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Vernon Area notes, shops & links of interest, click here
Vernon Rockville, Connecticut Images and Points of Interest
The lovely Watercourse that ran famous Early American textile mills also empowered its leaders, who brought education and culture to the area as ambitiously as industry.
A century ago, this suburb of our State Capitol, Hartford, was among the wealthiest on earth.
Prosperous again, Elegant mansions, farmhouses, and public structures endure; faithfully preserved and translated for modern use.
Vernon Rockville Area Notes & Shops
Welcome! Current Feature: Vernon's "Shops at 30"
On Route 30, just across from Exit 65 on Scenic Route I-84, and a few minutes from Downtown Hartford, Connecticut's State Capitol,
"Shops at 30" is a winning stop for local folk and travellers alike.
The Shopping Plaza features some of everything for a life and so convenient and pleasant a visit! Quick links to these:
Travelling? Comfort Inn Hotel - Vernon - affordable, group-and-family-friendly, decorator-fresh, Free Breakfast Bar and eating area, including make-your-own Waffles,
free Wi-Fi and Sattelite TV and HBO, exercise and meeting rooms - Points, Rewards and Free Nights you can earn -
all managed by an award-winning staff, insure the best hospitality. 1-860-871-2432
Handy ATM, a few steps away at CBT Vernon Branch - Connecticut Bank & Trust
Window things and Gifts at "Casual Curtain" are sure to delight - lovely quality and affordable, too! 1-860-870-7388
Personalize it at "Live Life" Sportswear LLC - Custom Embroidery, Heat Press, Custom Gifts - caps, tees, jackets, throws and more! 1-860-871-2562
Cellphone fun at Authorized Verizon Retail Store - Vernon 374 Hartford Turnpike phone:860-872-7244
Hungry? Try the famous Rein's Deli ...early or late, 7 days a week!
or the Asian Fare at Joyluck Restaurant, and 5 other eating establishments a few steps further.
Forgot something? Tuesday Morning probably has it, from household to personal items, and giftshop things
Musical? Varela Music LLC "Creative Workshop for Musicians of All Ages"
Love a tag sale? "Just Like New" offers clothing and household items in meticulous consignment.
Where to go to buy or enjoy one? "Have A Cigar" sells and keeps the tobacco best and you can enjoy on site.
Needle and Thread needed? "Quilting By the Yard" is there with the full and colorful array of Quilting Fabrics, supplies and Classes - 7 days a week!
House-hunting? Prudential Connecticut Realty Vernon Office can make it a pleasure.
Celebrate life! "DanceWorks" will outfit you right for Dance, Skating, Aerobics or Gymnastics - or just plain classy fun! 1-860-871-7776
The Book Rack - Vernon Used Books and more - Reading fun.
Hair, Face, Manicure and Pedicure at both Hair World ...
and manicure/pedicure at Rose Nails and to top off this perfection, maybe...
Sylvan Learning Center - Vernon tutoring and test prep Help your child to do better.
State Farm Insurance - Vernon and Financial Services
Finish with a flourish! "Dunbar Jewelers" for a dazzling selection of some of all of it for men and women, at a range of prices.
As you can see, a stop at "Shops At 30" is a certain pleasure.
Arthur Murray A franchised Dance Studio - Todd Russel, Franchisee/Director 1-860-870-7400. The icon and his studios still thrive and Vernon is welcoming this new addition as of Summer 2009! "Let's Dance!"
Nothing fishy about it! Ask the pros at WET PETS Aquarium Store to adopt fish and other marine pets - equipment and information aplenty to help your aquarium to thrive ! 1-860-870-9629
Questions about Vernon Rockville Events? Rockville Downtown Association will be delighted to help! Phone/Fax (860) 875-7439 - Email: rdaCT@hotmail.com
Famed Rockville Native, Black American Artist, Charles Ethan Porter - protege of Mark Twain, lived and worked just a few blocks from my door.
Click to Notes & Memories about Vernon Hometown Hero, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Member, Singer - Songwriter, Gene Pitney sometimes known, "around here" as "The Rockville Rocket".
More on the Historic Vernon/Rockville area at the Vernon Historical Society web site.
