FALL VACATION PART III

Oh, well I hope that I can fix the signature thing at the end of this. Part III is: Thursday at the Fair. Of course the biggest fall event in Central Vermont, is the World's Fair. Life as we know it stops for one week every fall, many folks in Tunbridge either work at the fair, or bring their animals to show, or their vegetables. For me, this year started getting to the fair early with two of my brothers, Stew and Fudd. The three of us spent the day watching the Pony Pulling. This we did in memory of Dad, who loved to watch Pony and Horse pulling. Actually the three of us enjoy it also but not to the extreme that Dad did. We sat for about 5 hours watching as the Ponies pulled more and more weight. Ponies are fun to watchbecause they are very high strung and pull a lot of weight for their size. After the morning class we walked around and saw the sights of the fair, finding a spot by the cabin on the hill to sit and rest and eat Fair Food. The afternoon class finished late and Stew and Fudd went home, I went back to the farm for supper and then Nancy and I went back to the fair for more Pony pulling in the evening. Nancy actually enjoyed the pulling which surprised me.

Nancy of course spent a lot of time at the fair growing up, she always showed her cows and did very well in the ring. She also helped her father, Mark, who was a director and superintendent of Cattle for many years. The family was always in the top of the field with their cattle. Nancy's brother Rob now follows in his dad's footsteps and is Superintendent of Cattle. This all makes a long week in life of a dairy farmer. Actually, its a lot more than a long week, work on the fair is a year round job for many of the people involved.

I am coming to post a few pictures from the 1st day, hope I don't mess it up. Below is Stew having fun and waiting for the potty at the fair!!

VACATION PART II

Good morning, I guess it is time to get started on the continuing saga of my fall vacation. We take vacations for many reasons, but mainly to see or do something we have not done before. My vacation was more about seeing things again, maybe seeing things in a different light. As in the first part of this series, where we stopped in Sharon to really "look" at the Veterans Memorial, today I will look more closely at some things we see every day.

We start in South Royalton, at the park, or common depending on you see it. It is"park" that I planed baseball on for many years. First I want you to look at the east side of the park, here you see a granite arch facing the church. We all have seen this and think nothing about it, but in the history of Royalton, it is most important. This is the Handy Memorial, honoring Hannah Handy, a young woman who rescued many young children during the Indian Raid of 1780, when a band of 300 Mohawk Indians raided Royalton, Tunbridge and Sharon, burned most of the buildings in those towns. Hannah lost her own child in this raid but was able to many children back from this band of ruthless killers. This was the last major Indian Raid in New England. There are books written on the Raid, read one, see the real history of Royalton.

Next, go to the north end of the park, here you will find two interesting spots. The granite statue of the Civil War Solider, honoring all who served in the War between the States. This memorial is very similar to the one in Tunbridge and many other small towns in Vermont. I wonder if they were all done around the same time period and just how much they are alike.From the Civil War Statue, look to your left and here is another granite monument known as the Honor Roll. On this, are engraved the names of all that have served in armed forces of our country from Royalton. In the picture posted you will see both my name and that of my brother Stew. In Tunbridge there is also a honor roll, and it is on the Civil War monument. Take time to stop and look at these and remember those who have served their country.There are two other interesting things on the park that I want to bring to your attention. One is the cannon that sits in the middle of the park. I don't know where it came from and maybe on my next trip I will see what I can find. Also interesting is the water troth in the middle of the road, again interesting but don't know much about it other than now it makes a wonderful flower pot in the summer.

And of course when visiting the park, you should take a minute and look at the band stand, which when I was young, was 1st base on our ball field. Of course we now had a new band stand, which is much more user friendly, and large enough to house the summer town band, for their weekly band concerts.

My point of this blog is that you don't have to go far to discover great examples of our history and maybe find something that will really interest you.

September 25 2008

Just a note to let everyone know that I am home and ok. The surgery went well and I came home on Tuesday. It's rough, but I am feeling ok, not good. I guess the older you get the more it takes out of you. I was in the OR for over two hours, so I guess it should take a few days to recover. I go back next Thursday and can't do much until then. It will be next week before I get back to my vacation updates. I want to thank everyone who has called and sent cards, and have come by. Be back in a few days.

