Chris Keyes Embraces Life, One Chapter At a Time
By Rosanna Trestman

Over the past four years, patrons of the Norfolk Library have come to know Chris Keyes, at least in his visible role as head of circulation. But behind the fellow checking out books is a man of many hats, including a chef’s toque, whose path has taken some unusual turns before delivering him to Norfolk. Keyes divides his life into chapters, an apt organizing tool for someone who has devoted himself to libraries and the books within. “I’ve always haunted libraries,” he says. “It’s possible that I’ve visited every one in Litchfield County.” His passion traces back to his parents, who were insatiable readers.As a young child, Keyes’s parents emigrated from Long Island to Warren, Conn. At 13 he got an after school job washing dishes at the Inn at Lake Waramaug, which launched a 37-year career in the restaurant business. “I’ve cooked my way through the kitchens of Litchfield County,” he says, recounting his many stints at inns, steakhouses and fine restaurants. At age 40, however, he decided to hang up the apron. “I realized that I could be doing this at 50. It’s a young person’s game.”

In another chapter of his life, you might say that Keyes started a whole new book.He moved off the conventional grid. His new residence was a family cabin located in a 20-acre campground alongside Twin Lakes in Salisbury. There were only 11 other cabins, all, except for his, boarded up for the winter. “It started as in interim solution,” he recalls. “I moved there because my apartment in Torrington was sold and I need a temporary place to stay.” It would be eight years before he rejoined modern civilization.

“I didn’t intend to be some kind of mountain man, but when I survived the first winter, I realized that I had a taste for it,” Keyes explains. “In the off season the 20 acres were my own. I could slip into the lake at any hour and shower outside.” He had no land line, only a battery for lights and a radio, and no running water. He insists he was no hermit. Friends dropped by, he worked in town, and he had his beloved cat for companionship.

Mostly, he relished days when he did nothing but take a long, contemplative walk interspersed with gluttonous reading. “I was kind of doing the Walden thing,” he says. In 2006, Keyes decided that it was time to “plug back in.” “I got tired of not having running water,” he says. Keyes’s entrée to Norfolk was through friends, though much of the attraction was the proximity to his aging parents in Winsted.

That was four years ago and his good fortune started with finding an apartment in the Arcanum building. It is perched over Rt. 44 and sits atop a noisy bar. “Being in the center of the ‘hustle and bustle’ is the perfect antidote to my former life,” he says. It’s comforting to have people down there despite the noise.” The demands of his current job as a cook for Meals on Wheels in Winsted, doesn’t faze him either. “I wouldn’t still be getting out of bed at 4 a.m. if I didn’t adore the job, and the people are terrific,” he offers with his immutable optimism.

It’s no coincidence that Keyes’s apartment is just steps away from the Norfolk Library. “I knew the first time I entered the library that this is where I wanted to be. One day I just walked into the office and asked Robin and Rich for a job, and they gave it to me!” he says, still in disbelief. “It was Kismet.”

Keyes feels secure that Norfolk just might conclude his migrations. When he’s not soaking up Norfolk’s music scene, hiking Haystack or working, and come summer, you might find Chris Keyes settled into a welcoming armchair across the street and over the hill on the Yale grounds, indulging in a good read.