We are in the process of archiving all weekly updates by the month. All of the weekly updates for this month are on this page.
Just scroll down to locate the desired update.
July 2021
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| Hamden Fire Retirees Association, Inc. |
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| CLICK here for daily flag status |
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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2012
Website is updated every Friday - Important interim updates will be posted when necessary
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| CLICK to go to HGSRA webpage |
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Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and colleagues of Easton firefighter, Lt. Russell Neary, who died after being struck by a tree limb on Monday evening as he was removing debris from the road. Please also remember our neighbors who live along the Connecticut shoreline, and all along the East Coast, whose homes and businesses were devastated by the horrendous tidal surges that accompanied Hurricane Sandy. They are in our thoughts and prayers at this very difficult time.
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We're keeping it lighter this week
(and the update is a little smaller)
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| "A Century Plus of Us" - CLICK photo to watch video |
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| "A Century Plus of Us"
After a pretty rough week, we thought our website fans might enjoy a light-hearted, three-minute video retrospective. It is a 100-plus year montage of photos of Hamden Fire Department personnel and apparatus, thanks to our many photo contributors.
You will see no fires, accidents, hurricanes or floods - only us. In fact, it's a "A Century Plus of Us." Enjoy!
(NOTE: A random YouTube ad, NOT of our choosing, may pop-up during the first few seconds of the video - just "X" it out.)
Posted 11/2/12
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Retired Supt. of Alarms & Apparatus Richie Lostritto (pictured far right) sent this Halloween photo, taken many years ago in front of Station 2. Hydrant Maintainer Larry Gershman (back to camera) assists Richie and an unidentified guy (hmmmm), while they replace yet another head gasket on the Waukesha powerplant in Engine 1. The repair shop guys could usually be counted upon to don ridiculous outfits on Halloween, but that year they observed the occasion by just being themselves. (Who was that masked man?)
Posted 11/2/12
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Something to Think About!
This is for real. This display ad for a local insurance agency appeared in an issue of The Hamden Chronicle 64 years ago. The headline caught our eye because it seemed so implausible. How could a bird start a fire in a church steeple? Well, read the ad.
Another retired firefighter present when we spotted the ad confimed that this weird phenomenon was a reality back in the day when almost everyone smoked cigarettes (well, almost everyone) and the careless disposal of butts (i.e. "littering") was as commonplace as the garden variety pigeon.
So, since both pigeons and smokers are still among us - although smokers today are far less ubiquitous - beware that this type of incendiary event could easily happen today.
Posted 11/2/12
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| The Hamden Chronicle, November 19, 1948 - Courtesy of the Hamden Historical Society |
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| Hamden Fire Retirees Association, Inc. |
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| CLICK here for daily flag status |
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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012
Website is updated every Friday - Important interim updates will be posted when necessary
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| CLICK to go to HGSRA webpage |
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ALL POLICE & FIRE RETIREES, PLEASE TAKE NOTE
A meeting for all members of the new Hamden Guardian Services Retirees Association, LLC will take place at the Hamden American Legion Post 88, 3005 Dixwell Avenue, on Thursday, November 15th at 7 p.m.
All members of the HGSRA, any fire or police retiree who plans to join, and any active firefighter or police officer who plans to retiree by Nov. 30th, are all welcome.
The Executive Board of the HGSRA will report on the status of the pension plan and on future HGSRA activities. There are presently 166 members of the HGSRA, 84 of whom are fire retirees.
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Lt. Joe McDermott's Engine 3 Crew in 1969
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| This 1969 photo shows Engine 3's crew repacking the hosebed following hose testing. Up top in the blue jacket is Ff. Walt Vining. Barely visible in the hosebed with Walt are Ffs. Bob Slater and Bob Chadwick. Ff. Gaetano "Carmen" Amarante is on the tailboard waving at the photographer. Ffs. Dave Herrmann and Ed Doiron are standing at street level. |
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65 Years Ago This Week
These two articles appeared in the November 6, 1947 edition of The Hamden Chronicle and are published here courtesy of the Hamden Historical Society.
Posted 11/9/12
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| The Hamden Chronicle, November 6, 1947 |
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| CLICK on photo to enlarge for easier reading. |
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Trivia: What major technological emergency (glitch) occurred 47 years ago on November 9th? And what were you doing? (Email the website at HFDBadge102@aol.com.)
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304 Ridgewood Avenue
June 21, 1966
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| Photo by John Mongillo, Jr. |
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On Tuesday afternoon, June 21, 1966, personnel of old Platoon 1 responded to this garage fire at 304 Ridgewood Avenue, a street that begins in North Haven opposite Spring Glen School, and ends in Hamden at the corner of Santa Fe Avenue.
