05091 - Woodstock, Vt.
The Woodstock Town Crier, located on a triangle of land at the intersection of Central and Elm Streets, has shared the time, temperature and news of community events with residents of Woodstock for decades. The following is an edited interview with Jack Anderson, director of the Woodstock Historical Society, who describes its origins and significance.
There was a fella named Patrick that was doing it, He must have moved on. I'm trying to think who in town would be old enough to remember how it began. I know it goes back many years, but when exactly it started, I don't know if we have a trace of that.
Frank Teagle had something to do with it. There are signs on either side of the green — I don't know if you've seen those, little chicken wire enclosures — he used to do those, too. The information booth on the green was his chicken coop or tool shed that he brought down.
Whenever something was going on, Frank would know about it. You know, barbecue tonight, or PTA meeting or whatever, Frank would put it on the signs. He was an amazing guy.
Frank did that for a long time before he died in 1997. After that, it was taken over by Charlotte Boggs for maybe a couple of years, when she was still in town. Then the Chamber of Commerce took it over. There may have been someone else, I don't know.
Woodstock Town Crier, it says it right there. It isn't just for show; it's functional. It's the center of the community, the place where you can come and find out what you need to know.
There's a posting for where the AA meetings are, when the chicken pie supper is, what movie is playing at the town hall theater. If people want to know what's going on, they come and read it. I see people studying that thing all the time.
It's definitely a carry-over from an older day. I'm sure somebody has said, why bother? We can just look in the paper, or go online. Well, because it's a tradition. It reinforces the village center, the community center. It's where you get information, where you visit, where you exchange with people. It just puts an exclamation point on that. I don't know of any other town that has it.
You have to write it all out by hand, and you have to have good penmanship. It's chalk on a blackboard, not abstract on a computer screen. Don't text message me, don't e-mail me, don't call me on my cell phone. I'll read the blackboard.
Maybe people still like that.
Hear Patty Flanagan talk about the Woodstock Town Crier.