Trip 12 - Westford And Williston

It is the dawning of a new age: the Post-Cairo Era.  I had to take Mexico to the vet this afternoon, and since I'm abandoning him at a kennel for the first time tomorrow (his usual sitters are otherwise preoccupied), I decided to take the opportunity to spend some quality time and start the 251 Club anew.

I left Mex off-leash in the town green, which might have been a mistake because he really wanted to go play with the wolf hound and other dogs across the road.  I guess that's a typical conflict in Father-Son events, eh?

I took a meandering path to the vet by going the back way to PetSmart in Williston for some toys and treats.  First we had a pit stop in Westford (history, demographics):

Absent any evidence otherwise, the name appears to derive from being the most westerly of four granted the same day. For whatever reason, in 1781 the young Republic of Vermont granted another Westford, in Orleans County. That town was subsequently renamed Westmore [where the Fortress of Solitude is].
...
Where family names and descriptive terms were usually the basis for place names, Westford has a distinction in Number Eleven Hill. Nowhere else in the state is anything named by a number. When the town was being laid out, land was distributed in rounds, somewhat like modern sports drafts. The best land (suitable for dwellings and tillage) went in Round One to the most prominent grantee. Pasture land was Round Two; Round Three was frequently woodlot. Round Eleven would have been pretty far down the list in terms of usefulness.

I think this is a de-sanctified church.  They show movies here.

A while back I took a picture of Westford's covered bridge, some skating, more skating, even more skating, and a snow-covered bench.

Mex reallyreallyreally wanted to go play with the "big dogs" in the field behind us.

We wandered over to Williston, home of NTodd's Pa and NTodd's Pa's Bionic Wife (history, demographics):

Williston was one of ten towns granted on the same day to many of the same people, named for Samuel Willis, a wealthy Quaker from Long Island and the first grantee named. While Willis was named on several of the other town grants, this one was clearly the best of the group: it offered acres upon acres of already clear, tillable farmland along the Winooski River.

Thomas Chittenden, Vermont's first governor and for whom the county is named, is credited with being the first to settle in Williston, though he submerged the family's heavier belongings in the duck pond and headed for Arlington during the Revolution.
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In the 1970s, Williston was the center of controversy in the county, as the proposed site of a large shopping mall near the junction of Routes 2 and 2A; "Don't Mall Williston" was the bumper sticker seen on opponents' cars. After years of legal wrangling, the project was eventually squashed (for a time).

Today, an even larger sprawl of separate "big box" superstores is just across the road from where the mall was to have gone. A modified version of the original mall, with a much more attractive feel to it is under development on the original site. Despite past and present opposition focused on the effect such development would have on local businesses, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Circuit City, Toys "R" Us and the like can be found all huddled together just off I-89 at Exit 12.

 

A "big dog" came over to investigate.  When Mex got a load of the size difference, he became a little...perturbed..

Now off to PetSmart, then to get some gas...

"Daddy, why aren't we boycotting Exxon-Mobil?"  "Because I said so, that's why!  When you learn to drive you can gas up at that commie Citgo."

And finally, to the vet we go!  Hooray, hooray.  [/Droopy]

The vet wasn't much fun, but we survived somehow.  And now we're tired, we have new toys, and life is pretty good even though we're all on our own with no girlz to help us muddle through.  Yes, we'll survive somehow.

ntodd

PS--I've updated the blog header and will change the photo later.

Comments

[watertiger]

I am sneaking up to Vermont and dognapping Mex.

Um...did I just say that out loud?

DAMMIT! Back to the drawing board.

[coach bag]

the dog is lovely