Weird, Spooky and Oh-So-Interesting Glover

 

Don't know what is going on in the Northeast Kingdom, but Glover marches to it's own drummer.

As I'm looking at a map, trying to figure out where I want to travel to next, I notice the tiny little town of Glover, Vermont. I got very excited because I knew that back in the mid 19^th century, my people had come to Minnesota from Glover. I got in touch with the town historian and we set up an appointment to meet and explore the old records. Before she even met me, she told me that she had a spare room in her house and I was welcome to stay. Gotta love these small towns.

I spent a couple of nights camped in another field at the Alexander Twilight State Historical Park. Of course it rained and rained. I have been on the road for about a month and I can count on one hand, the number of days I have seen the sun. No matter which direction I've traveled, the rain has followed me. I find that I am apologizing to the locals for being the reason it has rained so much when the inevitable subject of weather comes up.

The Bread and Puppet Theater is a politically radical puppet theater, active since the 1960s. They were very active during the Vietnam War in the sixties. They made these huge puppets and would march down the streets during protests. They are located in an old two story barn. When I went there, I was the only person there. You walk into this barn and have to turn on the lights and then turn them off again as you leave. There were many, many shadows and it was very very spooky. It was not quite as spooky as walking into a building full of clowns, but close. Despite that, I was impressed with the sheer quantity in this barn.

Internet photo - shows you how big those puppets can be

Almost every space in the barn was full of puppets

Imagine walking into a room where a head has white lights coming out of it's eyes.

Walking up to the second story of the barn, this was overhead

Across the street, there was another museum which, unfortunately, was closed

Located down the road from Bread and Puppets is another stellar place to visit – the Museum of Everyday Life. This is a museum that celebrates the ordinary parts of our life. Again, this museum is located in an old barn where you have to turn on/off the lights, but minus the spookiness. In the upstairs part of the barn are snippets of previous exhibitions. Every exhibit was serious with something quirky or funny thown in to make you laugh.  There was an exhibit on knots. You would see a bunch of macrame, different knots used by sailors and there there was the hair knot. Evidently young boy cut the knot out of his sister's hair and kept it for years just to prove that his sister was not perfect. The safety pin exhibit showed all the uses a safety pin could be used for including animals made out of safety pins.  It was great fun.

Dust Exhibit
Another part of the exhibit on dust had some dust from NASA complete with a provenance letter on a NASA letterhead.

The pencil exhibit had a doorway completely made of pencils. 
Rather pretty.

The Matchstick Exhibit
A violin made of matchsticks. 
There was also an X-rated section of racy matchbooks behind a curtain 

Wheel Exhibit
Read the card.