EAST MONTPELIER – Change, we have been told, is the only constant. In recent years, we’ve come to believe, change is accelerating at a dizzy pace. And how many times have we heard the phrase, “the good old days”? The good old days, I always muse, before antibiotics and novocaine[Read More…]
Willem Lange
Midwinter Has Fared Much Better
by Willem Lange EAST MONTPELIER – Our culture is pretty thoroughly saddled with rituals and celebrations that originated in our distant, non-scientific past, when we explained phenomena to be the result of supernatural prompting. I guess maybe they seem cute or quirky, and are thus charming. So we continue to[Read More…]
The Unmistakable Aroma of Low Tide
EAST MONTPELIER – Hagar and I drove into the big rotary at the foot of the Nahant Causeway, trying to judge the volume of traffic on a Sunday noon. The friendly voice of Siri spoke to me in her Irish accent from the dashboard: “At the roundabout, take the first[Read More…]
They Tell me I Ended up Sitting on the Floor
EAST MONTPELIER – It had been a lovely weekend, courtesy of Martin Luther King Jr.: lots of pleasant conversation and snacks in the two chairs in the office, supper at Julio’s Friday, lunch at the Wayside Saturday, shopping for groceries at the Chopper. Icy cold outside, but snug inside. Bea[Read More…]
You Get Your First Pinch Hitter
EAST MONTPELIER – Clack, clack, clackety, ding, zzzzut, clunk. Clackclack clackety-clack… That onomatopoetic rhythm is tattooed in my memory of the 1970s more clearly than the Vietnam War, the Peanut Farmer President, or even the Beatles. Up in the attic loft there was a man possessed of ideas, a primitive[Read More…]
When We Lose Sight of Reasons to Hope, We’re Licked
EAST MONTPELIER – My son reminded me recently of the encouragement I sometimes offered when we were climbing through woods toward a summit or a ridge.
