#18: Mike Priestley: Stowe Hockey History and the Iconic Hyde Cup Tournament

Hockey in Stowe isn’t just a game—it’s a tradition, a community, and a way of life for many. Few people know that better than Mike Priestley. A longtime player, Mike has witnessed the evolution of the sport here, from the old Jackson Arena to the new rink. He has participated in many Hyde Cup tournaments and was a member of the premier VT team-  The Stowe Slugs. But Mike is also a renaissance man, authoring 3 novels and has had a long career writing educational textbooks, magazine articles, book reviews and crossword puzzles for the New York Times. You can also find Mike in the summer out on the local courses playing golf.

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Welcome listeners to the Octagon Podcast, where we explore the stories, people, and places that make Stouff Vermont so legendary. I'm your host, Mike Carey, joined by my co host, Ted Thorndike. We are excited to introduce our guest today, Mike Priestly. Hockey in Stowe isn't just a game, it's a tradition, a community, and a way of life for many. Few people know that better than Mike. A long time player, Mike has witnessed the evolution of the sport here, from the old Jackson Arena to the new rink. He has participated in many High Cup tournaments. And was a member of the premier Vermont team, the Slugs. But Mike is also a renaissance man, authoring three novels, and has had a long career writing educational textbooks, magazine articles, book reviews, even crossword puzzles for the New York Times. You can also find Mike in the summer, out on local courses playing golf. Welcome Mike. impressive intro there. Wow. Thanks for having me. Yeah. A lot to live up to. It is. So yeah, we figured we'd have you on because coming up this week is the legendary Hyde Cup hockey tournament. Give us some history. How did it start? What does it mean to stow hockey? Give us the rules. Oh, The rules have changed quite a bit over the years. But, It started in 1992. And it was called the Jackson Open. And they had about eight teams right from the start. And they had a rule that to play, you had to be a person who skated in the rink. During the season in order to play in the tournament, it's a good rule. And they had people from all over. There weren't that many hockey players who actually lived in Stowe. so it ran as the Jackson open for a couple of years. One of the rules was that the winning goalie of the tournament got a bucket of cow manure as a reward. I never heard that. Amazing. And Bruce Gordon is the person who started it. He was the one who ran the rink, Jackson Arena. And then in, 94, one of our premier spunky women players named Leslie Hyde, died, unfortunately, and the next year it was renamed as the Hyde Cup. And then we had a group of people, there were five of us the first year and then it expanded to seven. It was me and Jay Cook, Neil Valancourt, Pat von Trapp, Kurt Dan and Alan Thorndyke. Nice. And we all had titles. Alan gave us titles. That sounds about right. I had a title. I had multiple titles, depending on how I was behaving. This was the committee. This was the committee. So we chose the teams. One of the guys was the team equalizer. I think Alan was the captain's coordinator. the captain of every team in those days was a woman. And we had eight teams most of the time. and the rules kept changing. So the first few years, the winning team was drawn from a hat. And that team got a huge trophy. And the best team in the tournament got a little tiny trophy about two inches high. Nice. And we had lots of rules. you could only score one goal during the game. There was no checking. anyone who got in a fight was expelled for life. we had the asshole rule. the asshole rule was if you acted up, you would be warned once, and if you acted up again, you're expelled from the game and you're out of the tournament. that's how it went. the first several years, it was always run three days. Friday night, Saturday, Sunday. And you played at least five games, depending on how the playoffs went on Sunday. And by the end of the weekend, you were tired. But the fun part of it was that everyone played and everyone stayed around the whole weekend. You couldn't really run off because you had another game in two hours. So everyone was there, and at the end of Sunday, we'd have a banquet somewhere. And the first few banquets were at, We did 10 Acres, because Kurt Dan owned it at the time. we went to the Green Mountain Inn for a couple of years, because Ken Biederman played. And then we started going to, Pickwicks, and then it moved to, sunset was there for quite a while when I was playing and we would just go to sunset. That was great. it was a great time there. It was always crowded. It was always noisy and the Hobbes did a great job of serving food. then we moved to Rimrocks for a couple of years and now I