Christmas Comes to Norwalk

ith just a few hours left before the evening crowd would arrive that cold December evening in 1979, I swept some peanuts off the bar and tossed them in the trash. It was my first day at the Country Tavern and I wanted to do everything right. I’d been on my feet since getting my son up for school that morning, but I was too grateful for my new job to complain. As I wiped down the countertop, I kept thinking about the sermon I’d heard in church on Sunday. “God is always with us,” the reverend said. “Even