In 1990, Friends of the Mad River (FMR) co-founder Kinny Perot, Warren, asked folklorist Jane Beck if she would interview longtime residents for a historical research project about the Mad River Valley. Beck agreed, recording 50 interviews onto audiocassette tapes. That project culminated in a multi-part radio series called “Mad River Valley: Crucible of Change,” airing on National Public Radio in 1995.
Community members gathered at the General Wait House in Waitsfield this week on Monday, June 24, to hear Perot and Beck reflect about bringing the series to life nearly 30 years ago.
In nine parts, “Crucible of Change” documents how the Mad River Valley transformed rapidly in the aftermath of World War II – with local voices sharing stories about how those changes were experienced on the ground.
RADIO SERIES
Beck said her first interviewee in the project was Rupert Blair, who connected her with many others who were willing to sit down and talk. She spent two years interviewing, then continued for about two more years – mainly following up on previous visits to get broadcast quality recordings for the radio series, which was funded in part by FMR.
“There was a different mental attitude, and a real strength,” Beck said about the culture in mid-20th century Vermont. She recalled an interview she did with Everett Palmer, who spoke about living through a polio epidemic that took his brother’s life. She also played a clip of Palmer talking about pulling his father out from under a mowing machine, then witnessing his death several months later.
In another recording played for the audience, Bob Gove recounted how his father had 14 teeth pulled with plyers by a local doctor who visited their home, after his father refused to travel to a dentist. He was given no anesthesia, Gove said, and “every time one of those teeth would part company with him, you’d hear him grunt a little.”
PEOPLE WERE TOUGH
“I spent a lot of time trying to make people understand that the old people were tough. They were tough, and had a mind of their own, and you didn’t need to try to change it, because you weren’t going to,” Gove said in the recording.
In between audio clips, an audience member commented that, “I’m always impressed – if not depressed, by the loss of the grit, and the ingenuity, and this ability to really survive, that our lives of relative luxury [don’t afford].”
Another audience member said, “We tend to romanticize farming and so forth, but it was dangerous as well.” He recalled how his own grandfather, who lived in Virginia, died after being crushed by a horse-drawn carriage.
LOCAL SKI AREAS
Other audio clips explored the emergence of local ski areas – with interviewees describing their frustration with the incoming “city slickers,” while also pointing to how the new tourist economy was an important source of economic growth.
While listening, the audience viewed a slideshow of photographs that were restored by the Waitsfield Historical Society, dating back to the 1870s.
Audio recordings and transcripts from Becks’ interviews for the Mad River Valley project – along with her field notes and photographic prints, negatives, and slides – are housed at the Vermont Folklife Center. In 2002, the collection was digitized with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Perot said that she used a clip of Beck’s interview with Earl Fuller when she testified to the Vermont Senate on a groundwater bill around 2004.
Monday night’s event concluded with FMR Climate and Engagement manager Luke Foley asking audience members to suggest names of longtime Valley residents for another round of oral history interviews, with FMR waiting to hear back about a grant that would fund the work.
