Customer Reviews

Vermont Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff (Curiosities Series)

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I live right near Vermont in upstate NY but never bothered to visit because I always thought Vermont was all picturesque little towns with white churches that was only worth visiting when snow was on the ground. Turns out there are lots of things to see and do in Spring and Summer that I'd never have known about if it weren't for this book. I might take in "Strolling of the Heifers" in early June (since I'll never get to Pamplona for running of the bulls) or Curtis Barbeque (I'm a barbeque fanatic and I sure won't get to Texas) and who knew the Bennington Museum had the largest collection of Grandma Moses, one of my favorite folk artists. I might even take in the covered bridge museum because I've always been a huge fan of covered bridges. What I liked best about the book was the author's emphasis on history. Seems Vermont has a lot of it.

Last fall I was given a copy of Vermont Curiosities. I thumbed through it.
It looked like a tourist guide, something Wilson did for the State Tourist
Bureau. Interesting, I thought, I'll look it over when I get time. I put it on the table next to my easy chair and there it sat until yesterday. I did the thumb-through again and this time a name caught my eye--Lake Bomoseen. I thought the Lake was featured for its scenery. Wilson is too young to remember the Algonquin Round Tablers' sojourns to Alexander Woollcott's island in Lake Bomoseen. But he did. He had it all down: Dorothy Parker, Harpo Marx, Ethel Barrymore,Irving Berlin, all the heroes of my college days. God, life was easy then.

But there was more.Vermont's history is not entirely about stone quarries, covered bridges and the Green Mountain Boys. It includes stories about Calvin Coolidge, Norman Rockwell, the von Trapps, Robert Todd Lincoln, Rudyard Kipling...and they're all fun to read. I now skip from story to story each time I sit down. And I'm always picking out choice bits to read to my wife.

This book is great. My mom and stepdad live in Vermont and although I've visited them numerous times over the years and been to many parts of the state, there are many cool things about Vermont that are in this book that I never would have known about otherwise. Plus there is fascinating information about a lot of places and people that I thought I knew, but it was really just superficial knowledge until now. Robert Wilson is funny and very thorough. A must read for anyone visiting The Green Mountain State.

Having lived in Vermont for 17 years, I am still learning all the cool little out of the way places. What I liked most about this book was that it avoids all the commercialized tourist areas and gives suggestions for some unique places that are often overlooked by the occaisional visitor. If you are tired of the crowds at Ben and Jerry's and have done the Teddy Bear factory one time too many, then pick up this book and start discovering some of the smaller out of the way attractions. You will not be dissappointed.