Growing up in the military, my mother always made a concerted effort to keep us connected with our family in Vermont. Mom of course, told us the family stories and showed us the photo albums; but she also paired us up with cousins for letter writing and gift giving at the holidays. No matter where we were living, Vermont was home. We spent summer vacations in VT, which was no small task packing five children into the car and feeding us from the back of a station wagon on the road. I learned to drive between Colorado and VT.
When the war came to our family, mom saw to it that we landed in VT and then afterwards convinced my father to take an assignment in Burlington. Those four years were the longest that I had ever lived in one town. What I think that mom didn't realize at the time, was that though she moved 22 times in 20 years, we would have been Vermonters anyway. In fact, three of her five children have homes in VT. Even my brother who lives in NH is a Vermonter. I believe that it wasn't what my mother told us, or even our visits to VT that made us Vermonter's, it was instead how she lived her daily life, it was her VT ethic, it was the fact that she carried VT within her.
For my mother's part, she was the daughter of a French Canadian immigrant father and a first generation (French Canadian) American mother. My Grandfather came to VT as a child along with his parents and nine siblings and extended family. His father came to work in his cousin's granite shed in Barre, and by the age of thirteen my grandfather had dropped out of school and began work in the stone sheds too. Tuberculosis Silicosis claimed his lung as a young man and set him to work at GMP as a troubleshooter on the dams. My grandmother, I never met as she passed when my mother was six. My grandfather remarried a Georgia, VT. farm girl and lived in VT until his death. He always flew the American flag; but the peaks of his house were painted Canadian red. Mom was VT born, raised and educated. She received a college scholarship from Montpelier and attended a Vermont college; and like her father brought Canada to Vermont, mom brought VT with her to all of the places that life took her.
Why, you must be wondering, am I belaboring the point of VT heritage in a blog about Vernon? It is because twice in recent weeks I have again heard exclusionary statements about who is and who is not a true Vermonter.
While watching a selectboard meeting discussion on whether or not to discontinue our town college scholarship, one member stated that it should be discontinued because, "They leave Vernon and they don't come back." This struck me, because as a graduating senior at Bellows Falls Union High School, all but one of my applications for scholarships were rejected on account of I hadn't lived in VT for my previous high school years. The one scholarship that I did receive was for forestry and natural resources.
The other statement was made directly to me on social media when discussing a proposed town plan in the North East Kingdom. The proposal to concentrate development in one area of town so as to conserve open lands, is not a new discussion to VT.* I would even venture to say that open lands are a part of VT heritage. Vernon for example, voted to make a statement that we value our farmlands and that development should focus in other areas. Though Vernon has no zoning, Vernon is a great supporter of funding farmland conservation. In the course of the discussion however, two contributors took exception to my open lands mindset and told me to, "Move back to where you came from" and "You're no Vermonter, you must be from NYC" Yikes!
Wayne was born and raised in BF. Lord help me, I married not only a Vermonter; but an honest to goodness BF boy! Wayne's father's family is buried up to Perkinsville with dates going back to the 1700s. Wayne's grandfather was great friends with Calvin Coolidge's son. They once set out to walk from one end of VT to the other; but Adwin had a bad leg and didn't complete the journey. Wayne's grandfather worked for the Creamery. Wayne's dad installed and maintained milking parlors for R.N. Johnsons on farms right here in Vernon. But before that, Wayne's dad was in the U.S. Navy right out of high school.
(Addendum) Quite a few readers wondered why I didn't include Wayne's mother in this piece and so I am adding it here now. Wayne's mom proudly hails from Littleton NH where her mother ran a boarding house. As a youth she worked summers and slept in the barn of her grandparents establishment in the center of Wilmington. At the The Crafts Inn, Janice began as a bread girl because as she was fond of saying, "I was well bred." She attended Keene State gaining her teaching certificate and subsequently taught in Bellows Falls. I met Wayne when she was working at JCP in Brattleboro.
After graduating high school, Wayne attended a Vermont college prior to joining the Navy. Wayne worked at VY from '91 until it closed. He then commuted from Vernon to work at Indian Point in NY. I suppose that makes Wayne a New Yorker too. Our eldest daughter mustn't be a Vermonter either as she was born in S.C. and lived her first year there before we left the Navy and moved to Hinsdale, NH. She didn't move to Vernon until she was 14. But get this, Kayden calls herself a Vermonter from Vernon. She has traveled all over the world, lived in China three times, worked in Boston for years and currently lives in San Diego, CA. This weekend she is participating in wilderness survival training in the desert. I am positive that she introduces herself as being from VT. She carries the VT ethic with her.
With the exception of one year, my father's mother lived her entire life in Chittenden County. She traced her family in VT to the Green Mountain Boys, back before VT was a state; and yet there are those who would dismiss my family's heritage. There are those who would judge us that left these Green Mountains and equally so, those of us from away who choose to live here now. It's continuity on this land that they value most. I want to say to them, that while it's true that Vernon needs Vermonters, it's also true that the world needs Vermonters right now more than ever. The world needs educated, hard workers that come from and value the land, the hills, the lakes and the rivers. Farmers, woodsmen, fishermen, hunters, those who intimately understand the importance of their relationship to the environment.
We may be a small state; but we have a mighty message. Our message mustn't be lost in the bickering of who belongs at the table, we don't have time for that. It's in everybody's best interest that we encourage and support those who carry out into the world, the VT ethic. -Norma Manning
"People have always had to leave in order to find good jobs to support their families; but VT was always home, it's who they are and many return back to VT when they can." -Annette Safford, aged 84.
Further Reading:
* Vermont has Conserved One Third of the Land Needed for an Ecologically Functional Future, The University of Vermont, Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources
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