think most of the time the party is at either Rimrocks or it's at the rink. Yeah, I think this year it's back to Rim Rocks, according to the latest correspondence. Yeah, that's a good place for it. It's got plenty of room. Yeah. How many Hyde Cups have you played in over the years? I played in the first one. The first one was called the Hyde Cup, so 95. And played every year for About 25 years, And then I skipped a couple here and there over the last five years, but almost every year. It's been a lot. Yeah. it's a unique tournament, right? In that it's local, it's friendly, it's competitive. Of course it's competitive, but it's also got this other angle where your best player can only score one goal. And there's a lot of partying that goes on. And there were other rules that came and went during the years, for example, in all of the players were rated one through five based on their ability. And for a number of years, the one players who are the lower level players, they got five points for a goal, right? The five players got one point. So it was graduated all the way through. And I remember one year, Rich Hobbs was a one and his team was down by four points. With less than a minute left. Those are the best. Yeah, about 10 seconds left. He scored. He was worth five points. They won. You just have people like firing shots off the worst player that hopefully goes off their stick. Yeah. We used to say, stand in front of the net and put your stick on the ice. We'll get it to you. Those are directions to my father. I think he scored a game winning goal. He was, is it now just a one and a two pointer? There's only one person on a team that's worth two points. Two points. And I believe your dad was that person a couple of years ago and he got the game winner. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. that was cool. Yeah, he capped off his long career. out of all the Hyde Cups you've played in, any really memorable moments or stories that stick out to you? Yeah, there were a few. One of the early years, we used to have, if it was tied at the end of three periods, it went into a five minute overtime. And if it was still tied, we had a shootout. But only the people who had not scored yet could participate in the shootout. So we had people who could barely skate. I love these rules. So awesome. It was pretty funny. so that particular year, we went through the entire team and our very last person was Annie Cook who could barely skate and she scored the game winning goal. Isn't that what it's all about? It was great. I don't remember exactly the year, but I think it's the year that it moved from the Jackson to, the new rink, is when they decided to change the tournament, and now it's Tuesday through Saturday. And it's, that's a fine format, but the people don't hang around as much, so by the end of Saturday, there may not be anybody there except the teams who are playing. Yep. another incident that, that comes to mind, I won't mention any names, but there was one team that was known as the Assyrians because they were a little brutal and they ran over everybody and they always won. And they were crass. Like an Assyrian. my teammate decided, I was actually on that team one year. And a colleague of mine who was playing on a different team decided before the final playoff that he would deliver a case of Budweiser, and he just left it in the middle of the locker room. And the Assyrians, after winning a game, came in and they had two hours before the final playoff and they polished off the whole case. I wonder if I was playing that year. I remember this story. Yep. And, they didn't win the playoff. They didn't. Yep. Yep. I remember that. hey, any tools that you have. Yeah. To win whatever you gotta do. So that was pretty funny. Do you miss the old Jackson Arena? especially on those super cold days, people would say the ice was, like, best ice in the state. The ice was outstanding. I don't miss frostbitten fingers and toes. Yeah. Because when we played on the slugs, we had a rule that if it got to ten below, we would cancel, but not until then. So we'd play Sunday nights for two hours in ten below zero, and it's, my fingers still haven't recovered. So I missed the ice. That was great. And I missed in the Hyde Cup, it was always at the end of March. Yeah. The final weekend. Sun coming in. And the weather was always great. You could sit outside between games and work on your tan. That's right. And that was nice, having the daylight coming into the rink. Yeah. but. Other than that, I don't miss a whole lot. The new rink is great. Yeah, exactly. past players, like myself, on those cold days, I felt like the ice at the old Jack's Reno was the best in the state. Absolutely. I don't know what your thoughts are on that statement. It was hard. It was smooth. Smooth. Always, yeah. You didn't get any ruts. Yeah. Yeah, it was great. Amazing ice. in