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| The Hartness House - Springfield, VT OAFS Photo |
Now that my kid brother lives with my Mom, we don't stay at Mom's house when we visit, there's just not enough room. My brother has one half of the place, my Mom the other. As she ages (she'll be 95 in October) she isn't quite as capable as she once was. When my brother retired, he made the decision to go north and live with her.
He's doing a great job of taking care of her. As my other kid brother lives just across the river (Mom's in New Hampshire, brother is in Vermont) he spells the kid brother from time to time. Taking care of Mom is a full time gig, I can see that.
As my nephew manages the Hartness House, and his dad (my older kid brother) is the handyman, general maintenance doer and superintendent, we stay there now when we head north. First time was at Thanksgiving last year, this year was Mothers Day.
The first time we stayed there was in the addition to the back of the inn, typical hotel rooms, though roomier than most and with better beds (DAMHIK). The main mansion was having some work done upstairs so my nephew thought the back addition would be quieter. It was. (You can read about that here.)
This time we stayed in the main house, in an absolutely beautiful room.
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| Our Sitting Room at the Hartness House OAFS Photo |
I had a medical appointment that Monday so we could only stay the one night, which was unfortunate, the room was lovely. Actually, I should say "rooms." We had the sitting room, which had a fireplace, a bedroom, and a bathroom.
The only thing I didn't like about the place was the shower. The owner had insisted on installing an old style claw foot tub in the bathroom with a shower tent around it. My brother had tried to talk the owner out of it, but they were rather insistent.
It felt like you were suspended in space as the tub had a good foot to a foot and a half clearance all the way around. At one point I got a little disoriented (soap in the eye, dontcha know) and reached out to support myself. I was grabbing shower curtain and air, nothing else. A wee bit scary that.
It was also like trying to shower while wearing a shroud. When you turn the water on, there is less air within the curtains, less air, less pressure than outside the curtain. So the curtain envelops you as you try to shower. No fun, but I survived.
The Hartness House used to have a lovely restaurant which is now closed. Why? (You ask.) Well, it wasn't getting enough customers to be a viable business. The inn only seems to attract customers during ski season (though it is a fair piece from the nearest ski area, Okemo, about a 30 minute drive) and in the fall during foliage season. It's a shame, it's a beautiful inn.
Thing is, my hometown has gone way downhill since I lived there. It used to be known as "Precision Valley" from the number of machine tool plants in the area. My Dad worked at one, as did my Uncle Charlie. My maternal grandmother and grandfather also worked in those plants. As did one of my kid brothers and Your Humble Scribe.
But the fellows who ran those places either couldn't afford to retool to keep up with a changing world or felt they didn't need to. The industry was founded by giants and was inherited by mental pygmies. The latter sort also decided that, having the machine tool industry go elsewhere, building a prison on the outskirts of town would be a real moneymaker.
Nope, it brought a whole new set of problems. You see, prison folk, and their relatives, aren't really the sort you want in a town. Drugs are a serious problem in my hometown.
When I visited at Thanksgiving, we got about six inches of snow. Back in the day the plows would have been out as soon as it started to accumulate. Not these days. When I drove over to my Mom's Thanksgiving morning, I didn't see a plowed road until I got on a state highway.
Ye Olde Vermonter, who still lives there, in the house where I grew up, said that that was generally the case nowadays. He said that the town was run by a bunch of "ignorant teenagers" who don't know shit from Shinola. Seems to be all the rage in Vermont these days. Which explains a lot of things about my homeland.
Sad, innit?
But we did have a good time visiting my mother, though it is painful to see her in decline. It happens to all of us I suppose, still not fun to see it.
Who knows what tomorrow will bring?
I surely don't.
Sarge, out.
The county I live in seems to believe that there is no point in plowing, as it's just gonna melt, come June.
ReplyDeleteWell, they're right. Thing is, the people who live there can't just stay home until June, can they?
DeleteGood to see that your siblings stepped up to take care of your Mom Sarge, I've seen too many parents forgotten by their progeny over the last few years. I was lucky enough to have been retired when my Dad had a stroke and couldn't drive anymore so my parents came to live with me, had plenty of room in my home. City crews do a decent job plowing here but I'm glad I get to watch the white stuff fall and not have to drive somewhere every weekday morning.......:)
ReplyDeleteIt's hard, but better than the alternative.
DeleteGlad your sibs have stepped up, Sarge. When my folks started to deteriorate a little over a year ago; my kid brother and BiL moved in an took care of them, no easy task. My StepMom died a year ago and my Dad went out in Sept. Every time I see Brother and BiL, I thank them for all they did.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear what had been a nice town dying of mismanagement. We recently visited Laurel Mississippi, where three young couples have worked hard to save their town - their work has been documented on the HGTV series "Hometown" and we can attest to their success.
