Korongo No. 2

By Korongo Books

As the long, dark winter of 2020–2021 settled over Vermont's White River Valley, Korongo editor Sara Tucker asked valley residents to contribute to this volume as a way easing the hardships of the pandemic. The result is a 200-page collection of stories, poems, photographs, and artwork, its overall theme one of hope: Abenaki chief Shirly Hook writes about tending a garden for the members of her tribe; Chip and Sara Natvig document the revamping of their farmstand-and-restaurant as the pandemic shutters businesses nationwide; Mindy Jackson-Jefferys writes about finding solace in nature during a period of mourning; and Valerie Auffray Daniels prepares for a Christmas unlike any other. There are greetings from former residents who have moved away, a photo essay about winter lights, and stories about rediscovering simple pleasures and old pastimes. In addition to a number of journaling prompts, Korongo No. 2 includes a call for submissions to the book about 2020 that Korongo will publish in 2021.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Korongo Books
• Release date: Dec 22, 2020

Korongo Books

Sara Tucker has written headlines for the Louisville Courier-Journal, reviewed theater for the Albuquerque Journal, and edited articles about dusting for Martha Stewart Living. Everything she knows about winching she learned from the editor of Four Wheeler Magazine. At Condé Nast Traveler, she once played a singing reindeer in an office skit. At Cosmopolitan, she ran the copy department under Helen Gurley Brown. She has a house in Vermont and an apartment in France and divides her time between them. She is working on a family trilogy, the first two volumes of which are available through Smashwords.

Book preview

Korongo No. 2

Korongo No. 2

Homebound Still

Josie Carothers P.A. Cooley Charles Cooley Valerie Auffray Daniel Shirly Hook Amy Hook-Therrien Emily Howe Mindy Jackson-Jefferys Jon Kaplan Forrest MacGregor Rebecca McMeekin Linda Morse Chip Allen Natvig Sarah Natvig Tina O’Donnell Sally Penrod Nancy Reid Gloria Baker Smith Idora Tucker Nancy Tucker Dana Waters Janet Watton Sheila Colson Ira Ferro Joann Magee John Jackson Theresa Bryant

Edited by

Sara Tucker And Patrick Texier

Korongo Books

All content included here has been used with the express permission of the artists, photographers, and writers who created it. For permission to reproduce, contact them directly or the publishers: [e-mail].

Inquiries: Sara Tucker and Patrick Texier, 36 Highland Avenue, Randolph, Vermont 05060. [e-mail]

This is the second volume of a series published by Korongo Books. To order a copy of the print edition, contact [e-mail].

Contents

Season’s Greetings

Guinness

Black Krim Tavern / Pebble Brook Farm

Are you a small-biz owner with a story to tell?

My Scooter

A Vermont Autumn To-Do List

September / Skamonkas

Remember Sweetness

Greetings from Oakland

Autumn Leaves

Elmsley

My Pine Tree

Saturday, October 10

Black Krim Tavern / Pebble Brook Farm

And the World Goes Round and Round

Fall Album / Sheila Colson

Pedaling to Escape a Pandemic

Yes, I Feel Better Now

November Happens

November Doodles

Step Out and Look Up

Inside, But Upside Down

Black Krim / Pebble Brook Farm

Pandemic Observations

This Thanksgiving

Landgoes Farm

Horizons

’Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving

Adieu, November

Season’s Greetings from Randolph House

Pine Street Rug

Losing and Finding My Away

Solitary Confinement

Oh, Christmas Tree

Greetings from NE Georgia

December Doodles

Welcome, December

Winter Lights

Getting the Tree: 1930s

Christmas 1944

Waiting for Santa

Black Krim Pantry

Goldfinch / Jo Magee

Welcome All Birds

Help Us Compile a Record of This Historic Year

About Korongo

Season’s Greetings

December 17, 2020. Photo: Kyla Grace.

Back in November, a travel editor at the Wall Street Journal contacted me with a request: Would I write an article for city folks who want to escape their New York high-rise and spend the winter in a Vermont cabin? How should they go about it?

As we enter deep December, over 300,000 Americans have died from Covid-19, and daily numbers are rising. Most Vermonters I know celebrated Thanksgiving by staying home, just like our governor asked us to do. We spent less time in the kitchen and had scaled-down versions of the traditional feast with our relatives on Zoom. We told each other that if we followed the rules we’d have a better chance of being together next year.

On November 27 Governor Scott appealed to Vermonters to spread joy and hope by lighting up our homes and towns during the holiday season and sharing the pictures on social media. Folks up and down our valley responded in a big way. You’ll catch a glimpse of the results in the photo roundup "Winter Lights." Kyla Grace snapped the picture of the Randolph Gazebo, above, right after the first big snowstorm of the season.

Despite everything, the second issue of our new journal about life in the White River Valley is not all doom and gloom. On the contrary. From Randolph, Braintree, Brookfield, Bethel, Tunbridge, South Royalton, and other nearby hollows and hilltops come stories about reviving old pastimes, bicycling with friends, do-it-yourself home-improvement projects, and playing in the leaves.

