I was looking for a picture of the grade school I went to in the NorthEast Kingdom of Vermont.  When I’ve been talking to a few people here in Oklahoma, they’ve said they grew up in a small town.  Well, not many towns are smaller than Barton, VT.  According to http://city-data.com, the village of Barton has a population of around 750.  The neighboring town of Glover has around 950.  However, Barton has something that Glover does not have — there are two villages in the town of Barton.  That’s one of those irregularities of how Vermont figures out its towns. 

 Each town in Vermont comprises 36 square miles.  As a result, you can have several villages in the same town area.  Barton and Orleans are one example, Colchester and Mallet’s Bay are another.  I suspect the same goes for Essex and Essex Junction, but I’ve never lived there, so I don’t know for sure.

Which brings me to the title of my post.  Real Vermonters.  There used to be a series of books sold in local stores around Vermont talking about “Real Vermonters.” One of them was called “Out, The Vermont Secession Book.” All of Frank Bryan’s books are satire.  One of the running jokes is about ‘flatlanders.’ which by definition, is anyone who was not born and raised in Vermont.  Wouldn’t you know, I married a real ‘flatlander.’  As in someone from the great flat state of Oklahoma.  I know irony when I see it.

It’s the new year, and an election year to boot.  I’m going to be taking an in-depth look at the different political candidates and give my opinion.  Whether you want to listen to me or not, that’s your perogative.  Like Huckabee, I am Christian.  Unlike Huckabee, I do not feel we should be trying to bring God back into the US.  I believe that he never left.  God is only gone if we let him go. 

 Oh, and we can’t force our beliefs on anyone else.