Fred's News Friends.....remembered.

Although Sprague is not considered a destination town, it is home to approximately three thousand residents. It is tucked neatly into the beautiful Shetucket River Valley in eastern Connecticut yet minutes away from two of the world's largest casinos, a relatively short distance from New York City, Boston and Long Island Sound beaches. At one time, this area of Connecticut was home to many dairy farms. Now, sadly only a few remain. Although, I am not an authority on the subject, a very good and long time friend we'll call "Delaval" or more affectionately known as "Touch", is just such an authority. Not only does he services dairy farms all over New England, there was a time when every weekend or whenever we needed help at Fred's News all we had to do was call.

Loud but lovable, a spoiled brat baby of the family, but as big hearted as his mouth (sorry "Touch"), he is by all means a character and dearly missed. "Touch" was a Fred's News regular that had ties to many of our other patrons. Spielman Dairy Farm was one of his customers and the farm boys were everyday or perhaps twice a day visitors to Fred's News. A few years back, the Spielman Farm had a beautiful new state of the art barn built, that overlooked the valley. Hard to believe this farm is so close to some of the most densely populated areas on the east coast, yet when you stand atop Plain Hill Road, look out over the vast expanse of the valley, it is so beautiful and so serenely quiet.

The company that built this barn was owned by a Mennonite family from Pennsylvania. The group of young men that came to construct the barn, travelled together, ate together,worked together and socialized together. Everyday they were up before the sun, stopped at Fred's News for a hearty breakfast and some great conversation, then off to work the entire day and into the sunset, building that barn. Friday afternoon, they all crammed into the truck, drove back to Pennsylvannia to be with their families and attend their Mennonite Sunday services, driving through the night to begin work again on Monday morning. Dedicated and hardworking, they allowed all the Fred's News patrons a glimpse of their lives. Yes, they had cell phones, if only to be in touch with their construction company and families they dearly missed. They allowed questions concerning their lifestyle and asked many in return. In this world of diversity, they were very much like their new found friends at Fred's News, yet they were interestingly different.

We visited the construction sight early one evening at the insistence of the farm boys, only to find all these young men still working feverishly. As we walked down the path, to observe, we were happily greeted by them. We were now in their domain and they were more than willing to provide the grand tour. We were amazed at the knowledge and level of maturity demonstrated by these young men, some of which were only nineteen. The crew leader and son of the company owner, couldn't of been any more that twenty five or six years old, yet all followed his orders completely. They allowed us to photograph their work in progress, even telling us where to take the photo that would give us the best results. As the weeks went on and the barn rose overlooking that valley, they let us know they would soon be leaving and yes, they would miss Fred's News friends and food. Again they allowed photos to be taken so all could and would remember them. This time however, they wanted pictures of their new "family" that had made them welcome to the village of Baltic, their home away from home!