The fire did a lot of damage to the garage, but was otherwise not of any great consequence (unless, of course, you owned the garage). The HFRA website is featuring it on this week's Home page because we acquired photos of the incident from three different sources.
The photo above was scanned from a nice 8x10 glossy taken by Register photographer John Mongillo, Jr. Immediately below is a New Haven Register article featuring another Mongillo photo. And immediately below the Register article is a nice color shot taken as the crew was overhauling. It was scanned from the original Ectochrome slide taken by Ed Doiron, Sr., who was a member of Engine 3's crew.
Posted 11/9/12
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| New Haven Register, June 22, 1966 (Courtesy of Chan Brainard) |
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| IN COLOR! (Photo by Ed Doiron, Sr.) |
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MEETING NOTICE
A meeting for all new members of the Hamden Guardian Services Retirees Association, LLC will take place at the Hamden American Legion Post 88, 3005 Dixwell Avenue, on Thursday, November 15th at 7 p.m.
All members of the HGSRA as of that date, or those police and fire retirees who plan to join at the meeting, are welcome. The Executive Board of the HGSRA will report on the status of the pension plan and on future HGSRA activities.
Posted 10/27/12
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| Hamden Fire Retirees Association, Inc. |
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| CLICK here for daily flag status |
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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012
Website is updated every Friday - Important interim updates will be posted when necessary
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| CLICK to go to HGSRA webpage |
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| Firefighter John O'Hare |
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| Any conversation with John O'Hare is going to be one in which many laughs are exchanged. John has a unique, often humorous way of looking at life.
In a recent phone conversation, John recalled his first day on the job in 1953. He parked his 1948 DeSoto in the parking lot at Station 2 and walked in the front door. Seated at the watch desk was veteran firefighter Art Smith. Looking up at O'Hare, Firefighter Smith asked, "Yes, sir, may I help you?"
When O'Hare told Smith that he was the new man and was supposed to report to Lieutenant Hume. Smith pointed back toward the kitchen and snarled, "He's back there!"
John said that was only time in his 38 years on the job that anyone ever called him "Sir." "They've called me a lot of other things," he chuckled, "but never again did anyone call me 'Sir'!"
Love talking to John!
Posted 11/16/12
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50 Years Ago
Famous Mt. Carmel Landmark Burns
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| The New Haven Register, Wednesday, November 7, 1962 |
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| The New Haven Register, Thursday, November 8, 1962 |
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| The New Haven Register, Thursday, November 8, 1962 - CLICK to enlarge for easier reading |
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| 1963 - Co. 5's R.K. Spencer Receives Life-Saving Award for RR Station Fire - CLICK to enlarge |
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Rescued Firefighter Tells His Story
One of the volunteer firefighters from Co. 5 in Mt. Carmel was Bill Scott. A few years later, Bill would become a Hamden career firefighter for a brief time. Bill sent an email to the website last year in which he recounted his experiences as the injured firefighter that night at the railroad station fire.
Bill wrote, "Late one night, roughly 50 years ago, the old railroad station north of the fire house on Whitney Ave. caught fire. Many volunteers showed up including myself. I ended up on the roof with others to punch holes for ventilation. Unfortunately for me, I was standing beside the old chimney when it decided to fall, which it did, on top of me.
"My fellow volunteers rushed to my aid and brought me over to a ladder to get me down. Somehow though, they missed the ladder and dropped me off the roof. At this point I was pretty groggy and didn't argue when I was loaded into the back of an ambulance, driven by the notorious Murrays, John and Pinkey. If I'd had my wits about me, I would have called a cab.
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| Bill Scott |
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"Bobby Feinn, who rode with me, told me later he thought we would both die that night going 90 MPH down Dixwell Avenue.
"I stayed a couple of days in the hospital with a concusion. My roommate was a guy being guarded by a cop. He was there because he'd been shot by a blind woman while attempting to steal her chickens.
"My recovery was aided by some friends (volunteers of course) who came to visit with a case of beer and pizza. The hospital staff didn't think this was such a good idea and the party ended quickly. My missadventure ended well, but the highlight of that evening I feel is that one volunteers received an award from the state for my rescue even though I bounced a little on the way down."