addition to High Cup, let's talk a little bit about the Slugs. Okay. You were a member of the Slugs. Vermont's premier team. Yeah, Vermont's premier adult team. Could you say that? What would you, how would you describe the Slugs to people that don't know the Slugs? it's funny, when the Slugs started, which was a little before my time, they started playing in the outdoor rink, and one of the players was Jackson, and he decided to put up a million dollars to build a new rink, and it started with the Slugs. a couple years later is when I arrived, and, There weren't that many players in Stowe. people were drawing from, Barry, Waterbury, Burlington, and playing with that group. When I first moved to town, which was 89, and I looked around for a place to play, and contacted the, coach of the Slugs, and he said, yeah, we'll think about it. Maybe you could come down and skate for us sometime. I said, you mean a tryout? He goes, yeah, I'm just, we want to see if you can skate. So I went down and, he made me wait half the season before he had an opening. And I guess I impressed him enough that I made it. So we played, the next few years we played Barry teams in Montpelier and, Waterbury team, they were called Waterbury worms originally. So they went together with the slugs. it was the best hockey around and other than. UVM college team, there wasn't really that much hockey, especially in Stowe, it was a ski town. Yeah. but it built over the years, and now, the Slugs are in the Champlain League, and they play a lot of good teams, and there are four or five ex pros on every team, and it's, It's much more intense, yeah. Yeah, a lot of ex pros. Yeah, tons, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so it was great hockey at the time, and we had a lot of fun. And we were sponsored by Pickwicks, so every Sunday night after the game, we'd go over there and we'd get half priced beer and free hors d'oeuvres. That made it worth it, right? It was great. Yeah. You could get through the 60 minute game and then know where you're going after that. What's the history of the name The Slugs? How did that I think when it first started. My whole life I feel like I've wondered that. I think when it first started they were really bad. There was only one good player on the team and the rest of them weren't really good skaters and they weren't great hockey players. So they wanted to come up with a name that was appropriate. Hal Stevens for example, he was one of the first slugs. wow. And he could barely skate. Yeah. so they came up with a name that fit their team. And also added some humor. They didn't want to take it too seriously. Yeah. although Hal did a few times. He was known as the instigator. He'd start fights in all the games. and then the Waterbury Worms came along. And I think they Chose their name is similar and they just played each other the first few years. Yeah, and then it expanded Yeah, I remember when I first moved here. They played the Bruins legends Tell us about that experience. That was one of the most fun times I've ever had. Yeah, I Had actually retired from the slugs at that point and they had a game against the Bruins alumni Which was to help finance the new rink and bless the new rink and get it started. And I'm, was out there on the ice playing against all these guys that I had idolized for years. So cool. And I actually scored a goal. Ah! Yeah. Made my day. Career. You made your career. My whole career. But yeah, it was great fun. Yeah. And then we went over to Rim Rocks afterwards and they all came over. But, the funny part about that game was that we had some young guys on our team, and they're all old alumni, really good players still, but, Terry O'Reilly was there, yep, a whole bunch of them, and we played two halftimes, basically, instead of, long periods, and in between, our team was up by three goals, it was seven to four. And we went into the locker room, and their trainer came in and said, Okay, here's the story. We don't lose. It's like the Harlem Globetrotters, right? I love that. We don't lose. The game will continue until we win. if that's at the end of the 20 minutes, that's fine. Otherwise, we'll just slow the clock down until we win. And we all sat there thinking, Okay. But I remember getting out into the parking lot afterwards and I looked a little older than a lot of the guys on the team, and one of their older guys looked at me and said, your team needed more guys your age. Alrighty then, That's cool. But it was great fun. Yeah. I heard they got in a little trouble at Rimrock's little tussle. They did. There were two guys, one of them was Featherbottom, who was a goon from way back in his professional career. Yeah. And I forget what the other one's name was, but. Typically, you go into a local bar and there's always somebody who wants to challenge the NHL fighters, and they challenged them and got pwned. I never