2006 Blog Archives

Congratulations to Si Allen for being the 2005 Canaan Fair Speedway and SCONE Champion.

Anthony had fuel pick-up problems all night and went from being point leader to finishing third. Nothing went right. It was the Ultimate Edition of Crap Happens and it was on the wrong night. 13 cars. Double points. A 12 point lead became a 24 point loss for the championship and a 3 point loss for second.

Mark Cole won the race. Mike Kondrat was 2nd and Si was 3rd. Anthony ended up 11th.

I'll go through everything later.

The pictures of the Fairfax Stone are on the Fairfax and Vermont page.

Walked around one day. Took a couple of shots of Mill Brook and St. Luke's Cemetery.

I am not Catholic, but once and a while I do go in to St. Luke's Cemetery to pay my respects to people that I knew. Everytime I am amazed at the artwork on some of the headstones. Seriously, it is like walking through an art gallery.

Walking through a cemetery is not a big deal to me. Mom used to do geneology and sometimes that required cemetery-hopping. I can remember many a day, we would go with Bill or Sara Meade to one cemetery after another. Us kids would play around where there were no graves or walk around looking at the gravestones.

And yes, lunch would take place there, too.

Funny, now, as I'm older, I walk around and know the names on the stones. Many more, now, than when I was a kid.

Bob Stewart passed away. Open the gate, Katie, here he comes!

Bob was working at school one time. He was up on a ladder and was reaching too far out and the ladder started tipping and fell. He recalled the incident by saying, " I felt the ladder go and I said 'Open the gate, Katie! Here I come!'"

Rest in Peace, Uncle Bob.

I decided to leave all the information up on the Fairfax Stone for a second day. That way, if you didn't get a chance to see it Monday, it's still there.

Nice picture of Al.

Sterling Weed passed away Sunday. Back in 1991 we had our Vermont Bicentennial celebration going on and New Year's Eve we had what we called Last Night Fairfax. Our final shindig. Sterling and his band were playing. I'll never forget the one song they did. The band was playing and off to the side was Cleon Gillilan with a megaphone. As the band played, Cleon sang through the megaphone. I remember him singing, "I'm going to sit down and write myself a letter, and pretend it was written by you."

I was really impressed by that because it was such a throwback to the old days. There were no microphones or PA systems in some of the halls back in the day, so the singer sang with a megaphone. Cleon was a good singer, too. I'll always remember that.

I had Sterling as a music teacher for about a year and a half. I was trying to learn to play Coronet(trumpet). I wasn't good. I didn't practice. Sorry, Mr. Weed.

Margie took drum lessons from him and eventually played in his orchestra a few times. I wonder how many people played with Sterling over the years. Quite a few.

Thank you very much to Al Daniels for letting me borrow the pictures and the brochure. He's going to regret giving me the picture of him.

Fairfax, Vermont is supposedly named after this Lord Fairfax, so this is rather special. In the picture of Al, there is a spot on his left, in line with his waist. That is a marker where a spring comes up out of the ground. This is the start of the Potomac River. Hard to believe.

After looking at the pictures and brochures as they appear on this site, I am not going to re-type everything it say.

Thanks, Al!

Today's pictures are of a quilt made in honor of the Fire Departments in New York that lost members on September 11, 2001.

This quilt was on display at the Collins-Perley Complex in July 2002 when the Vermont State Fiferefighters Association Convention was held in St. Albans.

September 11th is a personal remembrance day for me. It reminds me why I am a firefighter. I realize our country was attacked, many people lost loved ones, but for me it was the fire and rescue personnel that were trying to help people, and save lives, but got caught in the middle.

Two French brothers, filmmakers, were doing a documentary on a new member of the FDNY, when the attacks occured. They are the ones who took the infamous footage of the first plane flying overhead and striking the first tower. The documentary is called "9/11" and is available on DVD. A must see.

The Fairfax Historical Society held a meeting the Sunday after 9/11 and we did a 'Where were you" forum. You may read the accounts at www.vtgrandpa.com/fhs/where.html