Bill Scott
Posted 11/16/12
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| Typical Hamden Fire Department drawing on calendars that were distributed to businesses during Fire Prevention Week |
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Every October, Hamden firefighters visited businesses in their first alarm territories to conduct informal inspections and answer questions to help citizens observe and obey basic fire codes. When the inspection was over, the firefighters always presented a calendar from the Department, which offered a sometimes dramatic, sometimes homespun, but largely fictional representation of department life. The Rockwellesque depiction above shows an elderly firefighter entertaining two small kids. Hamden did have a couple of Dalmatian mascots, "Belle" at Putnam Avenue and "Sport" at Headquarters, but we do not recall any active firefighter quite as old as THAT guy. When children visited the fire stations, though, the men on duty were usually quite friendly, letting the kids try on their boots and helmets and sit in the engine. We still do it today.
Notice the alpha-numeric telephone number, CH 8-5521, which was the Department's emergency number. Fifty years ago this month, the Southern New England Telephone Co. was among the first of the Bell-affiliated telephone companies to discontinue these old EXchange names if favor off all-digit telephone numbers. CHestnut 8-5521 became simply 248-5521. Check out more useless, but interesting, information on Hamden Fire Department telephone numbers since the beginning:
Posted 11/16/12
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Trivia: What major technological emergency (glitch) occurred 47 years ago on November 9th? And what were you doing? (Email the website at HFDBadge102@aol.com.)
On Tuesday afternoon, November 9, 1965, at about 5:15 or so, lights began to flicker throughout the northeast. Then the lights went out entirely. Thus began what became known as the Great Northeast Blackout of 1965. Supposedly there was a surge in births in August 1966, but that has since been relegated to urban muth status. A similar blackout, involving a smaller area of the northeast, occurred nearly twelve years later in the summer of 1977.
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| Hamden Fire Retirees Association, Inc. |
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| CLICK here for daily flag status |
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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2012
Website is updated every Friday - Important interim updates will be posted when necessary
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| CLICK to go to HGSRA webpage |
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25 YEARS AGO!
Fire Photographer Shirley Mangler Preserved History
Shirley Mangler's talent and generosity as an expert photographer have been priceless gifts to the preservation of our history. Wife of our own retiree, 42-year department veteran Harold Mangler, Shirley captured hundreds of images of Department emergencies and related activities during the past three decades. Shirley was eventually assigned a department ID card by the Chief, which named her as an official department photographer. Many of Shirley's fire photos have been published in the local press and even shown on area television news broadcasts.
Twenty-five years ago this coming week - on Saturday, November 28, 1987, to be exact - Shirley documented a live burn training session on Paradise Avenue, conducted by career personnel for the four Hamden volunteer fire companies. CLICK on this photo to view many of the images Shirley captured that day.
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In his 29 years on the job, Hamden Firefighter Ed Doiron took hundreds of photographs depicting firehouse life during "alarm readiness," many of which have been shared on the website. During the past week, while exploring a few more of Ed's slide carousels, several dozen more of these images were found - and we are told there are even more slides and negatives on the way. Below are a couple of Ed's Station 4 vignettes from nearly forty years ago. More are promised in the coming weeks and months.
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(Above) On a lazy summer afternoon in 1974, Ed Doiron snapped this slide of three of his Platoon 2 colleagues relaxing at the Station 4 watch desk. Left to right are Lt. Gil Spencer with Firefighters Bob Viglione and Steve Hitchcock.
(Below) Ed then aimed his camera through the Alarm Room window to catch Chief Dispatcher and resident curmudgeon, Wilbur Baker, taking a break between emergency calls. Rescue 1, the 1971 Ford "Circus Wagon," is reflected in the window.
Posted 11/23/12
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October 18, 1962 - A nasty house fire on Mountain Road, one of Hamden's last "unimproved" roads at the time. No Pavement and No Water.
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| October 18, 1962 (Vaccaro Photo) |
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| The New Haven Register, Wednesday, October 18, 1962 (Chan Brainard) |
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| CLICK to enlarge poster |
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| Quinnipiac University
is sponsoring a
Hamden
Guardian Services Day
One ticket for both
Women's and Men's
basketball games on
Saturday, January 5, 2013
ONLY ONE DOLLAR EACH!
A great stocking stuffer at Christmas!!
Contact Bob Mordecai
203-288-8518
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| Hamden Fire Retirees Association, Inc. |
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| CLICK here for daily flag status |
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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2012
Website is updated every Friday - Important interim updates will be posted when necessary
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| CLICK to go to HGSRA webpage |
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Hamden Volunteer Firefighter Edward D. Meegan
Was Killed in the Line of Duty in 1927!
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His Sacrifice Forgotten for 8½ Decades
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| Firefighter Edward D. Meegan |
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About three weeks ago, while researching old newspaper articles for our website, information surfaced about a Hamden volunteer firefighter who was killed in the line of duty, a tragedy that all living retired Hamden firefighters believed our town had never experienced in its 116 years of organized fire service.
