Volume 24 Issue 2
Spring ~ 2014
Free
David Williams Celebrates 100 Years By Joyce Marcel There is a centenarian in our midst, but David Williams was initially reluctant to talk about his long, long life. It was his wife Betty who convinced him to do the interview. So on one of the first lovely days of spring, I went to the Williams’ beautiful old house on Park Laughton Road. It’s the kind of house people who read Architectural Digest dream of — wide wooden floorboards, rough-hewn wooden beams, a huge stone fireplace, a large and gracious living room. “This was two old houses pushed together in the late 1770s, they say. I don’t know. I wasn’t here,” Betty said wryly. “And then they added on rooms. Older houses have so much character.”
David, who is long-boned, gracious and with a firm handshake, walks with a walker but is otherwise healthy and sound. He was born at 12:30 pm on March 3, 1914, at the Park Avenue Hospital in Rochester, New York. So there’s not too much question about his memory. “The nurses were saying, ‘Oh look, he has red hair!’” David said. His parents owned a car dealership—early brands like Overland and Federal were the cars and trucks they sold. David said he never had to make a decision about what he wanted to be when he grew up. “Instead, I saw an opportunity,” he said. “The University of Rochester started at that time, and I went and studied optics. I gradu-
The Blink of Resource Reality: Vermont’s Act 148 By Michelle Cherrier, Dummerston Supervisor to WSWMD
As I promised in the winter 2013 Views article, here is an update about Vermont’s Act 148. By passing this “Universal Recycling” law, the state has taken steps towards reducing the amount of recyclable materials that end up in landfills. I recommend browsing the Universal Recycling fact sheet on-line; it is a short and descriptive document, located at the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation website. http:// www.anr.state.vt.us/dec/wastediv/solid/documents/UR_FactSheet_symbols.pdf. I will also be posting this two page fact sheet in a number of public bulletin board locations throughout town in the near future. The timeline calendar is listed on page 2 and includes relevant dates as listed below. Please make note of the dates, as this law applies to all Vermont residents.
Trash haulers that offer curbside service must also provide services for these items banned from landfills. Mandated recyclables by July 1, 2015 The list of mandated recyclables can be found at the previously mentioned fact sheet website and on the WSWMD website http://www.windhamsolidwaste.org/, or see below. Leaf and yard debris and clean wood by July 1, 2016 Food scraps by July 1, 2020 If you bring your own waste to the waste district, then all of the above items must be separated from the waste in your trash bags by the above dates. If you are not already separating out the mandated recyclable items, please use this list to start now. Mixed Paper and Cardboard Newspapers (inserts too) continued on page 6
David holding up a photo of his younger self
ated in 1938 with a B.S. in optics. Nothing really extraordinary about it.” He became an optical engineer—“loose terminology,” he laughed. He made optical instruments, “range finders and things like that.” He thinks he may have avoided the draft in World War II because his work was necessary to the war effort. His first job was with Bauch & Lomb in Rochester. Then he worked for Westinghouse. He retired from PerkinElmer in Wilton, Connecticut in the 1960s. I asked how David and Betty met, and they told me that Betty was working for an ophthalmologist when David became a patient. “He was just a pleasant young man, and he kept coming in for checkups,” Betty said. “And 18 years later we got married. His initials are DLW, and by his own admission they stand for delay, linger and wait.” They were “a bachelor and a spinster,” Betty said. They didn’t date until almost year 18. “He was going to some concert with his friends and he asked me if I would like to continued on page 2