Volume 20, Number 15 Serving Durham, Middlefield and Rockfall
Local man remembers the sideshow By Daniel Jackson Town Times
blockhead” act, Hurlbert also can walk across broken glass and swallow fire. The coffee table in Chris One hundred years ago, Hurlbert’s living room was sideshow acts traveled with covered with the strange and circuses and featured a mix grotesque - a three-headed of stunts, people with unusuduck, a half-fish half-monkey al deformities and a museum mummy, shrunken heads. of curiosities that was a mix But before Hurlbert talked of truth and fakery. It was all about his collection, he sat on designed to draw in the his couch and calmly ham- crowds. It was “pure performance,” said Hurlbert. mered a nail up his nose. Hurlbert started collecting Hurlbert, a professional magician who lives in Mid- sideshow curiosities - also dlefield, has performed mag- known as sideshow gaff ic since the late 1980s at about 10 years ago. His first places like Quassy Amuse- piece was a replica Fiji merment Park, Lake Compounce maid, a sideshow gaff that and the First and Last Tav- showman PT Barnum creatern. As a hobby, he collects ed by sewing together the tail sideshow curiosities and of a fish to the body of a teaches himself sideshow mummified monkey. Sideshow gaff is a collecacts. Besides the “human tion of real and fabrication, said Hurlbert. Old sideshow showmen collected things like pickled punks, deformed human babies, and displayed them alongside fabrications created with plaster or taxidermy, like the Fiji merTown Times photo by Daniel Jackson maid.
Chris Hurlbert holds a specimen in his sideshow collection: a threeheaded duck.
See Sideshow, page 6
Friday, July 26, 2013
Middlefield voters approve sale of Powder Ridge land By Mark Dionne Town Times By a 2-1 margin, voters in Middlefield approved the sale of the last of the town-owned Powder Ridge property to Lori Vogel-Brown for $300,000. A total of 648 residents voted in the July 23 referendum at the Middlefield Community Center, with the final tally coming in at 434 to 214. Vogel-Brown, who waited for the result at the community center, said she was delighted and appreciated the support from Middlefield and Rockfall. “It’s a good deal for the town,” she said. “We’re going to keep it beautiful.” Immediately after the vote, a smiling Middlefield First Selectman Jon Brayshaw hugged Vogel-Brown. “They (voters) said loud and clear that we want to reduce our debt,” Brayshaw said adding the voters were supporting agriculture “in its many diverse forms.” Brayshaw said the town handled the sale properly and noted that the final contract had changed after input from residents. Brayshaw called the referendum the “honorable way” to settle the question. The nearly 20-acre property has some frontage on Pow-
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Town Times photo by Mark Dionne
Ownership of these fields, bordering Powder Hill Road, Camp Nerden and the driveway to the ski area have been the subject of debate and a referendum in Middlefield. der Hill Road. It is bordered by the ski area access road and in the back by the ski area land. On the north side, a corner of Camp Nerden pinches the property, creating a front and back section in almost a bow-tie shape. At both public hearings devoted to the topic, VogelBrown told Middlefield residents that she wanted the property as a horse farm. She concluded her presentation at the July 16 hearing by saying, “We live here. We have deep roots here. We love Middlefield.” While the right to build a residence on the rear portion
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stays with the property, Vogel-Brown has insisted that she wants the property for agricultural use. The property will not truly merge with Vogel-Brown’s Ridgeland Farms at 111 Pow-
See Voters, page 7
In this issue ... Calendar ........................21 Faith..................................2 Government Meetings ...11 Letters .............................8 Obituary ........................12 Seniors...........................23