by Willem Lange “I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me…” Robert Louis Stevenson EAST MONTPELIER – We passed Stevenson’s row house a couple of years ago in Edinburgh, prompting my mind to dig up “My Shadow,” which we learned as kids. (A bit farther on,[Read More…]

by Willem Lange “Super Suds, Super Suds! Lots more suds with Super Suds. Richer, longer lastin’, too! They’re the suds with super-doo-oo-oo.” EAST MONTPELIER – I have no idea why that jingle has remained quiescent, but vital, in my brain all these years (probably eighty), like a desert seed waiting[Read More…]

by Willem Lange EAST MONTPELIER – This one kind of fell into our laps. And we made the most of it. On the last day of June I was scheduled to give a talk to the Montgomery Historical Society. Story-telling gigs pretty much petered out during the COVID pandemic and[Read More…]

by Willem Lange EAST MONTPELIER – It doesn’t take a genius to spot the irresistible threat headed our way from the southwestern United States. Serious changes (along with smoke from forest fires) are in the air. I’m predicting a second wave of immigration and real estate inflation, now that the[Read More…]

by Willem Lange EAST MONTPELIER – I discovered the links among strength, body weight, and balance during the winter of 1959-60. Working at the Lake Placid bobsled run introduced me to a whole new gang of men, most of them from “the other side of the mountain.” They ranged in[Read More…]

by Willem Lange EAST MONTPELIER – I’ve lived a great percentage of my life in towns or places that people go to for vacations or getaways. This means that I’ve lived in some lovely places, and also that when it’s been the occasion for a getaway of my own, the[Read More…]

by Willem Lange EAST MONTPELIER – I gave Kiki her Kong with a healthy dab of peanut butter inside, promised her I’d be back as soon as possible (the next day; my daughter Martha would pick her up in a couple of hours), tossed my gym bag and rain parka[Read More…]

by Willem Lange EAST MONTPELIER – It’s an old New England tradition, when you’ve been invited to visit someone, to adjure them not to fuss. I’ve just spent the weekend at a class reunion at my old school, and I can tell you: They fussed! It’s hard to imagine how[Read More…]

by Willem Lange EAST MONTPELIER – This will be the week of my 70th high school reunion, a joyous occasion, though diminished a great deal by the absence of deceased classmates and others who for one reason or another won’t make it. Increasingly, as Time’s wingéd chariot draws near, reunions[Read More…]

by Willem Lange EAST MONTPELIER – On paper, the Connecticut River and the Rhone don’t look all that different. Each of them is about three hundred miles long from the town nearest its source (Pittsburg and Chamonix) to its debouchement into the sea (Long Island Sound and the Mediterranean). Their[Read More…]

by Willem Lange EAST MONTPELIER – It was always a pleasure, at the beginning formation of Boy Scout meetings, to respond to the command, “Report!” with “All present or accounted for, sir.” Now, over 75 years later, it’s still very satisfactory to count noses in the airline gate area at[Read More…]

by Willem Lange EAST MONTPELIER – By the time you read this, I’ll be home from what I hope will have been an idyllic 10 days traveling with friends of New Hampshire Public Broadcasting down the Rhone Valley from Chamonix to Arles. I’m writing it during a serious welter of[Read More…]