NOTE: Pictures to come at a later date - stop back please!!
Back to Our Roots is just a memory now – but what a memory for us! Let me start by explaining my initial reason for calling this gathering what we did now that some of the things have come to light on the talk lists and the event is over.
When Rae Record sent her completed interview to us back in December of 2005, she included what she called a special surprise – that historic video that she had shot of that very first Killington gathering in 1999. After Sue & I watched that video, I was determined to try and reunite the original 10 participants in a gathering at some future time!
Then came our initial contact with the Austin Hill Inn of West Dover, VT last year when, trolling the internet, I noticed that they were advertising letterboxing weekends. Who were these people? Did they know what this was all about? Since we have a second home in West Dover, I shot them an email offering to help them with the weekends, suggesting some sources from which they might learn. Emails went back and forth between Pineconeland and Austin Hill. Several weeks later we met and spent a good deal of time talking about letterboxing, its history, etc. in subsequent meetings.
After several meetings with them, I mentioned that I always wanted to do a gathering in southern VT since VT had such an important part in the beginnings of letterboxing in this country. The more we talked with the Baileys from Austin Hill, the more we all got excited. I shared my dream to reunite as many of the originals as possible and to surprise those attending the event. There was economic development grant money available they told Sue & me for groups bringing people to the valley. Budgets were made, meetings attended, conference calls occurred.
And thus began the planning to Back to Our Roots. I invited Der Mad Stamper (Mitch Klink), Bonnie Sennott, Rae Record, Tom Cooch, Mapsurfer (Randy Hall), Daniel Servatius and then was stymied as how to get in touch with Lone Wolf and Martian Maggot. But I was sneaky in my invitation since each invitation sounded like they would be the only guest of honor! My idea was to surprise them all when they encountered the others at the gathering.
Slowly the emails began to arrive and we had acceptances from Bonnie and Tom. Mapsurfer thought he could come. Rae Record sadly had broken an ankle and was not going to be able to attend. One day, I received an email from our website – you know the “contact us” feature located here – from none other than Lone Wolf who just happened upon our website and wrote to tell me how much he enjoyed reading the interviews and other items located there. I immediately wrote back and explained my coming gathering and invited him to be a special guest. His response was tentative but he would try.
DMS got back to me and begged off because of their making a long road trip to the LB Con and a visit to his parents in Kansas later this summer. Tom Cooch immediately replied that he would be glad to come so that was one down! When I posted the event on Atlas Quest and on our website, I heard from Susan Davis that they would be coming as did Bonnie Sennott. We were getting there!
But as the weeks wore on, work and graduation plans got in the way and some had to send their regrets. I did hear from Mitch again, asking what airport they would fly into if they changed their mind. We offered DMS and Raqs Enigma a place to sleep at our Vermont home for gathering weekend and they accepted quite late in the planning stages. Mitch told me later that after they refused, he just couldn’t get the idea out of his mind – the gathering kept coming back to him while watching television or other activities. Several others signed up that we knew the locals would want to meet like Silver Eagle of TX. We’ve corresponded with Silver Eagle for years and I was very excited to see his signup come through.
We put out a call for boxes and they came faster than we expected. Winter lasts very long in southern VT so Sue & I couldn’t really start planting boxes until the middle of May, which gave us about 6 weekends to plant the 57 event boxes. I never visited the Wilmington flea marked so many times as during late May and early June buying bunches of Milan containers! And logbooks! Sue and I made logbooks from 7 to 10pm many weekend nights after spending 6 hours or so on the trails planting boxes. I came to hate the phrase “OK, supper’s cleaned up, what do you say we make some more logbooks!”
Finally the clues were copied, the gift packs were assembled, the trail maps and food coupons made and the Friday of the gathering arrived. Sue took Friday off from work and she picked me up at work at noon and off we went for an exciting weekend plus a weeklong vacation after the gathering in Vermont. One by one our guests arrived - T Rex, Mitch & Jenny (DMS & Raqs) and Deanne and Dave. All were surprised that the others were here. Just the beginning, I thought to myself.
