Submitted by Generic_Commenter-X t3_yopaa4 in vermont
There's actually a name for these stones and dammit, I used to know when I was a kid in Vermont and now I can't remember. It's not "field stones", but we used to have a name for them—sort of a local name you'd know if you spent time growing up here.
And while we're on the subject, what other Vermont-specific words do you know? Does anybody call those shriveled up apples still clinging to the tree in December, scrogglings?
:) No, no, no... nothing as scientifically precise as that. More of a homegrown term.
"That fucking rock in the middle of the goddamn field"
This guy Vermonts.
I was going to say “rocks”, but this seems more accurate.
Brush hog sharpener
Slightly less fancy would be "glacial deposit"
Here is a pic that I took last summer of a field with lots of stones. Is this what you mean?
My grandpa was a dairy farmer. He always called them "rocks".
I read "devils teeth" somewhere, maybe an Eric Sloane book
It’s only vaguely related, but I’ve heard a lone tree on a hill growing along fieldstone rock walls between old property lines called a Witness Tree.
Only here to ask where in Vermont! Ex-Proctor here! I love VT. KY is very similar in some ways, except KY doesn't seeth in anger when you say you weren't born in KY, lol
I’ve also heard “wolf tree” used for a similar concept
Neverending
Post-modern deconstructed stone wall.
Thanks for sharing the term glacial erratics; I knew them as glacial till or glacial rubble.
This is what UConn professor Robert Thorson, who studies stone walls as a nexus of geology and anthropology calls them.
Take my upvote.
And there's Robert Frost's poetry collection entitled "A Witness Tree".
Malloys
>except KY doesn't seeth in anger when you say you weren't born in KY, lol
I was born in CA and moved to VT when I was ONE MONTH old. Kids in school called me a flatlander. Commie bastards.
" And while we're on the subject, what other Vermont-specific words do you know?"
Grinders
Creemees
Yes. We had a name for them. Haven't seen it yet. It was something like calling them gnomes—a really beautiful name.
Grinders are a southern and western New England thing. CT, RI, Western MA, VT, mostly.
we just called them field stones
In Georgia I was called a Yankee for being born in Atlanta. Folks everywhere are weird.
Oh wait! I think I might remember! I think we called them "fieldlings".
I think wolf tree is in the middle of a field not line.
lol, I knew it! I heard that 5 times a day. There is a purity test not too many people can pass.
In 1970, I spent a summer in Augusta. And I heard that soooo many times! I go to 7-11 and ask for a slushy, and instead of "sure" or "what flavor" or something like that, it was a stoic, "y'all a Yankee" lol, real life southern gothic.
Legit obit of someone lived to 98 yo. Had moved to VT as a 2 mo old. “Although not a native…”
Most have lived here 3 years before I realized a creemee was just soft serve ice cream.
Field stones
That does have a nice touch of poetry to it!
That’s weird, they just make mine wobble violently.
Grinder is understood in Eastern MA too
Proctor! My roots go deep as the quarries there.
Obstacles.
I thought erratics were truly massive boulders that sometimes end up in unlikely places where they don't resemble the local bedrock, because they were carried by glaciers which eventually melted. But I'm not a geologist nor geotech engineer.
What a fascinating field of study. I'd be curious about the descriptions.
Queebs Flatlanders Camp (referring to cabin or cottage)
No it's a creemee.
Or any tree that grew in full sunlight. You can tell it’s the oldest tree in a young forest because it’s wide with low branches, as opposed to tall and lanky.
I knew an old guy in Readsboro that used to say “ let’s go catch a deer” during hunting season.
So I’ve learned
And in central Mass too, Worcester definitely has grinders.
There’s a term in geology that literally translates to field stone: feldspar. Doesn’t answer this question but I think it’s interesting.
Augusta!! I was just there… and it’s still like that ♥️
Nice! Me too! I stayed in that old haunted hotel called the Partridge Inn on Walton. Really a cool place! They were a little more low-key with the Yankee hatin' this time around, lol
Glacial erratics typically describe large stones deposited by prehistoric glaciers that don’t match native stones in a region. Typically big, cool funky rocks that mere mortals can’t lift with relative ease.
I've definitely heard "fieldlings"!
My father is from Proctor. Mother from Rutland. I’m made of stone.
True. I New England where I am it’s cool to find them in the woods and picture how the landscape has changed over the decades.
bleahdeebleah t1_ivf6teb wrote
Glacial erratics?