Recently, the editor of the editorial page of the Valley News received a letter from a student named Izzie in “Mrs. B’s Class” at The Langley School of McLean, Va., and passed it on to me. As part of a “State Fair” project, Izzie’s third-grade class had been given an assignment to study the states of the Union, each student taking a different state. Izzie picked Vermont — an especially felicitous choice — and wanted to know more about the place, especially the good things that make its residents love it (assuming, of course, that they do). So this is for Izzie and the rest of Mrs. B’s students:
Dear Izzie,
One of the editors of our local newspaper has sent me a copy of your fine letter asking for information about “the best things” in our state. Your letter couldn’t have come at a better time because, as I write, I’m looking out the window at one of them — winter.
Yes, I know it’s halfway through March, the spring equinox is upon us and we’ve already changed to daylight saving time. And I suspect that where you live, in Virginia, the robins are hunting worms on green lawns and maybe even the magnolias are in bloom. But if I stand outside in my East Montpelier yard right now, there are snowbanks pushed up by my plow guy that I still can’t see over, and the wind is blowing hard enough out there to make ripples in the water in the toilets indoors. My dog and I will wait a couple of hours before deciding whether we’re going for our walk in the woods today.
I know; you asked for the best things. Well, winter in Vermont is one of them. Not only does it make our skiers and snowboarders and mountain resorts very happy, but it brings us together in warm places like general stores and coffee shops, where we stomp the snow off our boots, unwrap the scarves from around our necks and just talk — usually about the winter we’re having. The frozen ground beneath our feet gets pretty slippery at times, so we old folks, especially, walk everywhere with a sort of careful shuffle.
This week is also the start of what we call sugar season.
It’s later than usual this year because, thanks mainly to the fracture of the frigid polar vortex caused by global climate change, it’s been icy cold here. But that’s almost over, and within a few days the sugar maples will begin their annual run of sap. Soon we’ll see all around us hundreds of little barnlike buildings with clerestory roofs half-hidden in water vapor steaming out from the boiling sap inside. Maple syrup is one of our major crops. In fact, Vermont leads the nation in maple syrup production — nearly 2 million gallons in 2017 — which is remarkable because it takes about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. Some of the sugar-makers (that’s what the folks who make maple syrup are called) invite folks into their sugarhouses when they’re boiling sap and serve them “sugar on snow,” which you’ve got to experience to appreciate.
This is also the season of our annual Town Meetings, the closest thing to pure democracy anywhere.
On a particular day in March, usually the first Tuesday, the citizens of each town meet, in whatever building is big enough to hold everybody, and elect town officers, discuss the budgets, road conditions, conservation efforts and whatever else needs to be decided. (Just between us, whenever someone rises to speak and begins by saying, “I’m a sixth-generation Vermonter,” it’s time for me to go get a cup of coffee. I think, “Whoops! This is going to take a while.”) The luckiest towns have moderators who know their business and have a great sense of humor. There’s usually a potluck lunch, too; you bring either a dish to share or $5. It’s a great occasion.
Vermont is known as the Green Mountain State, and the name (“vert” for green and “mont” for mount or hill, from the French) kind of means that. The Green Mountains run down the middle of the state like a spine, and Mount Mansfield, at 4,393 feet, is the highest point.
Our capital, Montpelier, is the smallest state capital in the nation, and the only one without a McDonald’s.
Our ponds and streams stay pretty cool throughout the summer, but we all have favorite swimming holes for the hot days of July, and a river conservancy group is working hard to preserve them. The Green Mountain Club maintains and preserves the Long Trail, a hiking trail that runs the length of the state, as well as the shelters where hikers can stay overnight. In the fall, those maple trees that gave us the sap in spring give us a fantastic display of bright-colored leaves. Then comes hunting season and the first hints of winter.
In 1777, when the original 13 states wouldn’t let us into the Union and New Hampshire and New York each claimed they owned us, we declared ourselves an independent republic. That independent streak endures. We were the first in the world to abolish adult slavery. We instituted universal suffrage; men no longer had to own property to vote. (Women didn’t get the vote, thanks to the foot-dragging of the rest of the country, until 1920.) We had the first free public education. And to this day, when a new proposal or idea comes up, we sniff at it suspiciously, but usually go ahead and try it. We’re a small state, and most of us know each other. So if something doesn’t work, we can repeal it. That’s how we manage so often to be out in front of the pack.
I’ve mentioned only a few of the reasons we love it here. There are many others. If you want an idea of the way we feel about this place, do an internet search for “Vermont is a state I love.” It’s a speech our favorite native Vermonter, President Calvin Coolidge, gave to the citizens who, before the days of federal emergency management agencies, were rebuilding the state after the awful, deadly flood of November 1927, Vermont’s most devastating natural disaster.
We are, as “Silent Cal” said then, a “brave little state,” and we love it!
Editor’s note: Vermonters who would like to share their favorite things about their state are invited to send mail to Izzie, in care of Mrs. B’s Class, The Langley School, 1411 Balls Hill Road, McLean, Va., 22101. Postcards, maps, pictures and souvenirs will be especially useful for the school project. Willem Lange can be reached at willem.lange@comcast.net.
