Ski racks at the back, icicles on the bumpers

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Want to have a little look into what it was like to go away on a skiing weekend in the late 1930s? These photographs, taken in Woodstock, Vermont, give a good idea and also show some of the everyday cars used at the time. Note the two lovely woodies parked side to side, too. Surely Fords?

Do we have an informative caption? Yes, we certainly do, although it’s a bit of a funny one: “Every available space for parking is used by skiers on weekends at Clinton Gilbert’s farm. The house is about eight years old; purchased by Gilbert in 1929. He has about 150 acres, mainly a dairy farm with twenty-three cows. He also makes about one hundred gallons of maple syrup every year. First skiing town in the US built on this farm in 1934 by White Cupboard Inn, but Gilbert now owns and runs tow and it has increased his income about 25 percent. Has enabled him to build small ski lodge and do many repairs to property.”

The photographer was kind enough to give a view inside Gilbert’s farm showing skiers warming themselves and having some fun. The result is what could well be a Norman Rockwell setting, couldn’t it? Hang on, Rockwell may have visited this very farm himself at around the same time for some inspiration. He was a New Yorker but, as we learn: “It wasn't until the fall of 1938, when he bought an old farmhouse in Arlington, Vermont, that he got a much-needed restart for his art.”

And not so much because of the sheer beauty of the mountains and streams, the woods and foliage, it turns out. Rockwell never painted a landscape during the 14 years he lived in Arlington. Legend has it that one day he went fishing with a friend who commented on the fantastic view. “Yes, isn’t it beautiful?” Rockwell said. “Thank heavens I don’t have to paint it.”

Words Jeroen Booij. Pictures Library of Congress collection.

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