If this keeps up, the world will know Norwich as much for the creative young entrepreneurs that it grows (or should we say entrepreneurial young creatives?) as for the Olympic athletes it cultivates. Most visibly these days, 22-year-old Jake Laser is building a big following on YouTube for his videos of the inventions he’s been churning out since early adolescence. “I always had the passion for building stuff,” says the 2015 graduate of Hanover High School. “This is what it’s manifested into so far. I don’t think this is the final step.”

Under the guidance of budding music producer and fellow college undergraduate Phin Choukas, Hans Williams is taking the first tentative steps toward a career in music, already reaching thousands of listeners on platforms like Spotify for the songs he’s writing and singing and recording. “I’m slowly learning how to promote myself,” Williams says. “There’s so much that I don’t know, that I still need to learn.”

And here comes 13-year-old Ezra McGinley-Smith, whom – depending, on the time of year, the day of the week, and the hour of the day – you might find shooting a TV ad or an award-winning movie, or crafting a website for an Upper Valley business, or diving for sunken treasure in Upper Valley waterways, or trapping skunks. “I like to stay busy,” says McGinley-Smith, an eighth-grader at Richmond Middle School in Hanover.

So do Laser, Williams, and Choukas… to the extent that the coronavirus allows these days.

Jake Laser

Before relocating to Los Angeles in September, Laser self-isolated over the spring and summer at home in Norwich. And after remotely finishing his undergraduate degree in physics from Saint Lawrence University, he retreated full-time into his workshop in the family basement to tinker with and test a parade of inventions, all the while documenting the processes for his JLaservideo pages on Instagram and YouTube (www.youtube.com/user/JLaservideo).

Near summer’s end, Laser flew an elaborate hoverboard – inspired in part by the craft on which the comic-strip movie villain Green Goblin avoids ground traffic – over Storrs Pond and Fullington Field in Hanover.

And thanks to that video and several that he released through the third week of November, his roster of YouTube subscribers grew to 1.3 million. “With the YouTube income,” Laser says, “I’ve been able to pay off all my college loans.”

In Los Angeles, he’s working on a range of projects with a business partner in a workshop and studio that so far appears to be a safe bubble of creativity. “It’s one of the rare industries that’s actually upticking a little right now,” Laser said. “It’s been decent.”

Hans Williams

Hans Williams figured he was maintaining a decent pace himself, until contracting Covid-19 almost as soon as he’d returned to New Orleans for his sophomore year at Tulane University. “I got it the first day of classes, while I was working on the video to go with the song Phin and I recorded over the summer,” says Williams who is majoring in marketing with a minor in music production. “I had to quarantine for a couple of weeks, which kind of set me back. “And I guess I’m going to have to quarantine when I come back to Norwich over the holidays, so Phin and I will have to wait before we can start working on our next project.”

Good thing, then, that the former ice-hockey teammates – “since Mites and Squirts up through high school,” Williams says – devoted an intense couple of weeks finetuning Williams’ latest song, Body on My Shoulders, in the Choukas family’s Dreaded Zig Zag, the studio on Kerwin Hill. “He showed me that song in late July or early August,” says Choukas. “We put it together pretty quickly. He took a while to find the right words. We had a really good time making it before we went our separate ways.”

In Choukas’ case, “separate” meant transporting his recording equipment to California, where he is self-isolating in a small bubble of friends. Between recording projects, he’s remotely continuing his undergraduate studies at Middlebury College where he’s a junior.

Choukas also is using this time to figure out what he wants to do for a living after college. While he’s caught the attention of the ever-evolving music industry for his production wizardry (www.norwichtimes.com/music-comes-home) for the likes of Strafford-native singer-songwriter Noah Kahan, he confesses “I still don’t know if it’s what I want to do professionally. “I’ve been so fortunate to work with really talented vocalists and musicians, but up until now it’s been more about doing it for friends. It’s kind of a therapeutic experience. A relief and an escape.”

Those rewards motivated Williams to ‘midwife’ and record Body on My Shoulders at least as much as any commercial ones that might or might not follow. Back in Norwich, after Tulane sent everyone home for the spring and summer to avoid the coronavirus, he started assembling the song in response to the suicide of a fellow Tulane freshman in a neighboring dormitory suite in 2019. “Being in virtual quarantine over the summer really helped me write it,” Williams says. “And having Phin there for every step, the way he was on my first record (Guardian, released the spring of his junior year at Hanover High) made such a difference. He’s the one who’s hearing all the takes, and has the best ear on all of it.”

According to the online music site Spotify, more than 2,000 people were following the songs that Williams and Choukas were sharing as of Thanksgiving, and more than 75,000 a month were listening. “I’m not too worried yet that some big label will sweep me off my feet,” Williams hastens to add. “I still have a lot to learn. There have been people who came and hit me with ideas for weird deals, things I don’t want to sign. I didn’t think too much about that coming from Norwich.”

Ezra McGinley-Smith

While – like his father, a dermatologist by trade – Ezra McGinley-Smith enjoyed still photography, he didn’t think too much about filmmaking until he attended the White River Indie Film Festival in White River Junction a few years ago. “I can’t remember exactly when, but I was still at Marion Cross School,” McGinley-Smith recalls. “I got really inspired by what I saw.”

That inspiration led first to testing his skills with sports-action films, particularly skiing, à la documentarian Warren Miller. Then, during the early weeks of the pandemic, with the free time gained after schools went to remote learning, he shot Willing Hands – a 7½-minute documentary about how the Norwich-based nonprofit, which collects surplus and donated food that otherwise would go to waste, focused on getting that food to Upper Valley residents who lost jobs and income during the Covid crisis. The film recently won the middle-school division’s social-justice award from the Freedom & Unity program, led by Norwich movie director Nora Jacobson. “When it won,” he remembers, “I was like, ‘Wow: there’s potential for this!’”

Indeed, the acclaim led to commissions to shoot commercials for products ranging from electric tea-kettles to Hershey’s chocolate and a Segway scooter. “Having the digital technology that’s available now has really helped,” McGinley-Smith says. “At least while I’m starting out, the modern way seems the most practical way to go, though at some point I want to try the old-fashioned way, to see what they were doing back then.”

One of those more old-fashioned ways he earns walking-around money, is trapping skunks for neighbors, friends, and acquaintances. And at some point, McGinley-Smith might start charging for his free dives into area lakes, ponds, and rivers to retrieve items lost by fishermen, golfers, and other outdoors persons.

“So far it’s been for fun, for the challenge,” he says. “It’s crazy what you find down there that you’re not even looking for: An old phone from a pay phone; a bicycle wheel; an iPhone; many, many, many pairs of sunglasses.”

