For a clear historical snapshot of a community like Norwich, there is no better resource than a census report. The census sketches out the character of a town by providing information about where people were born, size of family, education, occupation, and income. If you look carefully, you can get a sense of the society in years past, especially when you examine the occupation column. For example, in the 1940 Norwich census, laborers, farmers, lawyers, doctors, and professors were positions all held by men. Most of the women were listed as housewives. It was a rarity of the times to find a woman who worked outside the home. That’s what made Norwich’s Ruby Fitzgerald, who worked for New England Telephone and Telegraph for 48 years, such a pioneer.

Ruby was born in Norwich in 1902. Her father, Fred Fitzgerald, built a 21-room home on the corner of Hazen and Main Streets, where Ruby spent much of her life. Along with being a carpenter, Fred was a tax collector, ran an insurance company, and was the town constable for nearly 50 years. When Ruby’s mother, Millie, wasn’t caring for Ruby and her sister and brother, she found time to run a millinery store out of the home where she sold fine hats to women. Millie was also known for her baking prowess. 

The town bought a two-stall jail with two bunks in each one and installed the “lockup” in the Fitzgerald’s garage. Criminals were few but hobos, or “knights of the highway,” came by three or four times a week and were allowed to sleep in the cells. Millie always pulled together a supper for the travelers and a breakfast of donuts, oatmeal, and coffee. According to Ruby, “They had a night’s lodging and breakfast, and then were sent merrily along their way.” Today, the jail can be seen in the barn of the Norwich Historical Society.  

In 1908, along with caring for strangers and raising a family, the Fitzgeralds found time to operate the first telephone exchange in Norwich. So, Ruby’s career as a telephone operator really began at the age of 12, when she sat at the switchboard in her home. The switchboard was open from 7am-9pm, with bells to report any emergency calls during the night. “Running the exchange was sort of a family project, and we all got our hand in, though my mother was on duty most often, she said.”

In 1919 when Ruby was just 17, inspired by her experience with the family exchange, she joined New England Telephone and began her career in Hanover. In 1922 the company moved its operation to the corner of Gates and Currier Streets in White River Junction. Ruby shifted from Hanover to the new location. 

With the first telephones, one phone could be connected to another by a wire. Telephone exchanges made it possible to connect with many different phones. A person would call an exchange and ask the operator to connect them to the person they wanted to speak with, and the operator would plug a “patch cord” into that person’s socket on the switchboard, connecting the two. Long-distance calls required the local exchange to patch through the call to another exchange, where the call could be completed.

When Ruby began her career all the operators were women. Teenage boys were the first operators, but they turned out to be rude and impatient and often disconnected customers. Women operators were hired and proved to be polite and faster with calls than the men they replaced. But for women, there was a strict set of rules. Dresses and nylons had to be worn. No pants were allowed. In addition, outrageous as it sounds by today’s standards, the women had to be single. Operators were taught to be formal. “Number please?” and “Thank you!” were said in even tones. If an operator recognized a voice, they were not allowed to converse with the person. By the 1960s rules were eased. Operators could be married. Pantsuits were allowed, but only with heels or dress shoes. 

Even with the rules, compared to other service jobs that a woman could hold in the 1920s, a switchboard operator worked with some of the most sophisticated technical equipment of the time where accuracy and concentration were of utmost importance. The job required weeks of training in switchboard techniques before an operator could work the exchange.

Ruby became a junior supervisor in 1928, and in 1933 was promoted to senior supervisor. According to the 1940 census, Ruby worked 50 weeks a year, eight hours a day, and earned $2,400 for the entire year, which is equal to about $47,000 today. The pay was considered good for women who did not attend college. As one operator recalled, “If you get into the phone company, you’ll be taken care of for life.” 

Ruby’s final promotion came in 1946 when she became the chief operator. With this position, Ruby oversaw hiring new operators. She conducted job interviews in a quiet room so she could judge the quality of a young woman’s voice. As chief operator, she led visiting dignitaries on tours of the exchange and spoke to different civic groups. In a talk to the White River Junction Rotary Club in 1955, Ruby predicted that “a dial system would not be introduced here before 1956 or ‘57.” It arrived in 1961 and allowed callers to simply dial another phone without the aid of an operator, although operators were needed to complete long-distance calls.  

