Wandering Cal's 'Hood

I spent another day roaming around central Vermont.  The leaves are stunning in many places...there are endless art photo ops.  Rather breathtaking, actually.

I'm at the Pogue, a pond in the hills above Woodstock.  A peaceful, brooding spot.

Classic Vermont.

Stopped at Calvin Coolidge's place.  This barn had a variety of conveyances used about a century ago.  In summer, Cal and his buds had the trusty Model T, in the background.  But Vermont is covered by snow a good four months each winter, and the locals used a vehicle alien to most Californians...the sleigh.  The one in the foreground was used for Rural Free Delivery mail service.

They even had hearse sleighs!

This is the house where Cal was born...on the fourth of July, 1872.  Very rustic on the outside, but the interior is quite cozy.  Cal's dad was a prominent citizen in his town and worked at the general store attached to the house on the left.  When Cal was five, his dad bought the store.  Though he worked hard, Cal lived fairly comfortably, in a loving family, in a beautiful, peaceful part of the world.  He said he had a great childhood, and it's easy to see why.

Increased prosperity allowed the Coolidges to move into this pleasant home across the street from his birthplace in 1876, when he was four.  Cal was the vice president in 1923, vacationing here, when the word came that president Harding had died in San Francisco and therefore the local boy was now President of the United States.  Cal took the oath of office right in this house, sworn in by his father, who was a notary public.  I had a nice chat with the docent, a WWII veteran...always love to talk to those guys.  We swapped a few sea stories as we had both been in the Navy.  Cal was known for being taciturn...not unfriendly, just loath to waste words.  The story goes that when he was president, a woman came up to him and said she'd bet her friend that she could get him to say three words.  Cal's reply..."You lose".