Jake Laser sums up the same spirit all three of these creatives share. He expects to follow his curiosity and sense of adventure wherever they lead him, commercially viable/viral or no. “I’m always excited for what comes next,” he concludes. “I try to be on the edge, push myself whenever I can.”

You say you want a Revels solution for Christmas? In the middle of the coronavirus pandemic? This season, thanks to some creative scrambling on the part of the leaders and the rank-and-file performers of Revels North – many of them from Norwich – you’ll find it online or on your TV screen.

In place of what would have been the Upper Valley’s 45th consecutive live yuletide pageant celebrating the Winter Solstice in song and dance, Revels North last spring commissioned All Shall Be Well Again – a 17-minute animated film that Norwich resident and Revels executive director Brian Cook describes as “just lovely to behold … very, very true to the Revels spirit, with a respect for the traditional style.”

And while the organization will miss its main source of revenue for its programs – ticket sales to live shows at the Lebanon Opera House – Revels is offering the movie for free, with a particular nod to members of the Upper Valley community who might be struggling financially and otherwise during the pandemic, Cook adds. “It is a message of hope that dovetails with our message, our mission, of bringing light to the darkest time of the year,” he says. “People right now are experiencing the darkness in a very real way.”

As much in his role as a psychiatrist as in his mind-set as a member of the Revels North board and a regular performer in the pageant, Norwich resident John Severinghaus welcomes this solution. “I said at our meetings that whatever we do is going to be better than doing nothing,” says Severinghaus, who lent his voice to the animated character of Father Christmas. “Having Revels go completely dark for a whole year was just not an option. The whole point of Revels is that the sun is going to come back. “Let’s do what we can to help it along.”

The trick, he adds, was to make it “fun and creative and different.” And doing a hybrid digital version of the full, live extravaganza was not going to cut it. “20 to 25 people in Zoom, I’m not sure how you’d do it,” Severinghaus says. “To keep time and keep pitch, stitching it together was not practical. It could be done, but even that… Come on: that’s not going to be a real show.”

During the last “real” show, in December of 2019 at the opera house, Meriden, N.H. resident Sam Clifton was, well, reveling in the chance to play a lead role in his debut at the Christmas Revels.

And between his own moments in the spotlight, the 2015 graduate of Lebanon High School was paying close attention to the Mummer’s Dance – the number that every year interrupts the main storyline of Revels North’s long-running celebration of the solstice. “While I was standing by as a spectator, I got an idea of the basic plot, and the importance of Saint George,” Clifton recalls. “You get to slay the giant and the dragon. You’re the hero. What more could you ask?”

What he learned by watching – and by listening – Clifton wove into his vocal performance as George in All Shall Be Well Again, to which he was invited to lend his voice. “I haven’t been able to do a lot of voice-acting work so far,” Clifton recalls. “I thought this would be a way to get a solid role onto my résumé.”

For the leadership of Revels North, the film emerged, last spring and summer, as a way to bridge the seasonal gap, and to keep Revels – which had to cancel its schedule of live music in the name of singer and listener safety – on the Upper Valley’s radar screen. “It wasn’t long before we began to realize that there was no way we could plan on live performances,” Cook says. “There was so much that we couldn’t anticipate.”

Instead, Cook, artistic director Nils Fredland and members of the Revels North board of directors started brainstorming, and quickly eliminated the idea of trying to do a hybrid live through online technology.

With input from Revels creatives, they found consensus around the idea of a short film, mixing animation and footage from previous years’ Revels, that area audiences could stream on their computers, and watch on Community Access Television (CATV). “It got us excited like nothing else was going to,” Cook recalls. “It was going to be the costliest option, in a year where maybe fundraising would be harder than usual because of the pandemic. But it really energized everybody, and seemed the most likely to get the audience excited.”

The Revels board bought into the plan from the outset. “Suddenly there was a spark,” board president and Lebanon resident Kim Rheinlander says. “People really embraced it. It was something so different, and something positive.”

With money from a variety of sources – including an anonymous donation of $10,000, $7,500 from a Vital Communities crowdsourcing campaign, a COVID-relief grant of $7,500 from the New Hampshire Council on the Arts, $5,000 from regular underwriter Mascoma Bank, on top of earlier contributions from regular individual benefactors – Revels North enlisted a Keene, NH-based nonprofit, The SALT Project, to weave animation around a storyline invoking Revels traditions. “A big part of our thinking was to seek out local artists, who need the work right now,” Cook says. “When the pandemic hit and lingered on, their livelihoods went up in smoke. We really wanted to support them as much as possible.”

Toward that end, Revels hired the No Strings Marionette Company in Randolph, VT, which had crafted puppets for the 2015 show at Dartmouth College’s Hopkins Center for the Arts. The troupe crafted and brought to life a puppet host for the film, in the persona of Jack Langstaff, the founder of the original Christmas Revels pageant in New York City, and who had established a comparable program in Cambridge, MA, in 1971.

Langstaff, who would have turned 100 this year, was the father of Carol Langstaff, the Sharon resident who founded Revels North in 1974. “When we saw the puppet,” Severinghaus says, “any of us who had privilege to know Jack, that was great to see.”

It worked as well for Rheinlander, who was captivated by the original Revels growing up in Cambridge in the 1970s, and who, after moving to the Upper Valley in the mid-1980s, joined Revels North and crossed paths with Langstaff in a variety of capacities, from backstage technical support to singing and acting with the ensemble.

Even after joining the board of directors, Rheinlander stayed active with the productions until 2019, when Revels moved the solstice pageant from the Hopkins Center’s Spaulding Auditorium to the Opera House. While the latter seats 800 people, to Spaulding’s 900, the 2019 show, drew a combined 3,000 people to five performances. Many of them, Rheinlander found while conducting exit interviews, had never seen the show at Dartmouth. “The people I talked with were so enthusiastic,” she says, “and we were very excited about having a second show there this year.”

With All Shall Be Well Again, Rheinlander hopes that Revels will keep things going, keep people enthused, knowing we’re still around.”

Revels North was scheduled to start streaming All Shall Be Well Again on November 20. The local cable station CATV was scheduled to start showing the film on Thanksgiving Day (November 26 at 2pm), with subsequent screenings on Giving Tuesday (December 1), and on December 21 (the winter solstice), Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day. To learn more, visit revelsnorth.org.

As the new school year begins, it’s probably a good idea for all of us, not just students, to brush up on our math skills. Let’s try a few questions. Here’s the first one: How many seconds in eleven years? Is everyone reaching for a calculator? The answer is 346,896,000. Next try this: What sum multiplied by itself will produce 998,001? Answer: 999. How did you do? Well, now consider this: in 1810, a six-year-old Vermont boy answered both of these questions in 8 seconds. His name was Zerah Colburn

Born in 1804 in Cabot, VT to Abia and Betsy Colburn, Zerah was the sixth in a family of eight children. Fortunately, when Zerah was only 29, he published an autobiography describing his early life and travels. Oddly, the Memoirs of Zerah Colburn by Himself was written in the third person and Colburn referred to himself as “Zerah” or “the boy.”

