Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

I enter a classic children's book, Goodnight Moon

Day Five: Good Morning Shelburne (Wednesday, Sept. 24)

I've been reading Crackpots by Sara Pritchard, who is the sister of an old family friend I grew up calling Aunt Jane. What I've read so far is both inspiring and maddening. Inspiring in the sense that it recalls episodes of my own life, such as cutting up the sheets I'd just helped Mom and Dad select for me (I was just so fascinated by the fact that the scissors were sharp enough to cut them). And being shocked when they said I could no longer use the sheets, in their shredded state.

Maddening because I've simply got to complete my novel. I've been sitting on it far too long.

But I digress.

Today was bright and beautiful, so Dad and I visited the Shelburne Museum just outside Burlington. Admission was pricey, but we determined it was worth it because the "museum" is actually a ground with about 41 sites, including many relocated historic buildings.

Here are highlights, in rough chronological order.

• The 1950 House. Here we could explore a ranch home with authentic 1950s furnishings. We were even encouraged to open drawers and view the contents, such as 1950s underwear. I'm not kidding.
• Collector's House. Designed in 2001 by an architectural student, the house is a converted prefab aluminum structure, turned into a very masculine steel and cement turn on the ever-popular (among architects alone) glass house.
• Electra Havemeyer Webb Memorial Building. This honors the founder of the museum and is a special house built to contain reproductions of her New York City apartment rooms, including artwork by Mary Cassatt (a friend of the Webb family), Monet and Porot.
• Webb Gallery. Included a special exhibit on masterpiece quilts. My favorites were the Amish quilts for their stark but striking designs.
• Carousel and circus building. I rode the carousel. Inside the circus building were a fabulous collection of carved wooden circus toys, as well as carousel horses and real circus wagons.
• Beach Gallery. This building housed Western landscape and wildlife paintings and Native American artifacts. It smelled so strongly of mildew I walked through it quickly, holding my nose.
• Railroad freight shed, rail car Grand Isle, Locomotive 220 and railroad station. Dad especially loved walking through the luxury rail car, which even had baths and luxury furniture. It felt a little ghostly to me. Must be all those Agatha Christie movies. In the railroad station was a curious photo showing 10 or so picnickers smiling and socializing, in their Sunday best, with a train wreck clearly visible on a bridge in the background. The photo information said it was a wreck between Locomotive 243 and an unidentified Rutland locomotive on May 30, 1902.
• Ticonderoga. This National Historic Landmark sailed Lake Champlain until about the 1920s, carrying freight and passengers. Now it sails the grassy seas of Shelburne.
• Pleissner Gallery. Ogden Pleissner was an artist of landscapes and sporting themes who worked for Life magazine as an Army artist during World War II, depicting battle scenes. His later watercolors are phenomenal.
• General store. Inside was set up like an old-fashioned general store with antique goods. Upstairs was a display of antique doctor's equipment. Creepy.
• Bostwick Garden. A very small annual garden with a gravel path. Surprisingly, it is one of the places on the grounds which can be reserved for weddings.
• Prentis House. A 1773 house from Hadley, Massachusetts, containing 17th and 18th Century furniture. Also smelled mildewy.
• Stencil House. Moved from Shelburne and built circa 1804, it was rescued from demolition because of its intricately stenciled walls. There were wasps in the bedroom.
• Dutton House and Tavern. Moved from Cavendish, Vermont, and built in 1782, the house was basic but the small tavern inviting. There was a vegetable garden out back.
• Meeting House. Moved from Charlotte, Vermont, and built in 1840, this very basic church was more impressive from the outside.
• Vermont House Gallery. This was the site of a special exhibit, "From Soup to Nuts: Preparing and Presenting Food, 1700-1830." Most of the meals were completely unappetizing and far too large. Ah, the perils of being rich in Colonial days.
• Settlers House, barn and sawmill. The reproduction barn smelled great, like fresh lumber. The house was promising a cooking and flax demonstration, but the reenactor was on break.

And that was all the time we had, so we visited the final exhibit, "From Goodnight Moon to Art Dog: The World of Clement, Edith and Thacher Hurd." The best part about this, besides seeing actual sketches and paintings by Clement Hurd, were the life-sized dioramas from Goodnight Moon, the classic children's book. I had Dad photograph me in front of them.

Dad and I were a little late getting back to my brother's place, but we called to let them know. After dinner, Andy, Dad and I played Trivial Pursuit. Dad won, of course. We told him he wouldn't do as well with the "Gen X" edition. Dad and I might look for it in Montpelier tomorrow. (As it turned out, they no longer sell the separate "Gen X" cards, but the 20th Anniversary Edition has all new questions, taken from the previous 20 years. I've sent my brother one as a belated birthday present.)

One good thing about Dad: he sometimes surprises me. I'd asked him if he thought it was silly that I'm writing to The Gryphon every day. He said no. Then he told me about a nurse he knows who'd become increasingly ill-tempered and then met the right guy and became sweet-natured.

"It's amazing what can happen to someone when they meet the right person," he said.

I take the wheel of the Ticonderoga; full speed ahead, baby!

Copyright 2003 by Alyce Wilson

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