Life behind the switchboard was not just hard work and long hours. For Ruby, there were many exciting experiences that came along with the job. During the 1927 flood which destroyed 1,285 Vermont bridges and is considered the state’s largest natural disaster, Ruby said, “I had to cross the river on a railroad bridge to get to work, and just ten minutes after I got to the other side, they closed the bridge because it was too dangerous to cross. Only four or five of us were able to get to the office during the flooding. We had to work three days and three nights to keep the exchange going.” She also put in extra hours in 1929, when the Junction House, the Hotel Coolidge today, burned down, and again during the hurricane of 1936.

“You live every emergency along with the people involved,” she said in an interview at the end of her career, “and go to any extreme to complete their calls. Telephone work really is more than a job.” 

In the winter of 1967 Ruby, who was turning 65 in June of that year, retired from the telephone company. “Everyone has to retire at 65, even the president of the company. That was the ruling,” a fellow operator pointed out. Ruby left the company with a flourish, with awards and a testimonial dinner at Landers Restaurant in Lebanon that was attended by nearly 200 people. Ruby was interviewed for the phone company newsletter when she visited the exchange a week after she retired. Her feelings were mixed. She admitted that she missed the other operators but added, “I don’t miss setting my alarm clock at night and getting up when it’s dark outside.” Ruby concluded the interview by saying, “It’ll still be quite a while before I get used to not working. I feel as though something is missing all the time now.”

Through the years, Ruby was a member of the Norwich Congregational Church and the local Red Cross, which during the first years of World War II knitted over 190 sweaters and sewed 324 dresses. She enjoyed attending Dartmouth football games and pulled for the Red Sox. After her parents died, Ruby cared for the Norwich home along with her brother Robert, who was Norwich’s town clerk for 32 years, and his wife Marjorie. Ruby’s younger sister, Ruth, died in 1935 at the age of 32. Her son Fred aka. “Bud” came to live in the Norwich home and stayed with Ruby until he died in 1987. 

As Ruby left the telephone exchange for the last time, the woman many dubbed “Mrs. Bell of Tel. And Tel.” added, “It’s not really a goodbye, just another turn in the road.”  Ruby passed away in 1993 at the age of 91. 

When Norm Levy decides to learn about a new topic, he does his research. As a member of the Norwich Energy Committee and an emerging Upper Valley philanthropist, Norm is a passionate advocate for extending access to lower cost solar electricity for low/moderate income Vermonters and Upper Valley nonprofits. A retired laboratory physician who has invested wisely over the course of his career, Norm set about wanting to ‘have fun and do good’, landing on a non-traditional investment model called “community impact investing,” specifically focused on installing solar arrays. 

Says Norm, “I believe lower income Vermonters care as passionately about climate change as their more affluent neighbors, but feel they have to focus their finances on the basic needs of food, shelter, clothing, and childcare. I am fortunate that in retirement I have the means to help others, so I decided I was going to be the lone ranger in a wool cap and find a way to extend energy efficiency to low- and middle-income families in my own community of Norwich.”

What began as an LED bulb gifting program, distributing over 3,000 bulbs to Upper Valley families, has evolved into something much larger, and Norm has become conversant in the many aspects of solar power and its financing, including net metering, how solar arrays work, and tax credits for investors who support clean energy infrastructure. 

Norm’s chosen investment approach resulted in a novel partnership with Norwich Solar Technologies, which has completed two community solar arrays with Norm’s new company, Norm & Sun LLC. The first project was a standalone array that provided electricity for 25% less than commercial rates to 14 families living at Starlake Lane built by Twin Pines Housing. The project provides solar powered electricity to the non-profit COVER Home Repair in White River Junction as well. 

The second project is located on Turnpike Road, on land owned by Jay Mead and Edie Farwell and uses a different model – a larger “mixed” community array. Some solar panels are owned by 25 individual homeowners, while 110 panels are owned by Norm & Sun, LLC, providing electricity for the Good Neighbor Health Clinic in White River Junction. Edie says, “We were looking to see how we could further contribute to clean energy in Norwich. We’re so pleased that we could use an acre of land for a solar installation. It feels like a win-win-win all around. Norwich Solar Technologies has been an excellent partner to work with on this.”

Norm’s research has shown that socially responsible investing is more than a $17 trillion industry in the United States. “People want to put their money towards good works as well as investing in their future. Unfortunately, most of the investments go into large multinational corporations, and it is very difficult to direct investments into one’s local community. If more investors knew about these opportunities, it would give them a chance to make a positive difference in their own communities,” says Norm.

