The Naugy Boys

"Naugy Boys?"  Naugy shoulds like it should be a legitimate adjective, like "Brawly" or "Brawny."  When you google it, you get "Naughty Boys," which isn't at all the same thing.

Surprise -- it's the short form of Naugatuck.

Apparently Mrs. Naugatuck, the housekeeper on the iconic 1970s sitcom Maude (Hermione Baddeley at the end of a long career),was named after a real place.

And what a place!

Naugatuck, Connecticut, founded in 1701, was a quiet farming community until Charles Goodyear built his rubber factory there,and tires started spewing out of assembly lines.  Then came Keds sneakers, Naugahyde (artificial leather), chemicals (chiefly sulfuric acid), safety pins and other "notions," beach rakes, candy bars, and yogurt.   One can almost smell the smoke bellowing from a hundred factory smokestacks. 

All of those businesses are gone now, leaving Naugatuck cleaner: the air quality is consistently "good," although the river is still frightfully polluted. But there are no more industrial draws.   The major employers are Wal-Mart, CVS Drugs, McDonald's, and the public schools.

Naugatuck clusters on both sides of the Naugatuck River, with scattered housing developments and shopping gallerias with large parking lots that must have been factories once.  The closest I could find to a downtown was the aptly-named Rubber Street, which contained (heading west from the river) a huge parking lot, the police station (Top photo is a sample Naugatuck police officer), Advance Auto Parts, Rite Aid, Dunkin Donuts, and the Portuguese Club.

Portuguese Club?  Are there that many people of Portuguese ancestry in town?

20% of the population!  Naugatuck also has a Portuguese Consulate. a Portuguese Mayor, and two Portuguese restaurants.

For sightseeing, there's Naugatuck Green, with churches on the north and south sides, the Town Clerk on the east, an elementary school on west, and the Soldier's Monument in the middle.  Kind of scenic.

And the Tuttle House, a historic mansion.  Well, built in 1881, which is just yesterday in New England.

But let's get back to that Portuguese population.


Naugatuck High School does not offer classes in Portuguese, but it does have a lot of swimmers.












The team name is "The Hounds."









 Here's a Naugy boy consulting with his coach.