"Brattleboro's "Main Street" is unique because the town itself is so - "there's only one Brattleboro in all the world." The discovery of that uniqueness was made by author Freeman Tilden, former resident of Brattleboro. More than twenty-five years ago he took his family for a season to the Isle of Jersey in the English Channel. There he had occasion to send a cablegram to me. Although he naturally addressed it to Brattleboro, Vermont - the cable clerk after consulting his records, said Mr. Tilden could save a word by crossing out "Vermont," because there was "only one Brattleboro in all the world." The Brattleboro Business Association promptly adopted it as a slogan."

- Charels Edward Crane writing in a 1955 copy of "with interest"

If next Saturday's weather is anything like today's, the 2nd Annual Windham County History Fair is going to be a smash.

Three Windham County antique professionals will be on hand to appraise old treasures for a small donation fee of $5 at the 2nd annual history fair on Saturday, August 14, 2010 from 10 a.m.– 4 p.m. on the historic Common in Newfane, in front of the County Courthouse.

The History Fair is sponsored by The Historical Society of Windham County. It will take place rain or shine. There is no admission charge. For more information, call the Historical Society of Windham County at 802-365-4148 or visit www.historicalsocietyofwindhamcounty.org.

Windham County will celebrate its past with the 2nd annual history fair on Saturday, August 14, 2010 from 10 a.m.– 4 p.m. on the historic Common in Newfane, in front of the County Courthouse.

The event will feature exhibits by the Vermont Historical Society, the Historical Society of Windham County, the Estey Organ Museum, the Brookline Round School House, Brookline Church Preservation Association and Vermont Cemetery Association, as well as eight historical societies in Windham County, including those from Brattleboro, Dover, Dummerston, Grafton, Guilford, Jamaica, Townshend, and Whitingham. In addition to their exhibits, many of the towns will have their published town histories for sale as well as other historic memorabilia (prints, cards, photographs) of the area.

The Historical Society of Windham County presents the 2nd Annual Windham County HISTORY FAIR on Saturday, August 14, 2010 from 10-4PM at Court House Common in Newfane, VT

There will be exhibits by 11 area historical societies, handcraft demonstrations & sales, bake sale, raffles, guided tours of historic Newfane, music and food.

Also, for a small fee, this year, local experts will be providing antiques appraisals.

I fired up the Brain Trust and looked for images of Main Street. Here's a collection of postcards and photos of downtown Main Street from the mid-1800's onward.

Above, Main Street, 1860's

Beautifully preserved, handwritten notes from 115 years ago tell a powerful story of volunteer initiative. The notes show that in late 1894, dozens of volunteers began meeting with the vision of starting a YMCA organization in the Bellows Falls region. They also document that on September 2, 1895, Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws were approved by nearly 100 volunteer founders. The Bellows Falls YMCA had been born.

Now known as the Meeting Waters YMCA, the volunteer-created and volunteer-led non-profit is celebrating its 115th anniversary. Events are being planned for the fall throughout the regional YMCA’s service area which includes over two dozen communities of the Brattleboro, Bellows Falls, Springfield and Fall Mountain regions.

Gordon Crandall has been practicing archaeology since he was a boy growing up in Northern Vermont.

He calls himself an avocational archeologist and in the past several years has completed several digs in Windham County with students from the Brattleboro schools including homeschooled students in the area.

On Sunday, May 23, at 2 PM in the library's main reading room, Gordon will present a talk on the artifacts discovered in these digs with the students.

Twenty years ago (May 4), the big front page picture was "STEAK $5.99". A week later, the photo of the sign above the new Chinese restaurant showed merely "TEA". On May 14, 1990, Brattleboro was in national news.

Twenty years ago, the sign was "big, gross, misleading" according the Reformer and no one disagreed. The change to "TEA" addressed one editorial complaint. Now the sign is nearly invisible due to tree growth. If a big, gross sign stands in a forest, is anyone offended?

DESCRIPTION:
If an omnipotent superpower Afghanistan Invaded the U.S., how many patriotic Americans would cooperate with an Afghan occupation and help the invaders kill American bad guys? Would our Christians resent Muslim armies on our soil? Would we be able to understand and accept the collateral slaughter of thousands of our children and believe the Afghanis were helping America? What if the invaders were Cuban, Vietnamese, or Korean?

TEXT:
If an omnipotent superpower Afghanistan Invaded the United States, how many patriotic Americans would cooperate with an Afghan occupation and help the invaders kill American bad guys? We certainly have a lot of bad guys.

Trains loom large in the national mythos and Brattleboro has one — a good old fashioned, once a day, out-and-back rail line that runs right through town. This year, Vermont Rail Action Network is getting involved in the state's National Train Day festivities to boost awareness and appreciation for the role of trains in our lives.

Look for Train Day activities at the historic Brattleboro Union Train Station at noon on Saturday, May 8. We will be among five other rail towns hosting public celebrations that day. Even the Governor plans to get in on the fun — he and Brian Dubie will be taking an excursion on the Vermonter from St. Albans to Essex Junction that day.

On Wednesday, April 21, at 7 PM in the Library's meeting room, local independent scholar Christina Gibbons continues her lecture series on the culture and civilization of ancient Mesopotamia

In her two previous lectures she presented examples of some of the earliest known poetry, including the Epic of Gilgamesh. Gibbons will talk on the sculpture of this ancient region, which included Sumer, Akkad, and Babylonia.Titled "The Winged Bull," her talks will present sculpture that was hidden for thousands of years and uncovered only in the last century.

A few weeks ago we were given a good copy of the 1925 Dial Year Book of Brattleboro High School.

It's a great document so we've started putting it in the Brain Trust for everyone to enjoy. I think some of you are going to see relatives here, based on some of the names I was seeing.

You can get a sneak peek by looking through the gallery of new images. Right now they are just images. We'll eventually transcribe them into text for easy searching and create a special page for them. Until then, click on any image to enlarge.

Why is this yearbook so great? Many reasons.

DOVER, VT—This fall the town of Dover in Southern Vermont will celebrate from October 1 through 3, with its once in a lifetime Bicentennial – a 200-year birthday extravaganza. 100 years ago, Dover’s Centennial came and went without any fan fair at all – and this time local citizens are determined to make sure that another century does not go by un-noticed.

The Dover Bicentennial Committee, headed by Mary Lou Raymo and a core committee including Leonard Hall, Patsy Bemis, Kandi St. James, Linda Holland, Judith Jones, James Dassatti and Elizabeth Brown, are charged with the responsibility of celebrating and memorializing the formation of the Town of Dover, that took place on October 30, 1810.

A quick note to highlight a few things going on in the Brain Trust, your local Brattleboro wiki.

Dan Axtell has been busy filling in key dates in the Vermont Yankee timeline . He's been going through online archives of news stories and piecing it all together.

S.A. Smith IV, whose relatives made toys and other goods in Brattleboro, has added some pictures of the Latchis Theater under construction. Here are a couple. And a couple more.