The fifties, the sixties. Vermont at the crossroads.

Social commentary / March 2, 2019

The fifties and early sixties can be best summed up as the end of the milk can, the demise of the short line railroads (the Montpelier and Wells River in 55′, the Rutland Railroad in 62′) and the twilight of the nearly hundred year run of the “Grand old Party”.  The state that never voted for Roosevelt and told him where he could stick his “Green Mountain Parkway” was in a process of transition.

What happened was the perfect storm for the coming “flatlander” invasion of the sixties.

Dairy farmers no longer took milk cans to the railroad station. The tracks were torn up or abandoned.  Now refrigerated tank trucks came to the farm to pick up the milk. But , the farmer was now required to have a refrigerated bulk tank of his own. Many farms on the edge couldn’t afford it. A lot of their kids didn’t want to carry on. Consequently a lot of land went up for sale.  “Vermont, the beckoning country” became the motto for real estate agents in the early sixties.

With the arrival of the Interstate highways Vermont was within 4 hours drive of all the major metropolitan cities.  Many moved here and more then a few discovered that unlike where they were from, here they could be the big fish in a little pond.They became teachers, journalist, and politicians (hey Bernie), and over the course of four decades turned the State of Vermont from red to purple to the deep blue it is today.

It’s enough to make you sick.

Politics / March 14, 2016

Electing Trump as President will be a disaster.

Electing Hillary as President will be an abomination.

America needs to be set on Cruz control.

Keith Emerson R.I.P.

Music / March 13, 2016

By now everyone knows (at least those who care)  that we’ve lost another musical giant from our youth. I was stationed on an Alaskan island while in the USCG in 72-73 when ELP really burst upon the scene. It was their 3rd album “trilogy” that we played on cassettes and 8-tracks on our then “state of the art” stereo’s that every one in the military had then, and also on units mounted in the personal vehicles of the guys who had them.  ELP, YES, and others.  Prog-rock was just taking off and we were taken along with it as we cruised the backcountry roads on Alaskan summer evenings when 9 PM was no different then 3PM.  Thanks for the memories Keith. You could sure tickle those keys.

 

The first post.

Uncategorized / March 12, 2016

I have always marveled from the fact that it was only a mere 66 years from the Wright Brothers first flight to landing on the Moon. Of course the main catalyst for such rapid advancement can be summed up in one word, ‘WAR’. War, even more the capitalism focuses human ingenuity to develop new and more effective methods to destroy your enemy before your enemy can devise better ways to destroy you. War technology spins off to peacetime technology and what was science fiction to one generation is commonplace in the next. The fact that I’m sitting right now at a keyboard typing out text that will go out on the “internet” that people all over the world will be able to read is but one example.

The purpose of this blog is to chronicle some history of an extremely ordinary person. Me. And to convey some prospective to todays millennials of which I have two. What was it like to grow up in the fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties with no internet, computers, cellphones etc. and the political and social changes that have taken place during that time.

I will be also commenting on current events happening today.
And what’s going on today is not pretty.

deepred