The need for places for young people to meet their friends, to hang out, is ageless. Brookfield teens today have more activities available to them than those of my generation, but I remember very clearly the need to be with my friends when I was growing up in Brookfield.
There may have been some organized activities, but most of all I remember having to think up fun things to do on my own, especially in the summer.
Our “hang out” place was often the Village Store on Route 25 in the center. We often dropped in there for lack of another place to go. Some of my friends even worked there at times, behind the counter and delivering grocery orders. It was a great place to stop on the walk home from a Girl Scout meeting or after a bike ride around town. We would prop our bikes against the porch before going in to buy ice cream, soda, or candy. Then we would sit on the porch steps and chat.
The pharmacy at the Four Corners was another place you might run into friends. It had a soda fountain, and they made the best orange ice cream sodas with fresh orange juice, seltzer water, and rich vanilla ice cream. Through the years I have tried to duplicate that ice cream soda, but somehow it never is as good.
The town beach on Candlewood Lake was another gathering place. I remember beach parties there, but the beach was very different from today. It was primarily the sandy beach, a float to swim to, a guard shack, a snack bar, and rest rooms.
In the summer or on weekends during the school year, we would shoot hoops on the outside basketball court at the Consolidated School (now Center School) or play softball in the field next to the school. All we needed was for someone to bring a basketball and a bat and ball and we could while away several hours with our friends.
Bike riding was, of course, a favorite activity. There was so little traffic in Brookfield back then that we could ride all over town without any problems. One time some of us rode all the way to Lover’s Leap in New Milford.
Square dancing was also an activity some of us enjoyed. We would make up a set, go to Medlicott’s on Route 109 in New Milford or a dance in another town and have a really great time. There would be refreshments and even some slow dancing and rock ‘n roll.
There was a little cabin that some of us girls tried to fix up as a place to hang out. It was cold there in the winter and a trek through a field was required to get to it, but it was a great place for girl talk.
In the summer Melody Fair set up its tent in the vacant field on the corner of Federal Road and Candlewood Lake Road (now the site of Kohl’s). I’m sure some of my friends attended musicals there with their parents, just as I did with my mother. Kids also played baseball there.
My cousin Helen and I were lucky to grow up on the Gurski farm (now town-owned open space). We spent a lot of time exploring and playing in its fields. We played house in a rocky area on her parents’ property across from the farm. The space between two trees would become a door, and rocks would outline rooms. On hot days we would take off our shoes and wade in Merwin Brook.
There were some scheduled activities we enjoyed. St. Joseph’s CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) offered basketball games one night a week during the winter. We would all arrive to watch the game, and then Frank Thomas or John Kolinchak would drive us home. We all tried to be the last one off so we could stay out just a little longer.
We also had clubs, such as Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and 4-H. A weekly Senior Girl Scout meeting highlighted our high school years. Barbara Walker, the wife of Rev. Edward Walker, then the minister of the Congregational Church, was our leader, but much greater than that, she was an example. She made learning fun and fun activities even more fun. I remember hobo hikes around town, sleepovers at her home next to St. Paul’s Church, a campout at Mt. Tom, and trips to Boston and Washington, D.C.
She also knew the importance and the sense of accomplishment felt from earning what is to be enjoyed later. We held many bake sales and fund-raisers to raise money for those trips.
We may not have had many organized activities, such as what are provided now by the Parks and Recreation Department, local clubs, such as Scouts, and the schools, but we had fun, nevertheless. The need to think up things to do helped our ability to be creative and, as with Girl Scouts, to learn new things and also to be aware of how good it feels to work hard to accomplish something you want to do in the future.