FALL VACATION PART 1

As I sit here watching the Ryder Cup matches I felt I should be doing something as I will not be able to do much for a few days. This will be my first installment of the "vacation series", I am starting with something a bit different from what you may be looking for in this series.

Part I----THE SHARON REST AREA.... Many of you reading this will have no idea why I am writing about a rest area on Interstate 89 in Sharon Vermont. Well, this is about something much more than a rest area, its about what is at this rest area.

In 1982, what is believed to be the first state sanctioned Vietnam Veterans Memorial in the country. Why is Sharon, well Sharon is near White River Jct and there is a Veteran's hospital there and many veterans past by this rest area going and coming from the hospital. In the mid 90's there was talk of closing the rest area and thus the Memorial. The American Legion and the VFW plus many individuals protested and as a result saved the rest area and the Memorial. With the new life, major construction ensued and now the area is a very environmentally friendly example of how the future can be .

On a granite maker are the names of the 138 Vermonters who gave their lives in Vietnam. Inside there is another marker with the names of 7,236 Vermonters who served in the conflict, my name is proudly there.

I was surprised when I was talking with people about this Memorial, most local folks knew it was there but have never stopped. This was my second trip, taking Nancy and Mother in law Barbara Howe with me, neither had ever stopped.

My point, this is a wonderful Memorial that has been around for a long time and most people just drive by without stopping. The next time you drive up Interstate 89, stop and look at this wonderful tribute to the boys from Vermont who served their country.

NOTICE---BIG THINGS COMING SOON

I am going to be a little bit tied up for the next few days, but next week will start a four or five part series on my recent trip to Vermont and the World's Fair. Part 1 should appear Wednesday, providing my stay in the hospital is successful...Should be worth the wait.....

September 7 2008

I know I said I wasn't going to blog again until I got back from Vermont, but Nancy told me that today is grandparents day, so I felt that I needed to talk for a minute about my grandchildren.

Well, there are three of them, all girls, Britt and Anna live in Hawaii and Addie here in Florida. All three are great kids, my only problem is I don't get to spend as much time as I would like with them. Obvisouly its hard to get to Hawaii often, but they do spend the summers in Vermont and that always makes for some good time. Addie only lives a mile from us so we do get to see her more often...

With computers we all can stay in touch, Britt and Anna have a blog which is great, and they are doing great with that.

And coming this winter will be two more grandchildren, we know that one of the twins will be a boy, not sure about the other. So we will jump from 3 to 5 , not sure how this will work, but everyone is extremly happy.

So Britt,Anna and Addie, you all are the best and I look forward to seeing all of you soon. GRAMPY

THURSDAY AFTERNOON

Its Thursday afternoon and I'm home alone. Was ready to watch some golf on TV and that's been rained out, so it is time to write a bit, have no idea what I'm going to write about but here goes.



Actually I'm trying to figure out what Hurricane Ike is going to do, looks like it might be on the coast of Florida Tuesday morning. That is the day Nancy and I are flying to VT, so do we go on Monday or take a chance on Tuesday. You never know where Hurricanes go, the path changes hour to hour. Look at New Orleans, they evacuated 2 million people and little damage. But sure as the sun will come up tomorrow, we stay and the Hurricane will hit, so maybe we will leave early.

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Other than hurricanes there's not much going on here, the peacocks are still hanging around and making a mess. We've been seeing three and sometimes four small raccoons have been hanging around, but I think we will have to trap them, they tend to make a mess. Not sure where all the wildlife comes from, we don't have any woods in the back anymore. Guess they all live in Nancy's jungle out back.....



Is everybody ready for the last 60 days of the election process. I was getting very bored with the whole mess, but then last night I stayed up way past my bed time and listened to Sarah Pilan speak at the Republican convention. Now I think the next 60 days will be fun to watch. Not sure what will happen but it should be interesting to watch.



This may be the last post until I get back from Vt, so enjoy.............