Growing up in Williston in the 50’s and 60’s. Long time residents of Williston will share thoughts and stories about growing up in Williston during the 1950’s and 1960’s. Folks are encouraged to share photos of those years with the group. The Williston Historical Society strives to preserve the past while chronicling the present for the future. This insures that residents old and new are connected through the history and heritage of Williston to develop a sense of community.
Good afternoon my name is Richard Allen and this is a presentation of the Williston Historical Society on October 14th 2023 and the title of our panel discussion this afternoon is growing up in Williston in the 1950s and the 1960s although we’re going to let these people spill over some if
It goes into the 70s or starts in the 40s that’s quite all right so the first thing I’d like to do is to go down to my right and have each panelist uh quickly introduce themselves and maybe a couple of background sentences on your Willison experiences thank you dick Jim Mulla
Born and raised in the Brier patch of Williston uh family dairy farm where my bride Lucy and I still live um and by the way I’m still trying to grow up well not too hard uh I’m Geneva buroughs uh I was not born in Williston we moved to Williston in
1945 um so most of my memories are in the 50s by the 60s I was in college and off on my career and raising my own family our own family so my memories are the 50s but I could back up to the 40s too and I’m Brenda Perkins I was born
And raised in Williston and I still live on the farm where I grew up up um I kind of embrac all of the 50s and all of the 60s because I was born in early 50s and we graduated from high school in 1969 so we have a lot of memories of that time
Hi I’m Melanie staltz bacus um we moved to the old griswell place on Route 2A which is now owned by Karen and Jerry Davis in 1959 when I was starting third grade and um lived there my parents had that place until 1982 too um and now I live in Addison
County just a modern reminder if you have your cell phone on would you please turn it off or mute it thank you I’d like to give a little historical background on Williston in these uh decades that we’re considering 19 late 1940s uh the town was still um with lots
Of one room schools it’s a half a dozen maybe North Williston um Muddy Brook uh Lake eroy Etc then January 1949 The Village School which was across the street here twostory brick building uh burned down completely the uh possibility of creating a central school had been brought up several years before that but
Now that that school school was gone the discussion of creating a central school was brought to the Forefront also that same year the Williston volunteer fire department was formed after the fire the fire was in January and I think it brought it home to the town that yes maybe we need to
Have a little more fire protection than calling on Essex Junction in Burlington in 1950 the population of Williston was 1,182 so it was a pretty small town in 1950 uh Williston Central School opened first wing of it additions came in 1954 and 1959 as the population School population
Grew in 1951 the IM Immaculate Heart of mar celebrated its first uh Mass 1957 didn’t happen in Williston but it happened outside of Williston that was when IBM first established the footprint here in chipan County 1958 the Armory was built across the way roughly where the Village School stood 1959 the
Front wing of uh the original wing of Dorothy Allen Memorial Library opened in 1960 the population had increased to 1484 that was about a 25% jump from 1950 1961 some of you may remember the post office that was out here uh on the driveway of Willison Central School
That’s when that opened it post office had been in uh several locations before that the early 1960s also brought the construction of the interstate highway in November of 1963 the section from Richmond to South Burlington was opened and of course that included Williston and also in the 1960s a lot of
These neighborhoods were developed Onida Acres Meadowbrook Williston Hills Lamplight acres and others 1964 cvu opened and hopefully somebody can tell us where they went to high school before or cvu open 1968 a very large addition to Williston Central School which was the back portion as it
Now exists by 1970 the population was up to 3,187 doesn’t sound like a lot of people but that was 114% increase from 1960 so that decade from 60 to 70 was one of large growth the only thing that comes close to that in recent history is uh the population
Increase from 1990 to 2000 was about 56% so that’s just a little overview of some of the things that happened in Willison uh the panelists were presented with some kind of story starters which hopefully they received and we’re not going to stick to this like religiously
But this will yet as started and so the part of this was can you describe what the town was like when you were growing up there do you remember stores businesses Farm areas W in water what was your section of the town like uh and any special places in town
Um so it’s open to discussion what was the town like your special places any anybody speak up go ahead Geneva you look like you’re ready oh it was pretty small when I in the when we moved here in the in 45 and I do remember ael’s store which is now the
Corner quick stop and Mr atin was a wonderful man and we we love to go down and Shop there and one of my favorite memories of that store is that he had open barrels of seed and I used to like to go put my hands down through the
Seeds and one day I apparently pocketed some of the when my mother found out she drove me back down there and made me give them back to Mr aseltine and apologize for taking his seats but that was a fun fun memory we talking about Mr AEL time go
Ahead Jim yeah well yes um the afternoon could be filled with stories about Mr AEL time Mr azeltine to us yes yes but Kenneth to to our parents um can uh but on the stores front there were three groceries here in Williston um during the time that we were all growing up here
And uh now of course uh were three grocery stores but now um one and um probably 100 times Factor more groceries about three miles west of here um but our local groceries took care of us very very well and and those stores were Ken Kenneth AEL time um the
Washburns uh buck and tiger known known to us and and uh Romeo H and I can’t think of Romeo’s wife’s name oh gosh no Mrs H yeah R and and she had a beauty shop attached to the grocery store which later down the line became Yuri but that was in
The0 we used to call the store was store the pink store pink store yeah which was right across from the library um yeah and then in away from this part of town over by Kirby’s Corners was the O’Brien store on that corner so those were all small small grocery stores oh that’s