Community solar financed by private investors is a relatively new approach on the Vermont solar scene and more solar developers are beginning to adopt the model. Because the upfront costs of a solar project for an individual homeowner can be prohibitive even with government incentives, community impact investing allows homeowners and apartment dwellers to save money on electric bills and use clean solar power without the substantial capital outlay. 

Norm is an advocate of public-private partnerships to achieve his philanthropic aims. “Partnership with a private community investor is the key,” says Norm. Since the 1990s, tax laws have included incentives in the form of tax credits to encourage private investment in renewable energy, offsetting one’s federal income taxes. Low- and moderate-income residents pay lower taxes, and hence can access fewer credits. Norm explains, “So I figured that once I understood how this worked, I could ‘right size’ a solar project to an investment size I felt comfortable with, take advantage of the tax credits, and share the benefits with non-profits and lower income residents in the form of lower cost renewable energy.”

At the recent grand opening of the Turnpike Road project, Kevin Davis, VP of Sales for Norwich Solar Technologies shared some insights on why the Solar Santa model is a good one. “From an economic point of view, so much of the cost we pay for electricity goes to sources from out of the state, but community solar projects generate electricity locally. It keeps our dollars circulating in the local economy and creates renewable energy here in Vermont, making energy independence more feasible.”

Residential customers receive net metering credits to offset their utility bills, and Norm plans to transfer his credits to benefit the Good Neighbor Health Clinic. Landowners Jay Mead and Edie Farwell leased the land to Norwich Solar Technologies to construct the array. Says Jay, “We’re concerned about climate change, and we had this piece of land that had a good solar aspect. It does change the landscape, and I think it’s important that we see what the cost of our electrical consumption is.” 

For Norm, the big goal is to inspire additional public-private collaborations to extend renewable energy and utility cost savings to a larger number of communities and non-profits for decades to come. “If you are a beneficiary of the economy, you too can share your good fortune with non-profits and low-income homeowners.” 

Norm is the best kind of investor/philanthropist – a patient one. While the original return on his investment at Starlake Lane was projected at five years, he chose to provide a higher reduction in utility bills for the residents and COVER Home Repair, stretching his return to seven years, but he is fine with that – especially if it supports his mission to have fun and do good.

To learn more about how Norm supports clean energy for low- and middle-income families, email mnblevy@icloud.com. 

What makes the community of Norwich, Vermont, so special? Peter Hanaway isn’t sure he can put his finger on it exactly, but as someone who has lived in Louisiana, Oregon, Rhode Island, Philadelphia, and Europe, he can say for certain that the sense of community here sets it apart from many other places. 

It’s been a peripatetic few years for Peter and his family. After decades in Portland, OR, where he and his spouse, Annie, had established careers and started a family, the end-of-life illness of Annie’s father brought them back east to Philadelphia. When he passed, their intention was to take Annie’s mother with them back to Oregon, but her own failing health made that untenable. So, Philadelphia it was, for two years.

Annie, a psychotherapist, kept working, shouldering the responsibility of financially supporting the family solo, while Peter took on much of the work caring for his mother-in-law. When she passed, Peter and Annie came to the realization that they were now untethered to any geographical location. 

Annie and Peter always loved this part of the country. Annie’s parents had summered in Lyman, New Hampshire for many years, and Annie and Peter had spent much time there and elsewhere in New England. After much research, they settled on Norwich and began the search for a home. Anyone with even passing familiarity of the housing market in Vermont will have a sense of what that search was like. Suffice it to say, it has taken some time. 

In the meantime, they have moved from rental to rental, while their two children, Will and Robin, have been attending Richmond Middle School and Marion Cross Elementary School, respectively. 

The sense of welcome Peter felt in Norwich has been profound. He notices it in moments both casual and significant: how people wave to each other on the street, or the conversations held while watching a kids’ soccer game. And he is blown away by the generosity of a couple who allowed his family into their home as renters, knowing nothing about them. 

Peter has given the phenomenon a lot of thought, trying to nail down what makes Norwich so special. It’s not that people in Portland or Philadelphia or Lyman don’t wave, but there’s something deeper at play here. Connections are more meaningful. “It’s a self-fulfilling emotional comportment that starts as, ‘we trust and expect that you are a good person,’ and is then rewarded by honorable behavior,” Peter said.