Vernon Favorite! Lafayette Coffee Shop
Award winning Brunch site hosts are no longer operating the storefront dining options, but are focused on their long-lived and successful CATERING business!
Do find them thru the same website contact options.
Handy link to Map Quest for Vernon Rockville Area Map
E&A Flooring
Commercial - Residential..........Free Estimates..........Ceramic Tile...Marble..........Laminate...Wood..........Jacuzzis...Fireplaces..........Carpet Installation
Located near I-84 at 1161/2 Grove Street
Vernon, Connecticut 06066
Telephone: 860-872-3423
A Family Heirloom, LLC ~ Antiques ~
Collectibles ~ Fine Art ~ Dealers Jessica & Scott Liscomb ~ Buy / Sell / Consign ~ Estate Items Wanted
352 Hartford Turnpike #5 Vernon, CT 06066 ( I-84 to exit 65 to Route 30 ) ~ Hours: Tuesday thru Saturday, 10-5 ; Sunday 12-5
Telephone: 860-872-9100 ~ website: www.afamilyheirloom.com ~ email: liscombj@katewwdb.com or liscombs@katewwdb.com
Booma Paint & Wallpaper
30 Lafayette Square Vernon Connecticut 06066 860-875-1167 Authorized Retailer - Benjamin Moore Paints
Faith Montaperto Holistic Artist whose site "Arts Healing Hearts"at http://www.myspace.com/artshealinghearts
Shamrock Laundry
77 East Street
Rockville, CT 06066 1-860-875-5497 -
NEW ! Located at the site of the old Tres Bon Cleaners...more data later!
CVC - Community Voice Channel's wizard, and A longtime "Source", honored educator, and popular former mayor..."Joe" jives !
Arts, science education and civic meet in
Joe Grabinski , Current Vice-President, Community Voice Channel Veteran, Engineer, Professor Emeritus, CT Comm.College Husband, father, grandfather and video-whiz !
Contact :joegrabins@aol.com
Peter John Tracey C.P.A. Accountant
1245 Hartford Turnpike Vernon, Connecticut 06066 Telephone: 860-870-3477 E-Mail: ptraceycpa@aol.com
Click here for the
Tolland County Chamber of Commerce Website
30 Lafayette Square Vernon, CT 06066-4527 Tel: 860-872-0587 Fax: 860-872-0588 e-Mail: tccc@tollandcountychamber.org
Needle Arts Gallery
116 1/2 Grove Street Vernon, CT 06066 860-871-1817 Hours: WED-SAT 10-4
For more than a quarter century, the finest in Knitting and other needle arts supplies ... classic wools to the latest designer fibers!
Classes available by arrangement.
Technical advice while shopping available always!
Art For
ARTSAKE GALLERY
Fine Art ~ Prints ~ Custom Framing Jennifer Hopkins ~ Leon W. Balukas, C.F.C. Connecticut Tax No. 5867361-000
273 Tolland Stage Rd. ~ Route 30&74 ~ Tolland, CT 06084 Telephone (860) 870-7177 Hours: Wed.10-5 ~ Thurs. 12-8 ~ Fri. 10-5 ~ Sat.10-2
Studio Nails
Professional Nail Care Acrylic * Gel * Sculpture * Manicure & Pedicure * Air Brush & Hand Design
Mon.- Fri. 10-7 * Sat. 9-6
Gift Certificates Available * Walk-ins Welcome or By Appointment
Northeast Shopping Center * 87 East Street & Route 30 * Vernon,CT 06066 Telephone (860 )870-9935
East Street Salon
Robyn Luginbuhl, owner 91 East Street Vernon, CT 06066
On Rte 30, across from Rockville Bank Telephone: (860) 871-6702
Good Cents ~ The Consignment Shop
30 Lafayette Square Vernon, CT 06066 Telephone:860-871-1959
THE place to find that FIND, or Donate for benefit HVCC ! Items for all and the home.
Sponsored by Hockanum Valley Community Council, the proceeds go to support its causes.
