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The return of the Vermont History Expo after a year off was welcome. The Expo had lost a little energy and was also suffering the 2009 economy ... but in 2010 the enthusiasm was high, there was buzz all around, and there were crowds moving by all day. Exhibits were gussied up for 2010, with town historical societies joining statewide organizations and local efforts to fill all the Tunbridge Fairgrounds buildings and several tents.
Our Friday setup looked dicey. We found our booth at the entrance of the big hall with nothing but curtains and barriers and the old Alliance videos. Janet MacLeod and I weren't initially hopeful with our few posters and no table. But when we arrived on Saturday morning, we commandeered a spare table. Janet's vehicle was full: a rocking chair, pâpier-maché kitty mascot, a box of grocery products from chips and salsa through Barnum's animals and honey and maple syrup, sweet & sour gummy bears, some of Janet's amazing paintings, and an old credit register with slips dated from 1975 -- all from Adamant. In my truck arrived more posters, Alliance handouts, tablecloths, flowers from the garden, copies of the "Country Stores of Vermont" book, a large corner cabinet just found at a barn sale a few days earlier, and a sweet-smelling bale of hay.
It all fit together like a designer effort. Visitors -- and even other booth people -- came by to tell us our booth would win an award if there were such things at the Expo. Crowds filed by. People recognized some of the names on the old credit slips. Gummy bears sold at a penny each. The country stores books sold out. Fliers and maps were whisked away. Janet's paintings were complimented, and the everyone fell in love with the kitty. Political candidates stopped by, and Phil Jordan of Vermont Magazine snapped a few photos. And we learned that country stores were on the rise again in Tunbridge itself, East Randolph, Shrewsbury, Proctor, and Marshfield.
By the close on Saturday, we'd seen hundreds of people who told us their own stories, and spread the good word about Vermont's independent country stores!
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