Archive - Aug 15, 2011
During last week's 63rd annual Addison County Fair and Field Days, the #1 Auto Parts Demolition Derby was once again among the most popular events. Over the course of two nights, fans gathered to watch old junker cars — decorated with spray paint and driven with pride — continuously smash into each other until just one vehicle was still running. The event featured separate competitions for 4-cylinder, 6-cylinder and 8-cylinder engines, as well as a minivan round and a pick-up truck round. Here, sports reporter Andy Kirkaldy gives a rundown of the popular event.
In the Internet age, you come across the occasional mass-email that, at the very least, offers some amusing reading; if not real insight. In a tip of our hats to those waning days of summer where we imagine ourselves horizontal in our hammocks reading stuff of relative irrelevance (those were the days!), here are some interesting comparisons of how life was in this country in 1911 — 100 years ago:
• The average life expectancy for men was 47 years.
• Fuel for the Model T car was sold in drug stores only.
NEW HAVEN — The usual huge crowds last week flocked to both nights of what is arguably Addison County Fair and Field Days’ single biggest attraction, the No. 1 Auto Parts Demolition Derby, during which veteran driver Tim Whitney won three of 11 heats and Boomer LaFountain celebrated 20 years of crunching collisions with a Thursday win.
Unlike in past years, no end-of-the-evening main feature winners were crowned. Drivers said they had mixed feelings about the format change.
VERGENNES — Despite the ongoing renovation of the John Graham Homeless Shelter’s main building on Monkton Road in Vergennes, shelter officials have continued to fulfill the organization’s mission of finding housing for the homeless — even though demand is higher than usual, said Shelter Executive Director Elizabeth Ready.
Ready said plans had first called for the 10-bedroom Monkton Road building to stay open during the $627,000 project, which is expected to be finished in early September.
NEW HAVEN — Between petting cows in the 4-H barn, eating maple creemees at the Maple Barn and rubbing elbows with sheep shearers and cheesemakers, Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Ross’ visit to Addison County Fair and Field Days last Wednesday was a busy one.
Wednesday’s visit wasn’t just an afternoon of fun at the fair — Ross spent much of his time listening to the people he met, guided by Sen. Claire Ayer, D-Addison County and Brandon, and Rep. Will Stevens, I-Shoreham.
Editor’s note: Addison County Fair and Field Days provides a calliope of sights and sounds that tantalize the senses and tickle the imagination, and the 63rd annual edition last week was no exception. As always, the five-day event proved too much to capture in one place, but we’re presenting a few verbal snapshots from the fairgrounds along with some fantastic photographs by Trent Campbell and Andrea Warren.
MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury police are investigating an Aug. 10 traffic accident that seriously injured a 75-year-old Washington, D.C., woman who was struck by an Addison County Transit Resources (ACTR) bus at the intersection of Merchants Row and Main Street.
Police said the woman, identified at Anne Curtis Odom, was struck in the roadway at around 3:35 p.m. and sustained “severe traumatic injuries.”
MIDDLEBURY — Poet Philip Levine mentored scores of aspiring wordsmiths during the 1980s as a faculty member of Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.
Levine, now 83, will return to the nationally renowned, 10-day conference in Ripton on Thursday, Aug. 18 — this time with a different role and some loftier credentials.
Librarian of Congress James H. Billington last Wednesday announced Levine as the nation’s new Poet Laureate for 2011-2012.