ROCKVILLE BANK
Lafayette Square 20 Hyde Avenue Rockville, CT 06066 860-291-3600
Branch Officer: Mary E. Brunelle SBR/24, Automated Teller Location
 China Taste
Chinese Restaurant
75 East Street, Rockville-Vernon, CT 06066 phone: 860-871-9311 fax:860-871-4173 Check Map link, above, for EZ directions to a
really fine offering in classic Eastern Cuisine and best hospitality.
Horticulture and herbal fun are five blocks from Rte 84, and the fragrant oils found in Vernon at
More of the Galleries at Artsite:
You are also most welcome to contact the artist with inquiry or comment:
Email:
esfagan@ellefagan.com
Artwork and artshows in this area evolved through fine work and love, and although the artist is known for individuating, success is usually a team effort!
Springshow credits include:
Crystal Blueprint & Stationery (art supplies),
Minuteman Press (show flyers),
Winsor & Newton (paints),
Strathmore (papers),
Princeton (brushes),
Grumbacher (easels,paint). The links following provided moral support and information.
Please visit and enjoy the sites and their offerings.
- RDA (City Rennaissance helps),
- TCAA (county arts org.angels),
- CCA (state-level godparents),
- NEA (National Level Inspiration),
- USA ( more than I can ever say, or repay ),
- APFBSD, DWB ( good helpers ) & Spring ( Soaring Spirit) !
- Mary Michael's Poems! Lovely thoughts and easy reading ! - elle
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The People in my Neighborhood
I am fine and 'out and about' again, but I found beautiful Vernon Rockville, literally, by accident, staying at a home for ambulatory disabled after an injury stopped my normal life pace.
Unable to drive, and grateful to be able to do a daily walk, chat with my neigborhood vendors became routine...and very pleasant. It helped - totally out of my former work path, old friends were either nowhere to be found, or not aware, for some time, that I was suddely so alone, as well as injured.
Well and working again, I write this, and ask that you think, one minute, how odd it must have been for me, and sometimes for them. And so, these people and their businesses earned my mention here.
If you visit and find them half as nice as I did,
take that moment to appreciate the pleasure of it, at least to yourself.
Life ! Even when we are delighted, we tend to take it all
for granted.
Sometimes misfortune helps us to appreciate all we have enjoyed and motivates us to regain
the simple pleasures of life, and new vitality with those around us...if we'll give it half a chance...............elle
Limping, crashed from the total disability, I found my way around the corner, to Saint Bernard's Church, and the tears kept coming to my eyes, so I kept my sunglasses on. I am not a weepy type, but, my goodness!
When Mass was over, I stayed to be quiet for a moment. I looked up from my prayer and frustrated attempts to center, and the priest who'd said Mass was standing by me. If Bing Crosby in "Bells's of Saint Mary's" was sixty-ish, that was him. I smiled, instantly charmed, and said "I was just leaving Father." He said "No - that's not it. I want to know what's wrong." I told him, of my honored background and setbacks when suddenly widowed and recessionally clobbered.
The children were fine - held onto the money for that, but I had to work to eat, and having been injured and unable to work, after such honors, there was quite a bit of uproar, in my world, and I was in pain, a bit lost, and holding onto my ears. And my respected work, some a bit classified, insured that I'd be taking quite a beating of criticism, and I felt quite on all fours. "
"Well, you're here in Rockville now, You'll be ok.", he said, and I was, due to his intercession with others who were making the wrong kind of noise over it all. It just stopped and so I healed! The disability arrangements suddenly went as they should have, and I did not know it, but I had just met Father John White, a Holyman and Icon of that church for 33 years, famous for the Gentle Powers and Angelic Intelligence.
As I mended and got back to work, Saint Bernard's Church was my first stop - with gifts of my art to raise funds at their event, and I painted a portrait of Father's favorite, "Our Lady of Fatima", in scholl style, because he said, his health was failing and it might be nice for the school or something, when he passed. I could not afford to frame it for him, but I was thrilled when he stopped my sunny Grove Court Bungalow, to show me how it looked, in the fine frame he was able to get for it. It was lovely, of course, and we smiled and celebrated it, for a moment and Father Blessed me and the house. I smiled again: "Father, it's like the line in the famous old Irish song: 'Christmas in Killarney' - ' And Father John |before he's gone,| will bless the house'n' all!" He laughed and we parted, to share kind moments in my normal church attendance. Then I lost him for a bit, when my Mother fell ill, and when I found him again, he'd passed away. I miss him, but he was ProLife in every way, and not one to support inordinate grieving, so we go on, and his successor has been wonderful! That was a few years ago, but 20 years from now, say "Father John White" in Rockville, and see how the day is full of new lights!
