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Subject: Bolton Valley memories

Author:
Brina

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Date Posted: 04:05:10 12/03/02 Tue

Maureen's mention of Bolton Valley ski trips in the thread below really takes me back there! Wasn't that cool how we could go there from school, in jr. high, on the bus? Was it just on Fridays? Now that I have a son that age, I can see why we loved those days so much!

I do have a Bolton memory that will make those of you who know the ski area laugh at me. It's February 1971 (that's 8th grade, for me) and a friend, Robin Galbraith, and I have decided to paint our skis. We get this sort of spray paint stuff and also some stencil things in the shape of footprints--I think the motif was called Hang Ten, like in surfing?--as well as peace signs. First we have to remove the bindings; we've never done that before, so we get her college-age brother Duncan to do it for us. Then we do our little artistic project on the skis. My skis are painted black, with these neon day-glo peace signs and footprints all over the black background.
We let our skis dry overnight. The next day, I ask her brother to put the bindings back on, 'cause I am supposed to go skiing later that day with another friend (Nanci Wickersham) at Bolton.

Fast-forward to that afternoon. Nanci and I go up to Bolton Valley with her father, who is a really good skiier. Nanci is good too, but I'm just a glorified beginner, all I know I learned on those Friday beginner lessons from jr. high and what little skiing I could get in on those days! So I usually stay to the easy trails. That Sunday, I'm skiing really well, for me, and haven't even fallen yet. It's late in the afternoon, and I want to go on Snowflake Bentley. That's a beginner's trail. Nanci goes on some harder trail, so I do Snowflake alone...and I wipe out. I think the tip of my left ski gets stuck in a mogul or something. I'm told later that it looks like I did a forward flip, only my left ski binding never released, so I...break my leg...in three places! Ouch!

All I remember of it is the yellow sunlight turning into many colors when I try to stand up (the pain). Next thing I remember is the ski patrol guys, very handsome, who bundle me onto a sled with blankets and take me down the rest of the way. Eventually I get taken to the hospital and the leg is x-rayed, put in a cast from toe to top of thigh, and you know the rest.

When I got to school that Monday (at ADL, of course), I am teased mercilessly by all the boys, who can't believe I am such a klutz that I could fracture my leg on Snowflake Bentley. I still remember Scott Potter's face and what a great time he had teasing me about my incredibly stupid luck.

The cast was on for 4 months! Our skirts were so short then, the cast came up to the very top of my thigh and that's about where our skirts ended. We have a photo of me with that big old cast on and my crutches!

That's my Bolton Valley memory. I hope yours are less painful. Please tell some!

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Replies:

[> Subject: Re: Bolton Valley memories

Author:
Patti
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Date Posted: 08:52:53 12/03/02 Tue

I remember the ski trips from school - I think it was Thursday nights. Always had fun. I remember a bunch of people trying to make a video of everyone going over a jump that was on the trail just above the practice slope. I'm not sure what grade we were in at the time, but I remember Tim O'rourke wiping out on purpose over the jump for the camera. I don't remember anyone else involved. We also used to practice there for the Essex Ski team Fresh. and Soph years. Some of the guys that had graduated already, Rick Robert and Greg Dirmair, used to help out because Les Johnson, the coach, didn't ski. There was also a ski area, called Oxbow, that was on what is called the Notch Road in Bolton. We used to practice there too. Dan's brother Brian lives just down the road from where that area was. The old lift is still there, but much overgrown with trees, and what was the lodge is a home with additions to it. So glad I learned to ski when I was young.

[> Subject: Re: Bolton Valley memories

Author:
Joe
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Date Posted: 18:36:59 12/03/02 Tue

My memory of the ski trips to Bolton mostly involved making-out on the way up and the way back on the bus. Not to mention the lift rides. Bob Bickford always had a girl. I recall it was on Friday nights. We (the hot shots) would make "jet sticks" plastic supports that went on the back of your boots so you could lean way back. I skied leaning back for years.....You don't see that any more!

[> [> Subject: Re: Bolton Valley memories
Author: Brina [ Edit \| View ]	Date Posted: 20:30:07 12/03/02 Tue Joe, You're right about the bus rides up and back! Very important who asked you to sit with them (him, or in your case, her!)...but I still say that the ski patrol guys who "rescued" me after my multiple fracture were the cutest things about Bolton Valley. Guess I wasn't in THAT much pain, if I could notice those hunks!

[> Subject: Re: Bolton Valley memories

Author:
David Prior
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Date Posted: 20:31:07 12/03/02 Tue

OH how I remember those friday nights. I think the stupidest thing I did was to stick my tongue to the safety bar, paid hell getting it off. The best was like Joe said the ride up, all the way in the back of the bus if it made it up the hill!(actually I didn't care we had a blast!)Debbie Hoyt. Brina you mentioned Duncan Galbraith I have talked to him the past couple of years he lives right at the base of the hill (BV) on the left going up. My wife and son went friday, sat and sunday, I was out blasting away at Bambies big brother. I did get a good photo check this out http://www.dklprior.com/A/pieInLouisesface.jpg

[> Subject: Re: Bolton Valley memories

Author:
Dennis Downes
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Date Posted: 18:35:05 02/26/03 Wed

Our family left Vermont in 1974.......I would have graduated high school in 1980. I still have alot of funny stories about Essex Middle School. We lived in Birchwood Manor. My Brother Tommy would have graduated in 1976 except he went to Rice. We went skiing together last weekend, and were still laughting about how he and his friends used to jump from the ski lift. Once he did it with his friends from the ski club at Bolton, and broke his skis. He had to go home, and tell my father that he broke it going over a jump. We are still laughing about it this week. Of course, we are not laughing as hard as my nephews are when we told them our stories of our first skis.......cable bindings,lace boots, and bamboo poles......Underhill Ski Bowl Rocks!!!!....If anyone knows who I am, drop a note and say hello.

Dennis