Zerah grew up on a small farm. His father worked as a joiner to support the family. In August 1810, when Zerah was about six years old, he was playing near his father’s work bench. His father heard him reciting math facts: 5 times 7 is 35, and 6 times 8 are 48. His father was surprised, especially since his son had only spent six weeks at a village school. So he asked Zerah the product of 13 times 97, “to which 1,261 was instantly given in answer.” Astounded, his father “concluded that something unusual had actually taken place; indeed he has often said he should not have been more surprised, if someone had risen up out of the earth and stood erect before him.”

Later his father took the boy to Danville, where court was in session. Zerah was questioned by the judges and lawyers. They, too, were impressed by his mathematical skills. They encouraged Mr. Colburn to take his son to the legislature which was to convene in Montpelier at the start of October. There a large number of people “had an opportunity of witnessing his calculating powers, and the conclusion was general that such a thing had never been seen before.” Questions were asked to stump young Zerah, “but he answered them correctly; for instance, which is the most, twice twenty-five or twice five and twenty? Answer: twice twenty-five.”

From Montpelier the father and son headed to Burlington. But, soon, Mr. Colburn realized that larger audiences and wealthier patrons were required if he wanted to take advantage of his son’s gifts. So, he and Zerah headed to Boston. Along the way they stopped in Hanover and met Dr. Wheelock, the president of Dartmouth College, who proposed to “take upon himself the care and expense of Zerah’s studies.” But Mr. Colburn could not be convinced to accept the generous offer.

In Boston, Zerah continued to astonish audiences at public exhibitions. Soon a “number of the first gentlemen” in Boston wanted to see to Zerah’s education and establish, “a situation where he might be enabled to pursue the studies which seemed most adapted to his genius, and render it profitable to the world.” They offered to raise $5,000. Mr. Colburn would receive $2,500 and the other half would be used to keep the boy under their control and educate him. But the offer was “not equal to the exalted expectations of his father.” In addition, being separated from his son “did not harmonize with his views of parental obligation.”

Abia and Zerah traveled to New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, and made enough money from Zerah’s shows to continue to the next city, but not enough to cover an education for the boy and a profit for the father. “Mr. Colburn began to think that his situation and prospects were not likely to be improved by a longer effort in his own country.” In addition, as one traveler who met the Colburns, pointed out, “the desire of the father to have his son educated has been superseded by the curse lust for gold.”

 In April, Zerah and Abia returned to Norwich where Mrs. Colburn and the rest of the family had come to stay with relatives. There was speculation that she had traveled to Norwich to encourage her husband to return home. But Abia declined his wife’s pleas. Finding little interest in Zerah’s talents in America, he decided it would be more profitable to display the young genius in England. So on April 3, 1812, even though a war had just begun with England, the two walked aboard the New Galen and set sail for Liverpool.

In London, Zerah’s performances continued to dazzle audiences. Despite the well-attended performances, there was little profit. A British friend of the Colburns suggested that an image of Zerah would be a money maker. So a drawing was created and engraved, and copies of his image sold well. This engraving is the only likeness the world has of Zerah. A close look at his left hand shows that the eight-year-old boy had six fingers. Several of his brothers, his father, and great grandmother also had an extra finger. Zerah had the extra finger removed while he was in England.

With bills mounting in England and no patron on the horizon, Abia and Zerah set off for Paris in the spring of 1814. As soon as they arrived, a language teacher was hired for the boy and after a few months, Zerah was fluent in French. When his language course concluded, he entered the Lyceum Napoleon in Paris.

During their time in Paris, the Colburns met with John Quincy Adams, who had come to Europe in early 1815 to sign the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812. “The father is a plain New England farmer and by all appearance a very ordinary man,” Adams wrote. “His language is that of our most uneducated people… Zerah is certainly an astonishing and promising boy; but if his promise is ever to realize anything, the sooner the father commits him to the tuition of the Polytechnic School the better.” Sadly, Mr. Colburn did not follow the advice of the statesman.

In the summer of 1816, once again short of cash, Abia pulled Zerah out of his French school and returned to England, where Zerah’s exhibitions began again. In London, they connected with the Earl of Bristol who raised funds for Zerah to attend the prestigious Westminster School. After problems with hazing from the older students, it was decided that Zerah would live with his father and become a day student. The money saved from boarding at the school was enough to support both the father and son. This plan worked well for the next three years, until Abia had another disagreement with the school administration and removed the 15-year-old Zerah from the Westminster School for good.

With little interest in Zerah’s mathematical wizardry, Abia cooked up several new money-making schemes for his son. First, he had Zerah take acting lessons and they traveled from London to Ireland and Scotland looking for roles, but found no offers. Then he had Zerah try his hand at writing plays. This too was a failure. Finally, when he was 18 years old, Zerah opened a day school of his own. But the school made very little money and Zerah had to close it for good when his father became ill. Abia, who never saw his dreams fulfilled, died of consumption (tuberculosis) in February 1823. He was 54.

With no money and an ocean away from his home in Vermont, Zerah told the Earl of Bristol of his father’s passing and said he was heading to America. Once again the Earl of Bristol generously assisted Zerah and gave him money for his homeward passage.

When Zerah reached America, he hired a man in Whitehall, NY to drive him by wagon to Cabot. He arrived at his mother’s house near sunset on July 3, 1823. “Not knowing who lived there, they inquired of an elderly woman who was at the door, if she knew where the widow Colburn lived? She replied that she was the woman.” Zerah, who left home when he was six, “made himself known as well as he could,” but his mother failed to recognize him until his brothers and sisters appeared and agreed that this was indeed their long-lost brother who hadn’t communicated with the family for 13 years.

Mrs. Colburn, now 65, had “by a course of persevering industry, hard fare, and trials… succeeded in supporting herself, besides doing a good deal for her children.” But she was struggling, so Zerah established a school in Cabot and worked to support the family. However, the school closed after two months, so Zerah left Cabot and worked at a school in Fairfield, NY.

In 1829, Zerah married Mary Hoyt and between them they raised six children. There is no evidence that any of the children inherited their father’s math wizardry or an extra finger. In his memoir, Zerah reflected long and hard about the consequences of his calculating gifts and expressed his regrets at times that “his mysterious faculty was bestowed.” He also felt sorrow for his father, who abandoned his family and country, “and the trials which, after two or three years of prosperity, followed him to the close of his life, that he is led to believe his father paid dearly for the singular talent conferred on his son.”

