Snow - Again!

Winter isn't over by a long shot! I just came in from measuring another 2.5 inches of new snow, and it is presently snowing lightly - again. We began to get a snow mix around noon yesterday, and for most of the day it was wet and miserable. Last night the temperature here dropped well below freezing, and the precipitation continued as snow. By morning, we had a fresh spread of white on everything. Pretty, but pretty darned discouraging, too. I know this is only the end of March and we actually haven't had a harsh winter, compared to some other years, and certainly nothing like what some other regions have had, but most of us are ready for some sunshine, at the very least. These dreary days are depressing.

Here in the north country we find ways to forget about the gloomy weather and whatever else is going on to bring our spirits down. We have the Joe's Pond Ice-Out Contest, which was inspired by some avid Joe's Ponders who wanted to find a way to combat the boredom of long, snowy, sunless winter days. Over the years, the contest has grown from a shirt pocket-sized betting game among a few dozen friends to a pretty large, nation-wide guessing contest engaging thousands. It is remarkable in that the original price per ticket is still only one dollar - and because it is very much weather-related, there is no way it could ever be rigged or won by a formula. Nobody is an expert in this game. It's pure luck.

This year every student and all the staff at Waterford Elementary School in Waterford, Vermont, will have a chance to guess the time the clock will stop. Joe's Ponder Bill Dimick and daughter, Tangeni, (my oldest son and my beautiful granddaughter) presented her school with enough paid tickets for everyone, from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and the entire staff. Teachers are using this as a teaching tool, incorporating math, science, numbers, writing, geography and possibly history. This means that with about 200 chances, there is the very exciting possibility one of the tickets could win. If that happens, the money - which could be more than $5,000 - will go to the school for some special purpose that will benefit the whole school community. This picture is of Tangeni, counting out tickets for each class, per Principal Miller's request last week. Staff will receive the tickets this week and the fun will begin. All tickets will be filled out by close of school Friday and Bill will pick them up. We are excited that the school is participating in this year's JPA Ice-Out. Many of the families in Waterford are familiar with Joe's Pond, and each summer Tangeni has a variety of friends visiting at the Dimick family camp on West Shore Road.

As you know, we have been promoting our West Danville history book whenever and wherever we can. On Thursday, Patty Conly and I did something quite different: we were asked to talk about the process of writing the book. It took us a couple of meetings to pull things together, remembering how it all began almost a decade ago, now. Whenever we meet, we cannot help remembering with sadness that both Jane Larrabee and Dot Larrabee passed away before the book was published. However, we had notes and made more, reviewed emails when we could and had a wonderful time reminiscing about how the three of us, Patty, Dot Larrabee, and I, collaborated to write the book, using so many resources, and tapping into people's memories and family histories; how Jane Larrabee contributed countless  photos, stories and her grandmother Jennie's diaries; the fun we had going through some of  Douglas Blackadar's diaries, which were entirely different than Jennie's; and the long hours, hard work of researching and writing that have all seemed to vanish over time into a haze. But we managed to pull together a reasonable program, and we were happy to have a very appreciative, interested (and interesting) gathering of at least 60 people come to listen to us. Here is a link to the presentation Patty Conly and I did last Thursday. It is an hour and a half, so you probably won't want to see the whole thing, but if you are interested, here it is: The Making of West Danville. 

I will be at the Cabot Library on Tuesday at 7 o'clock, to talk about our book. This is a new "Meet the Author" series planned at the library. I'm looking forward to presenting a slide show of some of the photos used in the book and talking to people about our book. This meeting, as far as I know, will not be recorded!

As the snow drifts down outside, I'm getting ready for lunch and probably a nap - unless I find a really engaging show to watch on TV. I've taped Sunday Morning, so that might keep me awake.