Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1910-08-20
written for The Bulletin. }

Champion, they tell me, is typical
old New England town | resent this.
The word typical jars. To me Cramp
ton is not typical, but unique, the only
town in the world My fore bears
helped to make it what it is. / was
born here, | have lived here all my
life 1 know everybody, / have always
known eyerybody-and there are no
better people on earth. 1t seems to
me that to have been born in Cramp
ton, to have lived here happily and
long, then, at last, to die here among
friends, and to be buried under the
beauty of it's ever-g reenness, ought to
be enough to content anybody. 1t is
enough to content me.
They tell me | am growing old
This jars, too What if my beard is
gray Boys in their twenties are so
ready to think no one is young but
themselves. 1t does seem a long time
since I went to school, the little dis
trict school on the hill,r hard by the
meeting house. l pretend to no lit
erary skill, to no skill at all by which
to piece together my scraps of infor-
nation, my bits of memories, or the
traits and incidents / take note of
every day. For L see and hear much
more than those nearest me suspect.
Nature gave me eyes and ears, as well
as the something inside me that throbs.
Nature gave me, too, a passion for the
play of events, a delight in drama. And
where can one find more passion of
play than in the varying dream of life,
enacted on the plane of human exist
ence? Old or young, | am still, as |
have always been, an impaSSiOned OBJ
server of life.
ain these later days, now that 1 seem
to be growing feebler so that those
play at jotting down on paper my
recollections of the people l have
known and the places / have visited.
Neither the people nor the places are
a a oh Tn m Ytf0 on
will never be famous, | hope. The peo-
pie have known best have been sim
pie, everyday sort of folk; and the
places simple and commonplace and
lovabIe, like the people. No battles
were ever fought on Champion soil, the
blood of heroes has never deluged it,
nor have dragons teeth been sown in
our meadows We have been a peace
fuI and peaceable community, never
cowardly, but cautions; scarcely in the
thick of things; standing off at the
side, as it were, not one-sided. but
side-tracked. Of us it might be said:
wait Indeed. I have heard it said
that one might wait in Champion for
ever Neither as yet, so far as
know, has genius immorta1ized town
too much with us: the great world
passes us by on the other side. Here
in Champion we are all merely men,
women and children, simple and staid
and sensible, more than a bit self-satis-
field, almost as self-centered as though
the axis of the earth ran downwards
through our town Square-as. indeed.
many of US believe it does. The most
of us are engaged in earning our
daily bread, keeping shop and house,
bringing up children, laying by for
rainy day, nursing old age and in 4
fancy, and helping our young men and
naidens to marry and thus begin the
game over again. Speaking of places.
I have Travelled. Twice / have been to
New York, and once to Boston. Once,
too. I started for the west, and got as
far as Albany. Besides, l have driven
times without number about all of our
own outlying villages. But what I love
best. and best love to write about, are
the fields and hills and open sky
spaces of Champion. my native town.