In 1835, the now Reverend Zerah Colburn became a professor of Latin, Greek, French, and Spanish at Norwich University, but surprisingly, not of mathematics. He taught there until he died of tuberculosis, the same disease that had taken his father, in 1839. He was only 35 years old. 

Zerah is buried alongside his wife in Meeting House Cemetery, the thirdoldest cemetery in Norwich. His tombstone is located in the northwestern corner, a quiet and peaceful resting place for one of Vermont’s most remarkable mathematical prodigies.

Norwich Volunteers Take Active Role in Orchard Work

Some dozen volunteers from the town’s Willing Hands will once again be offering their time and labor this year at the Whitman Brook Orchard in Quechee. The Norwich-based non-profit serves people in need of all ages throughout the Upper Valley, having developed an efficient system for food recovery and distribution.

“We arrange for regular pick-ups with over 40 food donors and deliver to at least 58 organizations every week, all year long,” said Executive Director Gabe Zoerheide. “Together we provide one small but effective solution to a very big challenge.”

Many families and individuals in the Upper Valley struggle to make ends meet. And now, with the onset of Covid-19, those facing food insecurity in the region have jumped by 33 percent, according to research by the University of Vermont and John Hopkins University.

For the last ten years, Willing Hands has been sending gleaning crews to Whitman Brook Orchard in order to collect spare apples not collected by owner Terry Dorman’s crew. “We have a great relationship with Willing Hands,” said Dorman. “Because we emphasize picking your own, the once a week gleaning of our apple drops ensures the floor is as clean as possible. What distinguishes us is that our program is weekly as opposed to the end of the season which provides Willing Hands a diversity of fruit.”

Dorman said that the apple drops are collected in three purposes: composting, processing, and first quality for fresh eating. “Willing Hands collects tons of apples each year, about 1,500 pounds in an hour and a half gleaning session each week as long as the season lasts,” said Carolyn Frye, the Gleaning Program volunteer lead. “The apples are then distributed to neighbors in need throughout the Upper Valley.”

As volunteers pick up the drops and cull out the bruised or blemished fruit, they tidy up the floor of the orchard. “Terry benefits not only from the pleasure of donating the apples to Willing Hands but also from having a well-groomed orchard,” Frye said. “The drops from the apple trees could become quite hazardous for people as they wander among the trees picking for themselves.”

This year, abiding by all Covid-19 precautions, Willing Hands volunteers will be gleaning at Dorman’s orchard beginning mid-September, usually on Thursdays, said Jim McCracken, Gleaning and Gardening Coordinator. The apples are then delivered to all of their 70+ recipient sites. “We often have had groups as large as 20 to help with picking the drops,” said McCracken. “King Arthur Flour and some school groups have also helped the volunteers.”

Last year, Willing Hands had 114 volunteers participate, some of whom were repeats. They gathered 12,051 pounds of apples. Since 2017, it has recovered 28,674 pounds of apples and has had 188 volunteers, again with many repeat gatherers, he related.

Norwich volunteer Charles Lindner has gleaned at Dorman’s orchard on several occasions. “It’s a spectacular setting with a view of Quechee and beyond,” said Lindner. “The orchards are obviously meticulously cared for and have a number of varieties of apples. It’s a pleasure to work with a crew of good-natured volunteers and gather large numbers of beautiful apples that get distributed to food shelves throughout the Upper Valley. The gleans are always well organized, friendly, and offer a hands-on opportunity to make a contribution.”

Gleaning Program Coordinator Sara Cavin agreed. “The team that Terry has is friendly and hard-working and extremely knowledgeable about all the varieties of apples they have,” said Cavin.

Frye said that the apple harvest coincides perfectly with the foliage season which is a bonus for the volunteers who come to glean. And, she “loves” introducing Dorman to the volunteers before they start gleaning.

“Terry is a treasure trove of apple lore and facts, and volunteers are fascinated by new tidbits each time he tells the story of his orchard,” Frye said. “With over 100 varieties of heirloom apples, we have a lot to learn from him.”

The wave of Black Lives Matter protests sweeping across and beyond the US has forced white Americans to open their eyes to racial abuse and injustices that are centuries old. The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and more recently the shooting of Jacob Blake, have sparked a series of protests, demonstrations, and campaigns across all sectors of society. The music industry shut down for #blackoutfriday. Books about Blackness, Whiteness, and antiracism have shot to the top of bestseller lists as non-Black people strive to learn more about an issue that we have had the privilege to ignore for too long. Students, teachers, and professors at many universities and high schools, including Hanover High, have created pages on social media dedicated to telling the stories of BIPOC at primarily white institutions. The stories posted anonymously on @culture.at.hanover are disgusting, but not surprising, and pressing reminders of why HHS needs to directly address racism and other forms of hate.

Sage McGinley-Smith, 12th grade, Beaver Meadow Rd.

How did you hear about this committee and what prompted you to join?

I learned about this committee through the HHS Council, and decided to join because it seemed like a way to help both myself and my school grow in a positive way.

Being from a community of mostly white, privileged residents, how are you navigating the unfamiliar waters of racism?

I am really trying total a step back to listen, learn, and become more self aware, as well as embrace the necessary discomfort of the conversations. 

How can you make a difference in the world beyond Norwich now and as you prepare to leave the nest, so to speak?

I think just having an awareness of the privilege that I have, and using

As the end of the school year drew near, Council devoted one of its last meetings of the year to discussions of racism at HHS. We heard members’ frustration at the inaction of the administration to address incidents of racial abuse, as well as their motivation to do more. People wanted actionable steps to create change, and Council leadership had late-night meetings thinking of how to best provide a space and resources for students, staff, and community members committed to continuing the conversation about racism at HHS, and to finding ways to combat that racism.

Reilly Uiterwyk and Ellie Stannard, inspired by the body’s desire to devote more meeting and discussion time to the topic of racism, as well as any other form of discrimination based on a person’s religion, gender identity, or sexual orientation, brought forward a motion to form the Antiracism and Inclusivity Committee (or AIC). As with any Council committee, AIC would invite and encourage everyone, including non-Council members, to attend. It would be able to elect its own chairs and make decisions independently of Council. The creation of the committee was put up to a vote, and the motion passed.

Because committees need chairs to be effective, Reilly, Ellie, and I became interim co-chairs until we can hold elections this fall. We believe that one of the key concepts behind the AIC is amplifying the initiatives of pre-existing groups, such as the Staff Equity Group, the District Equity Group, and Diversity Club. These groups are already doing crucial work, including organizing MLK Day speakers and conducting and interpreting the District Equity Audit. As such, we invited members of these groups to speak at our first meeting, which took place on June 10th. Ms. Voake, Ms. Hansen, and Meredith Felde were kind enough to prepare presentations summarizing the goals and actions of the different groups, and attendees of the meeting had a chance to ask questions after the presentations.