heard that story. Oh, you didn't know that? Remarks, was packed, right? Yeah, they took it outside and beat the pulp out of these local guys. Old school NHL goon. Yeah, really. That's amazing. Mike, what would you say makes Stowe's hockey community unique? there's the uniqueness of the Hyde Cup, but, how has the hockey community grown over the years, and what makes it special? in the early years, we had an adult league that we started in 94, and we had six teams, and It grew out of the early Hyde Cups, and it was all local people, different towns around too, all local guys and women who played, and we could not come up with enough five level players for six teams. We came up with five. So we had one on each team, basically, and one team we had to make up for it. But the level of hockey just wasn't really there. There weren't that many players who were any good. So over the years it has gotten a lot better. the high school team has been really successful and that led to a lot of development. A lot of the kids coming out of there are playing with us now and skating circles around us. I think that's part of it, that a number of hockey playing people moved to town. And engendered the culture. And it kept growing. now I think, the Hyde Cup is a big part of What's going on here and how people feel about hockey. It's the end of the season, but everybody else is playing in groups. we have a couple of groups we play in, all different levels and you find your own level and totally stick with that group. And, it's great fun. No, that seems like really the cool thing about, some of the. adult skates is that very inclusive and welcoming, and that, all abilities, there's a group to play with. Yeah, it's true. Yeah, and it doesn't take long to weed out the bad apples. Every once in a while you get one in the whole group Says, that's not what we do here. Taking that a little too seriously. Yeah. Yeah, and most people are good. They'll play if someone comes flying in and they're a really good player, you can play them a little harder. If somebody newer to the sport comes in, let them make some moves and see what they can do, Yeah. Yeah. I never played hockey ever until I moved to Stowe. I played street hockey as a kid. And, the fact that there's a league that you can play in and join and move up through the ranks. What was your ranking when you played in the High Cup? Were you a one or a five? Definitely not at the top. We didn't always share the rankings, so you might not have known. Definitely in the bottom half for sure. I mean there are lots of good groups, and I think The emergence of really good women players has made a big difference in the last five or six years. There are a lot of good women players. In fact, this year in the Hyde Cup, there's an all women's team. There are two token men on there, but the rest of them are all really good women players. Jenna McClain. Jenna Reichert. Yeah. That's really cool. They're doing that. I think the groups that have good women players in them seem to be a little more sensible and reasonable the way they play. and everyone keeps the level down enough so that there aren't a lot of injuries and not a lot of insults and it works out well. That's great. How did you get into hockey? you played your whole life? yeah, I played since I was three years old. I never was much of a skier. Yeah. I skied once in high school, but I always played hockey. And all the way through, Bantams, Pee Wees. High school, tried to play in college, that didn't work out. And then I took about ten years off while I was going to school and working on my career, and then went back to it and thought, how did I ever lose this? Ten years later, I had to catch up, and I thought, ugh, I miss it. So that was when I was living in southern Vermont, playing in Brattleboro. So it's, played three nights a week from 9 to 11, and it was a 45 minute drive to get there. That's dedication. Yeah. And after you play, you're so hyped up. Yeah, you're not going to sleep. You're not going to sleep. I get home at 12 o'clock and I play Nintendo or something for two hours and calm down. Then I could go to bed. Yeah. Yeah, I know. I played last night, 7. 15 to 8. 45, and it's 10. 