Walking from there to here

Originally posted at Walking from there to here

Much of the way, we walk single-file and quietly. There's no sidewalk from the Rutland line to the Route 68 intersection. Even through Jefferson, the sidewalk is narrow and, in some cases, still unplowed. Traffic was light, so we didn't have to shout to be heard.
Deer tracks in the snow on the roadside paralleled our steps for a half mile, occasionally disappearing down into a steep gully and to the open water of a small stream, and then returning, only to disappear again into the corn fields near Millbrook Road.
The woods still show the ravages of the ice storm, broken and uprooted trees out of the way but not out of sight.
Holden Hills has a sign urging people to think about their spring golf needs while young families were sliding and laughing on the snowy incline between the 11th and 12th fairways.
Sandra grew up in Holden and so brings stories to these houses along the way. At this one, a childhood friend who used to live here had a child with special needs and spent the next many years helping this little girl toward as normal a life as possible. That one used to be the nicest in house in town. You could tell by the architectural details that it had fine bones, but the clapboards now ache for refreshment and the fence along the side yard is falling upon itself.
Our plan is to walk the four segments of roadway that meet in the center of town. Last week, we walked up South Main. Soon we'll take on the segments that connect Holden with Princeton and Paxton. Each section is about an hour's walk and tells different part of the story of the town.
We walked on Thursday morning and so saw the NECN and Channel 5 news trucks hurry up to Rutland to bring us stories of the good news about Britney Gengel, that she was safe in Haiti, good news that, a day later, would be taking away and replaced ten-fold by fear.
Houses, as with the families within, are on their way up, on their way down, or just keeping on. The house that a friend's daughter owned a decade ago now needs fresh paint. A throughly deflated Santa lay on the front lawn of a ranch house. Even under the hard-frozen snow, you can see that many families have worked hard on their landscaping, making a yard and garden where there had been just rocks and overgrowth.
The new public safety building is coming along nicely. There is, however, little other construction going on for new, renovation, or repair projects. We didn't see a lot of the urgent For Sale signs that were so common a year or two ago. The economy, it seems, has stopped getting bad, but hasn't quite yet found its way to getting good.
So, it's noteworthy that a young couple would start a new old business. We had lunch in the Holden Spa, reopened by a young couple just this week. They're starting slowly, announcing their opening with just a flag outside the storefront. It gives them a chance to work through the details of the menu and familiarize themselves with the renovated and brightly-painted counter and dining area and the rear kitchen.
Starting a business requires at least twice the money and three times the energy that you'd planned. We can point with pride to those who take those risks and say that this how America grows. Without them, we'd have no place for a cup of coffee and a hot meal after a walk from the edge of town.