Once they were settled, Mitch asked if I wanted to see his traveling patch display that would be making it’s first on-the-road appearance at Back to Our Roots. They set up the displays that were such an improvement over the original banner-like material that we first spotted at Live and Breathe. These nylon banners had little clear pockets that held the patches, thus not marring them by glue or sewing them onto the banner. The stands were black metal and really looked very professional. I gave Mitch the 2 new additions that he had emailed me about – the redesigned Newboxers patch and the event patch for this gathering, the Back to Our Roots event patch. For more information on the traveling event patch display and the myriad of patches represented, visit this link.
After a quick dinner of sandwiches and salads, we set off to the Austin Hill Inn where we had arranged a Welcome Reception to get the weekend started for those boxers that were staying at one of the 3 participating B & B’s. The 3 B & B’s and Sue & I donated trays of finger foods while each letterboxer was encouraged to bring their own favorite beverage. Everyone was excited as the word got around that DMS and Raqs were here. Sue & I got to finally meet Silver Eagle and his wife Stacy, who gave us a pair of pinecones from TX decorated with faces and a 10 gallon hat on their “heads.” As more people came the noise level and excitement increased. Boxers were everywhere; even sitting on the floor exchanging! The 2 public rooms at the inn were very crowded. Many bought the event patches and logbooks produced to commemorate what we hoped would be a special event the next day.
At one point, I turned around and the official party crashers came in! TeamGreenDragon, Silent Doug and Clueless and Doug’s son. Sue had asked me earlier in the day as we drove to Vermont if I thought they might come to the Friday night meet even though they weren’t staying at one of the B &B’s. “Are you kidding?” I asked. “Sure they will.” They didn’t disappoint me and we were glad to see them. The night went by quickly and those of us staying at our house left about 10:30 since we would be up early in the morning.
Arriving back at our house, we all got comfortable and sat around the living room with our favorite beverage and the talk turned to Live & Breathe and how all of us still remembered the great time we shared while there. Mitch & Jenny told stories about redoing the trail map for the event, walking the entire camp to get a good perspective and find places to plant boxes, clearing some closed trails, etc. At one point they mentioned that it took them about 3 hours to find a spot, plant a box and clue it. 3 hours, I thought! Sue and I planted whole series for the gathering in 3 hours. And, I continued to posture in my head, no one had checked our clues like Mitch said they had others do for Live & Breathe. Here we go – a disaster in the making!
Needless to say, Mr. Pinecone didn’t get much sleep that night between concerns about the clues and the pending downpours that were predicted for Saturday. Finally I fell asleep very late (or early in the morning!) and was awakened by the sun shining brightly through the shade of one of our bedroom windows as the sun came up. Sun! I jumped out of bed and raised the shade. That bright blue Vermont sky was a sight for sore eyes. Was I really awake? After that, there was no more sleep for me.
Slowly people awakened to the 7am time request and we ate a traditional Pinecone Vermont breakfast – egg sandwiches with cheese and sausage patties on a bagel or English muffin dubbed by our son Steve’s friends, who are frequent winter visitors during ski season, as “Egg McMommys” with Sue being that Mommy. We ate, dressed and some of us headed to the gathering. People were already there as we arrived at the Matterhorn at 8:45. Many were anxious to get their clue packets but Sue and Debbie from Austin Hill Inn made me stand my ground. Many times I was ready to buckle but I would hear “You said 10; you have to wait for 10!”
At 10 a line formed and we handed out the clue packets which contained: welcome letter, schedule of events, Vermont trivia sheet, History of Dover and the clues, as well as trail maps for each of the many trails the participants would be hiking, a local town map, a dashboard sign for the police to identify us as boxers so we wouldn’t be ticketed for parking on the streets due to limited parking at trailheads, discount coupons at 4 area deli shops for lunch, as well as a Vermont Life Magazine, a packet of Bear Naked granola, a goodie bag from the local Chamber of Commerce which included shampoo and other items. The main gift for our participants was the official Back to Our Roots real live balsam pine starter tree for each of the participants to take home and “plant.”
