To conclude our
encore presentation of last summer’s
joint project with the Billings Farm and Museum on Vermont’s General Stores, commentator Tom Slayton looks at
their survival – and their relevance – in
today’s Vermont.
All this week, we’re revisiting last summer’s tour of Vermont’s
General Stores, produced in partnership with the
Billings Farm and Museum. Today, commentator Tom Slayton considers why general
stores, once the center of village life in Vermont, eventually began to change and assume the mostly
subsidiary role they play today.
VPR partnered last
summer with the Billings Farm and Museum in a project designed to encourage the exploration of Vermont’s working landscape and rural culture through our
historic General Stores. Today, we revisit commentator Tom Slayton’s consideration of how they’re a key part of Vermont’s social history.
We’re spending this week revisiting that iconic enterprise, The General Store,
in a joint project with the Billings Farm and Museum of Woodstock. Last summer, commentator Tom Slayton visited several, and discovered
some ways to tell the truly historic stores from newer ones. Here’s his method.
Last summer, in partnership with the Billings Farm and Museum of Woodstock, we explored a
cultural icon that we are revisiting this
week. Vermont’s General Stores are enduring enterprises with a
strong sense of place that commentator Tom Slayton says are living links to the
history of our region.