Friday, June 17, 2011

Blog 9



Tuesday, 14 June
We woke in the middle of the night to the rather loud noise of rain hitting our roof. It probably sounded heavier than it was, but it was pretty steady most of the night and continued well into the daylight hours. We had to get up early and drive back through Bellows Falls to Alstead, NH, for a 9:30 appointment for a wheel problemhopefully nothing worse than balancing or aligning. We had notice a shaking of the steering wheel as we approached 60 mph, but as we generally drove at 55 mph we had ignored the symptoms. But recently we even noticed a problem as we first started to rolla gentle rocking side to side. 
When we rolled into the station they took one look at the hubs and said, “We can't help you. We don't have the tool that will handle that size hub. Go to Cheever Tire & Wheel.” Fortunately the place they suggested was nearby. So back across the Connecticut River to Bellows Falls to the garage. They took us in almost immediately. That was a relief. They took off the left front tire and balanced it in no time at all, and then took off the right tire and started rolling it toward the machine to balance it. The machanic suddenly stopped and said, “There's your problem. Your tire is dead.” His analysis was based on years of work. “One of the belts is broken,” he said. And sure enough, there was a significant ridge in the road surface of the tire. The bad news is that they didn't have one there in the shop; the not-so-bad news was that they couldn't get it until the next morning. All in all, not bad. It would have been better if they could have found two tire so that the tires would be equal, but with luck the difference will still be a lot better than with the “dead” tire. We will get the rig to them by 9:00 am Wednesday, and by 10:00 we should be on the road to Magog, Canada. More on that tomorrow.

Collamer Abbott
In the afternoon we went to White River Junction to meet Collamer Abbott. Collamer Abbott? Now you will really think I have gone off the deep end. Collamer is not a cousin, and I have only talked with him by telephone two or three times. But there was something very special about this humble man. Collamer wrote an article about the Vermont Copper Crafters for Yankee Magazine which appeared in the March issue of 1949. The Vermont Copper Crafters was a business that my parents created in 1946, and I wanted to include his article in my history of the company (see blog 8, Sunday, 12 June). I telephoned Yankee and they responded that their copyright had expired, but that I might want to contact the author who had also done the photographs for the article. So I did, and a friendship developed between us, and, as I was in Vermont I thought it would be fun to meet him face to face. The long and the short of the matter is that it was a wonderful meeting. He worked for most of his life as a photo/journalist and an English teacher, but he was almost invisible at the time; people knew his work, but he was anonymous. He is now 91, and in the last couple of years, his work has caught on. He says it is because his photographs captured a lost timemostly the 40s and 50s. But his work is also very attractive visually. While the photographs were mostly taken for journalistic purposes, they are always well-composed, often take advantage of an attractive cloud, a child's face, a curved line, etc., etc. He was as much artist as journalist.
We had a wonderful conversation with this modest, gentle man, and I felt privileged just to be there talking with him. He is one of a kind.
The Merry House, ca. 1880-81
We then drove on to Magog, Quebec, Canada, where Ralph Merry, an ancestor of Valerie's not only lived, but founded the town of Magog. Not only founded, but built a house that is still standing since the early 1800s. Valerie in her research Valerie located a book on the Merry family written by Maurice Langlois, and immediately contacted him. They have shared information which was of great importance to Valerie as she was in the process of transcribing a diary written in 1880-81 by a descendant of the Merry and Jenney families: Homer Jenne, Valerie's great grandfather. On an earlier odyssey we traced her family as far north as Derby one of the northern most village in Vermont. You will remember in an earlier blog the name of John Jenney in Plymouth, MA; well, some of that family migrated to what would become the northern boarder of Vermont. One of this family Elisha married a Matilda Merry.
Valerie, Barbara & Maurice inspecting the Merry House
So that is where we are at this moment, researching the Merry family, and enjoying the generous hospitality of Maurice Langlois and his lovely wife Barbara. It always amazes me when our relatives welcome us into their lives with open arms, but Maurice and Barbara had never met us before and are not relative of any degree. However, we do share a common interest in genealogy and the conviction that family history is not only fascinating but important! There is no way that we can adequately thank them unless they were to visit us in Oregon. Perhaps they will one day.
The next stop will be on the 17th back in Vermont with David Wright & Mary Lou Willits. They, again, are not relatives. They are friends met on line through a common interest in Vermont, copper, and history. We look forward to meeting them. 

A gallery of additional Blog 9 photos
Cheever Tire & Wheel
Cheever Tire & Wheel   

Cheever Tire & Wheel


Cheever Tire & Wheel
Merry House

Valerie, Barbara & Maurice at the Merry House

Merry House
Vermont views on I-91

Vermont views on I-91

1 comment:

  1. I'm glad the repair went relatively quickly! Very fun to see the photos of Merry House, especially so soon after the Jenney Mill (given the connection of the families).

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