Students and teachers alike agreed: we are obligated, as a school and as individuals, to work towards a better HHS. Because actionable steps are often (if not always) better than words, I suggested that we form summer book groups to read and discuss books about race and racism. We sent out a survey and ended up with two reading groups; one group chose Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility and the other Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist. Additionally, the larger group agreed to read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, a nonfiction book written as a letter to the author’s teenage son and inspired by the epistolary structure of James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time.

We understand that education and information are only the beginning of the change we need to realize. As Kendi writes, it is not “ignorance and hate [that] cause racist ideas.” Instead, “the self-interest of racist power” is “the root problem.” This self-interest produces “racist ideas to justify the racist policies,” thus maintaining the racist power structure. However, education is an important first step to wrapping our heads around the history and complexity of racism, and it can help us find a starting place without reinventing the wheel.

As school ramps up again, Reilly, Ellie, and I are excited to meet with the group and discuss next steps. We hope to discuss Between the World and Me, hold elections for this year’s chairs, and work with Diversity club and the Equity Groups to find ways to create and implement policies that can help HHS become a safe and welcoming place for everyone. We would love to have you join us, and we will be sending out a meeting date once we see what school days will look like. Please email any one of us (ellisonstannard@hanovernorwichschools.org, reillyuiterwyk@hanovernorwichschools.org, or juliacook@hanovernorwichschools.org) if you have any questions or would like to join the mailing list.

Global pandemics are nothing new. From prehistoric times to today, man has faced devastating diseases that have changed the course of history or, worse, ended civilizations altogether. What is novel, however, as local resident and historian Sarah Rooker discovered recently, is the telltale stories that accompany them. “Hanover High School rising senior Lauren Pidgeon and I had been researching the 1918 influenza epidemic in Norwich and realized there was very little information,” said Rooker, director of the Norwich Historical Society (NHS). “All we really had were newspaper clippings. Diaries and letters from the time casually mentioned it, but there weren’t enough to really gain insights into the community’s experiences.”

So, Rooker put together an online reflection form with some basic questions and the opportunity to upload images or other materials about Covid-19. The response was remarkable and now are reflected in a digital Community Diary. “Each time we reached out to the community, we received reflections,” said Rooker.

When the coronavirus began last March, one local resident who wished to remain anonymous, for example, said there were “all kinds of strangers walking in my neighborhood.” “We usually see zero to two people when out walking but when the lockdown came, the streets were almost crowded,” said the individual.

For Claudia Marieb, the lifestyle transition warranted by the pandemic was “easy,” she noted. “I was enjoying hanging out in my house instead of working. “I went on long walks and practiced exquisite gentleness and self-care. But then I volunteered for two assignments in the Vermont Department of Health where I was employed and, suddenly, I became super busy.”

Early on in the pandemic, Marieb heard a concept that she liked: We’re all in the same storm, but not in the same boat. She said she’s been in several different boats since Covid-19 started and expects to be in more before it’s over.

“Boat #1 has been the calm of working from home,” said Marieb. “Boat #2 has been Covid-19 testing; Boat #3 is kindness to neighbors; Boat #4 COVIS-19 follow-up calls; Boat #5. Public popup testing; Boat #6 fearing I’ve exposed my parents to Covid-19; Boat #7 pretending there is no Covid-19; Boat #8, the spa opens again; and Boat #9, contrasts from a massage to Covid-19 in prison.”

Amidst the pandemic, the Norwich anonymous person has noticed “strange things missing from the grocery store” such as graham crackers, flour, tofu, and cleaning supplies. “Where did all the organic flour go and when will it ever come back?” the individual thought at the time.

About two weeks into the pandemic, local resident and Left Bank Books former owner Nancy Cressman began making watercolor thumbnail paintings. She is still at it some 150 days later.

“I wanted to keep a visual record of Covid-19 memories,” said Cressman. “That included changes in household life, family moments and spring’s unfolding. The practice of making these paintings has made looking back through the Covid-19 months an easy way to remember what happened during this time. By capturing the most salient, prominent memory of each day, I have a pretty comprehensive record of my and my family’s experience.”

The month of March, for example, reflects new daily pastimes including a crossword puzzle, a Vermont state puzzle, and a card game. April 6 shows the records she and her family listened to nightly. May 2 indicates the creation of a virtual music experience, and June 12 displays the town parade for the Hanover High School graduating class of 2020. Finally, July 19 signifies the Cressman family’s yearly cleaning out of cobwebs in the cellar on a hot day, and August 6-8 is a three-panel spread of a view from a bike ride the Cressman family took in Danville, VT on the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail.

This spring, Rooker also worked with the 4th graders at the Marion Cross Elementary School to put together a virtual time capsule after the students were given question prompts and asked to share photographs and reflections about how they were negotiating learning from home. “The children were quite motivated, knowing that their writing would be archived for the future,” said Rooker.

Marion Cross student Gideon related, for instance, that his iPad has been “very important” during the pandemic. “I use it to communicate with my friends and for online learning,” he said. “I can use it to play Magic the Gathering with my friends.”

Dorian liked using Zoom and Google Classroom to hang out with his friends to learn “in this new strange way.” “I think Google Classroom is harder than learning in real life, but I like that I get to do my work without a timer,” he said.

The 4th graders were also keenly aware of the precautions they needed to use to deal with Covid-19 as well. “My mom and dad wore these (masks) when we went out so you wouldn’t breathe in the germs, and it also protected you from getting sick,” said Ryan.

Passing the time while at home during the pandemic found most 4th graders outside, creating important projects while sheltering-in-place.

Zander and his brother and father built a tree platform; Collin with his four friends started a crayfish business; Olivia invented a game called rocketship; and Sara made a rock garden passageway with her neighbors. Lila made bracelets for her friends, and Lidia, Grayson and Aydan became deeply involved in book reading.

But gathering these kinds of autobiographical materials wasn’t all Rooker and Pidgeon undertook. They also worked with a group of volunteers in Norwich to gather photographs of signs, notices from the listserv, and information from the local schools about the pandemic. They asked local resident Demo Sofronas to document curbside pickup at Dan & Whit’s and King Arthur Flour. “We’ve been saving many of his blog posts and photographs when they directly connect to Covid-19,” said Rooker. “This has all been gathered via Google Drive. This summer, NHS intern Elizabeth Rooker, a student at Mount Allison University has been downloading and printing the materials so they will be physically in the archive.”

So, what have community members gleaned so far from the pandemic? “I believe it has shown us many clear lessons about kindness, taking better care of our planet, supporting local community and, finally, eradicating racism,” said Norwich resident Amy Lems. “I hope we are all paying attention.”

