[Images by SB Sandy. Poem by David Budbill. SB SM] Summer Blues You got to understand: here Winter stays six months a year-- Mean, mean winters and too long. Ninety days is what we get, just Ninety days of frost free weather. I know you don't believe it but . . . Ninety days is... Continue Reading →
The Jungle is Underwater
[A day after I tell you that The Jungle is on fire, I tell you that The Jungle is under water. Yikes! What's going on on this planet? SB SM] A flooded parking lot in downtown Montpelier on Monday evening, July 10, 2023. Photo courtesy of Kathy A. Johnson Flooding in downtown Barre on Monday,... Continue Reading →
Romaine Tenney … Silverback or Stubborn Idiot?
[ I Will Not Leave | Romaine Tenney Loved His Vermont Farm To Death Romaine Tenney vowed he would never abandon his family's Vermont farm, which lay in the path of the future Interstate 91. In the end, he loved his farm to death. Howard Mansfield • March 31, 2013 In the summer of 1964, Romaine... Continue Reading →
Mud Season Romance
Del: We arrived in Vermont. It was Fall, a totally different feeling than the Fall at Emerald. In California this would be harvest time for the marijuana crop. We'd all be gathered in a big room, wearing our plastic gloves, clipping buds, separating seeds, and packaging up the weed. It would be tedious, excpt everyone... Continue Reading →
My Gravel Slalom & Roads Scholarship
by Silverback Bill (Hinesburg SBs) (A driver navigates ruts on Texas Hill Road in Hinesburg March 21, 2022. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger) It’s only January and the annual back-roads slalom season has begun – where even the most abstemious seem to be driving under the influence. Some experienced back-roads slalom drivers appear like recent arrivals... Continue Reading →
Joy Rides … Close to Home
Joy Rides is how we sightsee during a pandemic. We pack a picture and head off to explore our beautiful region in a day trip.
Turkey Trot
The long haul: Gilbert on turkey drives By Peter Gilbert | May 27, 2009 [There's a tiny hamlet just outside of Chelsea, Vermont called Goose Green that is so named, because that's where surrounding farmers would gather their geese before marching them to market in Boston. Thanks to Silverback Bill (Hinesburg SBs) for reminding us of this chapter... Continue Reading →
Home Demonstration Clubs of Vermont
by Silverbelle Margaret (Ridge Road SBs) A cookbook in the pantry caught my eye recently. It has been a long time since I've visited the contents of this old book. Bound together by two metal rings, it’s dressed with a simple cover made from vintage, mottled-gray shelving plastic. Sandwiched between the front and back cover... Continue Reading →
The Great Zucchini Controversy of 2002
[Whoops! This was supposed to be yesterday's post. Instead you got Neanderthals. Pretend the Tunbridge Fair has been extended by one day. SB SM] The colors on the ribbon may have faded, but not the memories. The Tunbridge World's Fair is a stage, and all the men and women of Central Vermont have their moments... Continue Reading →
The West Brookfield Classic
Like all great ideas, The Classic was conceived on a cold winter’s night when summer seemed a thousand … a million years away. It was at the McKeon’s house. Someone (Greg Schipa? John McKeon?) said “Wouldn’t it be incredible if next summer we could get in good enough shape to run all the way around... Continue Reading →