Art by Gary Blomgren
Volume 29 Issue 3
September Means “Bon Voyage, Lovely Monarchs!” By Lee Ives Tice Just as the arrival of monarch butterflies ushered in summer, soon their departure will signal the onset of autumn. As the days start to grow shorter, the fourth and final generation of this year’s monarchs will emerge and unlike the earlier generations, these monarchs will go into a state of “reproductive diapause,’’ which means they won’t breed immediately. Instead, they will use their remarkable navigational skills and migrate nearly 2500 miles to a place they’ve never been before: their overwintering site in central Mexico. To reach their destination, the monarchs east of the Rocky Mountains follow one of two main “flyways”: the central flyway runs south through the corn belt in the Midwest, the eastern one follows the eastern seaboard before heading west towards Mexico. The monarchs we see here in Vermont follow the latter. During this migration a monarch will fly, on average, twenty-five to thirty miles per day, but can fly more than sixty miles per day given favorable weather conditions. They only fly during the day, in dry conditions when they can warm their flight muscles to at least 55° F. In the morning they fly at low altitude, but as thermals build they will fly higher out of sight from the ground, usually between 800-1200 feet. A glider pilot has even reported seeing them at 11,000 feet! Later in the afternoon, they’ll return to ground level to fuel up on nectar before heading into a tree to roost for the night. One of migrating monarchs’ most fascinating behaviors, which I was fortunate enough to witness last year, is the way in which they cross larger bodies of water. It was Labor continued on page 2
Summer ~ 2019
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Dummerston’s Tom Johnson: He Led a Full Life By Charles Fish The achievements of Tom Johnson, our friend and neighbor, would fill much of this column if merely listed, and a mere list would never do. What we can distill from such a record are the traits that made him such an interesting, admirable man: hard work, ambition, generous service, an historical imagination, a taste for adventure, a sense of humor, and a love of family, friends, and town. Hard work began early. As a young boy in Vernon, he would get up cold winter mornings at 4:00 o’clock to start the fire in the oneroom schoolhouse. Life was hard. He learned to drive the tractor at age nine because his help was needed. And for the rest of his life, it wasn’t a question of whether one would work hard. The answer was obvious, so work he did. His work ethic early took the form of honorable ambition, but not without obstacles. To his father, Tom’s hope of a college education seemed out of reach, something for other people, people with money. After service in the army, Tom enrolled in a business administration program at American International College in Springfield, MA. Partway through, he and Barbara Evans were married. His GI bill benefits, her work at the Holstein Association, and frugality saw him through to his degree. Graduate courses followed at Keene State. Business was the right choice. After a short spell as auditor at Vermont National Bank and some time at the Dunham Shoe Company, he returned to VNB and a thirty-year career, capped as senior vice president of branch administration. Hard work can imply drudgery, but the documents Barbara showed me suggest something much livelier, challenging, and rewarding. Almost every photo has a smiling face. The bank honored his engagement in the community with its first annual Community Banker Award. He broadened his business knowledge by taking advantage of such offerings as the Research Institute of America Management Program and the IBM Executive Program. As with almost everything he did, there was the urge to learn more, to do more. That VNB award could not have been more deserved. Here the contributions go off the chart. A member of the Vermont National Guard, he enlisted for active service in continued on page 14