Right I was always mystified by Romeo’s um name because I you know I thought it was so Shakespearean you know it was probably the only play I had heard of so yeah yeah it was always a mysterious to me I went through I went through the um thinking of farms that I remember
Being here and I came up with 19 farms in Williston in the time that I remember um and tell me if I’m wrong uh but there was fontain dois and Babcock that’s down North Williston um the miles farm right next to us on North wion Road the Johnson Farm on
Route two Clark Farm which is still there Mahan which is at the corner where the fire station is now in Williston right the aam farm cypel farm Senna Farm Bruce two martells one on uh Mountain View which we always called the West Road growing up um and one out headed to
Um Lake iroy and the degrees were out there as well on Mount View Road where the wills um the Chapman’s was down North Willison as well the Blair Farm the rally farm and there was a a the Browns which was right above the um Power Dam in right
Right sat right up above the where the dam is in going into Essex Junction so this was a very rural farming Community all the years we were growing up and down 2A were pills berries pills berries yes but are they offic were they officially in St George though no oh not
All of them so there were sever the chicken farmer Al was there and bu and Jim yeah that’s right yeah and Charlie and then the the rest of nor across the board that’s right known as Pillsbury Ville yes yes that’s right right yeah um I think that whenever we create lists we
We run risks oh yes and that’s hand the handin that’s right H how or Handlin well I think there were yeah also were so there’s there’s two more y then there was also laass and hin H that’s right that’s right so we’re well over 20 Farms I told you I didn’t
Get them all but yes it’s a good reflection of the rural quality of the Town yeah so what about your area of the Town something very special about it that you recall um Melanie we we were just previously talking about the route 2A sucker Hollow area what do you recall
About well I I do remember um that you know the Excursion up to uh five Tree Hill another you know kind of mystery where there really only five trees up there um was one a favorite hike but along the way there’s a cemetery that belonged to the downer family um which
Was in the 19th century an abandoned farm and an abandoned you know house foundation and some lilac bushes and you so that was always really interesting that kind of like the world before the world yeah how about yeah you two who grew up on sisters that you probably figured out
By the middle name um we grew up on at the top of North Wilston Hill um and we I I remember the uh plows getting stuck on our little dirt road trying to come up our Hill and then uh my mom would have them in for coffee and uh the
Road between our house and then down to Miles and down to the corner of Mountain View um always drifted in and was always a hard place to get through um we had a small pond there friends and would come over and we’d skate my father uh stocked
It with trout and little and we used to fish a Kathy and Rocky used to come and we used to fish and throw them back um we were on our own little Little World up on that Hill I think and the power lines were behind the farm and they we
Whenever there was a big snowstorm we’d get the power people there going trudging in to fix the lines and my again my mother would have them in for Cofe and Jim yes um so in legislature we had the members from the Northeast Kingdom and in Willison I claim to be from the
Northeast Kingdom of Willis yeah which does include our our Farms as as neighbors and and uh in fact the historic Road uh came from the Clark Farm up to our place down to your place and then down Depot Hill um uh straight down prior to the road we now have is the
Gulf if you will but still will call it deot Hill yeah and and um when when our early uh historians talk about SL sledding from the top of Depot Hill all the way down to the tracks it’s that Hill they were talking about not the current road
Yeah was there a Willison news event or something that was just sticks in your mind from the years that you were growing up here yes 1950 hurricane came oh and I uh that was one of my uh memories that really stays in my mind because I was only nine at the time
When it struck and it was struck on November 25 and 26 1950 I remember that we went to bed as normal we knew a storm was coming my dad had made some preparations for it but uh sometime during the night I don’t know whether it was late night or early morning uh my
Parents got us up my me my older sister and my two younger sisters at the time Brenda wasn’t born at that time and um brought us down and we sat in what was in our kitchen so that we could go down Sellar if we needed to and
I was always glad we never had to cuz we had a dirt Celler it would have been very spooky but um I remember the wind howling and things banging against the side of the house and um crashes and we just didn’t know what was going on at
One point my father said I have to go out and let let the horses out of the barn and my mother said don’t you dare so he didn’t but when we woke up the next morning uh I don’t know how long we sat there um but when we woke up the next
Morning we really saw the damage that had occurred part of the barn roof was off the shed had collapsed um things there were sheets of metal off the roof that had banged into our house and were lying on the lawn in front and um part of the roof had landed on our
The back of our car at the side of our car which my dad had moved to the top of the hill to get away from the trees that he thought might fall down the Jeep canvas covered jeep was in front of the house under the trees part of the roof
Fell right behind it the Jeep wasn’t damaged at all uh there was a new tractor in the shed that my father had a Massy Harris Pony and that survived it was unhe hurt even though the the shed crashed down around it um we still have that TR
Tractor our son Jeff owns it and we was going to be D driven in the South hero parade this summer but unfortunately he got Co so it didn’t happen but it is still running um the other thing was that my father and I don’t know when or
How he happened to have it but he had an army surplus a gas driven generator small portable and he hooked that up and we used I think probably for our refrigerator often on we were without electricity electricity for several days and he also loaned it out to Farmers so
