A Summer Day
or yet another reason I love Vermont.
This past Saturday, I had plans. It was the day of the town wide yard sale in Cabot and about 30 miles north, the same deal in Barton. Cabot is a hill town in Northern Vermont. It's not located near a highway or main road. It's claim to fame is that's where the Cabot cheese factory and store is. Even the cheese factory, just on the outskirts of the village, is a pleasant looking place, and the store has free samples of over a dozen kinds of cheddar, so I stopped there, just as they opened and fueled myself for a day of yard sales.
After the first stop where I bought some great books (hardcover) for 25 cents each and a kitchenaid microplaning grater for a dime, and a crank pasta maker for 2 bucks- never used and still in its original box, I stopped by the wonderful old hardware store to buy some tomato food. At the counter, I asked the guy who to make my check out to. He asked me if I was from out of town and I replied that I was- about 12 miles out of town, but that just about the only time I make it to Cabot is for the annual town wide yard sale and strawberry festival. He said "At least we get to see you once a year", ribbed me about my town, and launched into all the reasons to visit Cabot more often. I never did get the thing about taciturn Vermonters. My experience over 30+ years, has been the opposite.
On the way out of the village, I stopped at the garage sale at Cabot's most gorgeous home- a lovingly cared for Victorian. I picked up an enormous old (19th century, I would guess) shallow tinware thing that looked like an old dishpan only it was too big. It had a few holes in the bottom; perfect for a planter for some annuals. $3. The old gentleman holding the yard sale had a free table in the barn with some great stuff. I picked up a nice old thermos with stopper but missing its plastic screw on cup and insisted on paying a dollar for it. The old gentleman asked if that made me feel better, and I said, yes. He said it made him feel better too. Clearly he'd been watching people greedily grab stuff off the free table.
In Glover, part of Barton township, I stopped and perused in the town hall and bought... more books and some fascinating (mainly for the ads) early 1950s old Good Housekeeping magazines.... and other cool, dirt cheap stuff.
By the time I got to Barton village itself, I was yardsaled out, so I went to visit friends who had just returned from Venice at a place called Mad Brook Farm and admired their garden and talked about going strawberry picking, moths, dance, books and food.
On the way home, I was parched so I stopped at this very cool place called Parker Pie and got a tutorial on beer; had an Edward from Hill Farmstead.
It was almost 12 hours since I'd left home before I pulled in to my driveway. In the entryway, I found something I'd purchased in front of the door with a note saying that I'd bought it in Glover, which is about 12 miles down the road. These kind folks had tracked me down to deliver my yard sale treasure.
It was a perfect Summer day- even if the locavore Korean restaurant in Cabot wasn't open for lunch
http://downstreeteats.com/menus/supper/
https://www.google.com/search?q=cabot+vermont+old+victorian+house&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=KGKxU6PoLKqh8QGV4oDQCg&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1173&bih=516 (that's the beautiful Victorian)
http://www.cabotvt.us/
Glover is the home of "runaway pond" which Bread & Puppet (also in Glover) did a riotously funny skit about for years:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway_Pond
http://parkerpie.com/
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