This is Colony Pond Park on the edge of the city. I loved this place in the summer. Vast herds of children roamed here andsawm in the lake which was a tea color from the leaves that had fallen in from the surrounding trees. At the far end of the lake was a stream which we followed once for about a mile through wondeful lush green and brown woods, which, I would guess are all gone now.Towards the back of the park there was even more woods on the hill. Some of the neighborhood kids....this was a few blocks from my neighborhood....had forts up there that were fairly well built and impressive especially compared to the stick and stone junk heaps we put together in the woods near my house. "Forts" by the way, were places we played "army" in and.....playing army in the 1960s was cool and fun. How could playing army be fun? Its too hard to explain so I guess you had to be there to get it.
In the very early 1960s, there was a green cinder block building at the pond where the kids could dress into their swim suits and hot dogs were sold for 15 cents, a fairly steep sum of money for a little kid in 1964.
The swimming area was roped off so kids wouldn't swim out to the deep part and our parents and grandparents who took us would sit on benchs that surrounded the lake near the swimming area. If you did something that was particulary cool, say a hand stand underwater, and you wanted to make sure the adults had caught your remakrable talents, walking all the way up to the bench was too much, so you just screamed it out from the water "Did you see that?...Did you see me do that?" And whether they saw it or not, they would smile and nod and sometimes clap. It really wasn't about the handstand...it was about....being recognized and sharing the happiness you were having.
In the winter, about a week after Christmas day, we would walk around the neighborhood and collect christmas trees and toss them in a boon fire...they were dry and would go up in flash.....and then spend the afternoon skating.
This is where I went to church for in or about 1500 masses, I'm tossing in regualr Sunday mass, which we never, ever missed and then all the holy days, confession etc. To the left of the church was my school, I was in both of those classrooms seen in the corners and to the left was the rectory where the Preists lived. There was Father Bray who was always pissed off about something and not above slapping around the altar boys, there was Monsg. Haines who gambled at the tracks in New York and died on the altar on Sunday...his brother was the Bishop...and there was Father Lord, a name that really cracked me up but the humor seemed to be lost on every one else....I mean apriest named Father Lord....
This is FitzPatricks on the west side of Ansonia, in the fifties I guess. I only put it in here because the owners son went to school with me. I was very happy about that because I was never at ease with my ultra swallow complextion and the FitzPatrick kid was actually paler than me...I mean he was almost transparent, amazing. I would stand next to him to look darker. 
God...thank you for inventing Duchess...the best hamburgers in the world...when I was a kid, with money from my paper route and cutting Mrs. Nicolettie's lawn, you could feast like a king at Duchess, a hamburger was seven cents, a cheeseburger was 12 cents and a milkshake was twenty five cents. Fries were 15 cents and the bottom of the bag was covered in grease that dripped from the fries.....it was wonderful. 
This used to be Masons building. It had no windows, you never saw anyone go in or out. I was told that the Mason's I had no idea who the hell they were...hated Catholics and that a good Catholic never stepped inside the property. It was a left over notion form the old days when the Irishwere having a hard time in the US...today the building is some sort of born again christian thing for Hispanic folks.
Nolan Field, which, when your a small town kid, was the size of Giant Stadium. The Ansonia-Naugatuck game was the sports event of the year, I think it still is. In the summers we would camp in the field above Nolan (Nolan was a former mayor)
The Old Ansonia High, I had to go here one summer, while I was still in grade school, because I was flunking....um...everything as I recall. Actually, summer school wasn't all that bad, we just had to show up, more or less behave ourselves and we were free to roam the building
It seemed like every nice place in the world in the early 1960s, used to look like this, at least from a kids point of view
This was pretty much the view from the end of my street, that's Farrels foundry in front. When I was a kid, the place ran three shifts and the fire from the mills glowed and lit the sky in the winter. To the upper left is the church I never saw opened 
Bethany Airfield, (One of the town near Ansonia) we would bike up there on the weekends....was I ever really in that kind of fantastic shape?.... and watch the pipercups land. I think the field is gone now. Ansonia had a air field that was mentioned in a film from the 1950s about an airplane that has to crash land...there was also a Nike millse site in Ansonia as well
Holyland, in Waterbury before the order of wackho Nuns who own the place let it go to hell...no pun intended. In the late 1950s, we lived on River Street off of Baldwin and could walk up to the Hill (its actual name is Pine Hill) and pick wild blueberrys. In the ealry 1960s, Holyland attracted 75,000 visitors a year.