EAST MONTPELIER – Every once in a while, amid the cacophonic news that pours in through the various speakers here and there in the house, I detect a bit of the America I used to know. It’s not necessarily an explicit image, but more of a remembered aroma; as Eliot[Read More…]
A Yankee Notebook
We New Yorkers couldn’t get any respect
EAST MONTPELIER – On warm summer days it all comes back to me, much like a dream. When I was young in my early twenties, I was often embarrassed to say that I was from New York. Almost no one not from New York really knew what it was like,[Read More…]
Perfect chance to experience America at its essential roots
EAST MONTPELIER – There’s a reason politicians so often show up at barbecues, ice cream socials and block parties. It’s where the people are at their most relaxed and most sociable. It’s a lot easier to chat with voters at a pig roast than at a so-called town hall meeting,[Read More…]
You’ve heard me complain many times
EAST MONTPELIER – We’ve all seen this at one time or another. Russet dry maple leaves raked into a pile for collection, lying quietly, till suddenly a zephyr seemingly from nowhere stirs them into a live, rustling mass. Then a stronger puff takes a whack at them, and the top[Read More…]
I watch her watching
EAST MONTPELIER – The apocalyptic traffic predicted for the last day of the Memorial Day weekend hadn’t become evident before Kiki and I covered the three hours and change from the North Shore back to Montpelier. As usual, I emptied everything temporary out of the car, put the leftovers from[Read More…]
I’ve run out of elders
EAST MONTPELIER – Most of us have always been told, and believe it, too, that for wisdom we should look to our elders. At my age, however, I’ve about run out of elders, and I don’t feel particularly wise, myself. But I’ve discovered something that’s changing my attitude: my kids[Read More…]
Nowadays it’s most likely a Sharpie
EAST MONTPELIER – Charles Dickens, as most of us have read, went to work in a boot-black factory at the age of twelve to help with his family’s expenses after his father, John Dickens, had been sentenced to debtor’s prison. The factory, not surprisingly, was in a sagging, tumbledown old[Read More…]
The first casualty of war
EAST MONTPELIER – Is the Strait of Hormuz open or not? If it is at all, whose ships are allowed to pass through it? Is the American blockade of Iranian ports still in effect? How many ships and aircraft have we committed to expressing our displeasure with Iran? What’s the daily[Read More…]
Walking on water
EAST MONTPELIER – A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the luxurious digs I called home during one summer of the 1950s, and suggested that there was another story involved. There certainly was. Old George Lamb, who cooked for our work party up at the Ausable Lakes, heard that I[Read More…]
Locals taking potshots at you
EAST MONTPELIER – One of the most New England of poems was published by James Russell Lowell in 1864. “The Courtin” became popular enough to be published subsequently as a separate volume, with period-type illustrations by none other than Winslow Homer. A charming story, it depicts perfectly the knots that[Read More…]
Naming household objects and speaking to them
EAST MONTPELIER – Yesterday was the eighth anniversary of my wife’s death. I remember the day well, even though through a fog, as if I were watching from a distance what was happening only an arm’s length away. Other people, mostly family, took charge of things I couldn’t have handled.[Read More…]
Joining the human race
EAST MONTPELIER – Summer, 1958. I was in temporary remission from higher education and looking for work. I possessed a copy of “On the Road” that I read rather as a bible. I still have it; it’s about eight feet behind me on the bookshelf. I was driving a 1946 Plymouth sedan[Read More…]
