RAIN IN THE VALLEY
July 16th – Another hot day in Vermont. I really don’t remember this many 90 degree
days in a row when I was a kid …. But I guess it didn’t matter back then!
Our mission today is to head over to Rutland, VT to get the “lay
of the land” so to speak. This is where
my history began both on my maternal and fraternal sides.
It’s a funny family story told at our dinner table for years by my
father…You see he was from Illinois (Mid-West …. Best people on earth) and I
guess he must have thought he sprang originally from the earth out there! Anyway, he would kid my mother by saying he “Took
her off the mountain and put shoes on her feet” referring to her Rutland, Vermont
roots.
Well, around the mid-60’s (1960’s that is), one of our relatives,
the Fairbanks (I was mistaken earlier when I said Fairchilds were in the family
.. it’s Fairbanks) did a geneology of the Bloods. Back then there was no Ancestry.com so they
did it the hard way, looking through books and traveling back to England. My father was so excited about this family history….he
was the first to order the book!
When it arrived, he sequestered himself in his office and read it
through, page by page by page. When he
came out….he laughed!
You see……..the original brothers came over from England in the
1700’s and settled, of all places, Rutland, Vermont. Robert Blood married Thankful Proctor probably
of the Proctor Marble fame. Johnathan
Blood was born in1781 in Putney and had a large dairy farm in Rutland. Their son Charles Blood, also a Vermont dairy
farmer married Nancy Fairbanks siring Horace Blood who ended up in Joliet Ill by
way of Aurora NY during the western movement.
Horace was my great grandfather. That’s the Illinois connection. Gone, forever from our table, was the story
about “Taking Mom off the mountain and putting shoes on her feet!”
There are more threads to this tapestry that I have found
intriguing. Vermont Marble Company
located in Proctor Vermont was the place of employment for my grandfather, Earl
Noyes…..other side of the family! (Noyes
go back to the 1600 in Vermont)
At some point the VMC purchased a quarry in Marble, Colorado and
my mother mentioned (some time in the past) that Pop Pop (my grandfather) went
out to Colorado involved in the transition.
My brother John visited Marble, Colorado and bought me a book about the
marble company. In this book it
describes the merger/acquisition of the Colorado Marble Company. The lead negotiator in the team from the VMC
was Robert Blood. Now what are the
chances of that!
Here…..my mother brings home my father TJ (Truman John) Blood from
Joliet, Illinois to Rutland, Vermont to meet her parents and my grandfather
must have already known Robert Blood very distantly connected!
Enough about the family history!
Entering Rutland was an experience since it has grown up so much
in the last 15 years! The road in on
Route 7 has all kinds of businesses and shopping centers. PETCO is here … where we will come to buy
Billy’s Blue Buffalo dog food!
Finally we entered a part of Rutland I remembered. Passed Sewards Dairy where we would get hot
fudge sundaes on hot summer nights if we could talk our parents into driving
down the mountain!
Kept driving up Route 7 until the turn-off for Chittenden. Amazing, I remembered exactly where that was ….
The old brick building which is some sort of a substation is still standing
after all these years!
Headed up the mountain yapping about growing up spending wonderful
summer vacations and winter weekends here.
Also “borrowing” the car when my folks and Betty & Dick were off
somewhere to drive Sharyn and I back down the mountain to Rutland to visit
friends then hauling ass back up the mountain and parking before the folks got
home!
We went under the water pipe that goes from the Chittenden Dam all
the way down town (I guess). We would
walk the pipe as far as we could down the mountain.
I remembered walking at night, with the snow falling. It was so quiet that I would pop my ears to
make sure they weren’t blocked. I had
never heard such deafening stillness before and never since. Our world is so full of noise. Poor Sharyn, she’d come down to my house,
located on Route 5A in the flight path of the Bradley International Airport and
lay awake from all the noise!
My cousin’s house was at the top of the mountain and during the
winter was the last house occupied with summer camps further up. Chittenden Dam was just down the road and
always a place to cool off … which is probably why we didn’t notice any
heat! In the winter the deer and
sometimes baby bear cubs would wander out of the woods into their backyard. Once I saw a baby cub and wanted to bolt out
the door. Betty grabbed me by the collar
saying, “Where there is a cub, there is a mama!”
