Back to school

Last week on Friday I went back to school - no, not as a student but as a substitute teacher. I have been appointed in that position at the Saint Johnsbury Academy, a prestigious 9 to 12-grade high school in the Northeast Kingdom - the far Northeast portion of Vermont, bordering the Canadian border.

This change so late in my life comes as a result of several different circumstances. Liz and I recently took ownership of a ranch-style house just five minutes from the Academy but frankly, I have become bored with being at home every day, and when the opportunity came up of being able to spend some time helping out at the Academy, I jumped at it. 

At the time of writing, I have sat in on two hour-long sessions of Grade 11 American History,

tow of Grade 12 English and two of Grade 11 English. The students are mostly American, but with a smattering of Chinese and other nationalities. 

The Academy offers a wide range of subjects and has a particularly wide range of the Arts, including  Visual Arts Courses comprising Foundations of Drawing and Painting, Anatomy and Figure Drawing, Printmaking, Photography, Fashion Design, Filmmaking, Digital Design, Clay, Sculpture, Water-based Painting, Oil Painting, Portfolio, AP Art, and Visual Art Capstone.

The Academy also offers Performing Arts Courses comprising Acting, Stagecraft, Popular Dance, Dance, Band, Jazz Band, Chorus, Strings, Guitar, Music Appreciation/Theory, and AP Music. I believe that the coming year will certainly not be boring,  

Taking the Oath

On the evening of 28th November, after Liz got home from work, we set off in the Volvo for Rutland to spend the night at the Comfort Inn before I took the Oath of Allegiance to become a Citizen of the United States. The drive was a little uncomfortable - I have developed a dislike of driving after dark falls, and especially when it is trying very hard to snow. Fortunately with the exception of a couple of places down by Hanover, both the I-91 and Route 4 were clear of snow, and we arrived in one piece at about 9.30 p.m.

Thursday 29th November was the big day - the ceremony was to take place at the Paramount Theater in Rutland at 1.00 p.m., so we had plenty of time to get dressed for the event the next morning. For breakfast, Liz had a freshly made waffle with Maple syrup (this is Vermont!) and I had an unappetizing slice of French toast and a fried egg (both were on the cold side) but I think I was too excited, certainly not nervous, to eat. So I settled for coffee. At the appropriate time, we set out for the theater where I completed documentation before getting seated on stage - the first time I had 'walked the boards" other than a couple of school productions since Salisbury Repertory Theater way back in 1980. The Paramount Theater, which originally opened in 1913, had recently been restored and was very impressive.

The ceremony started on time, and Liz captured all 32 minutes of it on her smartphone. You can see the video she took here

After the ceremony was over and photographs were taken with the judge, we decided to hit the road back to the Northeast Kingdom, a 2-hour drive. By this time I was getting hungry and told Liz I could have eaten a whole rack of lamb - but would settle for a diner. We passed through Killington, a well-known ski resort, but nothing was open. Then as we were driving through Bridgewater I noticed a diner to the left of the road. We doubled back and parked facing the diner - a notice said that they closed at 2 p.m. - just our luck as it was 2.30 p.m. already. Just as we were about to drive off we noticed someone waving for us to come in, which we did. The family-run business stayed open just for the two of us.

So how will becoming a citizen affect me? I have been a little wary of what I have put into writing in this blog in the past, but I am now protected by the First Amendment, so I can now put into writing what I feel about the lying misogynistic bufoon of a president without fear of retribution.   

So, for those that have not yet seen it on my Facebook, here is a little nursery rhyme that I made up especially for our president.

Humpty Drumphty sat on his wall.

In the midterm elections, he had a great fall. 

All of his senators, all of his men

Couldn't put Drumphty together again

The Northeast Kingdom

I live in the Northeast Kingdom - that will mean plenty to my local readers, but to those of you on the eastern side of the Pond, it will mean little. You probably will have never heard of it. Let me explain. The Northeast Kingdom is the name given to three counties, Caledonia, Orleans and Essex, in the far northeast of Vermont on the Canadian border. The name was first used in a 1949 speech given by the then U.S. senator and former Governor of Vermont, George D. Aiken. The Kingdom is bound in the east by the Connecticut River and the west by the Green Mountains. The main towns are St Johnsbury and Lyndonville in the southeast, Newport and Derby in the north, and in the southwest Danville and Hardwick. 

