Friday, January 10, 2014

Cavendish Update 1/10/14 News/Support/Events/Prohibition


Information can also be posted on the Cavendish VT Facebook Page 


The 1/10/14 Cavendish Update Contains the Following:
1. Support for Proctorsville Resident Whose Home was Destroyed on Jan 3.
2. It’s Cold-Follow Red Cross Safety Tips When Heating Your Home
3. Cavendish Related News
4. Cavendish Underground-Rum Running: 94th Anniversary of Prohibition
5. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Discussion January 11
6. Events

1. SUPPORT FOR PROCTORSVILLE RESIDENT
Proctorsville resident Jessica Jet Thompson lost her home and most of its contents on Friday, January 3 as a result of a chimney fire. While she has temporary housing, she is in need of the community's support. A web page has been established to assist those who wish to donate items or make contributions.

 Both Cavendish and Proctorsville Fire Departments responded to this house fire. In sub zero temperatures, they were the first to arrive and the last to leave. Our town is fortunate to have such dedicated men and women. Don’t forget to support your local fire department this year. 

2. RED CROSS SAFETY TIPS ON HEATING YOUR HOME
Winter weather contributes to many fires, since people are trying to stay warm. To prevent a fire in your home, review the following safety tips from the American Red Cross.


Home Fire Safety Tips
• Keep items that can catch on fire at least three feet away from anything that gets hot, such as space heaters.

• Never smoke in bed.

• Talk to your children regularly about the dangers of fire, matches and lighters and keep them out of reach.

• Turn portable heaters off when you leave the room or go to sleep.

The most effective way to protect yourself and your home from fire is to identify and remove fire hazards. About 65 percent of house fire deaths occur in homes with no working smoke alarms. During a home fire, working smoke alarms can save lives.

Smoke Alarm Safety Tips
• Install smoke alarms on every level of your home, inside bedrooms and outside sleeping areas.

• Teach your children what smoke alarms sound like and what to do when they hear one.

• Once a month check whether each alarm in the home is working properly by pushing the test button.

• Replace batteries in smoke alarms at least once a year. Immediately install a new battery if an alarm chirps, warning the battery is low.

• Smoke alarms should be replaced every 10 years. Never disable smoke or carbon monoxide alarms.

• Carbon monoxide alarms are not substitutes for smoke alarms. Know the difference between the sound of smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms.

For more information: http://www.redcross.org/news/article/Its-Cold-Follow-Red-Cross-Safety-Tips-When-Heating-Your-Home

3. CAVENDISH RELATED NEWS
Cavendish and Proctorsville Firefighters Battle Blaze and Bitter Cold: Area firefighters from six departments battled temperatures that hovered at 6 below zero early Friday morning-Jan.3- when a fire broke out at a home at 601 Main Street in Proctorsville. The fire was later traced to a wood stove. Proctorsville Fire Chief Bob Glidden Sr. said that the woman living in the house was able to escape with her dog and cat — although the cat ran back into the house. “She ran out in the road barefoot and without a coat, and I guess it was a good thing she didn’t wait,” said the chief. Rutland Herald  and The Vermont Journal 

PVFD’s Stats for 2013: In 2013, the Proctorsville Volunteer Fire Department responded to 61 calls, totaling 869 man hours. The top five responders for the year were Karlene Glidden (65 calls and 97 hours on calls), 1st Captain Bob Glidden (51 calls and 91 hours), Deputy Chief Roger Sheehan (51 calls and 88 hours), Chief Robert Glidden (49 calls and 89 hours), and Matt Flinn (49 calls and 89 hours). To read more about PVFD’s 2013 activities, go to https://www.facebook.com/pages/Proctorsville-Volunteer-Fire-Department/130553286913

Proctorsville Post Office Included on List of Post Offices to have Reduced Hours:  A new postal proposal would spare facilities but cut hours at 145 post offices in Vermont including Proctorsville. Hours at the Cavendish PO have been reduced from 8 to 4 for the last year. Proctorsville is slated to go from 8 to 6 hours per day starting in October. Lobby access would not be affected. http://about.usps.com/news/electronic-press-kits/our-future-network/assets/pdf/postplan-affected-post-offices-120509.pdf

Friendly’s Closes Abruptly in Springfield: The family restaurant abruptly closed its doors Sunday night, with no plans to reopen, and notified its employees Monday morning that they no longer had a job, said one employee’s daughter.
Alyssa Stevens, a spokesman for Friendly’s, said Monday the restaurant’s lease in the Springfield Shopping Plaza had expired, and that was the reason for the closing. Rutland Herald 

VT Journal Has Moved: Due to flooding, the Vermont Journal has relocated to No. 10 High Street in Ludlow upstairs over The Black River Senior Center. VT Journal 

Flu on the RiseAcross Region: Cases of influenza have been reported in New York, Vermont and New Hampshire. In Vermont, the number of people who've become sick with the virus has increased weekly. Health officials urge anyone older than 6 months to get the shot. There are no reports of a lack of available vaccine in the area, unlike other parts of the country. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the strain of the virus circulating this year is similar to the 2009 swine flu epidemic, which disproportionately affected young and middle-aged adults. WPTZ 

4. CAVENDISH UNDERGROUND-RUM RUNNING
Many people in Cavendish will proudly tell you how their house, or one of the houses in their neighborhood, was part of the underground railroad. While former slaves found safety here, there was no need to hide them. Vermont outlawed slavery in 1777 and continued to pass laws that made it difficult for those trying to recapture slaves to come to far into the state as they could easily be caught and prosecuted.

