For a moment, the clouds part, Lyndonville, VT, by Herb Swanson
Welcome to “Dear Daybreak”, a weekly Daybreak column. It features short vignettes about life in the Upper Valley: an encounter, a wry exchange, a poem or anecdote or reflection… Anything that happened in this region or relates to it and that might strike us all as interesting or funny or poignant.
Want to submit your own Dear Daybreak item? Just go here!
Dear Daybreak:
Many years ago (before GPS was much of a “thing”) we had a friend come to visit from Boston. We lived on a dirt road, and our place could be a bit hard to find, so we gave what we thought were some good landmarks for her after-dark arrival time. We told her our road was the first right after the Orford Town offices, and that she should look for three streetlights, which would alert her to the turn.
Some time after she had said she would arrive, we got a phone call. She had driven all the way to Plymouth, looking for three stop lights! (And when — on the long, dark road after she missed the turn — she had tried to call from her cell phone, she had gotten the dreaded “no service” message.) We got her straightened out, she did manage to find us, and we had a lovely visit.
— Beth Hilgartner, Barre
Dear Daybreak:
My very clever computer has allowed me to retrieve a memory of Jim Jeffords, our beloved, independent United States senator, who rescued Norwich from decay and decline about 30 years ago.
Jeffords, the last Republican senator from Vermont, famously put principle before party loyalty. He was immensely popular in Vermont, and I was among those who admired him. I have regretted that he and his immense accomplishments have largely been forgotten. My clever computer has helped me to recover the details of his rescue of Norwich’s village center, however. I would like to pass them on.
What happened was this: The Norwich town Planning Commission proposed in the 1990s to build a new post office for the town on Route 5, well outside the village center. The post office at that time was in an old shop, part of the historic district. If the post office had been removed, the little village square would have died, as did so many in rural Vermont. In the early ‘90s the Postal Service was putting up new buildings for the automated machinery then being introduced. New buildings attended by full time employees were replacing mom-and-pop arrangements in homes and shops. The Norwich Planning Commission wanted to take advantage of the policy, which would have required closing the post office in the village.
Norwich residents rose up in indignation, and local opposition reached Jeffords, who intervened. He communicated with his friends in the Clinton Administration, who were trying to force federal agencies to preserve historic structures and districts. The Postal Service, an independent agency, was pressed to follow their lead. Norwich benefited very early from the policy change, which was eventually codified in a new regulation issued Sept. 2, 1998 (30 CFR 241). Instead of putting a brick building on Route 5, outside the village, postal service funds were used to preserve Norwich Square.
— Sheldon Novick, Norwich
Dear Daybreak:
New Englanders can truly appreciate the craziness of weather changes - 20 degrees one morning, 65 by noon, 32 by dinner - with flurries followed by sunny gloriousness transitioning to freezing rain. Whatever the pattern we rally. This week’s flash of spring to be followed by rain then snow is a prime example. The whole neighborhood in Hanover Center was out walking yesterday. To fully celebrate the temporary warmth, I convinced by husband to unbury some lawn chairs from the shed so we could sit on the patio and look at the snow banks melting. He was a bit reluctant since he and I know full well that those chairs will have snow on them before the season is over, but when the sun shines, it’s too enticing to forego some time in your lawn chair. So there sit the lawn chairs, looking at a backyard still full of snow (although much less full than a couple days ago) and a driveway full of mud. Onward toward spring!
— Christine Hoskin, Etna