They could get their milking machines going so that was kind of kind of neat um the other thing the other event in the ‘ 50s was the polio epidemic and I do remember being quite uh taken by pictures of uh children in what they called iron lungs the time and I think
For at least a couple of years my we didn’t go to the fair because we were afraid of being exposed to polio the sock vaccine I think uh was tested in 1953 and was licensed in 1955 and I don’t know when I got my polio vaccine but I did get it
So other news events or major happenings I guess well I don’t know if you col major happening it was pretty major in town and that was the bicentennial celebration in 1963 um we had a huge parade I think everybody in town participated in it we all got to wear little Bonnets and
Dressed up yes we all dressed up we our class danced on a flat bed truck coming through town um there was a big um performance that was put on behind the school there was a lot of room behind the school we used to call it going up
On the hill all the additions now um kind of cover it but there was was a little Brook and then there was a hill behind and and that’s where we we used to go and play games during school but anyway back to the bicentennial right um
I remember uh I’m trying to remember his name right now and I can’t but he was supposed to ride a horse across to the um program and he had a rifle in his hand and he was moving he was not a he was not a equestrian and he was waving
This this uh rifle around and the horse spooked and took off and that that sticks in my mind they Liv they lived across from um where right at the top of uh french hill Mosley Mosley was that the name I don’t remember the name but that was that was
A big event a lot of planning a lot of time in school and out of school planning for it yeah it was a huge Community Gathering yeah just Unforgettable in that way and that was the bicentennial of the establishment Charter for the town of Willis right yes
Right and I’m thinking at that same Bicentennial I was writing um our uh paint horse uh named Pon and I was the Indian um so uh so segue from from that event um to the hurricane if you go out in the forest today you can see from which direction the hurricane came from
Or if you knew the Peterson bur’s property and knew where the barn is and the house is you could tell as well but in the forest is called pillows and cradles and there’s a hole here where the root ball went up and there’s a mound over here where the
Stump now covered with Earth and whatnot as pillows and cradles my memorable event is somewhat different and and a little Krabby Jim Mulla I’m just presenting it as a little bit of a political thing as well town meeting every year oh yeah oh my God it was a happening yes Not only
Was it a happening because um people baked all kinds of goodies and we sat down as a as as a as a community and ate um stuffed ourselves actually on partway through through the meeting um but it was also a uh Community conversation where um for good or bad certain
Individuals who shall not be named would um really hog the floor and talk at length um and and uh that was well understood by all of us including the individuals I’m sure and but it was part part of the fabric of our town um and in those ways the other
Way it was part of the fabric was we actually got to vote Yes yeah yeah the end of that came with the Australian ballot because some people felt that uh not enough people could get to the town meeting and so we have the Australian ballot now and we have what
We call the town meeting is um um educational moment and and um but there is really no voting on any money matters that’s an important distinction I recall increasing the school budget in town meetings through discussion adding a school bus and and there many other things but I I’ll get off my political
Stump now I miss those events I have to tell you a story about my mother who on the education line wanted to see a a kindergarten started and she got up and spoke in town meeting and she was told she really couldn’t speak because she hadn’t lived here long enough oh
My I I remember I always went to town meeting with my parents and uh I remember and I can’t tell you the year but we always just sat as a group you with your parents all the kids were there and then one year I can’t remember it was a contentious vote and somebody
From out of town I’m sure said that anybody that was under the age of 21 had to had to sit in we had to sit over on the side and and from that point on we wen’t able to sit with our parents forgotten that oh I remember it
Very well because I think it was actually part of the school I think it was when they were going into school discussion it may have been kindergarten um but mother also talked at one point and I can’t remember what they wanted to do but people were trying to vote down
Some change whether it was a to the central school from the from the one room schools but something but she stood up and said and how many of you Farmers still milk by hand you had to move forward with milk machines so you know let’s get with so
Let’s get with us so would this be an appropriate time to tell a story about your mother uh advocating for the building of the central school and then the fire yes yes there was subtle accusations that made me shoot part down but of course she wasn’t no she was we won’t
Call that timing suspicion okay moving on how about what did you do for fun uh a couple of suggestions there were quite a few ski areas in town skating dances camping bowling Scouts biking fishing what did you do for fun there was one that wasn’t mentioned that was horseback riding yes
I used to ride with a sister Mary Fay that’s right and you I think also and Jim PE and we rode all over the place yeah Industrial Avenue was a dirt dirt road Dirt Road yeah so yeah I rode over uh Brownell mountain with Sharon Pillsbury quite a
Bit and we could ride actually all the way um up the road north to Walker Road and then back down to our house and Sharon’s yeah so it wasn’t terrifying I mean you know it could be a little bad if you had a horse that liked to shy but
Yeah we we basically made our own fun with our friends and family we didn’t do a lot of going to a bowling alley or a movie theater or that type of thing actually it was very rare that we went to the movies I can almost I think there
Are only two or three movies that I actually remember going to a theater um occasionally we’d go to a drive-in theater but most of the time it was with our friends we’d get together and and uh be it in the winter or the summer we we
Ski out in our back field um we did Chapman Hill was in functioning at that time and and some people went there and skied but um not a lot of other and skating there was a skating rink in Williston at by the school where the tennis courts are now and a warming Hut