30 at night, I'm just staring at the ceiling. Yeah. Watching hockey videos. yeah. I'm like, wait, I should be more tired, but adrenaline. Yeah. You have to calm down and slow down, and then eventually you conk out, but it takes a while. we are lucky to have morning adult. Hockey that you can go play before work and there's a group of people that can all do that And you get ice time like that's pretty special thing. Yeah. Yeah, that's been great. we always played at night. Yeah With the slugs and the adult league. They were all night games. Yeah And especially in that cold rink, it gets you even more buzzed. it worked out in the end, but it was a challenge. yeah. switching gears, just getting to some of your work life. You've written a variety of educational textbooks, scholastic publishing, as well as crossword puzzles for the New York Times, and recently three novels. as far as the novels, is that component of your career or something that is a later shift or has that been going on for a while? When I came out of college, all I wanted to do was write novels, and I pictured myself living in a cabin in Vermont and writing novels. Robert Frost. But it took a while. I was picturing Stephen King almost. oh. In a cabin by himself, lighting the shining. Let's go with the Robert Frost. that was what you were modeling it after, right? exactly. when I got out of grad school, I moved back to Amherst, Mass., and lived there for about eight years, and worked at a local company that was hiring writers, and I didn't know what they wanted me to write, but I was going to take the job, and it turned out they were a testing company. And we wrote educational tests, statewide assessments, licensing exams, reading tests. And of the tests that we wrote, the most interesting to me were for publishers. And the educational publishers, Macmillan, Houghton Mifflin, Scholastic, they all developed tests to go with their reading programs, and their math programs, and social studies, and so on. And If you look at a reading program, you don't really think about where the tests came from. But they always have them. I was one of the people who wrote them. I worked in Amherst for about eight years, and then decided it was time to move to the cabin in Vermont and start writing. And I bought a house near Mount Snow. houses were cheap then, especially in Vermont. so I could afford it. commuted for about a year, and then went on my own. But the novels weren't going anywhere, and I was writing articles and puzzles and anything I could do to get published. And they weren't making any money. I had a long list of publications, but they didn't pay anything, So I kept working in the publishing business, and started my own company. to develop tests and educational assessments. And eventually had about 20 writers working with me. when I moved to Stowe, I was still working out of the house and I hooked up with a local, production company. Which was one person. And she decided to start a production company. So I sold ourselves as we do the development, we do the production, we do the layout, the graphics, everything. One stop shop. Yeah, and that turned out to be a good decision. So we had a great business for the next 30 years or so. And had lots of things to do and I never did get back to the novels until recently, so I had one novel about 2020. It was published, never went anywhere. I couldn't buy lunch with the royalties I made from that book. and that just sat there. And when the pandemic came along and I was thinking about retirement at the time, all the work dried up because kids weren't going to school. Yeah. so that's when I went back to writing novel. And came out with number two, and that was in 2022. And then came out with the third one, just a few weeks ago. Oh, wow. Congrats. Thanks. Yeah. So tell us about some of the novels. Tell us what's your style of writing and what some of the novels are about. my style is more literary than commercial, which could explain why I haven't made any money out of these things. I like using myths and other stories as a basis, but the second novel, The Cage in Search of a Bird, starts in Vermont. And there's a novel within a novel that takes place in southern Vermont near Mount Snow. And the rest of it is in the Northeast Kingdom area, but never specific. It's about a person who moves to Vermont, and he's a writer, and he doesn't have any inns in the culture, and he doesn't have any friends. And he thinks, maybe I'll try hunting and see if I can meet some guys that way. So he gets a license to hunt, and he buys a gun, and goes out on day one of the hunting season, and shoots what he thinks is a deer. And it's not a deer, it's a woman. And he ends up taking her home, and taking care of her, and then the sheriff finds out what's going on, and they are searching for the woman. Now you have to buy the book. Nice. Sounds good. Yeah, totally. So that was number two. The most recent one is based on a William Faulkner novel called As I Lay Dying, and it's, the title is As I Lie, which has a couple of different meanings and it actually starts in a place that looks like Stowe. I was walking along the rec path one day and I looked from the bridge into the river and it was spring runoff and it was all kinds of clutter and junk and tree trunks in the river and I thought, what if you look down there and saw a body? Because that's how writers think. More like a Stephen King. That's what I was going to say. It's really, we're circling back to the Stephen King. Yeah. Stephen King. Closer than that. Robert Frost. But