Boat Guy
Somehow the old town has to attract businesses that don't cater to the fluctuating tourist trade. Hard to do but I've heard that there is a group trying to do just that. Problem is that the infrastructure is so old.
DeleteSarge, it is hard. My parents (really my father) were pretty much able to function on a daily basis more or less, but my sister (who is local) ended up helping a lot. Certainly that experience has coloured some of my own plans as I think about the years ahead.
ReplyDeleteMy hometown, which I have been able to see once a month for the last 5 years after not being there on a regular basis for a long time, has a bit of the opposite problem - it is doing well and has managed to save its downtown (Lots of kitschy businesses and such), but it has become so expensive that people are priced out from moving there - for example, the home I grew up in is now on the market for 8x what my parents paid for it. I could not afford to move back there today without struggle.
I do have every good wish for small towns re-establishing themselves. Cities are just wildly impersonal (and have their own issues).
I don't do cities very well. Don't really like to visit them either. Too many people.
DeleteHome towns do change, not always for what we might perceive to be "better." Being somewhat curmudgeonly, and resistant to change of any type, I think change is usually for the worse.
ReplyDeleteI envisioned your olde Vermont homestead and the Inn to be Pine Tree, Vermont, immortalized in the movie "White Christmas." But, alas, that was totally fictional, and filmed on a sound stage in Hollywood. "Poof!!" to another deceptive idyllic place.
The Connecticut River Valley was indeed a vital player in the precision manufacturing, machine tool, and interchangeable parts methods which made us the "Arsenal of Democracy" when it really counted. The genealogy of American manufacturing is a complex and incestuous web of people who frequently moved between employers, places and products as industries and consumer demands waxed and waned.
The American Precision Museum in Windsor, VT is a fascinating (to many) place, focused on the machine tool industry. The building in which is located (and open only in summers, I think), was originally the Robbins & Lawrence factory, where Sharps firearms were made. They also made M1841 Mississippi rifles, and made some .577 Patern 1853 Enfield rifles for the Crimean War, as well as the machinery used by Royal Small Arms Factory Enfield to make those in the UK on an interchangeable basis, rather than the hand crafted cottage specialist supplied parts for assembly in Birmingham. Downstream, in Massachusetts the river went thru Millers Falls, Greenfield (Greenfield Tap & Die, and Green River Knife Works), Chicopee Falls and Springfield home of Springfield Armory and Ames Mfg Co, then at Hartford the Colt Patent Firearms Company, Weed Manufacturing for bicycles (in the newer Sharps Rifle Co building), and sewing machines. Spencer was in there somewhere, later Billings & Spencer, and Whitney then Pratt and Whitney.
Important places and people in our history!
John Blackshoe
Springfield was once important and a vital little town which I loved dearly. All that remains are the hills and the memories.
DeleteI was a temporary summer-only resident (polio rampaged through the large cities in the summer 'til Salk first tried his vaccine on himself) for 10 years from the mid-'40s around Contoocook and later on in the '80s when the wifely unit decided she wanted to ski (we both became ski instructors) in rural MA (yes! there really are rural areas in MA).
ReplyDeletebeen all around the U.S.A. and I've gotta say New England (rural) is the most beautiful part each season of the year; what a great place to grow up!
Western Mass is mostly rural, beautiful country.
DeleteNew England was a great place to grow up, I still live here and don't really plan on leaving.
Assuming the local and state taxes up there haven't gone down, you gotta wonder where the public safety funding, money for snow plowing, and other basic civil responsibilities have gone. Then again, without the industry, the tax base has shrunk, and illegal drugs aren't taxed, so what's an "ignorant teenage" politician gonna do? Hmm, lemme look up the political affiliation of Vermont...
ReplyDeleteHint, look to your left.
DeleteIt is good to see that your family has stepped up to help with your Mom. My wife and i are the only caretakers of my mother-in-law who is about a year behind your mother. It is not an easy task but with help it makes it easier.
ReplyDeleteI never really got a home town. The last place my late parents lived is the closest to one but is not a town I would want to go back to. I lived in 9 places before I graduated high school with the last being that town. It too may be the wanderlust in me that has engendered that feeling.
As for my kids, being military brats, I'm not sure where they consider their hometown to be.
DeleteSarge, Interesting! I’ve had many similar situations as you vis a vis military move with many of the same reactions, thoughts and feelings. May have to bring uo that subject with MY kids and see if it got passed down. Could be interesting
ReplyDeleteExcellent post!
juvat
Thanks, juvat. Life is different in the military, especially for the kids.
Delete