Tom Cooch and I met in the parking lot; both of us recognizing each other thanks to the internet – I knew him from the Rae Record film; I assume that he recognized me from the pictures on our website. When he and Mitch met I understand it was quite a moment. Both were shocked and both were so glad to finally meet each other. After all or the planning to get letterboxing off the ground back in the early days, these 2 men were finally meeting in person. With Mitch residing on the West coast, all of the planning, conversations etc based around the formation of letterboxing, the website, talk list and such were done by email. This was the first time they actually met face-to-face. Others who weren’t at the Friday night event expressed their surprise and joy to meet both of these legends as well as Silver Eagle, who also made quite a stir. Silver Eagle perpetuated the “everything is bigger in Texas” saying once we saw his enthusiasm for letterboxing! People then hit the trails for a busy day hunting for the 57 new boxes that premiered at the event.
At one point, Brian of TeamGreenDragon was talking to Mitch about Tom Cheney from Oregon with Brian asking if Cheney was still active. Mitch remarked that Tom was no longer active and Brian said something like “we have someone like that here in the East as well – Tom Cooch – who no longer is active.” Mitch turned to Brian and said “Do you know who this man is?” pointing to Tom Cooch. “No” Brian said. “This is Tom Cooch” was Mitch’s response. Brian’s jaw dropped and he got to meet Tom who we gladly managed to pull out of retirement for this event.
Other stories came back to us as the day wore on of boxers going out in groups with Mitch and Silver Eagle and Tom Cooch. Many of them amazed and so excited to be in the presence of that celebrity pair who helped form this hobby. At one point, Tom Cooch showed me a small logbook. It was his first logbook and F1 was Prayer Rock. The other finds were those from the Killington gathering - such history and such great people! Both Mitch and Tom are the most unassuming people who were approachable by anyone who asked a question or offered to exchange. The real great ones are always that way.
The clouds came in mid day but it never rained. Once everyone was back under the tent for the BBQ at 5:30pm a light rain began. We held the raffle after dinner and the bonfire shortly afterwards. The participants were asked to bring raffle items and that they did! The raffle items were probably the best of any gathering I’ve ever been to and we so appreciated that. There was even a toaster donated that went very early in the raffle! (Brian, I owe you and will never forget what you did!!!)
At about 11pm we decided to close up shop. As we were getting ready to leave, Jei from CT said “I don’t want to see this day end” and that sentiment was exactly what Sue & I were thinking. At our house once again we sat around and talked and the nicest compliment was paid to Sue & me by Mitch when he said “This has been one of the best days of my life.’ How can you top that?
Our thanks go to Debbie & John Bailey of Austin Hill Inn (without their help we surely would have failed), Sarah Shippee who made the commemorative logbooks, and Joe and his staff from the Matterhorn Inn (who bailed us out when Mount Snow did us wrong 10 days before the event) Good things always come from bad as they truly did in this case. We would also like to thank the DEDC of Dover for their grant, Deanne the Lazy Letterboxer and Bandaid who carved 29 stamps in total for the event, all of the other carvers, the approximately 120 participants (especially Mitch, Jenny, Tom, Silver Eagle) who traveled from far and wide (over 14 states) and spent their hard-earned money in a tough economy on a weekend that was predicted to be a monsoon.
And lastly, and most importantly, Sue. This woman has the patience of Job. She cringes when I come home from work after a 40 minute commute and say “I had this idea on my ride home from work . . .” but she never says no – no matter how crazy the idea – taking 11 people to Dartmoor, taking 14 people to Dartmoor another time, hosting 35 boxers on a letterboxing cruise to Bermuda, going to New Hampshire for a Bed & Boxing weekend 2 years in a row. She allows me to live my dreams and in doing so, I hope she has enjoyed the ride. She better because there’s much more percolating in this boxing brain for future ideas!
At one point late in the gathering, I looked out at the happy, excited faces under our tent just before I started the raffle; with the rain falling around the exterior of the tent; and thought “I am truly a lucky man!” It was quite a weekend for us!
