The Village Squire, 1981-10, Page 13Travel
The prototype Vermont country store. run by the Orton family in
Weston. It sells everything and thousands of tourists visit every
month.
A view of Vermont
by Susan White
Long after most trips are over, there's
some little thing you remember. It could
be a good meal, a sunny hour on the beach
or just a quick glimpse into an interesting
doorway.
What 1 remember about a trip to New
England is the smell of roast turkey,
cooking in the kitchen of Stockton and
Margaret Woodruff's Vermont log house.
The Woodruffs were expecting about 30
children and grandchildren, for dinner
that day and places were set at long tables
in the antique filled main room.
Mrs. Woodruff is a native Vermonter.
born on the land where her log house now
stands and her husband's been in South
Windham, Vermont for more than 40
years.
The Woodruffs are antique dealers,
wholesalers mostly, who sell a lot of
things, especially wicker, to city stores.
And to weekend Vermonters, like the
clock shoppers who took us along to the log
house the Woodruffe built themselves. It
sits, with a big garden out tront, in a sunny
clearing beside the road from West
Townshend to South Windham.
The couple were typical of the solid,
polite and self-reliant Vermonters we met,
a lot like rural Ontarians in their reserve
and their sensibleness.
But that's not enough reason for visiting
there.
No, southern Vermont (and Nett
Hampshire and Maine) is a good place to
visit because it's beautiful, reasonabl\
close (700 or 800 miles from Southwestern
Ontario), and reasonably cheap.
Even with the devalued Canadian dollar
we consistently paid less for top food and
economy accommodations than we would
have at home.
Vermont, and neighbouring states
revere their heritage. White wooden
houses are lovingly restored. Village
greens, with a big porticoed court house
on one side and an ancient church or a
VILLAGE SQUIRE/OCTOBER 1981 PG. 11