A Bit of History is Missing from Joe's Pond.
I went to get my flu shot yesterday morning and on the way home saw activity at the Randy Rouleau lot. There was a big back hoe working near the waterfront, and as I breezed by it dawned on me there was only waterfront there - the old cottage that Rufus "Sim" Whittier built was GONE!

I turned the car around and went down to find out what had happened to it - hoping that someone had rescued it at the last minute and it and moved it to some other location, preserved with all it's history, but of course that wasn't the case. The operator of the back hoe stopped the machine to talk to me. He was very courteous and when I asked about the old cottage, he seemed genuinely sorry having to tell me it had been demolished. He knew about Sim Whittier, and he also knew the cottage had been moved on the ice to that location. I didn't want to hold him up from his work leveling the lot, and as I left, we agreed that time changes everything - including humans. Nothing is forever. I felt the sadness, and I think he did, too.

This afternoon Fred and I walked down and took pictures of the "new look" on that lot. At the top of the page is a photo of the cottage on Sim's Island, taken probably in the late 1930's. The next is how it looked about a year ago and one taken today from about the same vantage point on the waterfront. We had taken a picture from the road earlier this year and today took another so you can see the difference in the lot.

The original structure had been changed several times since Sim lived there (see story on the web site under "History of Joe's Pond"), and we've been told it was in disrepair due to neglect over the years. On the lot now is a spacious, new, not-quite-finished year-around home. (See last photo.)

Speaking of changes and things past, I recently had an e-mail from Joe Colombo - perhaps some of you know him. Originally from Barre, he told me his grandfather, Ellis Henry, of South Barre built the cottage on the right just before going east through the narrows. We figured out it now belongs to Mike and Joanne Bugbee. Joe told me it was called, "Camp Forget-Me-Not." I remember seeing that sign as we went by in our boat years ago, but had forgotten. Just about everyone who built a cottage on the lake years ago named it. Most of the names have been lost or forgotten, so I was very happy to learn about it and will add the information to my list. A bit of history preserved. One day soon I'll put my list on the web site along with other history.