FIRST PERSON The Baggy Knees and The Bunny Club at Town and Country were also nighttime hot spots, and The Centre Bar was quieter but always worth a stop. In town, there was the reasonable, mellow, upscale Five Flies and Chuck Batchelder’s Yankee Tavern, a place so scary I would go in only with strong male company. In the Dec. 31, 1965 issue of the Stowe Reporter, Graham wrote, “I am still waiting to get to Ken Strong and Ted Ross’ new spot ‘The Shed.’ … They should be open this week.” Thus a new institution was born, which has given fodder to multitudes of writers to this day. In 1966, no doubt sparked by an unusually picturesque account of a costume event at the Grand, where Pansy Prince appeared in leopard coat and cat’s whiskers, a new column appeared to run beside Stowe After Dark called Stowe in the Broad Daylight, by Sonny Day. Former owner and publisher Trow Elliman has never, ever divulged who Sonny Day was, but we always assumed it was Pansy. Sonny Day noted the comings and goings of Stowe’s beautiful people, not only here but in Sun Valley, Vail, and Europe. The shenanigans of the Kennedy family were duly reported, as was John Glenn’s visit here to see them. The column was, said M.J. Shaw, so “in” that most of the town didn’t know what it
In 1966, Stowe hosted the International Giant Slalom Championships, the most ambitious and prestigious ski race ever to come to town. It was a late-season race and gathered the cream of international racers. Jean Claude Killy and Guy Perillat came, as well as Karl Fahrner, Stein Eriksen, Othmar Schneider, Dixie Nohl, Suzy Chaffee, Jimmie Heuga, and coach Willy Schaeffler. The race added a luster to Stowe’s fame that was felt for the following decade, and the Stowe Reporter’s coverage of the racing scene grew as well. By the late 1960s, the paper’s coverage of Eastern ski racing had become the best. Linda Adams’ stories would beat those in Ski Racing, the official American organ of both the national and international racing scene by a week. The paper’s letter to the editor section reflected a real sense of what was going on in town … often prodding selectmen to attend to matters they would just as soon have left unattended. Just to prove not much has changed over 50 years, in 1966 David Bryan and Helen Wilhelm wrote a scathing letter on winter traffic from the mountain, noting that it often took 45 minutes to get down to the village and that there was never a traffic cop directing traffic to alleviate the mess. Happy birthday Stowe Reporter, and thanks for always being interesting. n
was about. But we all assuredly liked to read it. On Feb. 11, 1966, a Stowe in the Broad Daylight column included this classic about the Perry family, who owned the Green Mountain Inn and Five Flies: “Parker Perry Family Comings and Goings. … Parker back from Africa, Dottie down to Pennsylvania, Parker off to Europe, Tony in San Moritz, Parker in Kitzbuhel, Tony still in San Moritz, Parker back from Lech, Dottie off to New York, Parker off to Waterbury.” But Nancy Graham and “Sonny Day” ran out of steam and there followed a series of anonymous writers who took matters too close to libel, confessed Elliman. When Debbie Fitzgerald was editor, she would occasionally step down from her editorial perch to write observant and very funny dirt. For years Helen Nay wrote Over the Fence, an ongoing litany of who was seen shopping up to Morrisville and who was just out of hospital and now up and taking nourishment. This item, lovingly clipped years ago and passed to me by a friend, is quintessential Nay: “Joe Green, Sr., of Winooski, who fell through a skylight and was in hospital in Burlington has gone home but has to stay in bed in traction, because of a broken neck and pins in his head for damages that have to be removed daily and cleaned.”
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802.253.7200 | www.copleywoodlands.com | 125 Thomas Lane, Stowe, Vermont