This is an enormous change in weather! Still having showers daily, so no change there, but they haven't been as hard and troublesome as we've experienced earlier, and the heat and humidity are gone. There's a nice wind to help dry things out a bit, and if not, at least it will keep the black flies off balance - and the sun is out!

I'm getting things ready to go back to the historical society - albums I've worked on this winter and a few items that were donated. One such item is a very nicely put together genealogy called, "Cabot Vermont Relations of Edna Russell Southwick Stimpson 1903-1983," sent to us by Muriel Stimpson Hughes. We have a fair amount of information about the Southwick family, so this is a very nice addition to our resource/research collections.

Our annual meeting will be on Sunday, so I'd best get cracking and get things ready to go back.

I had an e-mail recently from a cousin who lives in Texas but grew up in Cabot. I'd directed him to the flood pictures on the blog. He is in the DFW area and said they could use some of the rain we've had. They have been plagued by wildfires west of where they live and he sent a picture of a hail stone, the likes of which pummeled a friend's truck last week. Everything's bigger in Texas, I hear. To get an idea of how big the culvert is that washed out around the hardware store in Cabot, my cousin said when he was growing up in Cabot he could stand up in the culvert. It goes under Main Street and I believe under the Cabot Garage.

This old photo shows the effects of a flood in Cabot that may have been around 1900. There was a bad flood in 1897, and this picture may have been taken at that time. This was originally known as the Farrington Block, owned by John Farrington who did business there in the 1870's, 80's and 90's. According to Rev. Fred Blodgett in his memoirs, the Morse Brothers did business there around the turn of the century, they were not there very long. It stood beside the Winooski Hotel which burned in 1914. That building did not burn at that time, but was later turned into a garage and eventually taken down and the present garage built there. About the time the Morse Brothers had a store there, Mr. Jim Knight had a small jewelery store in one end. He repaired clocks and watches.

There have been other severe floods in Cabot Village, most doing similar damage to what we have seen this time. Water pours from the steep hills that surround the town and wreak havoc along the way, gaining momentum as they come, hitting with terrible force the little town on the Winooski River.