We used to go down there and skate uh quite frequently yeah um or skate in the the flooded field used toate there that was bumpy but you know and 4 was big I I don’t remember scouting being particularly either girl or boy scout too much but there was a 4 was a
Big yeah big program at the time in most of us I think the genes down in North wison Village um hosted the Willison 4 group um yeah oh Chapman and Mrs chap Chapman yeah that’s what I remember Mrs chap P pberry so Chapman um Chapman’s Cove was
A POS popular place to ice skate um and what did I do I wore my sister’s white figure skates why not while I was ice skating because her feet were bigger than mine early on and then I grew into them so that was that was good but most
What I did for fun was boss the farm hands around I ran the farm by gosh and and when uh when and to illustrate what a pain I probably was uh grandfather Alberts who was doing carpentry work in the kitchen told me to go play with the [Laughter]
Squirrels okay we already talked about the celebration in 1963 um what about other uh traditional Memorial Day July 4th it seems that uh Fourth of July going way back was always something that Williston celebrated do you have any memories about that also Halloween or Christmas anywhere Cabbage Night cabbage night that was almost
Bigger than Halloween yeah you didn’t want to go outside your house you get pelted with eggs the the bad boys us to they burned a tire over North Willison Bridge they burned one up here hanging off the bridge so it dropped into the road I will not name names I know who did
It they would egg cars when they went back by and I’ve heard a story and you can correct me if I’m wrong but uh Ward Johnson and somebody else stood by aelin’s store and the brick house there pulling like this as cars went by and they’d come screeching to a halt because
They thought they had a wire across the road which they didn’t so cabbage night was was quite extreme yeah well in the’ 40s living where we did I didn’t even know what trick- or treating was and um I remember uh going deciding we’d try to go trick-or-treating down the road from
Our house to the miles farm with my a girlfriend that I that lived down the road farther and we got as far as the miles house and got scared and ran back home because it was so dark but um we had Halloween parties at the farm I
Don’t know but they did when you were growing but when I was and my father would not let us Bob for apples cuz it was dangerous and not dangerous but unhy unhy there you go thank you yeah wasn’t healthy so uh he would string Donuts
From a wire or thing and then you’d have to try to get a bite out of the donut yeah that’s great yeah yeah so two two holidays we’re on Halloween um being the little entrepreneur I was at at four or five years old um and with the fact that my
Mom and dad had uh business concerns in Essex Junction I wouldn’t mess around with trick-or-treating and Willis and I would go to the junction yes with my dad who went in to kind of keep an eye on the property there uh and and uh that was one of my first very successful business
Ventures um Fourth of July um and of course the extrovert politician been in in the Fourth of July parade for 20 plus years here in town but I started that career um at four or five years old um and with a uh calf starter 5 gallon calf
Starter pill turned up D down as a snare drum and made a little tricorn hat and might as I won first prize for for I for probably four year olds I don’t know but that was fun I had a great time and that might have been the start of my
My Parade career it was actually any other Fourth of July memories orid yeah I don’t know I seem to remember Fourth of July really ramping up when I was probably in early college that time period and you know where where early ’70s and it seemed like it was just teaming with people and
You know meline cunan I remember her walking around and that must have been in the 80s when she was running for governor but yeah so it was yeah I don’t recall it being incredibly um a high point of Summer now I don’t know why that
Is um but anyway there were other um um it seemed like we did so much stuff around school and and then church like choir practice for the Federated church was every Thursday afternoon during school and all of us would walk over in a big mob to the church and you know
Practice for an hour or whatever it was and yeah that was that was like a really social thing as well as youth groups and stuff like that as we got into to um 7th through 12th grade that was that era but there was a lot going on in the world at
That time so much stuff was in the 60s so yeah on Memorial Day we used to and I only remember doing it once or twice and that was to walk up to the cemetery uh the Thomas chintan cemetery and put flags on the um yeah and we we had to
Memorize poems and right speeches and things like that right we had music musical at school several years cowboy on the Moon yes cowboy on the moon Round Up On The Moon Round Up On The Moon there were two of them yeah and one of them and wasn’t right the star of both
So that was Cameron Clark’s brother right my father what am I saying right who was in our class and he was very bullant and very expressive yeah and he and he’s saying well so it was great that was really fun and then in sixth grade our sixth grade um production was
The Nutcracker sweet yes yeah and that was very ambitious everybody got ballet shoes and our mothers made our costumes out of old sheets that they dyed yeah and they were all you know like color coordinated um little hats lavender was Dance of the flowers I think yeah well
They had different colors of flowers cuz mine was yellow yours must have been lavender yes it was it was that’s right yeah skipping down a little bit how about uh people you remember Williston outside of your family and it could be a teacher it could well we’ve talked about
Mr azeltine in the store uh how about a minister at the Federated church or for age leader or somebody else who might have had an impact on your life probably my first grade teacher Mrs smil was oh yes remember her I went to the I went to the Village School started
School and when it um I started first grade I was a one of four students at the time and over the year the I would ended up being I think the only one in first grade anyway Mrs SM decided I really didn’t need to go to second grade
And so so she tutored me during the summer and I I entered in the fall third grade so she was a very wonderful teacher and she was there through she was there she still there she was there when I started Cal scho right she was a wonderful lady