Once resident expressed appreciation for living in an area where most people seem to respect the request to wear masks and physical distancing. “I’m also extremely grateful to people like Dan Fraser who has made those of us at high risk feel safer by offering delivery and curbside pick-up,” said this Norwich resident. “Our local stores like the Upper Valley Food Co-op and the Hanover Co-op have made it easier on all of us.”

Other local residents also indicated a deeper appreciation for the importance of friends and family. “I think we need to be respectful of others and not to be resentful of what restrictions are placed on us,” said one blogger. “We need to find joy in acceptance and satisfaction in everyday activities as we are living through this unprecedented situation.”

And, for Rooker, the Norwich community has revealed itself as being resilient.  “There are circles of neighbors and friends watching out for each other,” she said. “In some ways, the restriction of staying at home opened up new creativity among the kids. And, as always, the beauty of this place has walking trails and vistas for a little escape and good soil for victory gardens.

Nine years ago, one of the most damaging storms in Vermont’s history came roaring in, bringing the state to its knees, as some said, with more than 500 miles of state roads destroyed, 60,000 homes and businesses without power, and 200 bridges damaged or ripped off foundations.

One of those was the Norwich’s Kids Bridge over Blood Brook connecting Beaver Meadow Road and neighboring families to Huntley Meadow. Kids used the bridge to cross the brook on foot and bike to use the fields, playground, and continue on their way to school and town.

The wooden bridge, built by Eagle Scouts, was never replaced, despite an approved bridge design, necessary state and town permits, and approved site. The last remaining obstacle was expense – until now.

Thanks to private donations recently received from residents and friends of Norwich, the town has set up a special fund called the Kids Bridge at Huntley Meadow. To date, over $10,000 has been raised to replace the bridge. The estimated cost for the project with riverbank abutments and slope suitable for bike and foot approaches, in addition to the assembly and placement of the bridge, is $12,000. The total cost, however, is projected to be $20,000.

The steel prefabricated walking/biking bridge will be delivered to Huntley Meadow. The grading and footings and the installation of the bridge across Blood Brook will be done entirely by volunteers from the Trails committee, local contractors, and residents.

“We are currently past the halfway point in donations from friends of Norwich,” said Norwich resident and project overseer Don McCabe. “If friends continue to make tax deductible donations at our current pace, we hope to have the bridge in place this summer.”

McCabe’s family has lived in Norwich for 36 years. He and his wife, Lisa, built their house there, raised their children and brought them to Huntley Meadow over many years, crossing the old suspension bridge, catching crayfish under the bridge and going for an occasional swim.

“Our kids came to Huntley for sports practice, family picnics, kite flying with friends, and biking over the years,” said McCabe. “When it became clear recently that there was not enough support for taxpayer dollars to replace the bridge, the old-fashioned ‘let’s do it ourselves’ spirit took hold. I reached out to personal friends first, then to Norwich residents through the Norwich List.”

The response has been overwhelming, McCabe related, but there are still more generous friends needed to make the Kids Bridge a reality this summer. He met with Norwich town manager Herb Durfee, Recreation Council director Brie Swenson, and members of the Norwich Trails Committee in March to find out if there was collective interest and support to proceed.

“All supported the concept of private funding and volunteer person power for this community project,” said McCabe. “The town manager agreed to set up a designated fund to be used solely for the Kids Bridge. The Recreation director agreed to manage the project and secure permits from the state. Local contractors agreed to donate their time and equipment to prepare the bridge site. The Trails Committee volunteered its members to assemble and place the prefabricated bridge.”

That need for funding and the warm memories that many families have had over the years using the bridge with their children prompted McCabe to begin the fundraising project using only private donations to bring the bridge back to Huntley Meadow.

McCabe believes that when Norwich families donate to the Kids Bridge project, it underscores the commitment to ‘think globally, act locally.’ “We’re aware of what is happening in our country and the world,” said McCabe. By putting resources into rebuilding the Kids Bridge, past and future generations of Norwich residents, alike, can talk about the simple pleasures of life like “…hiking and biking across the little bridge that spans the brook.”

Publisher’ Note: I don’t typically publish profiles of people after they’ve passed for a number of reasons: that we’re only quarterly; that I like to ‘introduce’ people to the community in hopes of facilitating real-time connections; that we try to capture a person’s heart and soul in the moment.

I am making an exception for Ruth.

Ruth Sylvester, herself, was exceptional in every way. I can safely say that the Norwich Times would not be the time-honored publication it continues to be were it not for the articles she wrote for just about every issue since the very first one in September 1997. Although Ruth and I rarely saw each other over those 20+ years, and didn’t have much in common superficially, I felt a deep love for and connection to her that I couldn’t explain. She truly und erstood my mission for the Norwich Times and was able to capture and translate the essence of Norwich and its people, places and events like no other.

And, why, you might ask, did I not feature her when she was living among us? Because, true to who she was, she did not want the focus to be about her. She wanted to shine her light on others.

While Ruth has passed on, her spirit is alive and well in everyone else’s stories she so magically shared through her written word.

Ruth Ellen Sylvester lived an extraordinary life – one filled with adventure, song, dance, books, writing/editing, athleticism, travel, gardening and a myriad of friends. But there was more. This was a woman who was joyful, generous and compassionate, one who took risks and was not fearful of being alone. Her strength of character was reflected in her philosophical optimism and her encouragement of others to share in kind.

Ruth was born in the spring of 1952 and passed away in the winter of this year after a courageous battle with cancer. The host of family and friends who surrounded her mirrored the admiration they had for her.

“Her gift for being fully involved in the present moment made her wonderful company,” said Ruth’s spouse, Edith Forbes. “She was quick to notice other people’s needs and liked helping in ways large and small. Thanks to her generosity, joyfulness and multiplicity of interests, she had a wide and warm circle of friends.”

With a degree in classical Greek and Latin from Bryn Mawr College in her academic pocket, Ruth headed north in the early 1970s to Franconia, New Hampshire where she had lived and worked on a vegetable farm during summers while in school.

“This was a reflection of her style,” said Forbes. “It wasn’t political or philosophical as was the sign of the times back then when people were getting college degrees and then moving back to the land. Ruth was just enthusiastic about life and lived in the moment. She got fully absorbed in whatever she was doing. She loved being at the farm but I think eventually she outgrew it.”

As such, Ruth relocated to Norwich where her parents and grandparents had previously retired. The move gave her the continuation of a lifelong connection with the Vermont town. At first, Ruth tried a variety of work including the Kiewit Computation Center, Peter Christian’s Tavern, Countryman Press, and substitute teaching. Eventually, she became a freelance writer and editor. She edited books by local authors and wrote regularly for the Norwich Times, Quechee Times and Lebanon Times.

