I went on a road trip to visit family in Vermont this past weekend, to spend time with cousins I grew up with but haven't seen as often as I'd like in recent years. As kiwideb stated, there is something about the bonds you form with cousins during childhood that is special.
Unsurprisingly I had an awesome time.
If you've never been to this northeastern state, then let me be the first to tell you that it is absolutely gorgeous. I will be doing another post focusing more on the breathtaking scenery of which the mountains seem to be the backdrop everywhere, and even the cemeteries are worthy of postcards.
However the focus of this particular post is the culture which is very cool and unusual; I keep trying to think of the right way to describe it...bear with me.
First of all local business is a big thing. While there are places you can find corporate chains like Walmart, they are few and far between. Even in its capital of Montpelier the restaurants feature food from local farms and beer from local breweries. The supermarkets are the same only they also have sections of locally made soaps and even handcrafted jewelry and pottery. Roadside stands sell everything from produce to art and of course things like maple syrup and honey, and they are abundant.
Another thing I noticed is that everyone seems to own some kind of livestock whether it be chickens, goats, or pigs or a combination of the three; have organic gardens; and are involved in some kind of co-op.
They also tend to be very passionate about politics and the majority are libertarians. They have very strong beliefs involving the injustices of the world and are focused on the poor and the minorities. You'll probably find more people in the state of Vermont who have been involved in helping the Native Americans at Standing Rock than the whole of the rest of the country. (If that's an exaggeration, it's not a large one)
Which brings us to this post since the
Honk Fest was mainly put on by the Bread and Puppet Theater who can be summed up with:
“We are the Bread & Puppet Theater because we offer good old sourdough rye bread together with a great variety of puppetshows, some good, some not so good, but all for the good and against the bad. The art of puppetry helps women, men and children alike to overcome the established order and the obsessive submission to its politics and consequent brutalities.”
–Peter Schumann- Founder
http://breadandpuppet.org/
From my observation the B&P theater is an extreme version of what I described above as the overall culture of the caring and fascinating people who reside in this state. I find the members of the theater to be a bit wacky and bizarre, though I say this fondly. Eccentric, quirky and cryptic would also fit (though I can't decide if the cryptic part is intentional).
For example, most of the members were wearing this sign on their back-
My cousin Brad's girlfriend was christened with the sign by a super friendly theater man (below in red coat)
The amused grins on Erin, Brad and my Uncle Willy's faces is a common reaction people have to the wacky, quirky, bizarre, eccentric and cryptic bunch. I could feel it on my own face as I listened to his bouncy greeting. Oh, and we're all still unclear as to 'what the' sign means. We assume it's talking about believing the stories of those who have survived difficult things in their past, but we can't be certain.
Now I'll let you browse through several pictures, but when you get to the short video- watch it. If you don't find it to be the list of adjectives I have assigned to the group, well you might be from Vermont...kidding! I meant a Vermont extremist, hee, or you might just be far more enlightened than I am.
*Some of the... 'musicians'
One of the vehicles they arrived in
Uncle Sam?
Some of my peeps ;)
And here is the first 'What the?' Video- really you MUST watch:
Again, WATCH!
Are you wearing the same "What the?" look on your face at this point as my brother in the next photo? (He was just arriving and his expression really cracked me up)
My sister-in-law's version of "What the?" or maybe it's bemusement...and my cutie niece Nora also has a version, hee hee!
I wish I had recorded these two fellas..., if you didn't have a version of 'what the?' on your face after hearing them, I'm not sure what to say about you. The dude with the gold sax was playing one note over and over and after the fifth bleat my brother turned to me and said "Sounds like someone is trying to break into my car". (Honk fest...it all makes sense now. Err, well, no it doesn't but I do think he was indeed honking)
At this point I was longing for my junior high band- but Brad's participation makes up for it, (you've never heard You Are My Sunshine until you've listened to them play and sing it (actually that's not true, if you've heard an elementary school music class play and sing it, then you've been there, done that)
Oh I forgot! We had our dog Lucy with us, and her version of 'what the?' was to shake so bad that my husband had to bring her back to the car. I kid you not. She usually enjoys music...(music?)
Shortly after this my kids and I took a walk through the cute little town...
..and ended up here. I forgot to take a picture of the front so I borrowed this from the website:
It is a bagel and burrito cafe. (What the?) We were starving so we decided to give it a go. It was...not bad. Well, Zoe's was kind of bad because she went with chipotle instead of red salsa, and the chipotle was not good. But we did get to listen to some local Irish fiddling entertainment while we waited:
Then we enjoyed a walk through the rest of the town...
...and met Bob Marley's dogs! Well, that was what Ethan christened them, Zoe argued in favor of mops and I went with shag rugs.
Yeah, those definitely look like dreads, Ethan wins the naming.
At this point we took a burrito to Howie at the car and chilled with him for a bit. Ethan decided to head back to the show, and just when I heard some music coming from that direction that sounded quite good and thought I should join him, a man with a boat trailer came whipping around the corner of the parking lot and took out the headlight and some paint on the car next to us.
So annoyed I didn't take a picture which would fit here quite nicely--
Of course these types of situations are always a mix of painful and entertaining to watch unfold; the inspecting of the vehicle by the perpetrator wearing the face of a man on death row; the arrival of the owner and his subsequent inspection wearing the face of a man whose day just got flubbed up by an idiot; and of course the arrival of the police wearing the pinched face of a man who has a rod shoved up his bum...not dissimilar to the face he always wears, really the only difference is the shoulders go back a few more inches (They all look the same! Not sure why that was ever ascribed to ethnic groups when it's clearly meant for cops)
By the time the fiasco was finished my extended family had decided they were also- they walked into the lot not three minutes after the cop drove away- and thus concluded our time in Vermont's capital.
We returned to my cousin Heather's house:
And here should be pictures of us partaking of some excellent beers courtesy of Hill Farmstead Brewery which has been dubbed "The best brewery in New England and arguably the country", but sometimes I just have to put the camera down. Needless to say the conversation started out intelligent and degenerated into impressions of Pee Wee Herman and Bill Cosby...speaking of, does anyone know what happened to Pudding Pops? God those were good.
In case people take this post the wrong way- I love Vermont. The people are genuinely caring, there is an atmosphere of 'love thy neighbor' that is tangible. The theater people might have been a bit odd, but they were the good kind of odd. Highly recommend vacationing in this unique and beautiful state.
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