Car accident?
BARRE — When life gives you lemons — 40 of the four-wheeled variety — you bust out your camera and take pictures because, well, that’s what Sue Higby did on Sunday because that’s not something you see everyday.
Neither, apparently is a huge granite zipper, like the one that separates Studio Place Arts — better-known by its acronym SPA — and Barre City Place.
What’s that got to do with Higby?
Besides the fact she had a hand in the zipper’s creation, she serves as SPA’s executive director and was at the building for Open Studio Weekend when participants in the “New England Lemons Rally” came looking for it.
Wait … What?
It’s Higby’s story, so we’ll let her tell it.
“Teams from the New England Lemons Rally rolled into Barre on Sunday morning to document their pilgrimage to SPA’s granite zipper — part of a three-day driving scavenger hunt from Boston to Albany to Burlington and then back to Boston, driving vehicles valued at $500 and less,” says Higby. The Lemons Rally, inspired by the “24 hours of Le Mans” endurance races, required teams to document their arrival at specific historic places or sites with oddities such as the granite zipper.”
To make a long story short: They found it.
“Forty groups rolled into Barre in front of SPA, many in team ‘uniforms,’ such as wearing big hair wigs from the ’80s, hoodies made from bubble wrap, purple street-length capes, and untamed beards, in this event for motorhead mavericks,” says Higby, who snapped a shot of two grown men dressed up as Mario and Luigi of Super Mario Brothers fame.
“Yes, too much coffee had been consumed by teams during the previous days of the rally and yes, some teams had abandoned their vehicles along the way and were given back-up cars by their friends,” says Higby, who adds: “This is not for everyone!”
It sounds like it might be for Higby, who was taken by this YouTube video — bit.ly/lemons1006 — entitled “Lemons Rally Retreat from Moscow Narrative 2019,” and inspired by the folks she met on Sunday morning in Barre.
“I will be reaching out to friends and family with motorhead skills to create a team,” she says. “This sounds like a blast.”
It does look like fun.
Not so ‘fast food?’
WILLIAMSTOWN — For the first time in its 125-year history, a seasonal supper prepared by members of Williamstown United Federated Church of Williamstown will be take-out only, but rest assured next week’s meal is no McChicken pie supper.
This one is the real deal — a meal lovingly prepared according to recipes that have been handed down from one generation to the next for well more than a century.
It’s a Williamstown tradition — one that was briefly snapped due to the coronavirus pandemic during which a devastating fire destroyed a church building that was constructed in the 1800s.
The old church is gone now, its congregants hold Sunday services in the church just up the road, and while the sit-down dinner returned last year it was held at the nearby Summit Lodge.
Not this year, according to Kathy Moran.
“It’s take-out only this year,” says Moran, one of several congregants who have helped with various aspects of the supper for decades.
Moran says the recipes haven’t changed and the cadre of cooks all follow them scrupulously.
Among those preparing the chicken pie — there are a dozen in all — are Marion Powell, Donah Beattie, Marjorie Bailey, Janice Covey and Phyllis MacAskill. All have prepared the anchor of this supper more than a few times before and theirs won’t be the only busy kitchens before the reservations-only suppers are doled out a week from today (that’s Oct. 13) starting at 5 p.m.
Did we say reservations?
We did.
As has been the case for longer than we can remember, Cece Miller (802-433-5382) will be taking them. The difference this year is Miller won’t be arranging seating she’ll essentially be taking orders for meals (they’ve already started rolling in) and assigning times when they can be picked up at the new church between 5 and 6:30 p.m. next Thursday.
The old suppers were all held on Thursdays and the price, which ticked up to $13 (it was $12 forever) last year, is the same.
Except for coffee and tea (they don’t travel well) the menu is the same as it’s always been: chicken pie (made just so), gravy, riced potatoes, cole slaw, cranberry relish, pickles and pie — apple or pumpkin.
We’re told this year’s meals will be packaged piping hot and doled out by a production crew that includes Nancy and Alvin Avery, Debbie and Larry Watts and Jennifer Cummings.
Blast from the past
BARRE — Councilor Thomas Lauzon offered a touching tribute to his wife, Karen, who he noted Tuesday night attended her last meeting as president of the board of directors of Our House of Central Vermont.
It was a long and successful run for Karen Lauzon — one that started in 2007, ended Monday and, her husband noted, featured her working tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure sexually abused children and their families get all the support and the resources they need.
“She has worked hard,” he said.
Councilor Lauzon could have stopped there, but before signing off with a “cheers sweetie” to his wife, he shared the story of the time she stalked him into wearing a dress in a fashion show to raise funds for Our House.
Lauzon couldn’t remember the year, but will never forget the experience.
Neither will we and, for what it’s worth, the year was 2007.
At the time Lauzon (Thomas, not Karen) was in his first term as mayor, and Lauzon (Karen, not Thomas) was the new president of the Our House board.
Here’s what we wrote at the time under the heading “Vanity fair?”:
If you’re going to wear a prom dress you want to look good, which is why we can’t blame Mayor Thomas Lauzon for posing a weight-related question to his wife, Karen, this weekend before waltzing down a makeshift runway with his daughter, Miranda, on one arm and a colorful corsage on the other.
”Does this make me look fat, honey?” Lauzon jokingly asked his wife after donning a pink-and-white chiffon dress he agreed to model during Saturday’s fundraiser for Our House of Central Vermont.”
Lauzon, who looked less-than-pretty-in-pink, admitted he needn’t have posed the question given the fact that there was no zipping the dress he was wearing.
“Some people have a six-pack, I have a beer ball,” he joked, tapping his pink-clad belly. “I look like a demented tooth fairy.”
Cheers, sweetie!
Reservations required
MONTPELIER — The first of three community feedback sessions designed to explore and discuss future uses of city-owned property on Country Club Road will be held on site a week from Saturday.
The kickoff of a consultant-led master planning process for property that was the long-time home of the local Elk’s Club and its nine-hole golf course will be held in the old lodge from 1 to 3 p.m., and folks who want to attend should RSVP soon.
Seems seating is limited and those who want one of them can register at bit.ly/club1006 to obtain a cost-free ticket.
It won’t be the only feedback session — two others (more on them in a moment) have been scheduled later this month, but it is the only on-site option and will allow small groups to actually explore the property and discuss development opportunities.
Two follow up sessions — one in-person with a virtual option and another all remote — are also planned.
You won’t have to be in Memorial Room at City Hall to attend the 90-minute session planned from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19, and space won’t be a factor at the hour-long Zoom session set for noon on Thursday, Oct. 27.
It’s the first two-hour session — one that will include a presentation on the master planning process and small group tours of the property — that will require folks to register in advance.
What’s the score?
BERLIN — Baseball season is still a Vermont winter and then some away, but when spring rolls around, those watching Little League games on the field behind Berlin Elementary School should have a much easier time tracking who is winning.
This week, the Recreation Board received the town’s approval to proceed with a project that has already been blessed by school officials. With luck, a new scoreboard will be installed at the field before snow flies.
The price — $940 — sounded right to the Select Board and the design, courtesy of Paul Winters, will be similar to scoreboards on fields at three of Berlin’s sister-schools in the Washington Central Unified Union School District.
Winters designed the manual wooden scoreboard that was installed on the field at East Montpelier Elementary School a few years back, and more recently at Calais Elementary School, and Rumney Memorial School in Middlesex.
Berlin’s scoreboard will be similar and will require changing the hanging vinyl numbers that will be conveniently tucked in a rear trapdoor every time someone crosses home plate.
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