Traveling An Unplanned Route

   Traveling along CT34 the other day, we saw some racing eights on the river beside us. Next we saw the Yale University Boathouse on our bank. We did not stop, but a couple of blocks down this street in Derby, I thought "I should have gotten some shots of the crews in action.

   So, we made the first left, so as to circle a block and go back.

   As we made up a hill on a street that looked like a part of downtown Derby, I happened to glance up a side street and saw a patch of green. Thinking "village green" and "interesting pictures", I turned right at the next corner and came up on the center of Derby, a city founded in 1642.

   Here is what we found on that town square:

The Congregational Church on the west side, 335 years in existence

A Catholic Church on the East side

A Methodist Church on the North

with this plaque

Sterling Opera House at the SW corner, built in 1889

Some older homes around the square

Civil War Statue in the middle

   We have seen a lot of Civil War monuments all over Georgia on courthouse squares, but this one was different:

      Another name for the same war: War of the Rebellion

      In the South a lot of times it was: War of Northern Aggression

   Around the base of this particular monument, the battles this unit fought in, including Atlanta.

   This town, and in particular its center square, reeked with history, it almost oozed up from the soil. Derby had been in existence as an indian trading post since 1642, was constituted a town a year before the Declaration of Independence. 

   We spent an hour or so immersing ourselves in history. A history that we could see and feel. A history that we almost missed.

   All because we turned around to see some racing crews on the river, which did not seem so important as what we had experienced on that village green.

   What crews?, what boathouse?