Rep. Molly, Polly, Lily or Linda — no men need apply

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First, we need to look forward because we’re winners just by living in Stowe this weekend. The wounds of a year ago are healing faster than anticipated. Stowe is back this Independence Day weekend and it’s time to celebrate.

Last November, the town launched the completion of the Stowe Village visual and safety elements with a virtual Main Street ribbon cutting ceremony.

This weekend, it’s the real thing for residents and visitors in numbers not seen in 18 months. We’re winners and we’ll all be partying this weekend.

The reopening is just the beginning. Look closely at your copy of this paper’s immaculate summer and fall edition of Stowe Guide & Magazine. A year ago there were 164 pages and 138 advertisers; this year 212 pages featured 171 advertisers, a 24 percent jump. It’s a rally for real.

So we’ll kick off in Moscow at 10 a.m. and flow into the village celebration before hitting seven miles of shopping.

Just like the old days.

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Speaking of winners, are the Stowe girls’ Division 1 state tennis champions and the Peoples/Stowe boys’ Division 3 state baseball champions getting the royal treatment in Sunday’s parade up Main Street? The girls owned everything on the courts. The diamond boys celebrated at Centennial Field — only Vermont’s most historical sports site, a place where legendary hall of famers started their careers.

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Stowe has its own field of dreams as well. What would be a win for Stowe, Morristown, the state housing and conservation board, Stowe Land Trust and Ken Ricketson is looming large. Together, the parties, by March 2022, hope to guarantee that the Ricketson Farm and its 210 acres will remain farmland forever.

I have minimal farmland awareness. My late father-in-law grew up on a farm near Lake Ontario. He jumped to education after World War II to ensure he wouldn’t be looking at a cow’s rear end every day the rest of his life. However, after he retired at 55 and his family acquired a seasonal homestead in the hills of Roxbury, he couldn’t wait to get there to help out Roy and Mattie — a classic Vermont farm couple — with the chores of the season. My link to agriculture was limited to marrying the seasonal farmer’s daughter and slugging down milkshakes at the University of Vermont dairy bar.

Yet, that’s enough to qualify to toss out a trial balloon on what might work long-term for the Ricketson farm. He might remember (or not) but I dropped a note, probably 15 years ago, to UVM president Dan Fogel suggesting that it should have its own ski headquarters in Stowe. When I brought it up in person at a sports event, he politely said it wasn’t the right time, and followed up with a note.

He also chatted about the university’s expansion plans at some point, and I said something like, “You know, someday there’s a huge parcel of land available on the Stowe border. What an incredible place that would be to move the University of Vermont agriculture school.”

I’ll stop right there and let those with real brains ponder the possibility, especially with state money helping make this happen. If it doesn’t fly, then there’s Ben & Jerry. They might suggest, to their successors, a convenient location for producing a good portion of their own raw materials in the future.

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Despite only six months into first terms in Montpelier and Washington, the future also is easing into Vermont’s politics. Writers who haven’t set foot in the Statehouse or Washington, D.C., in over a decade shouldn’t be taken too seriously, but we all absorb the same local press reports.

Here are some tepid predictions, not endorsements or wishful thinking: Pat Leahy should announce his retirement. He should step down in 2022 after eight terms in the U.S. Senate, with salutes from a grateful state, even those of us who prefer term limits. His successor undoubtedly will be a Democrat.

One can come up with a list of solid Republican candidates, but all would be way too good and too smart to wish to be sent to that Washington GOP cesspool intent on ruining democracy. That includes Phil Scott; we need him here for at least one more term.

Leahy can retire knowing Rep. Peter Welch is ready to become Sen. Welch. As one of the seven single state representatives in Congress, he’s gained national visibility on key committees and steady stints in national media outlets. Like senators Pat and Bernie, he’s been around long enough to be a comfort pill for the entire state. This is no time to screw around with seats in the U.S. Senate.

A couple weeks ago I listened to a Sunday interview with Lt. Gov. Molly Gray, someone I didn’t vote for last November. After soaking up the 20 minutes, my gut was telling me this young woman will be replacing Welch in the U.S. House. She touches all the bases, answers questions like a smooth five-term veteran and already has foreign travel meetings on her report card.

She’s the same age, 37, as a current female congressperson, the GOP House traitor to the Constitution who voters from across Lake Champlain should make sure she never sets foot in Washington again.

No men need apply for Vermont’s 2020 primary. Whether it’s a Molly, Polly, Lily or Linda, the only state to never send a woman to Congress will correct that embarrassment in the coming cycle.

Dave Matthews lives in Stowe. His column appears whenever we get one.