Gwyneth K. Shaw Photo
New Haven’s downtown public library opened to welcome three dozen people waiting to pursue their dreams inside — among them, Gateway student and future video-game artist Arthur Shealy.
Full bookbag in tow, Shealey, who’s 19 and lives on Bishop Street in East Rock, said he came to borrow books and “do research on getting a job.”
As he waited for the doors to open, Shealey played “Kingdom’s Paradise” on his Sony PSP handheld video game system. He said for now he’ll take pretty much any kind of job to pay his way through school. He wants to attend a four-year college.
Beyond that, he has his sights on becoming a video game or film animator.
Joining the daily crush of patrons, Shealy got inside the library at 10 a.m. and headed to the graphic novel section. He picked up some illustration-filled books as well as a text novel: Christopher Paolini’s “Inheritance.” That’s the one he sat down to read.
G.K.S.
8:41 a.m. — Drea’s Baby Sister Knocks
Paul Bass Photo
As buses coursed through the Dwight neighborhood to shuttle kids to school, firefighters pulled up to Drea Brown’s house on Kensington Street. Brown watched as paramedics and firefighters brought mom Keisha Brown onto a stretcher and over to the hospital.
Drea’s fifth sibling was ready to pop.
“I’m excited!” Drea said, watching alongside sister Thomesha (at left and right, respectively in top photo).
Thomesha was less excited than Drea. “He due date’s tomorrow. So I knew it was coming,” she said.
Jerry Rynich (pictured above) of the fire department’s Emergency 2 Unit worked at the scene along with colleagues from Engine 9 and American Medical Response. Rynich said his crew gets about four such labor-pains calls a month. “We’re the first responders,” he said. The crew goes in, makes sure the mom’s condition is stable, then brings her out on the stretcher. As they did at 8:41.
P.B.
7:50 a.m. — Fabrizio Bros. Open For Business
Anthony and John Fabrizio
Less than two weeks after his 81st birthday, John Fabrizio was at work at his dry cleaner early, and said he expects to be there for another 80 years.
“The secret to longer life is work everyday,” said Fabrizio, who’s operated Fab’s Cleaner in Fair Haven for over 35 years. “I love my job.”
Fabrizio said he started his working life at age 14, working in his father’s shoe-shine shop. He turned 81 on Jan. 13.
His work continues to be a family affair. His younger brother Anthony Fabrizio and Anthony’s wife Ann work alongside him in the dry cleaner.
They get along so well that other family members always wish their own children will turn out the same, John said.
“You have to listen to your brother, but you don’t always have to do what he says,” John said.
A.A.
7:30 a.m. — Rose Doesn’t Call In Sick
Just across the street at Fair Haven school, John’s wife Rose Fabrizio was starting her day as the school secretary, demonstrating a work ethic similar to her husband.
Rose’s been working at the school for 32 years, ever since John told her about the job when he was an alderman in the ‘70s. She’s hardly missed a day, accumulating 200 days of sick leave. When she missed five weeks once due to shoulder surgery she found, “it was torture to be home.”
A.A.
6 a.m. — Kurt Keeps The Runway Clear
With a load of firecrackers to scare obstinate coyotes, Kurt Rodman has been known to start his day removing wayward wildlife on the runway at Tweed.
“I have a degree in aviation management, but I spend a lot of my time chasing coyotes off of airfields,” said Rodman at 6 a.m., as his 12-hour shift as an airport operation supervisor began.
Checking the runway for deer, birds and coyotes is sometimes Rodman’s first task each morning, part of a job that he hopes is the first step towards running his own airport one day.
Rodman didn’t bother to survey the runway for creatures Tuesday morning. If it had been a drier night, some deer might have wandered out, but he had no reports of animal obstructions.
Rodman’s shift began just as Chris Donlon’s overnight stretch ended. The pair are each just a couple of years out of college and each has an eye to working their way up to bigger airports.
For now, Tweed is a good place to be. It’s small enough that you can get a taste of all aspects of airport operation, they said.
In addition to runway inspections, the two do security checks and take care of the airport’s fire truck (pictured). The airport hasn’t seen a fire since a plane crash in the 1960s, but Rodman and Donlon still need to practice once a year with the truck, which has a 1,500-gallon water tank and can spray water at 800 gallons a minute.
Tweed has only two runways and only five commercial flights that come and go each day. Rodman dreams of working as an airport manager at Logan airport in Boston, where many runways intersect in complex and intriguing ways. And where he might not be the one searching for coyotes before the dawn.
N.S.
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