Author Archive for Susan Leader
Vermont native and noted potter Susan Leader grew up on Popplewood Farm in Andover. At age 17, she was inspired to take up the potter's wheel by "a charismatic potter" from the Society of Vermont Craftsman. She spent 18 months apprenticing at pottery villages throughout Japan. She returned to Popplewood Farm, where she and her husband, fiddle player John Specker, raised their two daughters.
Left in Andover: Starting at the Finnish line
By Susan Leader ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Free-standing saunas, some in excellent condition, others rotted into the ground, still punctuate the hills of Andover. It was not possible to grow up here without being aware of its Finnish heritage. “Yksi, kaksi, kolme … one, two, three” and “Paha tytto, paha poika … bad girl, bad […]
Left in Andover: A job stopped on a dime
By Susan Leader ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC In 1957 and 1958, I attended school up in Burlington for part of each school year. My dad had scored a job as an assistant librarian at the University of Vermont in late 1957, shortly after he recovered from his operation for a brain tumor. This was the […]
Left in Andover: Getting in touch with the earth
By Susan Leader ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC For me, summer on Popplewood Farm in 1958 meant forced labor. I detested the endless hoeing of weeds in my family’s large vegetable garden. There were, however, several limited compensations. When no one was watching, I dallied, catching grasshoppers to feed my kitty, who lolled in the grass, […]
Left in Andover: Bewitching water in the 1980s
By Susan Leader ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Hard by the original cellar hole on the West Place – as our deed identifies the southern section of my family’s Popplewood Farm – is where my husband John Specker and I decided to build a “real” house, in 1988. We had dithered through the decade living in […]
Left in Andover: Big house, little house, book barn
By Susan Leader ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Until I came across Thomas C. Hubka’s transformational book Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn, I assumed that the purpose of our Popplewood Farm “little house,” as we called the honey room, and breezeway was just to make it easy to get to the barn in the […]
Left in Andover: Living off of and for the land
By Susan Leader ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC In 1979, my parents gifted me two cabins and some land, the one-time ‘back forty’ of our Popplewood Farm in Andover. I have lived there ever since. This head start made it possible for me to pursue my “impractical” life-long career as a potter, and my husband, his […]
Left in Andover: The pacifist peril in the ’50s
By Susan Leader ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC In 1950, my parents settled in Andover, coming directly from Stratton Mountain, where they had thrived as part of the lively community that formed around Scott Nearing, vegetarian/pacifist/socialist guru of the modern “back to the land” movement. My dad, Herbert Leader, had met Scott years earlier, when he […]
Left in Andover: Bill Newhall’s whole grain life
By Susan Leader ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Technically I was underage the summer that health food nut Bill Newhall tapped me to run his whole wheat bakery in the ell next to the fudge shop in the Weston Mill Yard. In the mid-1960s, baking with whole grains was an anomaly in rural Vermont. This enterprise, […]
Left in Andover: Schoolhouse memories at play
By Susan Leader ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC My heart still gives a little flutter each time I drive by our old Peaseville Schoolhouse in Andover. Is it sorrow, for the sheer forlornness of it? Or mere nostalgia, bad memories softened over the last 60 years so only the good ones remain? Either way, the abandoned […]
Left in Andover: Archaeology in the family dump
Editor’s Note: The Chester Telegraph welcomes Susan Leader to our family of columnists. We’ve known Susan for many years, seeing her as a talented potter who is thoroughly invested in her community. Little did we realize until recently just what a talented writer she is. Please join us in welcoming her! By Susan Leader © […]
