This week, your Historian defers to the words of beloved West Haven Historian Harriet North; the following article originally appeared on Jan. 12, 1984:
When I was a young girl, my mother would tell me to do something, and if I didn’t immediately spring into action, she would say “Get a move on, you are slower than molasses in January! That is how I feel this day after all the excitement of parties, gifts of rich food, nuts and candies and having no strength to stay away from them. I’m in slow motion.
For those who don’t know the meaning of the “slow molasses: I will tell you that at one time years ago, every good housewife and cook had a jug of molasses in the pantry. (Not many homes have a pantry today.)
We went to the grocery store with a stoneware jug with a wire handle on it. The barrel of molasses had a spigot on it and if the weather were very cold it took a long time to fill our jug, thus the expression. Today we buy our molasses in glass containers.
We used molasses for candy, Indian meal pudding and of course the Saturday night baked beans. Think how good those baked beans were, a big pan of beans cooked all day in the coal stove, a big piece of salt pork in the middle, an onion on two on the sides.
They weren’t much like the ones you buy in cans now. On a cold January night what better than baked beans, home-made brown bread, and some apple pie? We are never too young or too old to store up memories.
The picture that I show this week was drawn by Robert Jameson Kennedy. I have used it as it shows the Paier School of Art sign over Feinson’s store. The accredited Paier Art College started here in West Haven by Edward Paier and his wife Adele. She was the niece of “Sol” Dannenberg who had a store down on Campbell Avenue. I was reminded of this picture when I remembered that the Creche that we have on our Green every Christmas was done by Mr. Paier.
In the background you will notice Herzog’s Men’s Shop and Wood’s Hardware Store. On the right of the picture may be seen the two chimneys of the house that was torn down to make way for the Telephone Company building. This structure was once used as a courthouse and the famous Malley murder case was tried here. Two Malley brothers allegedly murdered one Jennie Cramer. She was found dead on the beach at Savin Rock. They were never found guilty. I guess that papers all over the country heard about West Haven and its famous case.