The last time I was at Chittenden Dam was in 1974 and the reservoir
was drained. My brother and I and two
friends attempted to walk across the dam!
We sunk to our hips in mud and barely made it out alive! Walked back to Betty & Dicks covered in
mud. Stripped down and hosed off. Betty just shook her head! We were grown-ups then!
Coming back down from the Reservoir I spotted the A P Noyes statue
honoring the citizens of Chittenden who lost their lives in the Civil War. The
GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) was the preeminent veterans' organization
formed at the close of the Civil War.
. 4.--AN ACT AUTHORIZING TOWNS TO ERECT MONUMENTS
TO THE MEMORY OF DECEASEDSOLDIERS.
(October 30, 1863)
It is hereby enacted by the General Assembly of the State of
Vermont:
Sec. 1. At any town
meeting, in the warning for which a suitable article for that purpose shall be
inserted, any town may instruct its selectmen to erect a monument or monuments
to the memory of citizens of such town, dying in the service of the country,
during the present war, and may appropriate a sum of money sufficient to defray
the expense of such erection.
Drove a little further down
and saw what I remember as the old Town Hall.
When we were kids, the Catholic Priest, Father Ritchie, would come
up from Rutland to perform mass in the second floor of the Town Hall. My cousin Gary would come down about an hour
before Mass to light the wood burning stove to heat the room up. Then we all troop down for mass.
One snowy winter Sunday I was sitting next to the window looking
out the back of the building when I saw a boy walking down the mountain through
the thick snow dragging a Christmas tree.
I have never forgotten that scene.
When I living in the Berkshires and driving up to Vermont for day
trips, always said we lived in a Currier and Ives picture.
We drove down some roads that didn’t look at all familiar ending
up on a dirt road picked out by Tom Tom!
Did pass an old cemetery, Wetmore, and stopped to take a look.
These warm summer days are bringing out the Deer Flies and other
flying insects who hone in on your body heat!
With arms flailing we walked through the cemetery; a constant buzzing
sound echoing in and around our heads!
Came upon several graves from the Civil War era and the names were
engraved on the A P Noyes statue….George Walker died September 5, 1863 and
William Walker, PVT 12th VT Infantry died August 20, 1863. They were 18 and 20 years old.
Came down through Pittsford and ended up back on Route 7 into
Rutland. This time I headed west, down
Main Street, passed the RR Station and out towards West Rutland. Our destination was the Evergreen Cemetery
where my grandparents are buried. My
grandparent’s house was at the edge of this cemetery so this cemetery became
the playground for my brother and me.
It sits on a large hill climbing up the mountain. What better place to slide down in the snow
in the winter and ride your bikes down in the summer dodging the
headstones.
Took two tries but located my grandparent’s grave. MemMere and Pop Pop have a beautiful view of
the mountains …. if you could see them through the haze. They are virtually in their own backyard as
the house is located on the other side of the rise.
Exiting the cemetery we hung a right and there it was …. MemMere
and PopPop’s house… the one my mother grew up in. (Had to take pictures from the car window
because of traffic.)
Now we’re in Vermont where, unless you’re located on Lake
Champlain, your décor tends toward Nordic or antique farm equipment. The garage is now painted brightly red
selling Antiques.
But……in the windows of the house are starfish and in the large
window at the top of the beautiful winding staircase is a large sailboat. What are the chances of that!
Threads of the tapestry come together.
The one thing that delighted us the most in the Bahamas was seeing
those beautiful starfish on the floor of the Abaco Sea around our sailboat at
anchor. We never could get over it and I
bought a pair of starfish earrings as a reminder.
Now I’m in front of my Grandparents house, where my Vermonter
mother was raised, looking at these beautiful starfish in each and every window
and a beautiful sailboat at the top. There
is a message here ….. I am sure!
We headed out of Rutland to our Mt Ascutney home. Plan on coming back … still need to head up
to the Vermont Marble Company museum and find the cemetery where, when I was a
teenager, I was able to trace my Noyes family back before the Revolutionary
War!
IT’S GREAT TO BE BACK!
I love Vermont!
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