut East podcast added 3/29/2022.