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Sharing Sixty Two Years Of Memories With Connie And Leonard Waldrip

photo by provided Connie and Lenny Waldrip love the outdoors, camping, their family and each other!

photo by provided At a recent gathering at Silver Lake, Lenny and Connie Waldrip shared their love of that special place in Addison County.

Tuesday October 11, 2016

By Cookie Steponaitis

Leonard Waldrip (1929) and Connie (1934) were born in the beginning and middle of America’s Great Depression and remembers childhood as one where people simply had no money. “My parents had jobs in a shoe factory and were very grateful to have work,” remarked Connie. “I was born in Maine and the family relocated to Massachusetts when I was in school. We had food on our plate and clothing on our backs but not much more. We used everything a second or third time.” Connie paused and chuckled a moment, “You could say my generation invented recycling out of necessity long before it became the thing to do.”
    Connie went to work for General Electric just out of high school and was introduced to a handsome young man named Leonard who was also starting his career at the GE plant. Leonard was just home from serving his country and a stint in the Air Force in Guam and the Pacific and had a bit of a hard time handed to him at first by Connie. “He was persistent,” grinned Connie. “We were introduced in December and I agreed to go on dates finally in March and we were married on January 30th, 1954. Sixty-two years this year and it was the best choice I ever made.”
    Leonard worked in the tool and die industry and construction and Connie worked in hospitals, and the couple came to Vermont in the summer. Leonard had come here with his own family growing up. “With our children Adam and Glen we moved to Vermont from Massachusetts and settled at first in Rochester,” reminisced Connie. “But I had always loved the Middlebury area because it seemed the sun was always shining and it was so inviting a place to raise our children.” Central to both Leonard and Connie was a love of the land and camping and whether it was going out on a picnic, hiking with the kids or spending hours out in the woods together, the Waldrip family spent weekends and vacations in a tent and learning the woods together.
    “I have to wonder about what people are thinking today,” stated  Connie. “Today people are involved in their phones and they are buried in the screens. We will go outside and Lenny will say ‘you think they could look up and admire the beauty of a tree, but no they are completely oblivious to the natural world around them.’ ” Growing up outdoors and crediting her upbringing with her longevity, Connie Waldrip has always wanted to help people and have them learn to work together.  “It is kind of hard for people today to grasp,” reflected Connie. “When Pearl Harbor was attacked it brought the nation together in a way that has not happened since. We worked hard, we worked together and we were kind to each other. That one event shaped how we saw each other and the world.”
    While Connie and Leonard both admit some of the modern advances in their lives have been impressive and stellar, both find the lessons of their early life the most enduring. “I must admit that man on the moon in 1969 was life changing,” shared Connie. “We were on a camping trip when it happened and we went to a television to see the man walk on the surface of another body in the sky. The machinery, technology and daring of that event changed how science and the world went. While I still admire what they did I am positive that technology can and will never replace people and the need to be together and to communicate.”
    Recently on a day trip to Silver Lake the couple felt right at home because they served for eight years as the host of the campground. “We have spent a good portion of our lives in the outdoors,” shared Connie.  “We always took the kids along and we did things as a family. Whether it was camping, canoeing, walking, fishing or simply picking a road and seeing where it led we were a family unit.”
    When asked the age old question of how to keep a marriage strong and growing for sixty two years, Connie has a laundry list of simple and important rules to work by. “Kiss each other before you go to sleep every night,” she smiled. “Don’t carry things over to the next day and be kind, be honest and follow your heart and your head. Take time to spend together and leave the cell phones behind. Sit, walk and talk together. Camping will not only teach you to love the outdoors, but it will teach you a lot of life lessons as well.” The Waldrips have three grandchildren and know that the next generation is well on its way to lots of outdoor time and seeing family as a bond that goes beyond generations and technology.
“You know,” concluded Connie, “when I went to work the goal was to change people into machines and to regulate how we worked. To this day I don’t get it. The beauty of people is in their individuality and in how they interact with others, not how the assembly line moves.” With a shake of her shoulders Connie leans forward and holds out her hand with a huge grin. “I hope you got enough to make a story out of all that. You know my uncle used to say there was nothing like a good old fashioned Methodist handshake and I think I agree with him.”
    From the firm handshake to the quiet smile and determination witnessed each and every day, Connie and Lenny Waldrip continue as they always have to be guided by family, friendship and the idea that you treat others as you want to be treated. As for the rest of life’s lessons the natural world is the place to look for a life time of memories and lessons. “Put down those phones,” concluded Connie. “Hold hands and look at the world around you with a sense of wonder. You won’t be disappointed.”

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