anyway, that's where the idea started. this guy in the novel is walking down the rec path and sees a body and recognizes who it is. And this woman was having an affair with his brother, who was married. And that's where that one starts. Then you gotta read the book. Yeah, you gotta read the book. What would you say, just in general, you enjoy about writing? obviously these are very time consuming projects, and I don't think you'd do it if you didn't love to write. So what is it about the whole process that you just enjoy? I think writing is, the process of writing helps you think. By putting things down on paper, you clarify what you're thinking. So for years, when I was working on tests, we wrote reading passages. And, when you open up a test, the test's reading, you get a little passage or a story or a non fiction essay or, something that you have to read and then you answer questions about it. for years, that's what I did. I wrote those passages and I edited passages written by other people. And, especially in that context, it has to be concise and to the point and no wasted words, because you only have a small piece of the text. so I think being concise and clarifying your thoughts, getting it onto paper, that's what I enjoy about it. And writing fiction is a little different, writing for yourself. And what I like about it is coming up with the stories and making it all work. getting it all to wrap up at the end and make sense. And, if I show it to somebody else and it makes sense to them, then I've succeeded. How do you know, when it's time to put the pen down? Because I can imagine editing, editing, really trying to make it perfect. When do you say, that's it, I'm done? Yeah. I think that's part of the difficulty, but I have an advantage over a lot of writers who depend on the editors at the publishing company, and they send in their manuscript in a big box and the editor fixes it. And that's the way a lot of writers work. And if you look at the acknowledgments in any number of books, they say, thank you to my editor for making sense of all this, thank you to my wife for her support and all that stuff. but I guess because of the way I worked over the years, working with a lot of writers myself, and knowing that I had deadlines, because it was a pretty tight deadline kind of business, and we'd have to put together, 500 pages of tests in three months or whatever it was, it took a lot of decision making. And clarity, knowing when it's ready and sending it along. And I was the last person to see it. So it was, it had to be correct before I let it go. Yeah. So I'm assuming you read a lot, who are your favorite authors? And, were there any authors in particular that, really helped inform your passion and writing style? They're pretty obscure. The writers that I liked best in college were James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, William Faulkner. some of the American writers, F. Scott Fitzgerald, for example. even Steinbeck. Yeah, same. And a lot of those writers are the ones I grew up with and admired and wanted to emulate. Yeah. Especially Joyce. He was my hero, but I could never write like him, Yeah, Steinbeck is one of my favorites. his writing was so much simpler. Yeah. he just told the story and just laid it out there. Yeah. There wasn't any literary shenanigans like he got with Joyce or Beckett. But, Faulkner was a great writer, but he wasn't easy to read, and there was a rumor that. Yeah. He used to write the chapters separately, and then he would just mix the chapters up and then publish it. And that's the way, you're always flipping back and forth in time, and you're thinking, where is this coming from? today I guess, I tend to read more thrillers and mysteries, like Louise Penny. C. J. Box, there's a guy up in Maine, Paul Dwarren. I really enjoy his work. he writes as a game warden, and the game warden's experience. Yeah, my friend's been telling me about that for a while now, so maybe this is my final reminder. Yeah. He says those books are excellent. He's really good, yeah. those are the people I like. How do you get the word out on your books? Not very successfully. Can we get them locally at Bear Pond Bookstore downtown? Yes, you can buy them at Amazon. Amazon. Paperback and Kindle version. And you can buy them at the local bookstore. Okay. the usual approach is people work with an agent. And the agent represents you. And then goes to the publisher and sells your manuscript. And then about a year later, the book comes out and the publisher designs it. And then you start a whole marketing program, which usually begins with an author tour. And you go to a different bookstore in a different city for 30 days in a row. Pounding pavement. Yeah. And by the end of it, you're exhausted. You wonder why you ever became a writer, but now you're selling books. Yeah. And that's the part that I have not done. And