One hint of spring in Vermont is the unfolding of an aluminum chair. On the second Tuesday in March, shortly after dawn, one chair is assembled, then another, and another, and soon a chorus of aluminum screeching fills gymnasiums and town halls throughout the state, as chairs are passed from hand to hand and set […]
It was raining and three o’clock in the morning, August 19, 1955. The sudden roar of a truck in front of the house jarred me awake. I plunged my head deeper into the pillow to smother the sound, but the roaring and grinding got louder. Exasperated, I pounded to the window. What I saw, I […]
A twist on potlucks, a soup party is a winter tradition nourishes friendships as well as bodies.
“Portrait of a Young Artist” (detail), by N.C. Wyeth (1930).
It sounds like the start of a joke: A man walks into a poem. Except … that’s what actually happens if he’s running errands in Montpelier, Vermont, in April—returning library books, say, or picking up some sheet music, batteries, sandpaper, a bottle of wine … stopping at the bank, then grabbing a bite to eat […]
We ask quilt restorer Betsey Telford-Goodwin … what stories does a quilt tell us? In the late 1970s, Betsey Telford-Goodwin was introduced by a friend to the world of quilts. Her adoration for them was immediate. “They’re tactile, they’re art, they’re colorful, they’re warm—they epitomize everything I love,” Goodwin says. Today, the Boston native and […]
Even when Mayday came limping toward her end the fall before last, Harriet gave me a clue to her deep connection to her friend. As Mayday prepared to leave us, I found Harriet beside Mayday’s bed, day after day, as if sitting vigil. Could she know? At last, when we returned from that final visit […]
As long as I’ve had livestock, no matter how cozy, how dry and warm, how peaceful the atmosphere inside, some part of my awareness stays out on the range. I feel this especially in late spring when the lambs are out on pasture, and in the dead of night, a coyote yowls half a mile […]
Welcome to the March 2014 edition of “Jud’s New England Journal,” the rather curious monthly musings of Judson Hale, editor-in-chief of Yankee Magazine, published since 1935 in Dublin, New Hampshire. What’s Funny and What’s Not It’s often difficult to predict. For instance …Get Our FREE Yankee Best New England Vacations Guide! Email(Required) Subscribe Some years […]
It takes all kinds of folks to stay warm in New England. Take a humorous look at how we heat.
Heat & Water: The Elms is heated by three boilers. During an average heating season, the mansion uses 8,000 gallons of oil; even the closets are heated via small grates. The estate uses 7,000 gallons of water per month today. Originally, a water-tank room served as a back-up supply (early municipal systems were unreliable); each […]
Millions of dollars from foreign investors are pouring into Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. What that means for the region is anyone’s guess—except that it will never be the same.