Yeah yeah oh Mrs Towers yes yes yeah she was great um very Snappy very stylish I remember taking certain young men by the ear and when they misbehaved yeah she ruled the roost that was a big memory though was when uh John F Kennedy was assassinated we were in
The middle school wing of the um school there and I can remember when that happened and somebody went out and lowered the flag yeah yeah it was it was really quite the and I was teaching first grade at the time well I I’m I’m going to
Um I’m going to bend the question just a little bit because um I’m going to expand my family uh from from the genealogical definition and Frank and Clara lashua um um uh worked for my family for 42 years I think with grandfather and Uncle um Grand and and my and my parents and
And uh and and why am I bending it well because they lived on the farm and they were in my life every day and I’m quite sure I was in their way every day and they are sort of like they no they are alternate parents for me so I’m I’m
Cheating a little bit on that but they’re a very important part of of Willison um uh Frank known to me as Kiki don’t know why I um Clara was Ka and but Frank’s brother uh lived on french hill in what used to be a log cabin um
Freeman and then and then Freeman moved uh to to Kathy and Denny ls’s current house and and and uh so they were a big part of my life as people in the family outside the family beyond that um uh deia and Frank degree up by Hinesburg
Pond MH um they did uh a lot of help to us on our farm and I I uh worked with them on our farm and I would go up and work with them on their farm and deia of course always made dinner middle of the day pork chops
Gravy stuffing pie you oh I was in heaven and uh but um that family very important to me as well yeah there are lot of there were a lot of people in town that that we were close to and but uh Ward Johnson was our bus driver yes he was amazing yeah and
He we just we all loved Ward um and and uh he did some things probably that would be frowned upon now as far as driving a school bus but um North Williston Hill was originally what they called a Corduroy Road there were was logs laid together and in the spring
Those logs would push up through and they’d make these bumps and we’ get to the top of the hill and we go go faster go faster and he’d let the older kids move to the back of the bus so that when you went over those buttons you could
Jump right up in the air but uh yes and he was moderator for many years for town meeting as well another person who was a quiet lady and people probably didn’t know her very well was aah Osborne oh my goodness and aah came to help my mother
After I was born um my mother was quite sick and she stayed until I was 12 or 13 I think so she was like a grandmother to me my I didn’t know either of my grandmothers and uh when we were married in 1973 aah was the official grandmother
At the wedding um so she was a very special and then the Yuri family we did all sorts of things with the Yuri family Gert and Carl um they had a big farm on North Williston Road at the time um which has now been developed but Square Woods Farm we and
We we used to spend a lot of time with them and I can remember times when they would meet in the middle of North Wilston Road between miles house and our road um and just they just stop the car in the middle of the road and they chat
Back and forth and then they’d go on their way traffic wasn’t what it is today sure definitely not and speaking of Ward I mean he drove my children to school Sarah Sarah was his little butterfly and when she went to kindergarten I usually tried to be down
At the road to pick her up but sometimes if I wasn’t there he’d drive right up into the yard and let her off at our house I mean he was wonderful right our daughter Anna had a bloody no really bad bloody nose one day he drove right up
Into the yart he walked out of the bus carrying her in arms and bring him to the house so he was quite the guy yeah well you mentioned Ken Moody when um dick was asking about clergy people he was an interesting man who was not at
The Federated church for long but he was also a history professor at UVM um so I remember he gave a really um the most shocking sermon about nuclear war I think I think I must have been about 10 um in the Federated Church uh and he was speaking about how platsburg was a
Target for nuclear warheads and that if that happened we would be obliterated and so it was at the height of you know everyone was building Fallout shelters and um you know there was a huge amount of sort of an undertone of Hysteria about nuclear Holocaust and that was
Very interesting um it was shocking to me as a kid I was really you know struck by it in a very intense way and you know obviously never forgot but he was very eloquent and bombastic he could be in his speaking style so yeah he was interesting he was from Mississippi I
Believe so he also had the sort of the novel um accent of another area so it was that was interesting too but you know there were a lot of great people in this town um and just sweet the Pillsbury family was all were all very interesting um and Charlie had been a
Friend of my dad’s in Burlington where they uh participated in a food co-op in the 40s early 40s um so that’s they so they were some of the first people we met and of course they lived like a mile away from us so yeah um yeah he was a
Neat guy and then there was this the a couple named the hams I don’t know if anyone remembers yeah um they lived on what is that road called now um Butternut Butternut Lane yeah um and they lived in this really beautiful Brick House almost but it oh it felt
Very otherworldly like they were U you know characters in some sort of myth fairy tale they were really sweet people yeah that that um fear and hysteria over um a possible nuclear attack history repeats itself oh yeah the children and teachers in schools just a few years ago were undergoing
Active shooter drills where they had to dive under their des and um I know of teachers who said no I can’t take this and and and um retired um it it was a uh terrorist Act of its own um thought by many but so we’ve mentioned several teachers at Willison Central what about
High school where did you go to High School uh and what do you remember about it and what about getting to high school I I’ve heard some stories about that how that was quite different I went to Burlington High School because there was no high school we had really kind of the
Choice of Essex was in existence I think Richmond was still in existence but about to close I think when I was uh made the when we went to Burlington my older sister and I and we rode in with my dad cuz he worked at the H he was a
Physician at the hospital and um in later years we picked up some other kids on the way you know but that’s how how I got to to high school and then at the end of the day I’d either walk up to the hospital and ride home with my father