Yes, there are tiny rooms and odd places in many of the old houses in our town. Some had very practical purposes. If they were close to a chimney they could have been used for curing meat and storing large cooking pots etc. Tunnels and other hiding places had other practical purposes-rum running and smuggling.

Because Vermont shares a border with Canada, smuggling has been part of the state’s “underground” employment from the early days of its settlement.

On January 16, 1920, the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting the "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes" went into effect. Breweries, distilleries and saloons closed their doors. This did not sit well with Vermonters, who believed the government had no business interfering with their drinking habits. Consequently, more people drank more alcohol during Prohibition than they did before or since.

Everywhere people helped bootleggers, hid them in barns from chasing customs agents, covered up, covered over, and supported them by making bootlegging a very profitable venture. Stories abound showing the bootleggers as the folk heroes they quickly became, and revealing the customs patrol as being slow minded, dim witted, and unpopular spoil sports. VT Historical Society http://vermonthistory.org/research/research-resources-online/green-mountain-chronicles/prohibition-1920

When Suzanne Beyer, author of “The Inventor’s Fortune Up for Grabs,” and granddaughter of Una and Leon Gay visited Cavendish in 2011, she related that her great Uncle Art Hadley was engaged in rum running during prohibition at her grandparents home-Glimmerstone. Were other people in town involved in rum-running? Probably.

If you have stories about Cavendish’s involvement in various bootlegging or smuggling activities, please send them to the Cavendish Historical Society , PO Box 472, Cavendish VT 05142 or e-mail margoc@tds.net or call 802-226-7807.


5. ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH DISCUSSION
December 2013 marked two important dates in the life of the Soviet dissident and Nobel Laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. December 11 would have been his 95th birthday and December 28 was the 40th anniversary of the publication of “The Gulag Archipelago” in Paris. Describing the horrors of the Soviet forced labor camps, the book was translated into 40 languages and some 10 million copies were printed around the world. Two months after the book’s publication, Solzhenitsyn was arrested, stripped of his citizenship and expelled from the USSR. Of the 20 years he was to be exiled from his homeland, Solzhenitsyn spent almost 18 of them in Cavendish, VT.

To mark these significant events, the Cavendish Historical Society will be screening the movie based on Solzhenitsyn’s book “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” at noon on Saturday,  January 11. At 2 pm, the Cavendish Fletcher Community Library (CFCC) and CHS will host a discussion of the book/movie. A Russian tea will be provided, thanks to Kata Welch, the librarian for CFCC. Meet at the Cavendish Library, on Main Street in Proctorsville, for all events.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is set in the Soviet labor camp (gulag) in the 1950’s and describes a single day of an ordinary prisoner, Ivan Denisovich Shukov. The novella was published in the magazine Novy Mir and was the first written account of  the camps. Millions of copies were circulated from hand to hand in the Soviet Union.  The West hailed the author as a “truth teller,” while the ordinary Soviet had confirmation of stories family members, who had been in the camps, had been telling.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is available at the Cavendish Library, most book stores and from ebookbrowse.

Film adaptations of the book are available at the following sites:

For more information: margoc@tds.net or 802-226-7807.

Please note that if the library is closed due to weather, this event will be rescheduled in February.

6. EVENTS
This week, the following activities will be taking place in Cavendish:

• One Day in the Life Of Ivan Denisovich Discussion: Jan 11 (Saturday). Movie screening at noon, book discussion and Russian Tea, 2 pm. All events at the Cavendish Library in Proctorsville. FMI: 226-7807 or margoc@tds.net Please note that if the library is closed due to weather, this event will be rescheduled in February.

•  Guy Burlage Acoustic Guitar and Vocals: Jan. 11 (Saturday) and Jan. 16 (Thursday) at the Glimmerstone Inn. FMI: http://www.glimmerstonemansion.com

• Raise the Roof Concert Series: True Tales January 12 (Sunday). Eight local storytellers from Cavendish, Ludlow and Mt. Holly will tell true stories of the area. This is a benefit for the Cavendish Community Fund, which provides grant support for projects in education, history and the arts. Modeled after NPR’s popular Moth Radio Hour, each presenter will tell a story from real like in ten minutes or less without a script. True Tales will take place at Gethsemane Episcopal Church on Depot Street in Proctorsville starting at 4 pm. Donations of $10 at the door will help keep culture alive and well. FMI: 226-7497.

• Select Board Meeting: Jan 13, 6:30 pm at the Cavendish Town Office. The agenda will be posted to www.cavendishvt.blogspot.com as soon as it becomes available.

• Local’s Night: Jan. 16 (Thursday) Music, Burger and Beer for $12 at the Glimmerstone Inn in Cavendish. 6-9 pm . FMI: http://www.glimmerstonemansion.com

To learn more about upcoming events in Cavendish and surrounding towns go to:
• Events listed by month 
• Events listed by day 

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