By Clark Judge
(September 18, 2024) — Few people know that the Killingworth Town Picnic was first held at Deer Lake in 1967. At least, that’s the date town historian Tom Lentz documented in his “Timeline of the History of Killingworth, 1600-2016.” But no one, including Lentz, can ascertain the last time it was there. Some think it was 20-or-so years ago. Others, longer. Unanimity is rare when it comes to most everything involving the Deer Lake Town Picnic – until, that is, the conversation turns to one particular subject.
Its return.
Thanks to the Killingworth Women’s Organization, the town picnic – last held in 2017 at Parmelee Farm to celebrate the town’s 350th anniversary – returns to Deer Lake on Saturday, October 5, 2024 and those who remember it way back when are as grateful as they are ecstatic.
“Happy?” said Charlie Smith, who lived here 55 years. “No. I’m super happy.”
So is Lou Annino, who spoke fondly of the Deer Lake picnic and lamented its passing, saying he hoped it would return one day – presumably, to Parmelee. Notified that it not only would return but return to Deer Lake, Annino at first seemed surprised. Then, he nodded his head and grinned.
“There’s not a better place,” he said. “It’s ideal.”
Held on Labor Day weekend, the Deer Lake Town Picnic was home to a myriad of events. There was Cow Chip Bingo (honest). Blind tractor drives. Firemen-Lions Club softball games. Karaoke contests. Dancing. Music. You name it. There was even a sky dive where four paratroopers jumped out of a helicopter, and three landed on or near a target.
The fourth had to be rescued from a tree.
“It was a day,” said Patty Clifton, who lived at Deer Lake with her late husband, Mark, for nearly four decades, “where time didn’t make a difference.”
What did? You’re about to find out. We asked those who were there what they remember most. These are their stories:
TIM GANNON, Killingworth resident for 46 years.
“What I remember is the blindfolded-driver tractor obstacle course. I believe it was called The Backseat Driver Game, and it was the one thing that had me laugh the hardest. Basically, the husband or wife would be driving a tractor with a blindfold, so they couldn’t see. Then there would be a person riding in a trailer behind, saying, ‘Steer left! Steer right!, as he or she guided the driver through the course in a prescribed time. The faster you got through the course, the better your chances of winning. It was a laugh fest. Then there was Cow Chip Bingo where Lisa Griffin dressed up as a cow and sold tickets, and a Lip Sync Contest, which I took part in. We had a Chamber of Commerce team and a Lions Club team, where your group would pick a song, dress the part and go up on stage. One year, we did ‘Love Shack;’ another time, we did ‘Heard It through the Grape Vine,’ where we all dressed up as grapes. We finished second both times, but the contest was a winner.”
LINDA DUDEK, lifelong Killingworth resident.
“The one thing that sticks in my mind is that they had an apple-pie baking contest where Wendy Welter always won. Of course, I knew Wendy. She was a little bit older than I, but, in those days, because the town was so small everybody knew everybody. Anyway, I grew up with her, and she shared her recipe. To this day, it’s my go-to apple pie recipe that always gets rave reviews. So thanks to Wendy for that.”
LOU ANNINO, Killingworth resident since 1959.
“I remember when we went down in that little Volkswagen bug of ours with our kids – (wife) Carol and I, with six or seven kids in the back. We drove all the way in and up to where the water ran down, but I don’t remember taking them to the exhibits because I wanted to make sure I didn’t lose anybody. It was a long time ago, but it was a great affair.”
JIM LALLY, Killingworth resident since 1970.
“I have a picture in my office with my son Dan and a cow. I think it’s dated 1990, and it was around that period that Mark Clifton had an idea for Cow Bingo. We brought one of our more docile cows over to Deer Lake – her name was Bathsheba — and kept her there for the day, with all these people betting on numbers and letters painted in white squares. It was like a bingo game, with the idea that you bet on when and where it was going to poop. It was fun, and it attracted a lot of people who kept walking back and stood around the perimeter of the fence, looking for it to poop. Unfortunately, it didn’t. Not much, it didn’t.”
CHARLIE SMITH, Killingworth resident for 55 years.
