The Soul of Skiing

Cousin Stuart Brewster called me this week to recommend an article he'd just read in the newest issue of Yankee magazine. The article, titled "The Soul of Skiing," describes small community ski areas in Vermont that are still in operation, serving local families and helping kids learn to ski. Rope tows are still running on many of those hills – reminding Stuart of the rope tows my father had run in Danvers at Locust Lawn.  Oh, such memories!

The article, written by Lisa Gosselin Lynn, is on pages 74-87 of the January- February 2022 issue of Yankee (which I easily found for sale at a local grocery store).

Stuart thought I'd love the article, and enjoy reminiscing about skiing at Locust Lawn. Yes!  Before reading it, I searched "skiing" on this blog, and re-read my earlier entries about Locust Lawn skiing and learning to ski. It was fun re-visiting photographs I'd posted some years ago and thinking again about that old ski hill, and the Model T that pulled the rope tow.

I'm happy to learn that many similar family-friendly ski areas operate today in New England.  (A directory on page 87 lists some NH and ME locations in addition to the VT ones featured in the article.)  That's very good news. 

Where I live now in western Massachusetts, neighbors reminisce about skiing at the Mt. Tom Ski Area – a favorite local ski area that closed years ago. This week many people have been sharing on Facebook their memories of learning to ski at Mt. Tom.  So I'm not the only one with nostalgia for a place where I learned to ski.