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Volume 115, Number 67 - Tuesday, December 15, 1998


Year-end thoughts on Middletown's past and future
by John Friedlander

I won't inflict an end-of-year Top Ten list on you.

But I am thinking about time, our history and Middletown's future. Here's a grab-bag of things to ponder as we teeter on the brink of a new millennium.

  • I just learned that in 1823, Middletown resident Luther Smith built a ship called the Desdemona up the river a bit in Cromwell. This 98-foot long 331 ton wood-hulled three-master is now living its one hundred and seventy-fifth year of life as a museum in a harbor in Maui, Hawaii.

    Back when this ship was built, the sea seemed a limitless pool of food and raw materials for industries that supported societies around the world. A variety of whales were harvested worldwide by the thousands, and there was no such thing as an Endangered Species List.

    Now, scientists warn us that the world's oceans are seriously overfished. We are eating fish that used to be considered trash, and harvests are shrinking as these species are caught faster than they can reproduce. Fishing boats are working harder than ever to bring in smaller catches, and the government is limiting licenses and catches to reduce the pressure on already dangerously low fish populations.

    How long before we no longer eat fish because we've drained the pool so dry we can no longer drink from it? How long before fishermen no longer put out to sea, and unused fishing boats rot in drydocks or get refitted as museums about lost ways of life? What industries does Middletown host today that will be irrelevant in 175 years -- or even 20 years? Where in the world will the work of our neighbors end up, and who will prize it 175 years from now?

  • A wrinkle in Middletown's aging process showed up last Wednesday, when a water main buried under Main Street around 1895 broke, flooding Main Street between Washington and Court Streets. Our crack Public Works team made short work of the repair, and by the next day it was pretty much business as usual in the neighborhood affected.

    Apparently, we've got plenty of this old pipe still down there, still slaking the thirst of Middletown neighborhoods. Over the years, newer pipes have been tied in to serve new customers or take over when the old pipes wear too thin. Like more things in life than we sometimes realize, we don't just throw away the old when something new comes along. It takes an appreciation for the value of heritage, a boundless curiosity about new possibilities, and a mature, long-term perspective to stick with old ways that still work while adopting new tools when appropriate.

  • Speaking of new tools, we have 382 days before we find out what municipal systems suddenly think it's January 1, 1900 again. If you haven't read anything about the Year 2000 problem, where computers store date information without noting the century, you must be living in a very deep, dark cave.

    I've read all sorts of very scary stories about what will happen when microchips buried unnoticed in all kinds of industrial controllers suddenly experience a one hundred year time warp. I haven't read much about our preparations for this first-time-ever event. Have we audited our exposure to this potentially devastating problem? For instance, do we know that our 911 calls will continue to be answered? Do we know that our tax bills will still be calculated properly? Do we know that the sewage treatment plant won't suddenly ask us to "just hold it?" Are we covered by insurance for unexpected consequences when the clock strikes that magic 0:00:01, 01/01/2000?

  • This past week I've been nearly hit by cars several times while walking in crosswalks, and yelled at and honked at rudely in my car by other motorists while waiting for walkers to cross in front of me. I've also had many, many neighbors agree strongly with last week's column about the dangerous new concurrent crosswalk system, and share with me their stories of fear and near misses while crossing downtown streets. Not one single person has spoken in praise of smoother traffic flow or reduced time waiting at intersections. Here's the quote of the week on the topic, that neatly ties up this collection of threads on Middletown and the passage of time.

    From Middletown's Ken Gronbach, President of KGA Advertising, (Bob's Stores' ad agency) and owner of Main Street Market: "We've brought people here to visit from all over the country, and they marvel at having their own time to cross the street without having to worry about cars. People don't shop where they don't feel they can walk safely. The exclusive use crosswalk system is a legacy downtown Middletown can't afford to lose."


    Unpublished note: Interestingly, on the day this column was published, a front page story in the Middletown Press reported that the city had decided to change the crosswalk programming at one major intersection on Main Street back to the exclusive use system.

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