We imagine that Bill and Barbara Pope spoke for most of their generation when they said,

Thanksgiving? We let the kids do the cooking now!” They enjoyed a trip to Minnesota to visit a daughter and son-in-law who were in charge of the cooking.

• My grandnephew, Sam, asked when his grandfather would come to lunch again. (Two pieces of background information are necessary to appreciate this dialogue: 1) what Sam called “lunch” was actually several days of holiday feasting and 2) his Grandpa lives in Lubec, Maine, on the easternmost point of U.S. territory; if the sun is going to rise, it rises first on Lubec. One reason so few people live there is that it is a terribly long drive from just about anywhere.)

So anyway, Sam’s father replied, “He can’t come this year but we might go visit him. Remember, it’s a long, long ride across Vermont and Maine.” Sam remembered vividly because he replied, “Oh, yah, the road where I have to throw up”.

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Marie Countryman had a display of photographs at the Kellogg Hubbard Library recently and the Art Resource Association has a wonderful show at the Wood Gallery on the Vermont College campus. Several artists from Northfield and Roxbury are included.

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Bernice Drown had an “awesome trip” to California to visit her granddaughter, Dawn Delfino. Dawn gave Bernice the tour of several cities where they saw the Golden Gate Bridge and an aquarium. They visited the Hearst Castle, took a train ride to see the red woods, and saw Wicked at an opera house. Bernice said, “It was an excellent trip, busy every day, a wonderful time.”

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Brianna Clemens Howard, an Americorps volunteer, is lining up great speakers at the Senior Center. People who have not yet obtained senior-hood are also welcome so watch Channel 7 or call the Center to see what’s up next. One week, three Norwich students and their professor presented on the United Nations and last week, Gary Lord offered a slide show of Northfield landmarks that reveal the history of the Town and Village. He prefaced his talk with two quotes:

“…pay attention to everything that abuts the rural road, the city street, the suburban boulevard. Walk. Stroll. Saunter. Ride a bike, and coast along a lot. Explore…Flex the mind, a little at first, then a lot. Savor something special. Enjoy the best kept secret around---the ordinary, everyday landscape that rewards any explorer with magic… a little acute observation of ordinary things…opens to larger issues that invigorate the mind, that entice understanding, that flex mental muscle, that fit the explorer for further exploring.”

[John Stilgoe, Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places.]

“Landscapes do not just spring fully formed, from the earth. At any moment, they represent the accumulated total of the decisions made by hundreds of thousands of men and women over time. Houses, trees, roads, churches, lawns, hills: all have histories.”

[Jan Albers, Hands on the Land: A History of the Vermont Landscape.]

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