From 1962: Miss Houston Chosen Middletown DAR Choice

The following article is from 50 years ago today, appearing in the Hartford Courant on March 25th, 1962. It was written by Dorothy Fielding.

In trying to learn more about the talented Miss Houston, I stumbled upon what I presume is a different Margaret Houston, who also earned mention in the Courant for her talents. On August 4th, 1975, the Courant reported that Margaret Houston of Middletown would be visiting Philadelphia for the eastern regional hula hoop competition, a reward for having won the state competition. If anybody knows more about either of the very talented Miss Houstons, please contact The Eye, and I'll do a follow up story.

The second part of this article appears to be related to the first only by virtue of mentioning Middletown High. Perhaps Fielding covered all events related to Middletown High.
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Miss Margaret Houston of 36 Lawn Ave. has recently been named as the Middletown High School recipient of the Homemaker of Tomorrow Award. In a test taken by girls throughout the state, Margaret won the chance in state and possible national competition to vie for a $1,000 to $5,000 scholarship.

Margaret is an advanced student in a Wesleyan University Spanish Literature course, the only Middletown High student taking that course this year. Other outside activities include the National Honor Society, "Cauldron" business staff, Literary Discussion Group, and the Civil Air Patrol. She is also a participating member in both the American Assn. of Variable Star Observers, and the Hartford Society of the Archaeological Institute of America.

At Middletown High School a lecture entitled "Parade of Time," an history of timekeeping from the cave men to Einstein, was recently presented by Henry W. Flood, a representative of a watch company.

The Sun, Mr. Flood explained, has been a prime factor in time-keeping since man first discovered his shadow. A stake in the center of a circle of rocks was the first sundial, and also one of the first accurate methods of measuring time. The Romans improved the sundial, and around the same time, in the 17th century, perfected the Chinese water clocks. The French, though, were the ones who really worked with the sundial. They put a small cannon beneath a large glass lens situated to focus the sun's rays on the fuse at just the right moment--and at 12 noon, the cannon's fuse would be ignited, and the charge fired. This temporarily solved France's problem of announcing the dinner hour with chimes.

Until Galileo discovered the principle of the pendulum, he said no effective mechanical time piece had been developed. But though mechanization was slow, we have gradually been led past the Strasbourg clock, the Grandfather clock, the first pocket watch, and the first electric clock; science and technology have led us now to the edge of an exciting "new frontier" in timekeeping--atomic energy clocks.