Which wasn’t very good because he often worked very late and I’d be sitting there but there was I we also would take the Boston bus and he would drop us off at aelin store and and u i forgotten the name of the bus driver but he was kind
Of fun too and we got to know him pretty well and and the early days I would walk we would walk from ael’s back home in later days I think starting with my younger sister Karen um someone tried to pick her up and my mother said no more
Walking I’ll go pick you up every day so things changed well I’m jumping right in on that because guess who the some of the other kids were that rode in Burlington High School with your dad and um and and and um I think you and my sister had graduated when I started
Doing that but Karen was in that Jim Swift was and in that truck pool Dr Peterson had a a a three-door pickup truck yes and um which I’m sure he bought specifically so he could be our bus driver and and um that was uh always
Really good fun and it was great for me because I got um special privileges um for this that and the other reason largely because he was doing chores before he went to work I was often late getting to school and I didn’t need any slips or anything man I
Could just be late and go to class and and I and I thank him for that uh and and yes we did have our choice uh including Hinesburg high school and I told B BHS cuz I wanted to play football um people made their choices for good bad and ugly reasons
But that was mine well melan and I went to cvu for a long time I thought we were the first class to go through but we’re actually the second class to go through CV which is now the largest High School in the state which which was not that large
There we got teased a lot they used to call us cow Valley we all said well you know we’re proud of that so we had actually um we had I TR remember who used to dress up in the cow costume and Rattle and oh yeah sort of
Aatt the cattle right um yes so yes long bus ride and we shared the same bus driver he had a long route Mr Obie yes that’s right because we were way one end of Williston Melanie was kind of at the other end of Willis so it was long drive
But it was and but we also had an activity bus which was great um so we were able to not not only stay after school and when our parents weren’t able to pick us up and so on but we also got to know the entire geography of the four towns that’s
Right which was yeah that was exciting too that was um the beginning of the um Union School movement in Vermont and so it was you know we were one of the earlier schools to um unionize and or the you know the four towns that made
The district so so yeah it’s it was it was hugely Innovative and really interesting and the school was pretty Progressive then um and you know it’s evolved over the years and in and it’s more I think it’s much more Suburban now yes yeah but and most people don’t take
The bus anymore so right right speaking of cvu I remember it was built in 1964 and the the steel beams for the school came to northw Williston on rail by the railroad and then came up north Williston Hill which was much narrower and more twisty and I can remember I somewhere
I’ve got pictures which I will look for but we sat down at the foot of our road and watched them try to get up the hill Jing around the hill to bring those beams to uh once they got past that curve it was pretty much a straight run
To where cvu was um so that was pretty impressive as well yeah I too rode the Boston bus home yes and and I had just met my current bride in high school um her name was Lucy Pew and of course anytime I would say well her name is Lucy
Pew a little smirk well Romeo H’s daughter also rode the Boston bus home and I was excitedly telling her about um this beautiful girl that I met and said what’s her name and I said well see Pew and she goes oh just like in a church segue into the next topic
Church somebody has mentioned several people have mentioned the Federated Church uh there was a Catholic Church starting in 1951 so was this a part of your life and what what do you remember about it well we went to church in Burlington and it it was very much a
Part of our life we had choir practice on Thursdays and we had youth group in the evenings on Sundays um plus family night suppers and um Retreats and gathering together a lot often they came out because it was a Burlington church so they often came out to our property
To go sliding had sliding parties um and uh Easter Sunrise Service uh so very much part of our life yeah I was an early heretic so I I I did go through high school and sang in the choir but I was you know constantly questioning you know what’s
Going on here and we had some good Sunday school teachers um Dr Lampman was our uh Sunday school teacher when I was in seventh and eth grade and and I would H you know like have my um resourceful set of questions and he was very patient
And great and um lovely guy um my dad taught at UVM medical school so John had been one of his students and um you know it was really nice to have that sort of special connection um and then um through church like we we we also had
Mary Tut hill was a a high school Sunday school teacher and she was very articulate and interesting and you know so there was there was a lot going on um I stuck with it even though I didn’t believe so it was important I guess definitely any other Reflections on
Church and well I think I think for myself um the most best contribution I can make to the discussion today is I did go to Sunday school until I uh refus to get in the car but most importantly to the discussion is is um Betty bradish was
Was one of my Sunday school teachers that I adored and I’m thinking it was Leota Pillsbury but I wouldn’t swear for sure one of the beautiful Pillsbury mothers and um a very important part of of of the uh fabric of the Town um and and the Federated Church
Okay going I’m going down to the bottom here and just the the role of Williston in your life today and uh I know we have three people on the panel who live in Williston today but um so let’s just talk about that um and Melanie you can
You can be the outsider here and talk about how Willison has impacted your life and so on so anybody want to take off on that well I think it had a huge impact on on me um we had lived in Burlington until I was eight when then we moved
Here and uh as I mentioned dad taught at evm and my mom was from St Albans so she had known Betty Lane bradish when she was a young woman um because Betty was Betty was a few years older than mom not many um and they um Betty had been good
