Liberals think that Vermont is the land of milk and honey and everyone tiptoes through the forrest being at one with nature. There are plenty of drug and alcohol addicted people up here. Living here is much different then reading the labels on Ben and Jerry containers.
Being Homeless , living without heat or sleeping in a car is a potential death situation in an area were subzero temperatures are common. Vermonters are like any other people good and bad. My coworkers are wonderful people but in town I try not to mix and mingle. The merchants and people are friendly but I am a visitor in their home.
The local community is a mix of relations and it is comical when people insist you are a part of it. Are you related to the Powalski's or the Burteau ? No mam my people are from Russia, Poland and the Ukraine.
Vermonters love nature grilled , roasted almost every way known to man except pickled. No doubt some coworker will now find a way to pickle his quarry. Hunting and fishing are part of the Vermont way of life. No doubt the same people who lecture us about tolerance for Muslims have zero problem hectoring Billy Bob about hunting or driving a pick up.
I look foward to the spring but for now everything is white and frozen. The wind sweeps through everything as it howls in the night. Crows, Sparrows and a rare bird of prey fill the sky. The Seagulls come from Lake Champlain that one can see in the distance.
I have yet to see this mystery moose that roams the parking lot. He comes and goes like a phantom but believe me he was there. He left a big pile from his visit way in the back.
This is a strange place and all places have their advantages and disadvantages. People think of Bernie Sanders , Howard Dean and Ben and Jerry when they think of VT but they are all transplants. Real Vermonters are much more conservative and keep on asking me are you sure you are from NYC. The transplants seem to think I have gone native. They assume that if one is from NYC one is as far to the left as they are.
I have lived amongst the alleged rural rednecks and with the NYC Redredneck and can state one truth. The NYC variety is much more annoying because it won't shut up and leave you in peace. No I do not want to hear about Chomsky or your insane 9-11 theories. No I do not need a lecture on the alleged evils of zionism or neocon cabals. I experience zero antisemitism up here but see it by the crate at home.
On a boring day a person will ask me about tales of home and that day. Many have never been to NYC or Boston . There is always the ever present curiousity about my accent. Storytelling is part of the culture up here and I guess tales of NYC are just part of something much older.
I still do not like the VT Mapple Syrup and preffer the cute Mrs Butterworth much to the consternation of my coworkers. They have grown to love the silly stories from the post like midget harassment and commies who put up a horror Christmas display.
Have I gone native ? I do not think so but I have cravings for venison . Now when I see a cuddly forrest animal I wonder how it would taste with potatoes and carrots.
I have to wear a hat and gloves like the locals. I may pick up an odd custom or two but NYC is in my heart and soul.
Beamish in 08, Ducky to Gitmo and 167 to the woodshed
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I think we should start a new philanthropic organization that sponsors sending (all expenses paid) NYC greenies and environmental whackos to a nature survival camp in Vermont for the months of January and February. Turn 'em loose in the woods with only a knife and two matches. Promise to pick 'em up in March, when the snow starts to melt.
I wonder how many would still be as "committed" to the environment after surviving the experience (not that any would survive).
-FJ
I'm addicted to Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey. I just can't help myself. It's like the only good thing in the world leftists have come up with.
What up Beak!
I have to say, hearing that you experience antisemitism in New york surprises me [somewhat,but then again it is new york]considering the huge jewish population. The reason it surprises me is because Toronto is a huge cosmopolitan city and I think I have heard an antisemitic comment once, maybe twice if I include a joke told to me by a grade school friend who's father was an Arab..ironic, i know.
A joke I never understood, but then again I dont think he did either considering his mother was a philipino and he was maybe thirteen...lol.
Hearing your people are from russia/poland/ukraine etc explains your vehemence against the communists, not that being from there should exlude the rest of us from despising the ideology.
Sad to hear that good old Kaganovich, father of the ukraine famines lived to a ripe old age in some russian tenement.
Here in toronto, the russians came after the fall and some were a little surly, maybe paranoid or unsure of their status here.
A polish fellow I worked with many years back had a masters degree in math,working a menial job, and he commented that we canadians didnt know how good we had it, and most dont.
The history of those three countries under stalin is indescribable.
[elijah]
Beak,
I still do not like the VT Mapple Syrup and preffer the cute Mrs Butterworth...
I know what you mean! Once, when I was a child, we tapped our maple tree. I much preferred Log Cabin Syrup to the thin treakle we got after hours of work.
Eat the venison. It's heart-healthy.
You gotta be traditional though. You may try venison if the person that killed it invites you to dinner or offers you some. Otherwise, you gotta kill your own.
It's like the code of the wild, or something.
Your tales of being there are always awesome! But venison? ;)
It's just the music, Esther. Take the hunting scene from the movie Bambi, turn down the sound and play "Seek and Destroy" by Metallica while they're running down Bambi's mom and blasting her.
You'll want to go hunting too.
This is kind of strange but I have noticed even my taste in Music has changed. I love driving the car while listening to AC/DC or Rush. I refuse to listen to country music.
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