Reunion VII--Norman Rockwell and the Candy Bar Game

On July 1, 2013, Dave, Michael, Lisa, and I stole away for a bit of sightseeing while Kyle worked, the kids slept in, and (as we didn't quite realize) Camille was marooned because the Ebert and Flindt kids refused to leave each together and we had disappeared with all the drivers.  Ignorance is bliss--we had a great time alone together.  Our first stop was the Norman Rockwell Museum.

 

We wandered through its galleries, recognizing one beloved, familiar image after the other.  Rockwell began his illustrations in the 1920s and continued into the 1970s.  Dave and I identified with the portraits of peace in America during the 50s and early 60s, before the race riots and anti-war riots of the late 60s and early 70s began.

 

 

 

 

 

We also toured Rockwell's studio, where he created his paintings and illustrations.  The green Berkshire woodlands stretched into the distance.

 

 

 

 

 

We started a hike to a lookout over the Berkshire countryside.  After a march straight up a steep hill, pursued by murderous mosquitos, we paused, short of the top, to appreciate the lush greenness and the craggy rock outcroppings.  We then fled.

 

 

We explored another "perfect New England village," Great Barrington.  We wandered through art galleries and shared some ice cream, which is plentiful at gourmet cafes and roadside shops throughout New England.

 

 

One of the most beloved reunion events is the candy bar game.  Participants throw dice to win the chance to either choose candy bars from the central pile or to request candy bars already chosen (if they can remember who has what candy bar).   Annelise led the children's game, in which the little guys were as intent as their elders.

 

 

 

Grandma Carol and Darrell joined the teenagers and adults for their competitive candy binge, as did Janice, Nancy and Darrell Moench, and Josh and Jodi Kennedy.

 

 

 

 

Reunion VI--Vermont

Our adventures on June 30, 2013, centered around Joseph Smith.  It was Sunday, and we attended Church in Sharon, Vermont, Joseph Smith's birthplace.  While at Church, Michael ran into an old friend from East High School, who had been the adoring coed in his campaign skit for student body office.   She was now a wife and mother in Vermont.

 

We changed out of our Church clothes in the cars and behind trees, and then drove to Turnbridge, where Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith met and married.  We visited a very old-looking store for popsicles.  We hoped it was the store where Joseph and Lucy met, but, alas, it had a sign advertising that it dated all the way back to 1830!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next stop was West Lebanon, New Hampshire, where Joseph Smith was living when his leg was nearly amputated because of an infection which the doctors of the time could not control.  A doctor from neighboring Dartmouth College knew of a new technique for saving Joseph's leg.  A Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant now marks the spot where Joseph's leg was healed.  Of course, we stopped and had a bite.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was time, at lunch, for Grandpa Dave to tell some good stories.

We also stopped by the Dartmouth campus, in Hanover, New Hampshire, with its picturesque buildings and greenery.

 

The Simon Pearce outlet was also in Hanover.  At the outlet, glassblowers displayed their art and high end crystal was sold.  Outside the store, a covered bridge offered refuge across the roaring Connecticut River.

 

 

We drove on to Woodstock, Vermont, one of Camille's favorite New England towns. We paused on the town square for drinks and snacks.  The Flindts are particularly choosy about their soda pop, after Spencer's years of working at a specialty root beer store!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a hot day, so we stopped by a portion of the Connecticut River where other hot travelers were leaping into the water from a rope swing.  Grant dared to take the jump.

 

 

 

 

 

We returned to Sharon, Vermont, to take the missionary-led tour of the Visitor's Center and site where Joseph Smith was born.  We relaxed in the air-conditioned Visitors Center as we listened to stories of Joseph Smith's birth and boyhood in Sharon.  We then viewed the memorial to Joseph.  It was 38 1/2 feet high, one foot for each year of his life.  And we walked around the footprint of the Smith home, and the marker commemorating Joseph's birth.

 

 

 

 

 

Our final stop in Sharon was the site of the home of Solomon Mack, Lucy Mack Smith's father.  It was an isolated, leafy spot, near a stone wall marking the boundary of the old post road.  We could almost imagine ourselves back in 1805, the year of Joseph's birth.

We finished the day with a stop at the Ben & Jerry's ice cream factory in Waterbury, Vermont.  We toured the production area and visited the "Flavor Room," where guests try new flavors with which Ben & Jerry's is experimenting.  We taste-tested a blueberry cream confection. 

 

 

 

 

We also visited the flavor cemetery, with monuments to flavors that didn't survive.

And we relaxed on the porch and by the ice cream trucks, with our own, big cones.