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Sharing Memories Of Farming And Family With Betty J. Norris

photo by provided Music and the land were a part of Betty’s earliest memories in South Starksboro. Mother Reatha played the fiddle. Father Samuel taught her how to work with animals and the land. Grandpa Ford played the accordion and Betty and son Kelly spent many an evening listening to the music.

photo by provided This beaver pond is on the opposite side of the road from the Starksboro farm where today the farming tradition continues with maple products and Hops for beer that continue the traditions of many generations on the land.

photo by provided At the north end of the barn that still stands on the family farm, the fields are now full of a new crop in Vermont’s agricultural landscape- Hops.

Tuesday August 15, 2017

By Cookie Steponaitis

It was 1932 when Betty Jean Stokes Norris made her appearance into the world in the same home in South Starksboro that her mother had been born in 1913. On hand at both births was country doctor Dr. Edwards. Outside the family home windows are acres of land, the Green Mountains and a farm that required daily care and tending and when you ask Betty if there is any better sight in the world she will simply say, “not to her.”
    Betty remembers her childhood as one that contained work and focused on family, time spent together and the animals. “I worked with my father every day,” shared Betty. “I did not milk the cows, but I was the one in charge of the calves and heifers as well as working with the horses during hay and sugaring seasons. I was not allowed to start working with the team and the dump rake until I was eight. My grandmother was very strict. I guess you could say I was raised more like a boy than a girl.”
    Betty found that farm life taught many lessons and some even earlier than perhaps her parents wanted. The family bull was kept in with the cows and put up in the pasture far up the meadow. “We didn’t use artificial insemination at that point,” explained Betty. “We used live breeding and my dad sent me and the family dog up to retrieve the bull and cows. I sent our Collie dog Buster ahead of me because he would start bringing them down. We had worked really hard with him not to bite the heels of the cows but to more or less herd them in. He didn’t come back and even when I called he came without the herd. When I got to the top of the field of Alders I was shocked at what I saw. A bear had attacked and killed our bull and the cows were standing far in the corner of the pasture huddled together. It took me a very long time to get the cows to leave him and come back to the barn. I dreaded telling my dad, because that bull represented over a year’s profits and his death would set us back. He told me that life handed things like this to people and we had to learn to move on.”
    Another fact of farm life for Betty and her family was a love of music. Betty’s mother loved music and like many families of the time and county, dances happened on Friday night. The dances served as fun, celebration and gathering points for the towns. You saw people there and spent time visiting, dancing and for the young people dating. Betty attended Jerusalem School, as her mother did, and enjoyed spelling the most. One of her best memories was when a family moved in to town with fifteen children- 11boys, 4 girls and 2 sets of twins. The family had twin sons named Mahlon and Winston and one became her friend and the other became her husband and father of children Alan, Bonita, Corinne and Kelly. When Mahlon returned from World War II, the couple married and at first lived and worked on her father’s farm and later moved to a farm of their own.
    When the family was nearly grown Betty left the farming life but continued to work in the agricultural field selling nuts, bolt and parts for Transcontinental Bolt Company. Her route put her all over the region and in contact with farm families large and small and her career gave her the opportunity to witness changes in farming in Vermont. “In my young years a small farm milked twenty-thirty cows,” explained Betty with a smile. “When I got married and moved to a larger property we were talking about there being forty-five -sixty cows. By today’s count, that is not even enough to open up the front doors.” It is completely mind blowing to Betty to hear about local farms with herds approaching 1800 cows.
    Today Betty’s family count is four children, twelve grand-children and seventeen great-grandchildren and while it may take her a while to piece together the tales of all of them, she can share anecdotes and current facts of where their lives and paths have taken them. Most are Vermont based.
    Sitting at her home in New Haven, Vermont Betty gazes out at the farm land surrounding her home and out of the corner of her eye watches a bit of television. Truth be told the television shows do not really hold her interest. It is the green fields out her windows and the mountains in the distance close to her childhood home. “I gaze and my mind takes me back,” reminisces Betty. “I think of the farm and what we did, how we lived and I am so glad I had that chance. I learned a work ethic, a love of the land, a love of music, and a love of animals. All are still with me today.” Another fact that brings joy to Betty’s face is the family still farms the South Starksboro land. Today it is not cows but maple products and hops for beer harvested from the land and the laughter of a family still echoes across the open fields.
    As Addison County celebrates everything agricultural, Betty Jean Stokes Norris is celebrating right along with them. She cherishes her roots and memories and her belief for a life on and with the land. Norris believes what you have is not as important as how you live and living with the land is her idea of how it should be done.

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