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Helen-Chantal Pike

The Pike Log: Random Entries About Making His Story Mine

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April 4, 2012
Tags: Tall Trees Tough Men, Robert E. Pike, Boxcar & Caboose, St. Johnsbury, Waterford, Spiked Boots, logging
Author Bob Pike in his study where he wrote
Tall Trees, Tough Men more than 45 years ago.
When I moved to the Upper Connecticut River Valley for a new adventure, I hadn't done the math. Nor had I found the W.W. Norton letter about the official release date of Tall Trees, Tough Men - my dad's book whose research and writing occupied a goodly portion of my childhood.  Read More 
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Will Open Mic Reveal Whodunit?

March 8, 2012
Tags: Sisters in Crime: Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Nancy Means Wright, Beth Kanell, Kathleen Towne, Kate George, Lee Kemsley, Richard Godwin, Michael Nethercott, David Carkeet
Beth Kanell says the game's afoot for Sunday, March 11, 2012, in Montpelier, VT. See bottom of entry for other New England locations.

The Upper Connecticut River Valley seems ready-made for prospective mystery titles such as “Mayhem in the Mountains” (malice domestic); “Dance Hall Swindle” (locked room); “Axed to Death” (hard-boiled), or “The Latchis Case” (police procedural). *

Part of the thrill of reading is to escape the humdrum. Where better to spend  Read More 
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How My Beloved Aunt Became a Cover Girl

February 28, 2012
Tags: Waterford Town Report, Boxcar & Caboose, Waterford School, Elizabeth Roberta Pike, Robert Taggart Pike, Monmouth College, Asbury Park, Beth Kanell
Elizabeth Roberta Pike and her grandfather, R.T. Pike, circa 1918, in Upper Waterford, VT.
Picture it: January 10. It's Phase 1 of the North Woods move and 70+ boxes of dishes, files, books, and clothing form a labyrinth through the house. The Time Warner Cable guy is threading lines that will offset my Verizon cell phone's mountain-challenged message "searching for service".

Lots of interesting things can happen when you're incommunicado.  Read More 
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Why We Pray for Snow in Pike Country

February 16, 2012
Tags: Pike Country, Farm-Way, Northeast Kingdom Weather, WREN, Local Works Gallery, Jersey Shore, Rutgers, Asbury Park Casino, Upper Connecticut River Valley, snow, ice, kitty litter
Beer but no gear sold here. In January 2012, regular unleaded gas with 10% ethanol went up to $3.60/gal at the all-purpose convenience store. Photo taken December 2011. BTW: Home heating oil: $800 for 200 gallons. How long do you think I can make that last?
Against all wisdom to the contrary, I picked a January closing date for the sale of my childhood home on the Jersey Shore so I could then move north 400+ miles in what has traditionally been the dead of winter.

You know the dead I mean.  Read More 
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Where the GPS Are We?

February 3, 2012
Tags: New York Times, Julia Frankenstein, cognitive brain development, Bruce Springsteen, Waterford History Blog, Beth Kanell, Upper Connecticut River Valley, Jamie Cross, Peter Lucia, Grey Matter Bookstore
Thanks to Peter Lucia for this illuminated version of the Upper Connecticut River Valley at night
“Why don’t you have a Tom-Tom attached to your windshield?”

Odd question from Carolyn Kinne Grass as she climbed into my SUV Thursday, armed with an oversized atlas left-over from the era of open touring cars, goggles and silk scarves.

“Why would I need one?” I retorted.  Read More 
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Making Kodak Moments

January 20, 2012
Tags: Eastman Kodak, Upper Connecticut River Valley, George Russell, Kilburn Brothers, University of Masscahusetts Lowell Center for Lowell History, Asbury Park, Robert E. Pike, ABC World News
When archiving my photos, 1999 emerged as the year that defined two passions: the Jersey Shore and the Upper Connecticut River Valley. Click this link to Facebook, and friend me if you want to see the mini digital albums I've created.
I loved them all: the cool blues of Ektachrome, the Hollywood movie colors of Kodachrome, and the 3200-speed of B&W film that enabled me to photograph through a hole in a boarded up wall the interior of the Palace Amusements in Asbury Park, NJ. It was the early '90s.

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I Can See the Finish Line!

December 31, 2011
Tags: David Brooks, New York Times, CBS, Amazing Race, Asbury Park, Robert E. Pike, Connecticut River Valley
Riverside Cemetery, peaceful home of my ancestors who had led an industrious farm life settling Waterford, VT after the Revolution.
Behind me is a course I've run for a little more than 20 years here on the north Jersey shore, in my childhood home in Eatontown, once a bugler's call away from Fort Monmouth that was decommissioned a couple of months ago. Click any menu tab to discover what I've been up as the  Read More 
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