today, without social media, you can't sell anything. So all the authors that sell books have their own websites. Their own social media people, and that's something I just can't get into. Yeah, what about book clubs? can you somehow find a way into book clubs? I've tried that, Reese Witherspoon, I thought her book club might work. Or Oprah, Oprah has made more millionaires out of writers. they all work through agents. And if you can't find an agent, which I've never been able to do, Then you don't have any of those opportunities. Do you have any upcoming projects or anything you're working on right now? I'm working on a new book. Nice. I'm just in the germination stage, trying to come up with the right idea. Okay. I think I came up with one the other day, but I have to work on it before I can share that. Yeah. Head into the cabin for further thoughts. I have to get to the Stephen King slash Robert Frost cabin. When you come up with an idea, do you know how it's going to end? Do you have that whole template in your mind? I always outline. The whole book when I start. Okay, And I know where it's gonna end, and it never ends there. ha. Twists and turns. Eventually the plot, didn't make sense the way I outlined it, or the characters rebel against what you want them to do. Once you get to know the characters, you know that they would either do A or B in this situation. And if they're in another situation, they would do something else. when you put them in that situation, then the plot starts to deviate from your outline, and you end up in a different place. Yeah. And that's happened with everything I've ever written. What's your writer's block tip? Do you have a little scotch? how do you, right? when you sit down to write something, you just can't write it. I've never had writer's block. Okay. And I think one of the reasons may be because of the way I worked. And with all the deadlines I had, I could not afford to have writer's block. And it's so much easier to write a short piece and a half a dozen questions than it is to write a novel or a short story. But that was my self training. So Now, if I have what some people might call writer's block, I just consider it a lack of ideas and I do something else for the day and yeah, go play hockey, cross country, clear my head. And sooner or later, the next morning something pops up and that's what I've been waiting for. that's a really cool, creative outlet. Yeah. a cool combination to playing something like hockey. Yeah. That's really cool. Yeah. And even being able to go take a stroll in the woods or go play golf at a place like this, you have to let your mind wander and you have to be quiet. I can't work with a lot of noise, whether it's radios or music or people or traffic or whatever it is. If I can get out of that noise and just sit quietly. Let my mind wander, the ideas just start popping. That's true, like when you skin, or cross country, or hike, or walk, and you're just quiet, not on your phone, you just have that time. Yeah, you just let your mind go, and be amazed at where it goes. you actually answered my question, but I was wondering, just as you were, raising children and, did you have a whole office in the basement? Because I was thinking the same thing. I'm like, he must need a very quiet space. And if that was just known, okay, dad's writing separate space in the house or just how that all worked. I did have a separate space. And when we first moved to Stowe, The space was not big, the house wasn't big, and it was challenging. Yeah, I bet. in the next house that we built, I designed it so I had a, kind of a separate area. Yeah. And when Dad went downstairs and closed the door, you don't bother him. Yeah. they never paid much attention, but that's, yeah, you had to force yourself to do that. Yep. It was a challenge, but you get used to that. Yeah, it may not work. so let's go into your Stow life. What brought you to Stow? You're living in southern Vermont. What brought you to Stow? You weren't a skier. No, but I liked Vermont. I always wanted to live here. When we were kids, we used to go to, a ski lodge near Mount Snow, where my aunt and uncle owned the lodge, and we had a big family so we couldn't really get a hotel and we couldn't come up in the winter because the lodge was full. So in the summer it was ideal, it only slept about twelve people, but it took on our whole family so we'd come up every summer. And I fell in love with Vermont. Yeah. So when I first moved up, I moved to a small town of population 375 near Mount Snow. And it was great for 7 or 8 years and then I started getting a little antsy and thinking I need to look for another place. So I started taking weekend trips and looking at other places in Vermont. And I went through Stowe and I liked what I saw. and then I met my wife to be down by Mount Snow and she got a job offer in Stowe. And we decided to move up here