This time of the year is all filled with nostalgia and a yearning to re-create the joys of days gone-bye: it's a State of Mind that's still there in New England. Miracles and wonders and real-life stories and opportunities.An escape to the rural countryside wherever we are at different stages of life to turn it all over.
Here in Arizona that's not a lot of time for cherished memories, but in the green state of Vermont there's much more time - add two more earlier centuries - to attract people back to the joys of living in the Vermont countryside in the 21st Century.
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This post is all a take-off from a story that appeared in The Boston Globe yesterday, written by Thomas Farragher, a Globe columnist.
He can be reached at thomas.farragher@globe.com.
Making A Home Away From Home in Vermont
GRINCH SPOILER ALERT:
Stone Hearth Inn & Tavern
Chester, VT
"Turns out being an innkeeper is hard work, not comedy. It’s all-consuming. The innkeeper’s bedroom is over the barroom. There’s always a faucet to fix, a wall to patch, a railing to paint.
“If I was really, really rich, it would be fun to do,’’ Ghetler said. “But I’m not really rich. You’ve got to make a go of it. We have to keep our nose to the grindstone and keep it going because we have bills to pay.’’
Hold on - the column started like this "CHESTER, Vt. — They could be characters straight out of a Hollywood sitcom. . . "
"In other words, it’s just another Saturday night at the Stone Hearth Inn & Tavern. . .
Sheldon and Francy have discovered the secret sauce.
From this 209-year-old, Federal-style building atop six acres of rolling countryside, they have conjured a business whose customers keep coming back as much for the wide-board pine flooring and original fireplaces as for camaraderie and neighborliness that is not on the menu but is, instead, part of the place’s DNA.
“Having the Stone Hearth here is like having a porch on the back of your house or a fire pit in front,’’ said Brian Lenihan, a Hingham attorney who bought a place nearby in 2007, just as the inn was opening under Sheldon’s and Francy’s ownership.
“They’ve created something more than just an inn here,’’ Lenihan’s wife, Bonnie Hertberg said.
“It’s just a place to come and see everybody and be part of the community.’’
There is something romantic about ditching everything, changing lifestyles, and opening a country inn and a new life.
THE HAPPY ENDING >
"Sheldon and Francy have somehow made it all work. But he is now 67, and she is 70. They’re ready for life outside the inn, ready to relinquish the demands that don’t end at 5 o’clock.
“I’m glad the way it came out,’’ Sheldon said. “But this place would be better off for somebody younger than Francy and I. It’s exhausting. It’s seven days a week. All day. I could be busy all day if I wanted to be.
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What other history do Vermont and Arizona share? The Birthplace of Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith is in a small town located close to Chester.
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Here's a Count Rumford Fire Place
constructed in many two-story Center-Chimney federal-style homes during Pre-Revolutionary Days.
It was the home's Great Room that generated heat both upstairs and down and where all the cooking was done during the months of cold
There was usually a Summer Kitchen extending in the back of the house from a northside keeping room.
