Sandy Hook and its Ghosts: Author Clare Beams Reflects on Growing Up in Newtown, Conn.

It’s the summer of 1989, and I’m six years old, about to turn seven. My family has just moved to Newtown, Conn. I’m standing on the dirt floor of the basement of our new home, a rambly farmhouse/former inn built in 1735. I twirl a little on that dark, hard-packed soil, because I can see that I’m going to grow up with ghosts, and I’m the kind of kid who would have gone looking for them anyway. This will be my house and my town, dreamy, layered with history, and...