“One of the first years, there was a karaoke contest where several groups in town would mimic the music coming out of the loudspeaker and pretend they were singing … and we had dance steps with that. I remember being in one of them, but I can’t remember the song. What I do remember is that we came in last. The other thing that we did for entertainment was the Lions Club softball team played the Fire Company, and the Fire Company had a beer can they put wings on. It was called the Beer Can Trophy, and I think it’s still at the Fire House. Our first Lions president was John Kempter, and he had a friend who, I believe, was with the Connecticut Army National Guard and part of a jump team. I think they were called the Black Knights. Anyway, the helicopter came in at one point, and four guys jumped out of it. You could hear the rotor, and then you saw these people jumping out. We tried to do it later in the afternoon so that a lot of the festivities were over, and this would be the culmination. But one of them landed in the trees. True story. We were just glad the Fire Company was there with their apparatus. So we got the ladders out and pulled him out. He was pretty far up. The rest of them landed close to the jump zone and were happy to be on the ground. I guess you know about Cow Chip Bingo. We set up a temporary fencing and had some kind of lining material like chalk to draw diagonals and boxes with it. The rest was left to the cow, who was there from 8 or 9 o’clock in the morning. I also remember that one of the first years of the picnic that we had beer, which was probably a mistake. Because the people who were selling it never left, and one of the fellas got a call from his wife after midnight. She thought he was in a ditch somewhere.”
DAWN MOONEY, Killingworth resident for 32 years.
“I brought my Girl Scouts troop there …I can’t tell you the year … but when I brought them anywhere my only goal was to keep them alive. And I did.”
GLENN JOHNSON, Killingworth resident for 53 years.
“My memory was of the first town picnic at Sheldon Park, and it wasn’t good. I’m not quite sure the year, but there was a softball game … I played a lot of softball back then … and I was on the Firemen’s team. The picnic morphed into a softball team rivalry between the Firemen and the Lions Clubs. So, there I was up at bat and ready to hit one into the woods. I fouled off a couple of pitches before the third one came right down the middle …and, for some reason, I didn’t swing. And it’s, ‘Strike three!’ I was called out on strikes … in slow-pitch softball. I still remember it. But then we started the picnic at Deer Lake, everybody’s family was there. So you’d bring a blanket, and there would be music playing, different bands and the kids would just scatter so they could be off with their friends. They loved it. I remember they had this game with a cow, where they divided a field into 100 squares, and you bought a square for what I believe was $10. Basically, it was Cow Bingo. I don’t remember who won, but everybody was paying attention, and it was a tremendous success.”
MARILYN CAMPBELL, lifelong Killingworth resident.
“I have fond memories of dancing to the band and sitting on a blanket in the grass, listening to the music drinking wine and eating. Two of the strongest memories I have of Deer Lake are, first, when I was young I rode my horse up there quite a bit and rode all over the place. And, second, my Dad used to take me fishing up there. We’d take a rowboat across the lake to a bridge and sit there while I would fish. I used to catch little sunfish, and I loved it. It was one of the things my Dad and I used to do together.”
PATTY CLIFTON, Killingworth resident for 39 years and former director of Deer Lake summer camp.
“My primary thoughts are about how wonderful the townspeople were to put together a town event, with food and activities for every age group, from preschoolers right up through retired folks. The friendly faces and genuine effort made it a fun day for Killingworth residents, especially because we really don’t have a ‘town green’ where we can congregate. Families would bring their lawn chairs, blankets and coolers, find a spot on the grass in the shade and have a relaxing day of conversation with neighbors and friends. It was a bigger event than you can imagine and a day where time didn’t make a difference. I remember Cow Chip Bingo. I think we put down a bag of flour on a grid on the field behind Leary Hall, and you could buy tickets. Because it was a gambling thing, we had to get permits from the town. The other thing was a blind tractor haul where somebody would stand on the back of a tractor, and the driver was blindfolded. There was a course where the person in the back had to tell the driver to take a left or right where there were cones or hay bales. Oh, and the Lions’ Club had the most delicious chicken and corn on the cob! They were pumping out food all day long. The only glitch for us was that it was always held on my son’s birthday weekend, so the poor kid never celebrated his birthday on his birthday. But we made up for it, and he probably never even noticed.”
All photos from 1992 Killingworth Town Picnic, provided by Tom Lentz
