We’ve arrived at The Cabin to begin the preparations for our Big Family Reunion, being held here the third weekend in July. Three weeks exactly from today!! On our busiest day, looks like there will be close to 70 folks here – between the ages 6 weeks to 80.5! Since most (if not everyone but us) will be staying ‘off campus,’ we’ll mostly be working on getting the grounds into tip-top shape, and making sure the interior is ready to be the hub for the food and supplies. And since we’ve allowed three weeks to accomplish that, we’ll also be taking naps, reading books, visiting with family, continuing with our Rummicub marathon, and occasionally having ice cream for dinner. No judging, please.
I found the following post from back in 2008 that gave a bit of history of our little slice of Vermont heaven. It’s a wonderful legacy we’ve been entrusted with and it’s always good to remember the rich history of this place!
I came across this picture of our family cabin in Vermont the other night. Judging by the new construction look (both in the landscaping and in the building) it was probably taken around 1938. This little building has been a part of my life as long as I can remember. My grandfather, the town doctor in the small Vermont town of Bradford, bought a 200 acres homestead on the side of Wrights Mountain around 1935. Though it had once been a small farm with a cluster of buildings, only the granite skeleton of cellars and foundations remained. He built this small one room cabin in 1937 or 1938 on one of the foundations, right next to a cellar hole lined with massive granite stones. The story goes that he built it so he could keep track of my grandmother and his children (my dad and his brother and sister). Apparently Gramma Lizzie wasn’t all the happy living the fishbowl life of small town doctor’s wife so she would pack up the kids periodically and head off for different adventures. We’ve been told she had one of the first trailers brought into the state and used to go camping with the kids along the banks of the local rivers. (Obviously before the days of KOA campgrounds!). But whether he had it built to keep track of Lizzie or just to give himself a get-away place not too far from town doesn’t really matter. We will be forever grateful for the gift that he gave his future generations.
The Cabin hasn’t really changed much over the years. I don’t know when it was shingled in red, but it has always been that way as far as I remember.
The pond was dug in the…uummmm..1950’s something (Elna remembers that, I don’t),
a back porch was added in the early 60’s (I remember that), electricity was added in (around?) 1964 to accommodate the new fangled Destroilet (Yes, it was a propane toilet. Honest.) When I was a youngun’, there were cows that roamed the property from a neighboring farm. I don’t know why that ended, but we haven’t had any bovines around for probably 20 years.[Closer to 40 now, I’d say!) Some of the property has been sold off (we’re down to about 110 acres), and we’ve built a new road, coming in from a different direction. The Destroilet bit the dust around 1995, and a good old fashioned outhouse has served us well ever since. We still use the same well I carried water from as a teenager (the original well was replaced in the 60’s sometime), and although we now have water pumped up to close to the cabin, we still claim “no running water” with pride. No TV, barely a good radio signal, and no phone. (OK, cell phones work up there sometimes, but that’s a pretty recent development. And while it’s nice to be able to call for a tow truck (like last summer), it seems just wrong somehow when the phone actually rings.) Pear trees have grown up in the cellar hole – the perfect spot for a hammock. The red wooden boat that we fished from with Grampy Doc has been replaced with an aluminum one from Sears (though it seems to leak about the same). Here is The Cabin today (well, not today, but within the last couple of years!) –
[Photo date – 2004!]Doc and Lizzie left The Cabin to my parents, and they left it to the four of us kids. And it brings all of us great joy to see the latest generation (Lizzie and Doc’s great-great grandchildren) enjoying it and loving it as they did. And we do.
Thank you, dear grandparents!
Here is the cabin today – from a similar, but not exact, perspective.
And I am so very pleased that we will be welcoming our first member of the sixth generation to enjoy the Cabin at this upcoming reunion.
We are so very blessed!!
Thanks for coming along down memory lane with me! Stop by anytime!
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