Stonington

At the close of that year I was sold to a Thomas Stanton, and had to be separated from my wife and one daughter, who was about one month old.

He resided at Stonington Point.

To this place I brought with me from my last master's two johannes, three old Spanish dollars, and two thousand of coppers besides five pounds of my wife's money.

this money i got by cleaning gentlemen's shoes and drawing boots by catching muskrats and minks raising potatoes and carrots etc and by fishing in the night and at odd spells all this money amounting to near twenty-one pounds york currency my master's brother robert stanton hired of me for which he gave me his note about one year and a half after that time my master purchased my wife and her child for seven hundred pounds old tenor one time my master sent me two miles after a barrel of molasses and ordered me to carry it on my shoulders i made out to carry it all the way to my master's house When I lived with Captain George Mumford, only to try my strength, I took up on my knees a tierce of salt containing seven bushels, and carried it two or three rods.

About this time I lost a chest, containing besides clothing, about thirty-eight pounds in paper money.

It was burnt by accident.

A short time after, I sold all my possessions at Stonington, consisting of a pretty piece of land and one dwelling-house thereon, and went to reside at Long Island.

For the first four years of my residence there, I spent my time in working for various people on that and at the neighboring islands.

Yeah.

I remember we had gone down, I think it was in Stonington, and it was a little tiny side of the road cemetery, Stonington, Connecticut.

And there wasn't a lot of gravestones there, but there was another one that was very similar where the woman had had, you know, like a dozen kids and so many grandkids and so many great grandkids.

And it talked about how, you know, she was an elder in the community and, again, huge family.

Yeah, I've been, I've been doing well.

We went to Libby's home in Stonington, Connecticut for the Labor Day holiday.

And I think Stephen and I took the train up and we arrived for lunch on Sunday and had a nice lunch with Libby.

Um, and then we went, we took a walk, we went swimming at the club and then, um, and then you and Alex and Hazel came and then Anna and Lars and Tilly and you Hugo all came for dinner.

your life from quicksand and get you good restaurants.

Yes.

How have you been other than Stonington?

Let's see.

Like, I'm doing great." And I remember when she pulled in, when First Light first pulled in, and her original name was, it was called Dragon, and she had a giant red dragon painted down the side of the boat, and I was like, "Wow." [laughs] Like, I had never seen a boat like that ever, and she was twice the size of the boat that I was on, and I was like, "Wow, that's like the most beautiful boat I've ever seen." And it was kinda like she had talked to me almost immediately.

It, she didn't really officially start talking to me until I got a chance to deliver her from Charleston, South Carolina up to Stonington, Connecticut, and that was like the first time that she actually spoke to me.

And I know this isn't gonna make very much sense to a lot of people, but it's kinda like having, when you have a dog, the dog doesn't actually speak to you, but you still talk- ... dog, right? You're still like, "Oh, you're so cute.

Oh, do you want your food? Oh..." You still find yourself talking to your, your cat or your dog or your bird or whatever you have.

If you want small-town feel and lovely main streets, tape in Bethel.

If you like waterfronts or sea shanty towns, as my boy Matt would say, [laughs] uh, go to New London, Old Lyme, Stonington, and Mystic.

Uh, those would more than suffice.

And a big reason I've never fled the Northeast is that I love having four seasons.

The water in the Long Island Sound is cleaner than ever.

But one small cove in Stonington with skyrocketing bacteria counts as the exception.

I'm reporter Allie LeMaster, and what the state will or will not do about it is the story.

We've got serpents in the field, arts and letters, and wooly workshops.

It's a plus a all these grades that say come in.

The water's great.

So what's the story that you have from Stonington, Alec?

So I think you're completely right, especially in eastern Connecticut.

So I

I'm a bigger fan of Stonington.

Have you ever been to Stonington?

Sure.

Yeah, it's just like north of there.

The state government are bleeding us dry.

Ten and a half million just in Yarra would be the same in Stonington and all the other councils.

and we're going to go bankrupt if it just keeps going this way.

So either take us over and the state just run everything, which I think is unrealistic because they'd have to deal with potholes and bloody planning permits and everything, or have bigger councils.

$120,000, is that about what a mayor gets?

Yeah, about that.

I think Stonington's is $140,000 and they get a car as well.

You get a car?