Top Stories for Tuesday May 23, 2017

Weddings That Connect Generations
By Cookie Steponaitis
A quick stop in at Bristol Beauty Nook found some things right as rain and twin sisters Lucille and Cecile taking a much needed  stay at home vacation. “This is the first time in three years I have not taken in customers,” shared Lucille who had to take two weeks off for some medical procedures that needed to be done. While convalescing at home, the sisters were quick to catch this reporter up on family stories, incoming company and other news that keeps them at just shy of their 90th birthday on the ball and on the move.  [ more ]

New Haven Volunteer Fire Department Celebrates Fifty Years Of Service
By Cookie Steponaitis
It was a chilly January evening in 1968 when the newly formed New Haven Volunteer Fire Department became active at many levels and twenty three members were gathered at the New Haven Congregational Church about to graduate from Fire School. Deputy Chief Ray Davison, representing the Vermont State Fire School and as a member of the Vergennes Fire Department was there to award completion certificates for the men who had just completed sessions in chemistry of fires, fire equipment, rope work, ladder operations, fire tactics, water supply systems, fire problems and the practical operation and procedures of using apparatus and equipment.  [ more ]

A Milestone In Service American Legion Post #14 And The Vergennes Memorial Day Parade
By Cookie Steponaitis
People from all over have packed up the kids, brought over the float, shined up the tractor and marked the calendar for the beginning of summer and the Vergennes Memorial Day Parade for the last half of a century. When asked why they travel or stake out their seats on the parade route the day before, locals and visitors alike just grin and remark, “to see the bands, celebrate the holiday, be together with family, get my favorite barbecue chicken” or a simple response of, “because we have always done it.” Some families are in their fourth generation of attending the parade, marching in it or being on the park to hear the VUHS band, the haunting echo of TAPS and the words of speakers including veterans, leaders and young people. Memorial Day and the Little City of Vergennes are a tradition for thousands and a cornerstone of life in the Champlain Valley.
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