We moved to Vermont in the early 1970's. Everywhere we went I had the impression that time had not only stood still, but actually had slid back into the earlier part of the twentieth century. The house that we rented was an old farm house. The floors were linoleum covered. You entered in the country kitchen. This was a large room that was divided in two by a partition. We ended up using the front section as our family room. Behind the house was a field and beyond that was a woods. In the woods was a pond, which the locals referred to as the duck pond. When you walked in the woods you could see pheasant tracks. I never thought at the time that there were more than likely bears in the woods as well. Down the road was a beaver pond. I remember being very upset that they had set traps for beaver there. While we were there a stray dog, Border Collie, that we had saved from porky pine quills, got his leg caught up in a trap and tore up his leg. Unfortunately this happened on a weekend and there were no vets to help a farmer friend had to put him out of his misery. I still feel regrets to this day. What a gentle dog, it was so sad.
Across the street from the house was an old barn. This was a medium size barn and we toyed with the idea of buying it and renovating it. We thought about making half of it into a bunk house for skiers coming to ski at Burke Mountain just past town, and the other half into a home for the family. I remember toying with the idea of making do, using a Gallo wine jug as a hanging Lamp shade, and using flat small river stones to pave counter tops in the baths and kitchen. The beams in the barn were huge out of rough cut maple. All these ideas ran through our minds, but we also were looking for a house at the same time. Then we found just the thing, a one room school house!
The School was the Old White School in East Burke, Vermont. The man who had been living there had put up a partition in the main room of the school and added a kitchen, and a laundry room. The basement was divided in two with the furnace and utilities on one side and a bar rec room on the other. We used this area as a bedroom for the boys to begin with. The partitioned off area on the main floor was our bedroom. It was not long before we started our own renovations. We had fourteen foot ceilings in the main area. We took down half the ceiling and lowered it to eight foot. We found a stair case that had been taken out of the railway station and recycled it. The lowered area to the new area, became the master bedroom with a balcony that over looked the living room. You would go up eight steps to the original attic area. We divided this into two small bedrooms each with a closet and a window. These were for our sons, Chris and Scott.
I was scared of freezing as the temperatures would drop way below zero. One day Tink came home and announced that he had found some old wood stoves. One called the General had originally been in a one room school. I was excited. We purchased those stoves and went to work placing them in the house. The General was a large round oak stove of the Victorian era. Tink built a raised brick hearth and backed the wall to the ceiling with brick as well. This became the center piece of our living area and did an excellent job of keeping us all warm and snug. After the arrival of the General, we rarely used our oil furnace. There was the one night where the temperatures dropped drastically way below zero. Forty below zero was just scary. So, Tink, ratchet up the General to get the house nice and warm. We awoke that night hot. I looked over the balcony to see the General glowing orange. I woke up Tink and he said, " Oh, no, I forgot to turn down the damper." He raced down the stairs and managed to turn the damper down. Then he came back up stairs and opened the windows to let some of the heat out. I can only imagine what a passerby might have thought if they had seen all our windows up and forty degrees below outside. When the temperature got that cold you could hear the electricity moving through the lines. The shies would be clear and beautiful, but don't take a deep breath. If you do you will feel the pain from the cold.
From our windows we could see the top of Burke Mountain, and a vast field with a farm house at the far end. My friend Mary Lou Bell would call and say put on some coffee I'm skiing over. I could look out the large school house windows and see this little figure in the distance cross country skiing toward my house. Tink bought a ski mobile. He loved taking it out in the winter. There were dirt roads across the river and up the hill from our house. These were fun to run on. He insisted that I go out with him to the old logging road across the road from our home. I have never seen anything like that before. The trail ran under huge fir trees that were laden with snow. It looked like something off a Christmas card. While we were riding in the wild, I suddenly thought about what would happen if the ski mobile broke down. I would have really been stuck. There was no way for me to have gotten out of the situation on my own. I walked with crutches. The snow was deep even for an able bodied person. This thought that drifted across my mind took the pure joy of the moment away. Fortunately we made it home safely. I don't remember going again, but the experience has lived forever in my mind.
Another adventure that I had in the north was riding a motorcycle. I would sit behind my husband and hold on tight. I had my own helmet. On one ride in particular we stopped at the East Haven Church where I was scheduled to sing a duet with a friend from church. Those of you who have heard me sing do not laugh. I was always told that my voice sounded nice, but that I could not carry a tune. In East Burke, they were so desperate for voices, even my voice would do. Also, I could follow another singer. My friend Chris Finley,a contralto, was very good. So I got off the motorcycle grabbed my crutches, that were strapped unto the motorcycle, walked into the church and hung my helmet on the coat rack and proceeded to go in to sing. After singing "Ten Thousand Angels," I went out grabbed my helmet got back on the motorcycle and left. This stuck me as being slightly absurd.
One treat for the boys was going to the zoo. We had to go up past Island Pond, Vermont, over into Canada to go to the Granby Zoo in Sherbrook, Quebec. Most of the people spoke French. I had taken several years of French in High School. I understood more than I could speak. My husband on the other hand had never taken French and knew nothing at all of the language. So we lost our way and needed help to find the zoo. Being the man, Tink said he would ask directions. I watched from the car. He spoke to a man and I saw the man gesturing. When he came back to the car, I said," You spoke to someone who knew English?" " No," he said, "But some how I understood everything he said." He did find the way.
One thing that seemed so much from another era to me was the town meetings. The town hall definitely predated anything that I'd ever seen in Virginia. It was very interesting attending the meetings and listening to the discussions. The drug store in Lyndonville had cokes for fifteen cents! They never changed their prices while we lived there. There were no Chinese restaurants near by and no place to buy pizza. I had to learn to make my own. I would buy supplies from the Chinese Grocery while I visited family in Virginia. There was Luigi's in Lyndonville. On Tuesday nights you could get spaghetti and a small bottle of Lancers for $2.50 now that was not bad, but no pizza.
Interesting post note. Lewis is looking to buy an old school house of his own.
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