A while later,when Saint Bernard's famous Nativity Group needed restoration, I begged for the job, met with church leaders, studied, shopped and did it right for them. As I began, in the convent garage that served as my studio,
the first step was cleaning the 14 life-sized figures, and that led to the discovery of their incised IDs. When I "Googled" the identification on the statues I gasped: National Treasures of a sort, and if you see it featured on "History Detectives" it means we will have done it right. They were part of FDR/WPA/FAP projects and all such remaining artworks are, indeed revered. All I know is that it was fine experience and honor to do the work in every way,and
won some coverage in the news, and is kept and shown with honors and security "befitting" now. I may post some of the images one day, with permissions from the parish, but keeping it at the church, "In Heavenly Peace" for now.
St Bernard's Church
www.saintbernardchurch.org
25 Saint Bernards Ter
Vernon Rockville, CT 06066-3258
(860) 875-0753
Like this one, Father Joseph Olczak, who has since been relocated to another parish.
Rockville Priest Shares Memories of Pope John Paul II, Who Once Served Him Holy Sacrament - By JOAN HUNT Reminder Editor
ROCKVILLE - Father Joseph Olczak grew up in the Polish city of Lublin - not far from the birthplace of Karol Jozef Wojtyla, better known to us as Pope John Paul II.
Olczak, who is the pastor of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Rockville, graduated from Catholic University in Lublin, which was the only Catholic college in eastern Europe at the time, and then began his ministry in Cracow at the same time Wojtyla served as Bishop of Cracow.
"All of us, one way or another, were touched by his ministry," Olczak remembered. "We are saddened that he has passed away," he said.
"He would come to our main shrine, and when he came to visit Poland [after he became Pope] he always came to the shrine," he said.
It was at that first pilgrimage to The Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Poland that Olczak received Holy Communion from the Bishop, who would be inaugurated as Pope John Paul II on Oct. 22, 1978.
"Many cardinals and bishops were with him," Olczak recalled. "I couldn't believe it, but there were half a million people standing out in front of the shrine."
Although Olczak came to America in 1970, he was impressed by another great event that took place at The Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in August 1991 - the Youth of the World Meeting, presided over by Pope John Paul II.
"It was a grand gathering of youth from all continents," Olczak said. "Youth came from Ukraine, Russia, eastern block countries and the western block, and people brought trucks of food," he said. "They were giving food away and people opened their homes to them. It was a most wonderful, loving experience. "
Olczak pointed out that Pope John Paul II championed youth from the beginning of his papal ministry. His inaugural address included a salutation to the world's young people.
"You are the hope of the church and of the world," he said on the fall day in St. Peter's Square, when he became the leader of the Catholic church universal.
Olczak said that, although the Holy Father dealt with many conflicts during his lifetime, everyone knew exactly what Pope John Paul II was teaching about moral standards, the standards of the church universal and the Catholic faith. He said that people didn't always agree with him, but they always knew where he stood.
"He was not wishy-washy," he said. "And he was not just a Catholic, but a universal pastor. Those who were Muslims, Jews, Protestants - believers and unbelievers - were all touched by his ministry," said Father Joseph.
St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Rockville is a Polish congregation, thoough its members are multi-cultural, and a member of the Norwich Diocese. It is one of the places where the Mass is said in Polish, at times, as well as English and Latin. A real treat! Ask them about their rich cultural heritage and community friendly events, and special offerings. I am not sure if the annual Pierogi Make & Sell is still active, but it alone is worth the contact.
As long as places and events of this sort still go on, in good health and great love, there will be an America worth getting up for in the morning. And hope for all the residents of the "Global Village".
Saint Joseph Church in Rockville, CT. | 33 West Street, Rockville, CT 06066 | Tel. (860) 871-1970 | Email: info@stjosephct.org. | website: http://www.stjosephct.org/
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