She had a vast storehouse of memorized poetry, Forbes noted, that she could recall to suit the moment. Close friend Marcia Cassidy agreed. “I think because Ruth majored in classic Greek and Latin, it gave her an understanding of words and vocabulary that were deep in their roots. She was an incredible writer and a keen listener. It was never about her, but always about others.”

As longtime and dear friend Steve Maker noted, Ruth spent decades helping others in a variety of ways. “She was serious and consistent about helping others have fun,” said Maker. “She held annual parties, one of which was called GBC for garlic, butter, and chocolate – the major food groups – and people had to bring a dish that had one of those ingredients in it. Can you see what fun that would be?”

Good friend Tracey Sherry recalled Ruth’s annual strawberry and lobster parties, among others, the purpose of which were to assemble friends and neighbors. “They were really excuses to bring people together and to share good, fresh food,” said Sherry. “She was so generous of heart and spirit.”

“Ruth wrote profiles of people in the area with
her eye on a particular topic. She loved words.
She had an acute ear for the exactness of
language. In fact, one could have called her ‘a
birdwatcher for language.’” -Edith Forbes, spouse

In 2001, Ruth began attending a local reading group where she met her future spouse, Edith (Elfie) Forbes. The couple celebrated their civil union in 2004 and a legal marriage five years later. They moved to Forbes’ farm in Thetford where Ruth dove into gardening and tending to the farm animals.

As a local resident and passionate cello musician, Ruth also joined the Upper Valley Music Center in which she played with several ensembles, including a string quartet, a folk dance jam group, the Bach study group and the Upper Valley Chamber orchestra. She also served on the organization’s board.

“We were delighted to have her as a colleague at the Music Center,” said Louis Cornell, president and board member, and one of the founders of the organization. “She had played the cello as a girl but gave it up until she joined us.”

Ruth also came on board as a student of chamber music which is how she initially became involved in the center, Cornell related. “She was enthusiastic and funny,” Cornell said. “She had a wonderful sense of humor which made working with her a joy.”

Cornell met Ruth through her parents with whom he was friends, and the two musicians played string quartets together for years. She was a chamber music player and was also in the chamber orchestra. “Ruth was intelligent and enterprising,” said Cornell. “She was an independent soul who was willing to take risks. She leaves a big hole where she touched many lives in all kinds of circumstances and considerations. She was a delightful person to know, and she will be very sorely missed.”

Ruth was deeply involved with a variety of dance styles including English country, contra, Morris, folk, and ballroom. She also became a lifelong dance caller. The adventurous and independent sides of Ruth were reflected in her world travels – solo. While at Bryn Mawr, she traveled around the western United States and, after graduation, through Europe and Africa by herself.

“She loved life,” said Forbes. “She loved being alive. She trusted fate and, in general, that served her well.”

Willing Hands’ new headquarters is on Church Street in Norwich. However, its impact reaches far and wide as it picks up nutritious food otherwise thrown away, and donates it to organizations and people in need across the Upper Valley.

Willing Hand’s history starts in 2004 with founder Peter Phippen. Phippen worked in the produce department of the Hanover Co-op and noticed that there was an inordinate amount of nutritious food going to waste. He resigned from his job and founded Willing Hands in order to be able to redistribute quality food into the community which would have otherwise gone into the landfill.

Phippen started out with a donated mini-van to collect food and deliver it to local organizations. The aging mini-van was without a garage, and so major temperature changes when storing produce before delivery was challenging. Despite many hurdles, in its first year, Willing Hands delivered over one hundred tons of food to over thirty organizations and gained its non-profit status.

Today, Willing Hands serves over sixty organizations every week in the Upper Valley, delivering food in box trucks. “We made a decision early on in our history to focus our time and attention – and our donors – on perishable and healthy food,” said Gabe Zoerheide, Executive Director of Willing Hands. “In 2019, Willing Hands delivered approximately 266 tons of food to our neighbors in need and 93% of this was fruit and vegetables.” The other food collected by Willing Hands includes eggs, milk, frozen meat, and locally-made, home-made bread.

As another part of its mission, Willing Hands has several programs to create more accessibility to healthy food. There is a nutrition education program to teach people how to cook healthy meals on a limited budget with limited kitchen items. This program is volunteer-run by board member, Birgit Humpert, a registered dietician. People can also donate food from their own gardens, and even wild game they’ve hunted to help supplement the foods which Willing Hands receives in donations.

Another important part of Willing Hands is the garden sites run by Gleaning and Gardening Coordinator Jim McCracken. The gardens, which are at Cedar Circle Farm and Willing Hands home base, are entirely tended by volunteers who come to plant, weed, and harvest crops for donation. With the recent threat of Covid, McCracken spoke of the importance of the gardens for community building. “I think they really enjoy being out and having a purpose to what their work is, and being able to help and be safe at the same time.”

Gleaning, which is the act of harvesting leftover crops from a farmers field, is a high-yield, volunteer-run activity to collect more produce for donation. The volunteers will go to local farms and orchards to collect spare fruits and vegetables which were not collected by the farmers themselves. Places such as Crossroads Farm, Honeyfields Farm, Edgewater Farm, and Cedar Circle Farm have generously donated their excess produce to Willing Hands. In 2019, gleaning alone contributed about 60,000 pounds of produce. Right now, there are five weekly-scheduled gleanings.

Carolyn Frye, who is the Gleaning Program Volunteer Lead, said she joined Willing Hands because of the simplistic nature of the organization. “I just thought it sounded like such a perfect mission. At the time it was very straightforward, there was surplus food and there were people in need and Willing Hands was collecting surplus food and giving it to people in need,” said Frye. “I feel like everyone who comes to Willing Hands to volunteer has that same interest and so there’s such a wonderful camaraderie…That’s the wonderful part of that, to see the spirit of others who want to help others in that way.”

Willing Hands has recently moved into a new location at 198 Church Street in Norwich with 10 acres and a 4,160 square foot building. Before the move, the biggest issue for the organization was with space. “We had these crops available and no place to store them so we had to leave them in the field or find another organization to take them right away,” said Frye. Their new location has a warehouse space for more food storage, allowing them to house their food for a longer time.

In response to Covid-19, Willing Hands is facing a huge challenge. With an increased demand for donated food as people face the economic crisis, Willing Hands has responded in kind. “Our organization has really been on the forefront of the community’s response to the pandemic, particularly around food response…The past six weeks have been the busiest I’ve ever had during my career.” said Zoerheide. The organization has had to increase their capacity by up to forty percent. “There has been an outpouring of support from community members monetarily and with volunteer time, which is a heartwarming and positive thing. Logistically, it’s challenging and it’s been very rewarding to play a role in the community’s response.”

