|
Thirty-two years ago, my girlfriend Liz had an interview for a job teaching at St. Johnsbury Academy on the northern edge of Vermont. I accompanied her on the 3-1/2 hour drive up the twisty White River through the rolling hills of the Green Mountains. While Liz was in meetings, I roamed the campus and tried to image what it would be like to move from Boston to this rural valley. We would have so many choices ahead of us. If she was hired at St. Johnsbury, and I found a job in the Boston area, would we revert to a long-distance relationship? Would our love survive such a separation? Or maybe Liz hesitantly would turn down the job offer to stay with me and slowly her resentment would sour our relationship?  Or perhaps, I would follow her north and buy a little house in the nearby town of Concord, Vermont? If we had started our life together in Vermont would we ever have moved back to Massachusetts? Perhaps I would have raised goats and made artisan cheese like Roberta Gillott. Perhaps I would have become a writer of novels and short stories like Helen Pike?
 Kerry and Julie at the Concord Main Post Office. "It's a tight community with beautiful ponds. I always wanted to be a mailman growing up. Perhaps Concord Vermont would have been the perfect place.  Certainly, Concord, Vermont, would have been a lovely place to settle. Our weekend getaway was timed so that we'd arrive the evening before the Concord Historical Society held its annual fall festival.  We booked an old schoolhouse for our bed and breakfast, and schools and education became the theme of the weekend. Concord once had nine one-room schools, and it was the site of the first teacher-training (or "Normal") school in America. Concord Vermont also claims Robert Frost was a one-time resident. He owned a house here, but he rarely visited it.  We had a wonderful time meeting the folks of Vermont. They all had the same basic answer to our standard questions: they loved Concord because this was their home and "Yes" Concord has changed over the years; there are less businesses in town, but the spirit of the place remains. Beth Quimby (left) had a poetic answer: "I love the quiet Concord roads." Her mom, Connie, is the president of the Historical Society, a state representative and a driving force in town.  Ron Drown at the Concord Historical Society. Wikipedia says that Concord Vermont was founded in 1780 by two men Rueben Jones and Simon Willard, and that the town was named directly after Concord MA. This sounds probable. 145 years earlier, Rev. John Jones and another Simon Willard were founders of Concord in Massachusetts. Simon Willard was a prolific chap – he had 17 children, and the genealogy is complicated by multiple marriages and equally prolific offspring . I heard an estimate that there are over 100,000 decedents of the original Simon Willard. I visited the Concord Vermont Historical Society to try to confirm this direct link between the towns.  While at the Historical Society, I heard two memorable stories. The first was an old-time Concordian recalling that back in the 1970's, the American Motors Company (AMC) launched a sedan called the "Concord." I was told that one of the first publicity campaigns consisted of a group picture of Concordians from all different states. Alas, I have yet to locate such a photo in the pre-internet days.  The second story concerned the heroism of a chaplain from East Concord, Vermont - George Lansing Fox. At the outbreak of WWII, Fox and his son both joined up. Fox was assigned was aboard the S.S. Dorchester when she was torpedoed. According to Wikipaedia,  "On February 2, 1943 the German submarine U-223 spotted the convoy and fired a torpedo which struck the Dorchester shortly after midnight. Hundreds of men packed the decks of the rapidly sinking ship and scrambled for the lifeboats. Several of the lifeboats had been damaged and the four chaplains began to organize frightened soldiers. They distributed life jackets from a locker; when the supply of life jackets ran out, each of the chaplains gave theirs to other soldiers. When the last lifeboats were away, the chaplains prayed with those unable to escape the sinking ship. 27 minutes after the torpedo struck, the Dorchester disappeared below the waves with 672 men still aboard."  The four chaplains were of four different faiths. They were last seen kneeling with their arms interlocked in prayer. It was the perfect weekend to visit the Northeast Kingdom. The leaves were on the turn, but it was still warm and breezy. Concord Vermont is a remarkably picturesque place, and the townspeople couldn't have been more welcoming. Lizzy and I only had a weekend, but it seemed like more. I think if Lizzy had been hired at St. Johnsbury, and we had made Concord Vermont our home, we would have been quite happy. By the way, since North Concord has a separate operational post office, I'm calling it an other "Concord." That makes it 27 Concords visited as of September, 2017. Some of the 1235 residents of Concord, Vermont.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
RSS Feed