Day Trip To Jones Family Farms

This past weekend we made a day trip with friends to Jones Family Farms in Shelton, CT.  I've been here about 6 years now and I am still discovering new places. There are so many fun places to visit for such a small state. 

It's a 400 acre farm with a 200 acre Christmas tree farm. There is a vineyard. There is a cooking school with farm-style cooking classes and occasional dinners. There is berry picking in the summer and pumpkin patches in the fall.  Unfortunately, I didn't get near enough photos but hopefully we will go back again.  

If you are unfamiliar with where Shelton, CT is, it is just northwest of New Haven. It is also about 15 miles from Newtown, CT. We drove through Newtown and had dinner at a really good little restaurant, Figs,  that was recommended to us by someone at Jones Farm. 

We took this little day trip on Saturday and I am writing this days later. I still can't get it out of my head. When we got in the car and determined our course for the day,  just the mention of Newtown began a lively discussion on gun laws. Something (even as a Texan) that I used to have little interest in, now sparks something deep inside me. The reason for this change is what happened in Newtown.

I'm not sure it would have made the impact it did if I didn't live 70 miles away. I don't know what the coverage was like in other parts of the country. But I remember vividly David and I watching night after night the coverage, the interviews, the church service. I was glued to CNN. The little town filled with reporters and trucks and cameras.  The tear stained faces on the screen.  The shock and the grief of the family members and the first responders. I remember the police chief being choked up discussing the scene. People saw things that should never been seen. Things I imagine they will never forget. Things that haunt you even years later. Like people who have been in combat. I remember the faces.

I had never been to Newtown. Never heard of it before that horrible day, to be honest. Saturday was my first day to visit. It's a quiet town. A beautiful place to live. There was no bustle. No cameras or reporters. It was just like any other small, quaint Connecticut town with a slight November chill in the air and that smell of fall ... burning wood, dry leaves and pumpkins.

The car was quiet as we drove through. We passed darling little New England house after darling house. Trimmed just so. Pumpkins and mums on the stone walls and porches of many. Bikes and toys in the yard.  Just as we were passing a house with a tire swing hanging from the front tree, Linda said, "You know, someone in one of these houses may have lost a child."  "I was thinking that too," I said, "but I didn't want to say it out loud."  How could you not be thinking it as we drove past? 

There was no lively debate. No real discussion. Just quiet. There was a heaviness as we drove down each street, at least in the back seat. Linda and I sat there knowing that we were passing homes were there had recently been great pain. It was December 14, 2012 when it happened, so they had experienced a Christmas in a completely numb state. But this would be the first Thanksgiving without their child, spouse, teacher or friend. This would be the first Christmas that they would really be processing the absence. In a few weeks it will be one whole year. I can't stop thinking about it.

I can't stop thinking how scary it must have been in late August, just a few months ago, to drop your child off  at an elementary school and watch them walk in with super hero backpacks and princess lunch boxes. Watch them walk past the multiple policeman and security guards. I remember seeing this on the news as well. 

But mostly I can't stop thinking about how one person killed 26 people, 20 of them ages 6 & 7, in less than five minutes with 154 bullet casings recovered. How they found 1,600 rounds of unspent ammunition inside his home. And how the controversy boosted gun sales and NRA memberships. How no federal legislation was passed banning semi-automatic weapons. Even how law-abiding hunters and those who shoot for sport clung tighter to their guns. I don't understand it. It doesn't make sense to me.  There are many controversial topics in life .... most of them I can at least see the opposing side. I can at least say, "Okay, I disagree, but I see where you are coming from."  With this topic, I can't. I can't see it.  I can't see how such a tragedy makes people cling harder to and fight harder for their guns. Gun sales go up? Why? People start fighting legislation to protect innocent people, like elementary school children?  Why? People start talking about how there should be MORE guns in schools?  WHY?  It's just a side I don't see. I don't understand.  Never did.  But this trip to Newtown has brought it back to the top of mind for me.

I'm not anti-gun. I grew up in Texas for goodness sake. I grew up with people I loved carrying guns. I've been hunting. My father was a policeman. I've always believed personally, however, that I didn't need to be a gun owner. I don't want one in my own home. I don't have the need or desire. But I'm not opposed to others having them for safety, security or recreational purposes. I just don't understand the need for semi-automatic weapons and rounds and rounds of ammunition. It doesn't make sense to me. I don't see where there is a law-abiding need or desire for these types of weapons. Public mass shootings are increasing and no one seems to care for longer than a day.  I can't see a scenario more devastating than the death of 20 first and second graders. What more could it possibly take? 

We've had shootings in malls, theaters, colleges, high schools, street sides and most recently the airport. No one seems to be paying attention. No one seems to care. Everyone in the government seems to be following the money and the votes. The public seems to sweep it under the rug or hide behind an amendment that was created before there was such a thing as semi-automatic weapons. I would say, maybe everyone needs to drive through Newtown and see the homes with the toys in the yard. See the bikes and the tire swings. But really, they just need to drive through their own neighborhoods, past their own schools and malls and theaters. Think about what it would be like if it directly affected their life. Think about their kids and spouses and friends. It's not just Newtown. It's not just Columbine or Aurora. Not anymore. 26 killed in less than five minutes with 154 bullet casings recovered? You can't do that with a hunting rifle. That should never be allowed to happen again.