According to articles in The New Haven Journal-Courier and The New Haven Evening Register, on Saturday, December 10, 1927, six volunteer firefighters and the paid driver of Centerville Co. 4 responded on Engine 4 to Box 57 in Highwood. At the Whitney Avenue bridge over Lake Whitney, the rear wheels of Co. 4’s Seagrave pumper got stuck in a raised trolley rail. The truck slued sizeways for sixty feet before striking a utility pole, breaking it off at the base. Four of the seven firefighters on board were unhurt and two received minor injuries. The seventh firefighter, Edward D. Meegan, was hurled from the truck and died the next day from massive injuries.
The tragic death of Firefighter Meegan was covered extensively in New Haven newspapers and elsewhere. The town was in a state of mourning and the selectmen ordered flags to half-staff. Hamden town officials and all of Hamden’s fire companies turned out for Meegan’s funeral Mass at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, followed by his burial in St. John’s Cemetery in Middletown.
In subsequent investigations by New Haven Coroner Eli Mix and Hamden Fire Chief Charles Loller, the driver of the pumper was cleared of any wrong-doing in the freak accident. He continued to serve honorably as a Hamden career firefighter until his retirement in the mid-1950s.
Sadly, and for reasons unknown to anyone today, the story of Edward Meegan’s sacrifice seems to have ended in 1927. There is no mention of him in any fire company or department commemorative programs or histories, some of which were published only a few years after the accident. No one alive today, including a 93-year old former Hamden career firefighter who worked with one of the accident’s six survivors twenty-five years later, had ever heard of Edward Meegan.
Just why Firefighter Meegan’s line of duty death was forgotten in our department’s history is a sad and disturbing mystery, but we welcome the opportunity to properly honor him now.
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The members of the Hamden Fire Retirees Association invite all past and present members of the Hamden Fire Department - career and volunteer - to come together to pay tribute to Edward D. Meegan on the eighty-fifth anniversary of his last alarm, at 11 a.m. on Monday, December 10, 2012.
The ceremony will take place in the 3rd floor conference room in the Hamden Government Center, 2750 Dixwell Avenue. We hope to see many present and past career and volunteer department members.
Updated 12/9/12
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Within hours, the accident was reported at the top of the front page of the New Haven Evening Register.
CLICK to enlarge
| The New Haven Journal-Courier
report of Meegan's death began on
Monday morning's front page.
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| New Haven Journal-Courier, Thursday, December 15, 1927 (from the Connecticut State Library microfilm collection) |
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After investigations were conducted by New Haven Coroner Eli Mix and Hamden Fire Chief Charles Loller, the driver of Engine 4 was exonerated from any wrong-doing in the freak accident. He went on to serve honorably as a Hamden career firefighter for nearly thirty years more before retiring.
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Remembering "Ace"
1925 - 1982
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| We remember Firefighter Robert "Ace" Callahan, who died 30 years ago this week. Ace served on the department from 1959 until his retirement in 1980. One helluva nice guy, and a good firefighter, Ace was well respected by his peers, as these photos of his funeral procession attest. CLICK either photo to enlarge.
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Photos and news article courtesy of Jim Moore
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| Ace (far left) is pictured with the rest of the 1960 Annual Ball Committee, John O'Hare, Dick Carney, Gene Maturo and Ray Carofano. Ace and Ray worked together at 5's for years on the old 56-hour shift. |
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| CLICK to enlarge |
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| September 1963 - Bob "Ace" Callahan helps demonstrate a new high-expansion foam application unit for basement fires at an abandoned building located on the Winchester Powder Farm on Putnam Avenue. This is approximately where the Dunbar-Davenport complexes are located today. (Photo by John Mongillo) |
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| Firefighter Robert "Ace" Callahan carries "the colors" on Memorial Day 1969. He is flanked by Firefighters Carmen Amarante and Dave Herrmann, who served as color guards. Ff. Walt Macdowall is marching right behind them. (Photo by Ed Doiron, Sr.) |
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| A WWII Navy veteran, Ace bears the colors again for Memorial Day '75 |
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| CLICK to enlarge poster |
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| Quinnipiac University
is sponsoring a
Hamden
Guardian Services Day
One ticket for both
Women's and Men's
basketball games on
Saturday, January 5, 2013
ONLY ONE DOLLAR EACH!
A great stocking stuffer at Christmas!!
Contact Bob Mordecai
203-288-8518
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| New Haven Register - Dec. 3, 1950 |
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| New Haven Register - Dec. 3, 1957 |
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