The Church Street Marketplace was built in 16 months, in 1980-81, after being first conceived in 1958. In 1971 and 72 they held street fairs on Church Street, and diverted traffic around four blocks of the street to accommodate pedestrian-only…

Last summer we had plans. I had negotiated an extra week of vacation with my employer and I was going to DO things. I had spent too many summers wishing I had done more and traveled more, but this one…

The Bread and Puppet Theater is a politically-radical puppet theater company started in 1963 in New York City, using rod-puppets (some as tall as 15 feet or more) to tell their stories in parade and pageant. The company moved to…

On a recent trip to the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, I paid a visit to the Museum of Everyday Life, 2 hours northeast of Burlington in Glover. I knew nothing about the place, only that it was mentioned on Atlas…

Using money inherited from the Vanderbilt estate, Dr William Webb and his wife Eliza Vanderbilt Webb created Shelburne Farms in 1886 and a model agricultural estate. In 1972 it was incorporate as a nonprofit educational organization by the Webbs’ descendants,…

With the world all Covidy in the summer of 2020 I was furloughed from work for nearly 3 months, downtown Burlington was a ghost town with every business shuttered for the foreseeable future. So it was a good summer to…

Like everyone else on the entire planet, normal life was on hold for me between late winter 2020 and, well I guess now. I received my second shot a few weeks ago and am now able able to unmask and…

Just over the bridge from Addison, VT lie the remains of two 18th Century forts: Fort Saint-Frédéric built by the French in 1731 and Fort Crown Point built by the British in 1759. During colonial times and the American Revolutionary…

Apple picking is a quintessential Northeastern Autumnal activity. It gets you out into the nature (because there are no orchards in the city), picking more apples than you will know what to do with, and it gives you plenty of…

In an old cemetery in Montpelier, VT sits a striking monument, marking the gravesite of a wealthy businessman from an age long past. This statue. depicting Thanatos, Greek God of death, caries a curse of untimely death to anyone who…