The Inception

Understanding how Fred's News came about is all about the rich history of the Town which it served as well as the surrounding Towns which it beckoned. Sprague is made up of three villages, Hanover, Versailles and Baltic. Baltic being the largest of the three as well as the location of all the municipal offices. Those offices do not included Fred's News which was more often than not dubbed the "center or meeting place of the Town." Many important decisions were made at Fred's, some by Town officials others by my wonderful "Cast of Characters." Looking back I'd say the "characters" were more likely to be "right on"!

Started in the late 1940's by Fred & Lillian, it was basically a coffee shop,with donuts, pastries, a few basic sandwiches and loads of hand dipped ice cream with the highest butter-fat content available and probably the best coffee available anywhere. The water for the shop was from a well more than 300 hundred feet below the surface. It came from an aquifer that runs through Connecticut. When pumped to the surface it appeared sparkling and bursting with energy as if to say "freedom at last, drink me and today will be a perfect day"! They say water is tasteless. On the contrary this was the sweetest, freshest unadulterated drink that has ever passed over my palate! Until we purchased Fred's I never consumed coffee!

Back to Fred & Lillian. Not too long after they opened her brothers, Fred & Emil decided to purchase the place from them, never changing the name as the original Fred stayed involved, the second Fred was more of a character and uninvolved, other than his life-long girlfriend, Barbara who worked for the "brothers" her entire life, Emil as well as his life-long girlfriend and a few other close friends that worked the shop. Understand when I say the second Fred was uninvolved, this is perhaps a miss-statement. (Gotta love that term)! He was involved in the "family business", which if you listen to all the stories swirling around the Town, were even more colorful than they brothers and the shop themselves. The store soon became the precursor to today's convenience stores. There was not an available empty spot for anything else. Penny candy (when it was a penny), boxes of chocolates, greeting cards, stationery, magazines, newspapers of all kinds and even more so on Sundays. It would take pages to describe everything in the place. Perhaps the best description might be take today's CVS or Walgreens leaving everything in it but put it in a space maybe 50 feet by 35 feet. The only thing we'd leave out is the "Male Enhancement" products near the cash registers. They did however sell products that helped males who didn't need enhancement but needed protection!