Friends with one of Mom’s cousins I I think they were like best friends so there there was all this kind of you know like you felt like you knew people here even though you didn’t and so it wasn’t like a far place it was a it was
A close place even though it wasn’t Burlington but you know I remember being struck by the fact that you know PE there was no synagogue you know I was like where are all the Jewish people um and you know where are all the Greek Orthodox people cuz we’re the that we
Grew up on it was very um Multicultural so you know like that was interesting to me and and of course at that time in the world a mixed marriage didn’t mean race it meant religion so you know there was all this interesting stuff going on and
I just I just felt like um you know it it’s obviously essence of Willison is still with me um oh Jack bradish married my husband and I in 1977 and I I’ll pass passes around it’s one of Jack’s wonderful little ridiculous things that he did and he was Justice of the Peace
Um so he uh created this little booklet I think in about 10 years before we were married and um handed it out to everyone he married so I’ll just pass it around you can all look at it it’s quite funny um and so you know they uh Betty and
Jack were really intrinsic to my development as a person as well and how old were you when you moved to Williston eight okay yeah was that kind of a cultural shock it’s somewhat yeah somewhat although I mean you know I was I was a Vermont girl so you know my my
Mom’s family was from rural St Albin so yeah it wasn’t a shock in all ways so the role of Willison in your life today well um the only thing to uh paraphrase something someone want said the only thing um that never changes is change and Willison has done
That for sure and it’s not allog together a Bad Thing uh but for me I could start this uh monologue out with damn I looked huh I knew pretty much everybody in town mhm I knew what car they drove and when they came up my road I
Want to know who was coming up my road so I looked and as Willison grew it became useless to look cuz the cars all started looking the same anyway and I suppose that’s the fun fun of age and uh not not being such a motor head well that’s not quite true
Still a Motorhead but at any rate um you can’t you don’t know who’s on the road anymore and it does no good to look and with that that talks speaks to congestion the congestion on the highways the congestion um in the air and now we’re talking noise in both categories mhm traffic
Noise um we do live on top of a hill we hear in in almost intolerable uh Interstate noise depending on several different item things we hear traffic on North wison and Mountain View um step outside our front door and there’s almost always somebody going by
Even if it’s at bedtime at 8:30 or 9 uh so uh the noise from the air has gotten to be intolerable I’m not telling anybody in this room uh who lives in Willison anything they don’t know certain moments during the day everything stops until the um Green Mountain uh
Boys and girls finish crossing over Willison and already into New Hampshire somewhere so those are the things that that have painted Williston uh canvas from the from the 40s to today um that I think um really resonate the most with me okay so let’s kind of do a wrap up
Geneva anything on your paper there that you want to bring to our attention I don’t think so I was going to say that we moved back to Williston in 1975 after living various places Rochester New York and then uh Stu was in the service and
We lived in Germany for a while and when it got time to come home um we decided not to go back to Rochester and came back to Willison and we’ve raised our family here so paron Liv in Richmond well we lived briefly in Richmond before we moved to
Willison and and um I went away to college in Maine and met my soon Tobe husband there and then I brought him back to Vermont and we lived in Canaan for a while and then moved back to the house where I grew up and I still well
We since our oldest son since moved into that house and we’ve built a retirement house right across the yard so we live on the hill where I compound the compound I was born so our grandkids are the fifth generation of um of our family to live on that land and I just wanted
To say that a big change in Willison for me was that the center of town is no longer here in the village that’s right we now have a big Center over uh at T corners area um which doesn’t feel like a community center but is kind of at
This point and I feel like the community is more fragmented now with all the all the the different communities which is great all the little um housing developments and so forth they they are a community unto themselves but I don’t see the because it’s so large I don’t
See the the whole town of Williston being the community it was that I grew up in I’d like to um I’d like to uh continue that conversation um when the federal government asked asked us on the Planning Commission uh probably the 80s uh did we want to keep our post
Office in the village or would it be more important to move it to the taas corners area the Planning Commission unanimously voted for the village and they moved the thing anyway we have that Spectre right now of our library oh really maybe moving out of the village and always the
Politician I’m I’m I’m make that as a statement we’ll see what happens in the future those of you in the audience our village needs the library yes um and yes thank you there is something that’s burningly important for me to mention that you didn’t end up
Asking what was my first job okay oh yeah that’s right and back then and still to some respect people take care of their neighbors these neighbors the Peterson Burrows took care of young Jim Mulla Dr and Mrs Peterson Pat and Os Peterson Junior um hired me I was my first paid
Job and I built fence there and I rode in in the most beautiful um Volkswagen bus with you and stew out to the islands to do haying oh yeah that and and uh so that was my first job with some of my very most important people and and
Actually uh Mom and Dad Peterson attended Lucy’s in my wedding sure they did nice Melanie uh any kind of wrap up final story final thought um yeah I was um interested by some of your questions having to do with um you know larger current events and whether they had an
Impact on us and certainly that was true and I really remembered one the irisburg affair of 1968 which then there was a very big article in Life magazine in the spring of 69 I think um about it and you know we got that we we had a subscription to
Life and of course that was just you know something I read every week or how I don’t remember if it was bi-weekly or weekly but anyway that story um still resonates um and and and it is the situation in irisburg Vermont where the minister was charged with um the black