Known affectionately by locals as The Kingdom, the region lies outside the state's Green Mountain area, and is made up of a number of extinct volcanic islands that were compressed together by tectonic movement more than 400 million years ago. A sheet of ice over a mile thick covered the Kingdom several times during the Ice Age, which ended some 13,500 years ago. The retreating glaciers carved out the piles of granite, schist, slate and limestone to leave behind today's rock-scattered landscape. Some 80% of the Northeast Kingdom is covered by forest; a mixture of 60% northern hardwood (Sugar maple, Yellow birch, American beech and White ash), with spruce, hemlock and fir making up the rest. The brilliant colors of the leaves during Fall make this a popular tourist destination.

There is a relatively high moose population, along with white tailed deer, black bear, coyote, fox, bobcat, some Canadian lynx, and even some once locally-extinct marten. Smaller species include red and gray squirrel, and groundhog or woodchuck, muskrat, skunk, opossum, snowshoe hare, beaver, porcupine, raccoon and the small and adorable chipmunk. There have been reports in the past few years of the grey wolf being seen - this is certainly possible judging by the reports although experts say not probable.

     

The climate here is fairly predictable. Winter extends from November through to April, with the temperature often remaining below zero for weeks on end. The lowest temperature that I recorded last winter was -35˚ F (-37˚ C) - at the time colder than Alaska. .At the other extreme yesterday's high was +97˚ F (+36˚ F) after a full week of being in the 90s. There is plenty of snow in winter, with it often lying on the ground for months on end. A number of blizzards have produced more than 20 inches of snow overnight.

I have noticed that there is plenty of French influence in the region, which is not surprising as it borders French-speaking Quebec Province to the North. Many of the surnames in the region are quite obviously of French origin and in summertime and Fall you can see plenty of Quebec Province cars on the Kingdom roads and hear French being spoken by couples in the region's supermarkets.

I've been in the Great North Woods for four years now, the last year and a half up here in the Northeast Kingdom. I can understand why many of the older residents who can afford it migrate down to Florida with the onset of winter. I am too old to take up my once youthful passion of skiing - major spine surgery a couple of times has seen to that. So I will see out my days here with my beautiful wife and close to my daughter and three grandchildren, all of whom I love dearly. Were it not for them Liz and I would be living in the warmer climes of North Carolina. Next month Liz and I will drive down to Massachusetts for her birthday and to stay with her daughter and family. 

Goodbye to the Autumn of my days

I started writing this post in longhand on Sunday evening last, seated in my recliner in the Northeast Kingdom and sipping a Manhattan cocktail. Vermont's Northeast Kingdom is comprised of Essex, Orleans, and Caledonia counties and had a population of just 64,764 at the 2010 census. It is in the state's far Northeast and borders Canada. I relocated here in order to be close to my daughter and her family, and to see out my remaining years - hopefully still quite a few, but you never know!

Right now the temperature outside our Cape Cod style apartment building is 3˚F, but last night it plunged to -36˚F - colder by far than Alaska! It is likely to be the same tonight and has not been above freezing for several weeks. It is so cold outside that the salt that has been spread on Route 5 in order to melt the snow lying n the road has absolutely no effect. We have had two separate storms so far this Winter - one that swept in from the Great Lakes to the West of us, and the other a bomb cyclone that swept up the East coast from Florida, giving snowfall in that state and every other coastal state from Georgia to Maine.The ski resorts of Northern New England are crowded, and well over 90% of runs are open.

A couple of weeks ago Liz and I enjoyed watching my granddaughter in her debut stage role, a real treat for someone who has spent so much time walking the boards. I was so impressed with her performance and her singing,. If I had started my acting career when I was at her age I might have ended up as a professional actor rather than a naval aviator. But then the circumstances around my acting career were very different as will be found in detail in my autobiography, The Graceful Retirement of an English Gentleman when I eventually distribute it to family and friends. So far I am up to 97 pages and a little short of 20,000 words.

I have had a pretty good life - have set foot in more than 30 countries and resided in four. Unless I should happenstance make a big win in one of the state's lotteries I am here to stay. The alternative would be somewhere like St Martin or Guadeloupe - somewhere in the French Caribbean anyway. I have met presidents, prime ministers, and even a princess. I have designed websites (currently have three of my own) and have had more than 6,500 articles and web pages published on the Internet so one way or another have left some sort of legacy.

It has been an interesting couple of years here in the United States. I spend a fair amount of my time watching MSNBC (never Fox) and their coverage of the country's political news. It seems that we are getting closer and closer to a Mueller - Trump face to face. That indeed will be very interesting, although it will probably never be made public.Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury has disclosed how most staffers in the White House describe Trump as being childlike. He is certainly a liar and an egomaniac. In a couple of month's time, I will be eligible for citizenship, so I am swotting up on the Constitution and other citizenship-related subjects.