Doc Brown is a retired physician living in Canaan with his wife, Patricia. The following is an edited interview.

I’m afraid I’m not a very colorful character to build a story on. Nothing spectacular has happened to me. Most people call me Doc Brown, that’s how people know me. My wife calls me Henry, but she’s about the only one. » Read more

Three months ago, Marcus Herrera rode a Greyhound bus from his home in California to join the small community at A Sacred Place in Canaan. The following is an edited interview.

I tell people very rarely, but I remember being born and being angry. It felt like I was parading around, tripped and fell into this life, like, “Damn, I took a wrong turn at Albuquerque,” or something.

I was born with an umbilical cord wrapped around my neck as if maybe I was trying to get out early. And somewhere there was a voice saying, “This is not going to be easy.” » Read more

Norman Hurd worked at the post office in White River Junction for 33 years before retiring in 2001. A year later, he started making light fixtures with deer, moose and elk antlers that are seasonally shed. The following is an edited interview.

Hunters always seem to keep antlers around. Trust me, if you shoot one, you never get rid of them. My wife (Linda) will have to deal with them after I’m gone. A lot of women aren’t crazy about antler things but my wife likes it, so that’s kind of nice.

We went over to Lake Placid seven or eight years ago and antler art is pretty prevalent over there. I said, “Gee, I think I can do some of that.” That’s how it started. Then I picked up a video on how to do it that I saw on one of the hunting channels. But you can only learn the basics from that, and it’s trial and error from there. » Read more

Martin Midura of West Lebanon works at Hypertherm developing laser cutting technology. He owns a number of antique vehicles that he inherited from his father, Walter Midura. The following is an edited interview.

People had to have some serious (courage) to take out a rig like this (Hupmobile). It handles like a Mack truck and stops really poorly.

Now we’ve got roads and rest stops, but back then, they would go out for 50 miles with nothing but dirt and mud. The manuals tell you to carry a pulley and a jack and all sorts of things for when you go in the ditch.

This car is what they call non-electric. You start it with a hand crank and a magneto generates the spark. It’s got acetylene headlights and the original sidelights are kerosene lamps. » Read more