As shadows lengthen, join Windsor Historical Society and the Windsor Jesters on Saturday, October 27, from 3 - 5 p.m. as they bring Windsor people from the World War I era to life on our fourth annual “memory walk” in Windsor’s historic Palisado Cemetery.   You will meet the highest ranking officer from Windsor to serve in World War I, a bugler, a nurse, a gold star mother, a Sanitary Corps researcher who worked to contain the Spanish Flu epidemic, and one of the victims of that epidemic as you tour the cemetery.  You will learn about evolving New England gravestone styles in a slide presentation given by Society Director Christine Ermenc while feasting on home-made gingerbread with whipped cream and warmed New England apple cider.  The tour begins and ends at the Windsor Historical Society complex at 96 Palisado Avenue.

                       

Lieutenant Colonel Philip Remington, who followed in his family’s military footsteps, will be played by  Neal Brundage.  Dorothy Hayden, played by Bunni Barresi, was a devoted member of the Army and Navy Nurse Corps and will tell of the heroic efforts of medical staff serving soldiers wounded at the front lines.    Harold Loomer was an army bugler.  As played by Carroll Toal, Loomer will talk about the training process at Camp Devens which transformed untrained men into soldiers more ready for the front lines.  Oliver Hayden served stateside in army hospitals and research facilities.  When the Spanish Flu broke out in 1918, he and his colleagues worked around the clock long after the war ended to try to contain this fatal scourge.    Jeff Ingram will be portraying Oliver Hayden.  Mrs. Flora Chidsey lost her son H. Carleton Chidsey days before the war ended.  Played by Annie Phillips, Mrs. Chidsey will talk about how townspeople at home supported the war efforts.  Barry True will play the part of Reverend William B. Cornish who was very much involved in Home Guard efforts and eventually enlisted as an army chaplain, only to be felled by the dreaded Spanish Flu, leaving a wife and baby daughter.  Gerry Traczyk and Joan Brundage are the costumers and Beverly Garvan researched and assembled historical information used to create the character sketches.

 

Cost for the memory walk is $10 for adults, $9 for seniors and students and $8 for Windsor Historical Society members.  Please call 688-3813 to reserve your space by October 26th.  The tour starts at Windsor Historical Society, 96 Palisado Avenue (Route 159).  Parking is available around Palisado Green and in the First Church and Windsor Discovery Center Parking lots.

 

The memory walk is offered in conjunction with the Society’s exhibition, Over There: Windsor and World War I, sponsored by The Connecticut Humanities Council, Alstom Power, an anonymous donor, Rabbett Insurance Agency, and Windsor Federal Savings, with support from The Kernan Agency. Windsor Animal Clinic and the Warren Giffin Memorial Fund are sponsors of the memory walk.  Guests are encouraged to tour the show before the program and discover Windsor’s contributions to the war on the battlefield, home front, and in U.S. military posts.