Seventy Years Later, Groton Still Knows the Value of Tradition

Oct 7

By Joshua Smith

The BMU Freshman Class used the day to sell dozens of pies (photo - Joshua Smith)

By midday Saturday, downtown Groton was full.

Vendors lined the village, families moved between booths, old friends stopped to catch up, and Route 302 was preparing to give way to the annual parade. The sky was nearly cloudless, the churches were busy, the fire department was out, and the Chicken Pie Supper still waited later in the day.

I grew up in Groton, so Fall Foliage Day has always felt like part of the calendar. As a kid, I did not spend much time thinking about why it mattered. It was simply what Groton did.

Standing downtown again this year, with the event celebrating 70 years, I found myself thinking about it differently.

We live in a time when almost everything seems to move faster than it used to. News reaches us instantly. Conversations happen through phones. Businesses depend on websites and social media. Communities that once relied on bulletin boards and word of mouth can now connect with people hundreds or thousands of miles away in seconds.

There is nothing wrong with that. Groton itself is embracing much of it. During Saturday’s Fall Foliage Day, we heard about the new Groton Connectivity Hub, where residents and visitors can access high-speed internet, computers, video conferencing and other digital resources right in the heart of the village.

Yet just outside, people were gathering for an event that began seven decades ago.

The day had started early with the lumberjack breakfast at the Methodist Church, with pancakes, sausage, biscuits and gravy, donuts and even pie. By midday, more than 40 vendors had set up around town. Churches held bake sales, school groups and community organizations raised money, local businesses opened their doors and people stopped to catch up with neighbors.

Then came the parade.

For a short stretch of the afternoon, Route 302 belonged to Groton. Fire trucks, tractors, floats, organizations and familiar faces moved through the center of town while people lined both sides of the road. The details change from year to year, but the spirit is remarkably familiar.

The reasons behind some of the traditions have changed, too. The first Groton Chicken Pie Supper was held in 1955 to help support the school hot lunch program, and the Northeast Kingdom Fall Foliage Festival followed the next year. After Groton’s local school closed and students became part of Blue Mountain Union, the supper took on a new purpose, helping support scholarships for local students.

The need changed. The event adapted. That may be the clearest reason it has lasted.

One generation starts something because it matters at the time. The next generation inherits it, changes what needs changing and keeps the rest. Over decades, the organizers change, the town changes and the reasons behind some of the fundraising change, but the community still recognizes the day as its own.

If the people who helped organize Groton’s first Fall Foliage celebration could walk through town today, they would certainly notice the cell phones, laptops and social media. They might be surprised that a local radio broadcast from downtown could reach listeners far beyond Vermont.

But they would also see plenty they knew.

They would see people cooking food to raise money for the community, firefighters taking part in the day, neighbors waiting for the parade, churches and organizations opening their doors and children growing up around the same event.

They would still recognize Groton. That idea also came through in the conversations around town.

Titan Potter, who helps lead the It Takes a Village youth mentorship program through the Groton Free Public Library, talked about helping young people understand that they have a place in the community.

“Everybody plays a role in any community and we all need each other,” Potter said.

The program takes young people around Groton to meet organizations, visit businesses and learn how their town works. Potter recalled one participant trying on a full firefighter suit during a visit to the Groton Volunteer Fire Department and becoming excited about the junior firefighter program.

That kind of connection matters. A young person sees a place for themselves in the community and, perhaps, becomes one of the people helping sustain it later.

Groton firefighter Steve Batchelder made a similar point when talking about the challenge volunteer departments face in finding people with time to serve.

“Any time is better than no time to volunteer,” he said.

Fall Foliage Day depends on that same willingness to contribute. Someone cooks the chicken, bakes the pie, organizes the vendors, drives the fire truck, opens the church, sets up the tables or handles one of the dozens of jobs most visitors never see.

Local businesses are part of that effort as well. Major sponsors of this year’s Fall Foliage Day included Emerson Logging, Oliver Landworks, Groton Tire & Auto, LLC, Upper Valley Grill, Rise & Run Timberframes and Wells River Chevrolet. Their support helped make the day possible and reflects the role local businesses play in community life.

The WYKR remote broadcast also had its own group of supporting sponsors and community partners, including the Groton Free Public Library, Village Compute and Village Snacks, Kingdom Restoration and Estimating, the Groton Connectivity Hub, Groton Tire & Auto and the Groton Volunteer Fire Department. Their support helped bring some of the day’s conversations and community stories to listeners beyond downtown Groton.

Technology will keep changing. The way we communicate will keep changing. Groton will change, too. But there is value in having a few things that ask us to slow down, come downtown and stand beside one another for a while. Seventy years is a long time. None of the people who first planned this festival could have known exactly what Groton would look like in 2026.

But I think they would be pleased to know that, seven decades later, the town still gathers around many of the same things: food, service, neighbors, fundraising and community. The leaves change every year. The people change with every generation.

But after 70 years, Groton still knows how to carry a tradition forward.