FRED AND Patsy White visited their son Isaac and his wife Carrie in Columbia, SC, the week before Memorial Day. They came home on the Virginia segment of the Blue Ridge Parkway, getting on at Fancy Gap in Southern Virginia and continuing to the end at Front Royal. They encountered a t remendous storm and the next day read in a newspaper that over 600 lightning strikes hit the area around the parkway in only one hour. One bolt of lightning took out the power of the Parkway’s Peaks of Otter Lodge where they stayed, which resulted in weakly generated power for the rooms and restaurant. The elegant restaurant used paper plates and plastic utensils for the meals. The next day, the Whites continued up the Parkway to where it ended on the Skyline Drive and then on to home.

The speed limits on the parkway are 35 and 45 mph, so one does not drive them without plenty of time to spare. However, the scenery is always spectacular, and the Whites saw turkey, deer, bear, and various raptors and other birds along the drive. The Mountain Laurel was in bloom also.

The 75 year-old Blue Ridge Parkway, which traverses the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and Virginia for 469 miles, was conceived of during the Depression and built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, putting hundreds of men to work on its construction. At the same time, Vermont was also offered the opportunity to build a parkway through the Green Mountains but refused.

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As promised, this is the report of Friday evening dining at the Northfield Country Club. Congenial crowd. Relaxed atmosphere. Fabulous encrusted salmon on bed of couscous, fresh veggies on the side.

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Quote of the week: “YouTube has completely revolutionized procrastination,” David Letterman, the Late Show. (Editor’s note. YouTube is a place on the Internet where you can post or look at anything imaginable and some unimaginable things)

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Two weeks ago, we reported that one of Coach Jarvis’ 1970s athletes still remembered and quoted him thusly: “Work hard, maybe you’ll get lucky”. This week, Coach Jarvis quoted himself: “The harder you work, the luckier you get.”

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The offspring is in Tennessee this week. We know he’s alive because we received these messages of text on our cell phone over a three day period: “hi gimm ertonsdfkla dsneifnnn” and: “celtic tonite dinner party now” and: “pounding rian liggtr ov.”

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Thank you to the good person who found my watch in the Mayo Building and turned it in at the deli. The watch and I reunited on Monday.

commontalk@trans-video.net. Please be in touch. Remember Vermonters have the “right to dry”, that is, hang our laundry outside.