|
|
|
|
|
Work First, Then Play:
Middlebury College and Leisure Images from the Leisure Exhibit at the Sheldon Museum In the early days of settlement, Vermonters were too preoccupied with basic survival to indulge in leisure activities outside the home or local town or village. For many, finding time to read, do needlework, or visit the local tavern was leisure enough. With few opportunities to mingle with one's neighbors, events calling for communal participation were eagerly anticipated. In a predominantly agrarian society, entertainment was frequently combined with labor-related activities dictated by the cycle of the four seasons. Sugar-on-snow-parties, kitchen junkets, corn-husking parties, apple bees, quilting bees, and barn raisings were just a few of the social events enjoyed by rural Vermonters well into the early twentieth century. Immediately following the end of war in 1783, a new influx of settlers from Connecticut and Massachusetts hoped to recreate in Vermont the customs and comforts of their well-established communities to the south. As Addison County communities began to thrive, they witnessed rapid growth in social activities. By the time Middlebury College was founded in 1800, many Addison County residents, buoyed by confidence in the economic prosperity promised by emerging local industries, participated in forms of public entertainment, especially public balls and assemblies, more closely associated with the urban middle class than with rural society. Nevertheless, a rigid Puritan ethic retained a pervasive influence over the community. Hard work and nourishment of the soul constituted the paramount social virtues. Unless the ultimate goal was to restore enough health and vigor to work harder or to replenish the spirit, most forms of recreation were considered frivolous, at best, or, at worst, immoral or sinful. For most of the century, even after religious sanctions and social mores had relaxed, most leisure activities were justified by -- and endorsed for -- perceived benefits to health, education, self-improvement, or community welfare. Options for travel were severely restricted in the early nineteenth century. Available transportation was limited to boat traffic on rivers and lakes and horse-drawn carriages over rough roads hacked through wilderness. A community's sense of isolation could be intense and the motivation to promote local entertainment and diversion understandably strong. The arrival of the steamboat and canal-building in the first decades of the century and, more importantly, the railroad in the 1850s, not only offered all Vermonters the ability to move beyond their traditional social and regional boundaries -- often to leave for good -- but broadened their exposure to culture by bringing outside entertainers and tourists, into Vermont. After 1850, labor-saving inventions reduced the amount of time devoted to farm labor, domestic chores and factory work. In the years following the Civil War, leisure and recreation became by and large accepted as essential to the well-being of American society. The concept of taking a vacation from work was taking hold. Sports and social clubs proliferated. A major component of the overall civic function of the new town halls built during the last quarter of the century by communities, large and small, was to showcase local talent and entertainments and to accommodate the proliferation of touring musicians, theatrical troupes, lecturers, road shows, and exhibitions brought in by train. In the late nineteenth century, with Vermont's agricultural and industrial profile in flux, concerns about providing alternative sources of income for the state's shifting population called for solutions. Until mid-century, a respectable tourist trade was sustained by local residents, visitors from neighboring states and wealthy Southerners who, seeking to restore their health and escape summer heat, frequented Vermont's mountain retreats and numerous mineral springs and spas. As early as the 1870s, however, a concerted plan to convert abandoned farms into attractive summer home properties and to promote Vermont -- the natural beauty of its lakes, rivers, mountains and valleys -- as an alluring summer vacation destination was initiated. As the century drew to a close, Vermont had been established not only as a viable alternative to exclusive resorts such as Saratoga, Newport and Bar Harbor, but as a cool, scenic and affordable haven for the ever-growing middle and working classes seeking a respite from the hot and teeming industrial urban centers of nearby New England and Middle Atlantic states. Promoted by enterprising railroad executives and resort managers in cooperation with Vermont state agencies, tourism represented a nascent industry of limitless promise. Many Vermonters became purveyors of summertime leisure or indirectly benefited from the revenues it generated. In the twentieth century, tourism would emerge
as Vermont's number one industry. The potential for individual mobility and
affordable travel, facilitated by the demand for improved roads, was set into
motion by the bicycle craze of the 1890s. Fulfilling that promise in the early
decades of the twentieth century, the automobile contributed significantly
in establishing Vermont -- with its glorious fall foliage and ideal setting
for the burgeoning interest in winter sports -- as a year-round tourist destination.
Already by the end of the nineteenth century, the powerful forces that once
dictated "work first, then play", had evolved to the point where
Vermonters not only were able to appreciate the benefits of leisure time unimagined
by their forebears, but to profit from the leisure of others. In one of those
fascinating ironies of history, play now provided work. |
