Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) April 29, 2026
Native grasses for the First Degree!
On Sunday, May 3rd, our Grange will assemble at 3:30, and at 4:00 we will perform the First Degree of Grange membership for any Grange members who want to join us. These rituals use analogies and metaphors to talk about the way the Grange as an organization supports the agricultural roots of our rural communities–literally–and the farmers who produce so many of the foods we rely on. We’ve been loaned the bouquet of 50 species of native grasses shown in the picture above, which will be part of the “Grange Lessons” we’ll be talking about. In this case, the bouquet will be on the desk of the President, to remind us that grasses–which include wheat, corn, oats, and other staple grains–are the basis of all agriculture. You’ll have to come on Sunday to learn more!
Any Grange member who has paid their 2026 dues is welcome to be a “new member” to go through this degree–it’s a chance to see some of the traditions in action that have kept the Grange going for over 150 years in Vermont. We’ll be joined by a few members of Caledonia #9 Grange from East Hardwick, and from North Branch #483 from Worcester for this event.
9 members of our Grange have active parts in this ritual–I ask each of you to read through your parts, so you can be confident when your time comes. If you have questions, give me a call! We won’t have time to read it all through on Saturday, so we want everyone to be ready on Sunday.
We’ll be doing some rehearsal for this Degree at our regular Grange meeting at 4:30 PM on Saturday, May 2. We’ll also have a chance to discuss the language of the Degree, and how that has aged since it was composed. As many of you know, we’ve updated the names of two of the offices in the Grange–from Master to President, and Overseer to Vice President–to reflect the changes in the connotations of those names. Similarly, the original rituals reflect some assumptions about societal roles for men and women from that time. The Grange, which included explicit equality for men and women in voting, long before women gained equal rights in the “real world”, was still a product of its time. We’d like to have you join us to talk about these issues!
And there will be TWO potlucks this weekend: Saturday at 6:00 PM, and Sunday at about 5:30 PM (depends on exactly how long the Degree takes). We hope we’ll see you at one or both. Please ask any questions at the usual email address: swartztim15@gmail.com.
We’ve got padded chairs!
I’m pleased to report that the delivery of the upholstered chairs we ordered went even better than I expected, on Tuesday, April 21! The truck arrived about noon, and unloaded the pallet of 25 boxes of 4 chairs each (see the photos below). We’re glad to have a large parking lot, and so is the driver who brought in a 53′ semi-trailer truck for this delivery!
The timing worked out well for getting help from 4 members of the Senior Jazz Ensemble who stayed after their rehearsal: Luc Robillard, Greg Gerdel, Tim Flynn and John Totman. In addition, I was able to get Chris Labrusciano, Grant Ornstein and Thomas Weiss to come and help. The whole group worked efficiently to bring in the boxes of chairs from the pallet, and then to open the boxes, remove the plastic bag from each one and put them away in the chair bins from under the stage. Micky and Lanny Covey of the Church of Christ showed up at an o
pportune time to remove the Church’s chairs from “their” bin; we took enough chairs downstairs to have a consistent set of about 100 metal chairs in the Lower Level, matching our Fire Marshal maximum capacity. 48 “extra” chairs went out on the ADA entrance porch, and Renee Carpenter arranged to donate some of those to local musician Heidi Wilson for gatherings and concerts, and to donate the rest for ReSource Vermont to sell or recycle. Thanks to everyone who made this a remarkably quick and easy project!
We hope you’ll come a
nd enjoy sitting in these new chairs–there’s a Grange meeting this Saturday, May 2 at 4:30 to which we’ll welcome you–and the First Degree performance on Sunday at 4:00 (see above), all free and open to anyone!
Transforming the Grange?
Some of you may recognize an electrical transformer of the type used on a utility pole. After the ERV was installed, we got quite a few reports of flickering bulbs in the Hall. After speaking with our electrician, we asked GMP about whether the existing transformer was enough for our needs. GMP agreed that adding the extra load of the ERV and its duct heaters in particular could mean that the 10kVA transformer was undersized–especially since we hope to add a 2nd ERV for the Lower Level in a couple of years. They agreed to upgrade to a 25kVA unit, and installation of the transformer and new wiring to the Hall was completed on April 23rd. So far, this seems to have solved the lights problem.