“What did we have for snack today?” The teacher asks a group of kindergartners slowly gathering together. “PANCAKES!!!” is the unanimous, loud and long answer from the kids. The next question is a little more difficult “What kind of book is a cookbook?” teacher Erika Wetzel asks with fewer kids managing a response, their inflection evoking a question: “nonfiction?” This time it’s the teacher’s response that is loud and excited “YES!” while most of us adults are impressed and clap in response with the rest of the students joining in.

It sounds like we’re standing in a typical kindergarten classroom waiting for the kids to line up after snack or play time.… Read More

Margot and Gary Ott are a study in contrasts. They are well aware of this, and play up their different approaches to entertain family and friends. She’s chatty; he’s initially reserved. She likes travel and being outside; he likes crosswords and a good book. They share a strong commitment to God and family.

But beneath their different styles is a deep commitment and shared effort that—together with faith—have helped Gary and Margot build a marriage that recently passed its 45th year. The phrase “salt of the earth” comes to mind as they recount their lives: working in worthwhile positions; rearing three capable children, two girls and a boy; and engaging with the communities they’ve joined in retirement.… Read More

Ian Maccini may not have grown up in Quechee, but he certainly left his mark. He was a competitive ski racer on the Quechee Ski Team and put those skills to good use when he started coaching the Mountain Team in the winter of 2003-2004. Racers on the Mountain Team are the skiers who are ready to start racing but haven’t been taught how yet he explains.

While he grew up in Providence, RI, Maccini lived for skiing in Quechee. His parents, Bob and Kristen, own a condo on the top of the mountain. Even now, as Maccini finishes his sophomore year at Providence College, Quechee remains a town he loves, “Everyone is close by.… Read More

Between the months of May and September, the Queche Base Lodge is a hive of activity. Golfers come and go picking up goodies and refreshments for the Highlands back nine. In the front hallway they walk past a shuttered opening on top of a high desk and if they’ve enjoyed a Vermont winter they wouldn’t know that the opening is heart and soul of Quechee Club as soon as the snow falls. Of course, I’m talking about the ski school and once again, returning for the 33rd straight year, Ken Kramberg will be at the helm.

Kramberg’s story is not that of a typical Vermont ski school dynasty and in a way that makes it more special.… Read More

Filling Life’s Stage

I love an audience,” Eleonora Stein proclaims. Throughout her life she has found audiences, in her careers as dancer, singer and teacher. Now 89, she has lived a full and active life that’s provided her with many stories and collections of memorabilia—and she continues to accumulate anecdotes and events. “All the world,” even each local village street, is her stage.

“Mme. Stein,” as she is known to her ballet students, speaks with enthusiasm and precision—and presumably with accuracy—of her life and experiences. “I was born in Budapest on August 16, 1926,” she says. “This year I’ll be 90 years old!… Read More

Hunter Hall, 30, of Quechee, VT, had a few new experiences this past summer that were pretty amazing, culminating in winning the bronze medal in golf at the Special Olympics World Games in L.A. Hunter and his parents, Allen and Sally, and his brother, Camden, are all avid golfers often visible on the Quechee course. Although Sally can’t remember at exactly what age Hunter started golfing, it was somewhere during his middle school years (with two boys close in age, who can remember anything?) Allen had been golfing but, as Sally said, as the boys took an interest, she took up golfing, too, so it could be a family activity.… Read More

Over a healthy lunch at Jake’s Market Café in Quechee, Sharin Luti and I talked about the inevitability of the Quechee Times doing her profile. “I’m not that interesting, really!” Sharin says. “Are you kidding?” I reply. If you live in Quechee, you likely know her or have felt her impact in some way. She is, in fact, a very interesting person! Here is her story.

As Luti puts it, “I’ve never been one to just sit down. When I was a kid, I was always running things. We used to stage circuses and fairs – I was always the director.”… Read More

Years ago, Conrad Richter (probably now best known for his wrenching short novel A Light in the Forest) wrote a trilogy about European settlers in the Ohio valley. The titles reveal the basic story: The Trees; The Fields; The Town. One character, a young girl in the first book, feels the oppressiveness of the dark, too-large-to deal-with trees in whose place the early settlers try to establish fields to grow food. By the end of the third book (which won the Pulitzer in 1951), she begins to plant trees.

Larry Potwin has also lived through “cycles of connection” with the land both for farming and for recreation in the Ottauquechee Valley, though in his case the cycles may resemble braided strands or a double helix, mixing farming and the insurance business.… Read More

What to Do is the title of an essay that Tim Martin wrote in response to the series of programs addressing issues of aging presented by the Quechee Lakes Community Affairs Committee (CAC) to the Quechee Lakes Landowners Association (QLLA) and the Upper Valley community. These programs were designed to help families and individuals make informed decisions and to plan ahead for those “life’s transitions” as we age. Programs addressed such topics as estate and financial planning, health care and advance directives, local resources in support of seniors and their families, and what you need to know if you want to stay at home.… Read More

I  met Bambi Koeniger with an email exchange about harvesting produce from the Quechee Community Garden. She and husband John were away and their tomatoes were abundant and very ripe. I had taken on the job of assuring that excess produce gets to The Haven—the homeless shelter and food bank in White River Junction. She asked that I go ahead and pick those tomatoes. I learned that she had been the primary Haven deliverer the year before and that her connection was even closer. The Haven is located next to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and the two organizations often work together.… Read More