At this point in his life, Peter has found himself at a transition point. He’d left a vibrant career as a systems engineer doing consulting work in electronics, optics, and acoustics in Oregon. When his mother-in-law required around-the-clock attention, he had immersed himself in her care. “It was a hard transition to go from being at the pinnacle of my career to, boom, career is gone, you’re getting up two to three times at night.” 

It got him questioning the things that really matter in life and what remains of a person when they are gone. Is it professional achievements like patents and promotions, or is it the relationships with other people and the connections between them? “To escort someone through the last stage of their life, to care for them, I received more than I gave,” Peter said. “It’s an honor to be there for somebody in that way. My mother-in-law was so gracious in the face of losing her faculties and watching her life end. It realigned for me what matters.”

All of this brought Peter to a place of having the desire, time, and space in his life to give back to the community that had welcomed him and his family so fully. Right about that time, Dan Fraser, owner of Dan & Whit’s, sent a message to the Norwich Listserv revealing the possibility that the store could close if they couldn’t find workers. 

The notification spurred Annie to take on some hours at the store and coalesced things in Peter’s mind. He sent his own message to the Listserv, offering his volunteer services to the community. And the list of tasks Peter can perform is long: general home and fix-it services, computer services, and tutoring in grammar and writing, math, science, French, German, and music. Oh, and he’s done considerable caretaking of the elderly and would be happy to help in a pinch. “And for basic things like raking leaves and shoveling snow, my wife and kids are happy to pitch in, too,” he posted.

The response has been enthusiastic. Peter received over a dozen inquiries in the first week since he sent his message. He’s already finished two projects, is waiting on parts for a third, and has several customers lined up to assess their project needs. “I have enough to keep me busy for at least seven to eight weeks, working one day a week.” Peter is even considering taking on a high-school-age apprentice.

Peter will need to go back to professional life, perhaps as a consultant or by starting his own business. “But” Peter noted, “I’ve always been someone who likes to help out.” 

It was five o’clock on a sultry evening in August, and a group of women was gathering in the back parking lot at Dan & Whit’s Country Store in Norwich. Companionable chatter competed with birdsong and the sound of what passed for evening rush hour traffic on Main Street. Bikes came off racks, shoes changed, helmets strapped on. The riders were ready to roll. 

The ride would travel the hills of Norwich by New Boston Road to Stowell Road, circling back via Academy and Campbell Flats. The organization responsible for bringing this coterie of women together is the Upper Valley Women’s Cycling Club (UVWCC). Formed in 2014, the UVWCC is “a cycling group for self-declared women of all ages and abilities in the Upper Valley that promotes a positive and inclusive image of women’s cycling by organizing group rides, hosting social events, and facilitating skills and maintenance clinics as well as gear demos and more.” Since 2020, UVWCC has been under the umbrella group Upper Valley Cycling Club (formerly Upper Valley Velo). 

The UVWCC draws riders from all over the Upper Valley, including Norwich residents Nicole Torres and Peggy Sadler.  

Peggy joined in 2019 with the intention of joining the slower rides. “I knew a couple of the faster riders who encouraged me to join, saying things like, ‘you’ll never get left behind.’ Even so, I was intimidated.” Between her full-time job as co-owner of Designer Gold Jewelry Design and her devotion to the sport of rowing, Petty hasn’t had a chance to participate in any group rides yet. “I’m hoping to join in some of the rides next summer.” 

The UVWCC was the brainchild of Becca Mateo, a triathlete and women’s cycling advocate who has since moved out of the area. She enthusiastically invited women to join the club, go on the rides, be on the board – get involved. 

“At that time, the board was huge. Eventually, we honed it down to five members,” said Jen Barden, one of the founding board members. When Jen discovered the club and showed up for her first ride in April of 2014, she was nervous. “I had never ridden with anyone. I didn’t know anyone; I didn’t know what the skill level would be.” Convinced she would be too slow, Jen was delighted to find that, “I had such a great time. I just kept going back.” 

The group has grown steadily over the years. Rides were initially organized on Meetup but transitioned to Strava and Facebook, where the organization has a public club and a private group. The public presence allows the group to promote their activities and attract new members, while the private group is a safe space for members to connect with each other. 

