About a month ago I was in Trumbull for my high school reunion. After checking in to the local hotel, I took the elevator to my floor and as I stepped out of the elevator, I saw the picture above mounted on the wall. I recognized it as a picture of the seal of the Town of Trumbull and I remembered reading about it in one of Grandpa’s letters. It took a while but I finally found what I was looking for in a letter dated June 18, 1939. This is what he wrote:
“I will not deny that all this political mudslinging and excitement is extremely annoying, disheartening and even worrisome at times and is getting me frightfully disgusted with the whole business so that I feel very much like refusing to be considered for reelection,(Grandpa is currently the First Selectman of the Town of Trumbull) which of course is just what they would like to have all of the town officials who are under fire do, but I am going ahead and trying to do my job as though everything was lovely. Yesterday, for instance, I received a letter from Hartford telling me that the suggestion I have been trying to put over for some months will probably be effective and that is the incorporation in the bridge design they are building for the Merritt Parkway, the seal of the Town of Trumbull, as shown above. That will last long after this petty bickering is forgotten. However I would not be a bit surprised to receive criticism from our carping friends asking what right I had to take upon myself the authority to adopt a seal design for the Town and foist it on the citizens without a town vote.”
Of course I was full of questions. Where was this picture taken? Was the seal ever incorporated in a bridge design on the Merritt Parkway? If so, is it still there? I spoke to a classmate classmate, Doug Honychurch, who still lives in Trumbull, about my questions. He sent me an email with the following information:
I am having problems with forwarding articles, pictures, etc. via email, so at this time I am not able to send you the photos I took of the Trumbull Seal, which was taken from the Huntington Turnpike overpass on the Merritt Parkway and moved to the lawn at the Trumbull Town Hall. The center is not metal, nor is it painted; it is all the color of concrete. Perhaps there is another one somewhere. I will check into that.
It sounds to me like the seal of the Town of Trumbull was indeed incorporated into the bridge design on the Merritt Parkway. I would think there would have been two seals, one visible from the eastbound lanes and the other visible from the westbound lanes. I will continue researching this to find out what happened to the second one and the next time I’m in Trumbull, I’ll try to get a picture of the seal in the lawn at the Trumbull Town Hall.
Tomorrow and Sunday I’ll be posting Special Pictures.
On Monday, I’ll begin a week of letters written in 1941, when Lad has returned from Venezuela and Dick has joined Dan and Ced in Alaska.
Judy Guion
"Greatest Generation" Life Lessons 