At a time when Americans exhibit a distinct yearning for more straightforward and honest relationships with one another, Granville Austin's portrait of Norwich, Vermont--told in distinctive, well-seasoned prose--reminds us of the lasting impacts our lives have on one another.

 

Granville Austin

Retrieving Times
Granville Austin
White River Press, 2008

Author Granville Austin was only five years old when his family moved to the small town of Norwich on the Vermont side of the Connecticut River in 1932. Back then, this vibrant community boasted more dirt roads than asphalt, and more farmers than professors from nearby Dartmouth College. In summer there was haying and fishing, band concerts on the common and cool lemon Cokes at the local drugstore. In fall there was hunting. In winter, skiing -- at a time when getting to the top of a hill meant hiking, not ski lifts.

But Austin's time travels to the Norwich of his youth are far more than pleasant excursions. They're emotional evocations of the men, women, and boyhood friends who populated the author's world, the people who "larned" him the meaning of honor, of fairness, and of the devotion necessary to turn a small collection of houses and stores into a community with a powerful pulse of its own.

So follow Granville Austin's beckoning hand back in time to meet Mrs. Marion Cross, a remarkable teacher who started in a one room schoolhouse yet would understand the toughest of today's classrooms. And Will Bond, the author's neighbor and the subject of a painting by artist Paul Sample. Learn how to ski downhill when "grooming the slope" meant tamping down the snow yourself. And understand the significance of the question from the gun shop owner, "Where will the bullet stop?" Visiting Vermont is always a treat but, with a writer like Austin as your guide, you'll find it as satisfying as biting into a new-picked apple on a clear October day.

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Praise for Retrieving Times

"This is a wonderful book. Austin describes in delicious detail small-town life in Vermont of the thirties of the last century. Once you start reading it, you won't stop until Austin stops."
Davie Hapgood, author of Monte Cassino and translator of Albert Camus' The First Man.

"Retrieving Times isn't just memoir, or history, it is the biography of a beloved place, Norwich, Vermont, which Granville Austin first encountered in 1932. Across three-quarters of a century, Austin has indeed retrieved something astonishing: a town remembered in its detail, through its characters, and through the wisdom of those around him. He has managed to find and recapture an American place, free of both nostalgia and the bitterness that often colors small time life, especially for those who have left it behind."
Philip Kennicott, Culture Critic, The Washington Post

"With lively prose, Granville Austin (known as Red throughout his times here) paints an insightful and colorful portrait of his youth in Norwich, Vermont. Whether you were born in the '20s or many years later, the characters and times Red evokes cast a spell and bring one to envy how he was "larned."
Nancy Osgood, president, Norwich Historical Society

"[Retrieving Times is] laid ... out in endearing and atmospheric detail. ... The story unspools in the same way that memory works with well-known characters rising ghost-like to star in one tale or another, and then fading away. Scattered throughout like gems are the quirks familiar to anyone who lives in a small town, but peculiar to each... The old heavy Vermont accent, rarely heard in Norwich these days, is reproduced with love. ... There are lovely Vermont nature scenes. ... [Now] that Austin's Norwich is gone, the lessons he took from its past can only be found in books such as this one. 'It's not easy to take a Norwich upbringing and make it relevant to the troubled globe,' said Austin. In Retrieving Times, he has found a way."
Kristen Fountain, Valley News, White River Junction, Vermont

"What Austin has done is bring into sharp focus the real place ... Reading Austin you become aware of the continuity with the past, despite the continuing acceleration of the expanding Universe. He himself is a genuine fragment of Norwich … always, always writing as if he’d been “larned’ by Miz Cross and others, doing it right, and making it ring with truth, humor, and perception.  Go, find this lovely book."
S.A. Morse, The Courier, Littleton, New Hampshire

"Looking for a cozy read on a gray winter afternoon? Settle in with Granville Austin, a master storyteller whose new book "Retrieving Times," is as warming--and as tart--as a cup of mulled cider. His memoir of growing up in the Vermont hamlet of Norwich in the '30s is a wry and affectionate look at a time and place in America when people looked out for one another, and the soda fountain served real milkshakes."
Karen Lyon, the Hill Rag, Washington D.C.

“Granville ‘Red’ Austin has written a deeply touching account of the town he knew as a boy and as a Dartmouth undergraduate. He visits and honors its particulars, and brings to life the small-town perennials who make living in rural America such a treasure: the school principal, the local gunsmith, the fire chief and the general store owners. Retrieving Times is a classic, an account of a New England that is now fading like an autumn sunset, told with humor and insight. Reading it was like visiting an old friend.”
Jack Shepherd, amazon.com review

"Retrieving Times was a delight to read. Wonderfully evocative; nicely crotchety; resonant about fundamental things; and fun."
David Bayley, Distinguished Professor, School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, State University of New York

"a 'delishus' read!"
Gregory Wolfe, former president of Portland State University and Florida International University

"I just love your book! ... Your conversations with [Miz Cross] are marvelous. ... Such fun. Thank you, THANK you. So glad you've shared Norwich with others this way."
Sharon McKenna, former Norwich resident, in a letter to the author

"I've spent the last few nights having a delightful time experiencing [Austin's] early years. Gosh how enviable for this city boy."
Warren Unna, former Washington Post journalist

"If you've forgotten what it might have [been] like to grow up in a real and very rural New England town, Red's book will fill you in. Even the rarely-heard Vermont accent gets captured beautifully in Retrieving Times."
Dartmouth College, Class of 1950, Class Notes

“Granville ‘Red’ Austin had written a dandy little book about life in Norwich, Vermont. …You will enjoy it!”
Herbert Drury, former New Hampshirite

“[E]choes of Noel Perrin and H.D. Thoreau and other such writers in between, but much I’d call original sensitive, effective: especially your fond in-depth recollections of teachers and town characters and lively explanations of local … habits and activities.”
Alan N. Hall, New Hampshirite, in a letter to the author

“I enjoyed so much reading … Retrieving Times. [The] beautifully written opening words of Chapter 14 [“A Skiing Memoir”] filled me with nostalgia for the hills of home.”
Charles Snow, former Vermonter, in a letter to the author

“I found [Retrieving Times ] delightful. You captured a specific time period in a timeless manner, and [the] writing style fits beautifully with the events you describe. I will recommend the book to all my friends…”
Philip Glouchevitch, author of Juggernaut and current New Hampshirite, in a letter to the author

“”What a delightful book! Your perfectly crafted portraits … had me laughing out loud at times. I thank you for providing me with over 200 pages of delightful reading.”
Everett N. Chamberlain, Dartmouth College alumnus, in a letter to the author