Author Archives: edpirie

I was listening to “Vermont Edition” yesterday on VPR and the program was a panel response to the 3rd Democratic debates. The panel was comprised of a Dartmouth professor, a Middlebury professor, a Norwich professor, and Bob Kinzel from VPR. I picked up on a couple of points that resonated with me. One was made […]

My favorite season is upon us, the season of church suppers. Last night our church in Waits River had a Baked Bean and Ham Supper. If you like church suppers, this is one of the best, and I baked the beans. Yup, I did, and this is our church in Waits River in the picture. […]

Yea, like I’m Bill Gates, and I am going to put out a summer reading list. Well, not exactly, and as you can imagine – “not exactly” is an understatement (that is, me being like Bill Gates). I am a great reader though, and I always have at least half a dozen books with bookmarks […]

Sometime during World War II, my grandfather bought an old Vermont hill farm in the town of Washington. The farm was typical of the farms in this part of Vermont, mostly hills, small fields, a couple of apple orchards, and lots of woods, about 600 acres all together. There were a couple of small barns, […]

My cynicism and skepticism with  the American political system are no secret. I do not hold back my thoughts or keep my beliefs a secret – I put them out there. This morning I listened to another politician, the current Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, walk away from things he said four years ago. I have […]

Thank you James Taylor. You wrote an anthem for many of us (“Fire and Rain”). This past weekend, my high school class (1969 – Spaulding High School) celebrated our 50th reunion. Fifty years – where did they go, and why aren’t we all here? Both, hard questions, and no easy answers – life happened is about […]

As a young boy, about once a month, or when my mother said I needed a haircut, I found my way to one of our local barber shops. The barber had a odd nickname, “Peanut.” Well, Peanut was a wealth of knowledge, sort of the male gossip central. I listened and learned a lot about […]

Yesterday, ICE arrested about 680 undocumented aliens working at a food processing plant in Mississippi. This is a large food processing company with headquarters in Illinois. The company employs about 13,000 people mostly in the South. A big part of their work is processing poultry. A comment was made, “Where are we going to get the […]

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: […]

Hi, and welcome to my blog, “West Topsham Views.” My name is Ed Pirie, and if you are not familiar with West Topsham, I will help you with the geography. West Topsham is a small village in the town of Topsham, Vermont. The population of Topsham, Vermont is about 1200 people. The village of West […]