Nicole came to cycling to help recover after an injury. After riding a Peloton indoor bike for a while, she was coaxed outside by a friend. “While the downhills were a little terrifying, and I was insanely slow because I didn’t have a proper road bike, I loved the challenge of the climb.” Before long, “I was hooked!” She was excited to see that after the 2020 hiatus from group riding, the UVWCC would be having a 2021 season. 

“It was wonderful to meet new people. Everyone was welcoming and supportive. It was nice to have the option to challenge myself with the A group or enjoy a more leisurely pace with the B group,” she says. “Everything just seems a little more beautiful when I’m on my bike!”

Rides are held weekly on Tuesday evenings, beginning as early in the spring as the weather allows and going into the fall until the days become too short. The groups start from different locations throughout the Upper Valley; some favorites are Dan & Whit’s in Norwich, Dewey Field lot on Lyme Road in Hanover, Watson Dog Park in Hartford, Lakeside Park in Enfield, and the Northern Rail Trail terminus in Lebanon.

According to the numbers on the Facebook group, there are 243 members in the UVWCC. Alix Norris, board member, ride leader, and elite cyclocross racer, estimated that there are about “100 to 125 active members that we see in person at some point in the year.” 

Alix came to the group from the world of cyclocross racing. She got into road cycling while at Wake Forest University getting her Ph.D. in cancer biology, traveling every weekend to race. After graduating and starting a family with her college sweetheart, Alix had it in her head that her racing days were over – and cycling with it. How could they travel and race with an infant? Enter cyclocross, a sport where races are short and family-friendly and the community welcoming. Alix realized that cycling is a lifestyle and doesn’t have to be a luxury. 

She brings that ethos to her work as a board member and ride leader, encouraging all comers to the group. “Women are a demographic that, on the face of it, need more support or motivation. Every day I meet women who don’t know how to change a tire, who don’t know the area or how to plan a route,” Alix said. “Women come [to the rides and clinics] because they recognize that lack in themselves and want to change it.”

Sherry Fiore, cyclist, and board member noted the importance of the UVWCC in bringing women into the sport of cycling. Women’s riding groups are a place for women to ride who otherwise wouldn’t. “We’ve got women who show up for our rides but don’t go on other group rides. They won’t ride by themselves.” Sherry pointed out the long history of cycling as an avenue of empowerment for women. In the early history of cycling, bicycles were a way for women to move about independently. “Historically, cycling was very important because it allowed women to leave their homes.”

Jan Proctor’s involvement in the UVWCC has been sporadic over the years, but her roots as a cyclist go way back. She began racing in the eighties, mostly criterium, or “crit” races with the Sunapee Bike Club. She traveled the crit circuit all around New England. Jan is not one to toot her own horn, but she racked up several wins. The accomplishment Jan is most proud of is when she won bronze in the individual road race at the USA Cycling Masters Road National Championships.

As a rider whose experience goes a little farther back in time, Jan has an important perspective on women in cycling and athletics in general. She remembers when it was just her and a handful of other women racing. “What’s important to realize is the impact of Title IX,” she said. “We were the crest of the wave.”

Younger women might not realize it’s more than a clothing brand. Title IX is a federal civil rights law that was passed in 1972. It said, “No person in the United States shall, based on sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” What this meant was that schools had to spend equivalent money on programs for both boys and girls. 

The impact of this legislation has been profound. “I didn’t do sports in high school,” said Jan. “I didn’t think I had any athletic ability. Girls weren’t encouraged.” It wasn’t until Jan began racing that she realized her potential. “I discovered I was pretty good at it.” Since Title IX, all over the country, millions of girls and women have discovered that they do, in fact, have athletic abilities. The UVWCC rides are an outlet for women who discovered their athleticism early as well as for women who are just finding theirs.

After the official UVWCC group rides come to an end in September, some riders continue cycling as the weather and their personal cold tolerance allow. Others transition to winter sports. The board will meet again early in spring to coordinate details for the 2022 season. And when the kickoff party rolls around in April, these women riders will meet again and reconnect, ready for another summer of riding. 

A few years ago, the UVWCC offered kits of jerseys, cycling bibs, and socks for sale, and Sherry was the board member responsible for the design and ordering. The socks, green with purple writing to match the green and purple highlights of the jersey and bibs, have a slogan on the instep: Free. Untrammeled.