Linda Morse takes us through a recent riding lesson at Hitching Post Farm, in South Royalton, where she spent summers as a young girl.

Longtime Randolph/Braintree resident Nancy Tucker tells about renovating an old house in Barnet. Her September to-do list, which inspired one of her essays, puts me to shame.

Chip and Sarah Natvig have expanded their business, moving the Black Krim Tavern to larger quarters on Merchants Row in Randolph and opening Black Krim Pantry & Retail, a store that sells meat, fish, fresh produce, craft beers, and other goodies—in the middle of a pandemic, folks! The Black Krim/Pebble Brook Farm story, reconstructed from Chip and Sarah’s social media, is an inspiration.

Shirly Hook has been keeping a record of 2020 in preparation for her next book. Among her subjects: the tending of an Abenaki garden in West Braintree. Amy Hook-Therrien’s watercolors accompany her mother’s journal.

Mindy Jackson-Jefferys gives us an essay, with photographs, about a magnificent elm that has been a source of solace during a time of mourning.

John Jackson’s memoir Half-a-Lifetime is excerpted in this issue. His chapter about growing up on the Walkill River in New York is a reminder of the importance of geography in our life stories. It touches me that his contribution to Korongo resides in a volume with his daughter Mindy’s lovely essay.

People have been pointing their cameras at the sky a lot. Last summer, Forrest MacGregor even managed to get a good picture of the comet. And did you notice that October had two full moons? Emily Howe photographed the second one as it rose above Landgoes Farm in Tunbridge, and I photographed it in the morning above our home in France. Those photographs accompany Nancy Reid’s essay "Step Out and Look Up."

About that Wall Street Journal assignment: I turned it down. Invite a bunch of out-of-staters to Vermont for the winter? Are you kidding me? That’s a terrible idea, I told my editor. Darn, she replied. I was afraid you’d say that.

And yet, I didn’t blame her for asking. How lucky we are to live in a state where the world at our doorstep beckons year-round.

The stories, poems, sketches, and photographs in this issue were all donated by area residents or former residents, people with a deep connection to the place we call home. Our turf includes the Randolphs, the Braintrees, the Brookfields, and other nearby towns, but you don’t have to live here to participate. We’re also interested in hearing from the diaspora—folks who grew up here and moved elsewhere. P.A. Cooley, a native Vermonter who lives in Oakland, California, contributed a post about burnout (he works in a nursing home) and an essay about his father, Charles Cooley, who lived in Randolph Center and taught math at VTC. Sheila Colson, a Randolph High alum who moved away years ago, donated several drawings, one of which honors local vets.

The bird on our cover was drawn a few years ago by Ira Ferro, of Tunbridge. As Patrick observed, to draw the parallel lines of those bird legs would be a challenge for your average four-year-old. Maybe Opera Bird will inspire a drawing of your own.

As you scroll through our December issue, you’ll come across prompts that are meant to inspire you to take a photo, or make a drawing, or write a journal entry as a way of recording your time here on earth. Our aim is to compile a people’s record of life in our valley during 2020 (and beyond).

Korongo No. 2 is our way of spreading a little holiday cheer while boosting our spirits. We were in France, our winter headquarters, when Europe went into lockdown last spring, and we’ve been here ever since, unable to travel. Not to knock France—we love France!—but Vermont is our home, and we miss it.

Yesterday, December 18, a friend who works at Gifford Medical Center received one of the first doses of a new vaccine. France is preparing to administer the same vaccine. So we head into the new year with hope in our hearts. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll get to see you in the spring. —

Sara and Patrick

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P.S. Sally Penrod’s sketch (above) was made during a session of our Homebound Diaries Zoom workshop, which is hosted by Kimball Library. The workshop will continue at least until March. All you need is a phone line or an Internet connection to join. Contact [e-mail] for details.

Guinness: Horse and Rider

Guinness

Linda Morse

Hitching Post Farm. September 2020

On this early cool autumn morning, Guinness is quietly standing next to me just outside the horse stables. He is my assigned horse for an English riding lesson. His glossy coat is a warm dark brown, typical of several Irish horse breeds. He is tacked up with an English saddle and a snaffle bridle, waiting for this seventy-five-year-old woman to mount up.

Decades ago in my years as a young teenage camper at the Hitching Post Farm equestrian camp for girls, I learned English-style riding. I spent warm Vermont summer days under the eyes of Joe McLaughlin, the camp owner and master of our English riding lessons. With only twelve or fourteen young teenage horse riders at the summer camp, we received hours of skilled riding instruction during the cool mornings or warm evenings. Each camper was assigned to a horse, consistent with her skills. This girl owned that horse for the summer, taking care of all the horse’s needs from morning to night. The care included grooming, hoof cleaning, tack cleaning, morning and evening feeding and watering. In each of the three Hitching Post summers, I was assigned a different horse. I took care of and rode the assigned horse as if each one were my own. My first year I rode Rosie, a calm elderly horse; the next summer I rode and cared for Misty Morn, a young filly still learning manners and rider cues; and finally, during my last Hitching Post summer, I rode Robbie, an experienced gelding, riding him on trails and in the ring.

Leaping forward more than six decades, Tim and I have driven to