Minister’s family was the black Minister was charged with adultery with a white woman in the family uh who was with the family at the time and it was not untrue but the the whole um the whole thing was sort of this misdirected reality after the minister had been attacked by with a
Shotgun by um some Ruffians from irisburg which as you know is in the Northeast Kingdom and it’s so that th those sorts of issues about race were deeply affecting when we were in high school um and I think um you know having that emerge as part of Vermont’s reality
Was uh somewhat um you know I I think it it dismayed us but also it Disturbed our our sort of complacency and in probably in a good way and then um Governor Hoff at that time uh 1968 uh with with mayor Lindsay of New York City created this
Project called the New York or Vermont New York youth project and there were over a thousand kids from Harlem who came uh to Vermont and um the focus was to help those kids really integrate their talent with like artistic training and um and also vocational training so
That was a big deal because a lot of parents were flipping out and you know there was there there were I think well I remember in our class Juan Perez who was a great artist he was a person of that program and he lived in Williston
With the Bryant family um and they were you know really I mean they really made room for him in their home and it was you know it was a a a a really Valiant thing I think the whole the whole program but it had a lot of there were a
Lot of downsides okay so that was really interesting that period of time how about from the audience any questions any stories any comments uh Stu you know I as I listen to this I’m just so pleased to have been able to be here you know and I was just
Thinking about in situation when when I was growing up in Burlington you know that we used to play um baseball softball in the parking lot on on Bradley Street on a Saturday afternoon and our parents We join it was parents versus the kids and it was it
Was a lot of fun every Saturday that sounds good great Terry my wife and I moved to Wiis in 1966 right around the July Fourth weekend I had no idea about what was going on were too busy uh doing moving into the house uh my wife was U
N9 months pregnant at that time and we we uh had one more citizen of wion on August 4th a little bit longer um one thing about I remember about cat Corners it was a single traffic light there with a red and yellow blinker on it that was
Was there um and also remember going to town meetings and I can’t remember what year it was had to be late 60s probably we spent probably 3 hours talking about spending $20,000 on a road Breer different time anybody else in the audience yes go ahead um being of the Peterson
Family I just um you I didn’t have you as a teacher but I knew you as a teacher at Wiston Central um just in my life here we moved here in the 70s I was born in 71 I feel like it’s no longer the Willis
Willison that I grew up in um and the high school I feel is not what I remember um being the close net like I remember even it was a large school cvu but I knew everybody’s still and I don’t think that’s the way it is anymore about
Like I feel um and I moved back here I lived in Essex for a while my children I brought them up in seex um it’s almost like S6 and CV switched like is a small little Community now and it was very the way I Willison I felt that way in EIC um
Just the families you all gathered together and you knew everybody in you this community you all kind of brought your kids up together and um that’s how I remember it around here like all my friends live you know within distance of me and my husband gets probably bored
But I’m always like well this house was this yeah people I remember the most was Mrs Smith uh Swift excuse me March Swift love I loved her for that and missov and her three-legged dog all the time and then obviously my grandmother was at this Library when it
Was much tinier so I didn’t realize they were trying to move this but now I’m going to fight want I G so for the record would you identify yourself please oh sorry Sarah my name is Sarah Bari um and my mom is our daughter and that’s my aunt anybody else recollection questions
I I do have some pictures of the Damage Done to the farm if anyone is interested in looking at after the hurricane of 1950 oh yeah Lucy nothing you want to add Jim said it all she Jack being one of my favorite people
Jack and it was in 63 is when I came to town during this the Centennial and he was just he was bearded and he was just this um I I just thought he was great and and all the years that um that he he made here um he was always just kind of
An interesting figure Post in the post office post office yeah um I don’t know he just he just had such a great sense of humor and uh and uh inclusive on everything and probably many don’t remember that he ran a restaurant yes House Restaurant popular there are a lot
Of those stories we haven’t touched on probably be here all afternoon yeah that’s true so just to plug a few things the idea for this program came from a little booklet that Joe Jordan put together which and I’m pretty sure there’s uh copies in the library but
It’s called Joe’s story uh growing up in Williston and a lot of his uh um memories are in this and the other thing I’m going to plug is this book because there’s a lot of 1960 1970 uh history in here that these people have referenced um and it’s
Called images of America Williston and uh it’s worth buying so yes sir do you remember when we built the band stand what that was in the 76 it was a bicentennial project many people I think we won the that year we won the um parade the floow I wasn’t
Here you wer we were in Newland wasn’t it I remember having us all in the Bonnet oh that was a little later that was probably a little later yes and I do remember that float yes uh she was a baby baby yeah okay s anyways that was a great I just
Remember the Fourth of July is just being amazing like it was so crowded and the U Chicken something chicken barbecue oh yeah that was another great thing right it was a lot more family floats and and instead of a lot of politicians and cars and trucks businesses
Right St one more question that school that used to be on the corner of Mountain VI remember that was moved 1988 yeah thank stove pipe Corner School yeah right if there’s nothing else questions comments thank you thank you to the media Factory for their technological
Support here and we’re going to get a uh trans script of this right Aaron so you’ll see a written record probably in many formats U and thank you to our panels for participating and you get to take the bottle of water home Great A