My time in Vermont was short lived. Prior to enrolling at the University of Vermont in 2006 I had never been to the country of Vermont. Truthfully, i’m not sure what even led me to apply. But, it was one of the few schools (two or three) that deemed me worthy of admitting. School was never really my bag baby!
Summer in Vermont is the best. Lush greenery. Rolling hills. Wine and cheese. Sweatshirt-weather nights. Perfect sleeping weather. It’s an idyllic moment that can be captured by someone from away. People where i’m from rent houses there to experience the Country Daze. Those same people would characterize Vermont as God’s Country. Whatever that means.
Summer in Vermont is also short. Way shorter than usual. Maybe six weeks. Probably more like four weeks. If you have never been to Vermont, and you go to Burlington in the summer - you are swimming in a great big lie.
Creeping in the shadows. Behind one billion maple trees. Obscured by stacks of weed smoke and endless Phish noodling - is winter. Dark. Cold. Windy. Truly a fucking miserable experience.
The saving grace for literally every kid who attends UVM is that it’s an easy drive to a lot of great mountains. They all ski or snowboard. I did not get this memo. Instead of going to Stowe for the weekend I walked back and forth to the convenience store to buy and smoke 💨 thousands of cigarettes. Played a video game called Fifa. Listened to Destroyer’s Rubies eight million times. Hung out with girls who thought I talked funny because I wasn’t from New England. Mostly, I thought about going home.
I was out of there in a matter of months. It was a rip the bandaid situation. I could never go back. I remember my first drive up to Vermont. It was fall, night came early. Driving Route 7. Passing dark farmhouses sitting alone, miles from neighbors. Thinking about the people who inhabited those black holes disguised as houses. Who are they? I was scared for them. I knew that could never be me.
I should have known better. I should have turned around. Everyone knows summer can’t last forever.
This week I read a book set in summertime Vermont. Love Always by Ann Beattie (1985). I liked it a lot. In short, you are introduced to a whole slew of characters living, out of place, in a small Vermont Town. Beattie’s pastiche centers around Country Daze, an ultrachic yuppie magazine. Her characters have affairs. Do drugs. And get in to trouble. It’s a quick satire of 80’s excess. And the cover is A+.
*Warning: It seems that most people who review books on Goodreads do not like this book. I do not review books on Goodreads.
**I will read anything Vintage Contemporaries. Whenever I see something from the VC series in a used book store, I cop. Sight unseen.
Read if you dig:
That’s it for me folks. I appreciate you going for a trip down memory lane. As always, send me what you are reading. I love to hear from you. Much peace. Much love.