together, and that's how I ended up here. Wow. Shout out to Joanne right there. what was Stowe like in the early days? What What year did you move to Stowe? Eighty nine. Eighty nine. Yeah, what was the scene like? I feel like I missed the early days. I keep hearing about the sixties and seventies and the wild west. I arrived after that, but it was quite different. There were only about 2, 500 people in town. I think now it's about twice that. There seemed like there were a lot more restaurants and bars back in that day. And it was more informal, I guess you'd say. you hear the stories about how the police used to take you home if you got a little too drunk. I never experienced that, but you could sense that things were a little more relaxed, and then things started to change, and the town began growing, and Vale moved in, and things have never been the same since, but, in that time, we knew everybody in town, Our kids were in school, so we knew all the school teachers and the principals and people involved. and then we got involved in hockey and golf and, all kinds of other stuff. it was a great place to be. And the athletic and sporting opportunities here are, you can't beat them. You really can't. No. You really can't. And it was, it seemed a lot more affordable then too, now it's not. if you look out five years, ten years in Stowe, what would be your hope for Stowe? What do you think it needs to work on? I don't think it's any surprise that we need to be less divisive than we are now. we're going through another select board election and people just get nasty. They were nasty during that short term rental campaign, and the election before that, and I don't know if that's a reflection of what's going on in the country, or where it came from. whether there are too many people who moved in and changed the atmosphere, I don't really know where it started. I think people need to chill out and, get along with each other. I don't want to sound like Rodney King here, but I think if we could get along, that would be a help. Yeah. And be more productive in solving problems. Yeah. Spend a little more quiet time. Yeah, honest. Exactly. Total. that. Less time on social media and more time talking to your neighbor. Metaphorically, but I think that would be helpful. Yeah We've got the housing problems to deal with and everybody knows about that. and traffic. We need to deal with the traffic. Yeah, if we could fix those problems, and I don't see any reason why we can't we've got the talent, we've got the brains, we've got the energy of people in this town should be able to take care of it. Yeah. Good point. Awesome. So we're just about ready to wrap up, but we ask all of our guests this one question to wrap up every episode. If Stowe didn't exist, where would you live? these days, given what's happening in Washington, I'd probably move to Canada. And Canada is a great place. I know. Yeah, it's not going to be our 51st state. I used to joke that I started in Boston, then I moved to Western Mass, then I moved to Southern Vermont and Northern Vermont, just keep going north, keep moving north and west. You're not far. 60 miles away. Plenty of hockey. True. It's No, I could see myself living in a place like Quebec, the eastern townships or somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. but realistically, I don't think I would leave Vermont. I think if I can't afford to live here in Stowe, or if it didn't exist, like you said, I would be in another town in Vermont. Yeah. Probably farther north. Northeast kingdom. Yeah. Yeah. We had a camp up there for a while, on Echo Lake. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. and. We built it thinking this is going to be our family haven and all of my relatives would love to come up and spend time there. And we built the place and nobody came up. They just wanted to come to Stowe probably, right? I know. Exactly. And then the kids grew up and they had their own life and for some reason didn't want to hang around with us at the camp. And we said, okay, so we sold the camp. Yeah. But that was. That was our vision that we'd spend half our time up there and half in stow. And eventually we'd move up there and didn't quite, you're like, I just want to be Robert Frost. How come nobody's allowed me to do this, including my family. I've had that question for years. Awesome. All right. Thanks, Mike. Yeah. Thanks for coming on, Mike. Absolutely. It was a pleasure. All right. All right. See you at the rink. Hope you all enjoyed that episode with Mike Priestly. The Hyde Cup is happening all week at the Stowe Arena, March 4th through the 8th. If you're playing in it, have a great tournament. If you're not playing in it, go check it out. Go watch some of the games. And remember to support local author Mike Priestly. Go down to Bear Pond Books and grab his book. We'll see you next time on the Octagon.