Willing Hands has been uniquely able to handle this crisis in a way they weren’t before. “We finally found a perfect location and our programs have been able to grow. At this time of such tremendous need we’ve been able to take so much in. It’s really remarkable that we are really set to respond to this crisis, having moved into the facility just last spring.”

The work that Willing Hands does is an example of how a small idea can create such large-scale impact. Food waste is an enormous problem in the United States, creating vast quantities of methane which is a highly impactful greenhouse gas. Being able to redistribute food that will otherwise be discarded can actually start with a mini-van and turn into a large-scale operation. There are networks of organizations doing their small part to end food insecurity across the country, but creating a network of organizations such as Willing Hands has been able to do, has made a larger dent overall. Outstretching Willing Hands far and wide will do wonders for solving food insecurity across the country and beyond.

In the 1943 movie, Lassie came home to Roddy McDowell. In the 1996 song that won Shawn Colvin the Grammy, Sonny came home with a mission… and a vengeance. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, Phin Choukas and Noah Kahan came home to the Upper Valley with time on their hands and with music on their minds.

So why – with Choukas’ sophomore year at Middlebury College and with Kahan’s rising career as a touring musician and on hold for the foreseeable future – did the childhood friends limit themselves to a single week of mud season to record Cape Elizabeth, an EP of five acoustic-folk songs?

Why, that is, aside from limiting the odds of one infecting the other in the Choukas family’s Dreaded Zig Zag studio on Kerwin Hill?

“We wanted to have a really raw sound, to build up the songs a little bit, but not take away from the rawness,” Choukas said recently from his Norwich home. “Just focus on Noah’s voice and the songwriting.”

That focus, along with the tight deadline, gave Kahan just the right context in which to play out songs and ideas he’d been struggling to bring to life between tours and recording on behalf of Republic Records, the label with which he’d signed out of Hanover High School in 2015.

“The time frame we were working with took away any chance of falling into overwhelming doubt about any given song, doing a lot of takes,” Kahan said from his home in Strafford. “I didn’t want to overthink or over-produce this record.”

Republic released the finished product on May 1 – barely two months after Kahan fled his professional home base, New York City, just ahead of the tsunami of Covid-19 infections. Picking up his younger brother Simon following what he calls “a week of almost total panic,” he drove north to shelter-in-place with their family.

Mostly for the sake of channeling their anxieties, the Kahans jammed with a song that Noah had written and set aside a few years earlier.

And now, This Troubled Mind took on new meaning, anchored by the following verse:

I worry for the sun, yes, I worry for the snow

I worry I’ll die young while I worry I’ll grow old

Oh, I worry for the time I spent worrying alone

It makes me sad

It takes me back

I break in half

Ah-ooh, I break in half.

Next thing the Kahan brothers knew, their mother had posted a video of them performing the song on the community Facebook page “The Quarantine Circus.” (facebook.com/groups/243263783376076/search/?query=Berkencamp&epa)

And shortly after the video hit Instagram, Republic commissioned the EP. For that, Kahan knew exactly whom he wanted to co-produce it – and where. “I’d recorded some of my very early stuff there with (Phin’s older brother) Nate, so it felt incredibly comfortable,” Kahan said. “Interesting to be back in that place. Felt really special.”

And Kahan knew that Phin had learned a few things from Nate, particularly how to make the most of the production software Ableton Live. In recent years, with Nate away pursuing a career in golf as well as post-doctoral studies in psychology, Phin has collaborated at the Dreaded Zig Zag with Norwich singer-songwriter Hans Williams, with Middlebury classmate Max Drazen, and with Ian Smith and Hunter Simpson of the band Loon.

“It takes a really long time to learn the tools,” Choukas said. “I see my computer as an instrument. There are so many aspects to the technology.”

On top of his technical skill, Kahan said, Choukas “has a knack for understanding what a piece needs to sound like. He’s great at hearing a song, knowing where the emotion needs to hit really hard.”

All this, two years out of Hanover High School. “Production is really all about your ear,” Choukas said. “The more reps you get, you learn to pick details out in songs. The more experience you get, you start to hear different things.”

And working with “incredibly talented people like Noah,” he added, “I’ve learned that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. That collaboration is what makes me most excited.”

In Kahan, he’s collaborating with an old friend who also is making a name for himself. Kahan’s EP Hurt Somebody, particularly a duet with Julia Michaels on the title track, drew wide acclaim in 2018. And before the coronavirus hit, he was preparing for a busy year of touring until the coronavirus postponed or cancelled them.

“Making music with Noah, to be so involved was such a privilege,” Choukas said. “He’s a great songwriter, and he knows how he wants to do things. We had a great work flow, super efficient.”

Much of the efficiency flowed out of necessity. “We were super careful,” Kahan said. “We both wore masks through every session. Phin was disinfecting his stuff, and I was disinfecting mine. I didn’t even use his bathroom.

“As well as we worked together – he knew what I wanted to do with the song before we went to the mic – there was always a little bit of tension in the room. “It was the strangest recording experience I ever had.”

As happy as they are with the finished product, they look back with mixed emotions, resisting the temptation to call the sheltering-at-home a blessing in disguise. “We’re so privileged, able to carry on our own lives” Choukas said. “I’m reluctant to say. At the same time, if not for this situation, this EP wouldn’t have happened. The music kind of fits the situation. “It’s something that can definitely be done in this world right now.” Kahan seconds those emotions.

“This project definitely provided a paradigm switch for me,” he said. “After five years of touring and writing and recording, I was feeling directionless. I didn’t feel like I was doing it for me anymore. One of the things that was reinforced for me by this experience is that things have changed. You can’t change them back.”

While Choukas is continuing to work with Kahan and other projects at the Dreaded Zig Zag during the pandemic break, he still foresees returning to his undergraduate studies in philosophy at Middlebury, as well as taking courses in sociology, education – and music appreciation.

“Music is what I’m most into, and the last two years, I’ve been more seriously into it,” he said. “At the same time, I find that having a good balance of interests helps with the music. Zoning in on one thing or the other, I can get kind of burnt out. When my class work gets kind of heavy, I need music as a bit of a break from the work.”

As much satisfaction as he’s finding in producing, Choukas will keep it as a side gig before deciding whether to go to law school after graduating from Middlebury.

And until further notice, he’ll continue to golf, mostly at Baker Hill Golf Club in Sunapee, between recording sessions until further notice.

“I’ve probably gotten out six or seven times since the weather started getting better,” Choukas said. “I’m definitely looking to keep my game sharp.”

To hear Noah Kahan’s EP Cape Elizabeth, visit https://open.spotify.com/album/7rAXvbNQSxnAnVl3taoMLj or www.republicrecords.com/artists/noah-kahan. David Corriveau is a freelance writer living in Lebanon.