Village Visions is a set of impressions of the Village of Montgomery by a visitor who has known it for over forty years.

Last fall I took to the streets with camera  in hand knowing what I had seen but trying to see it again for the first times.  My hope was to exhibit these pictures in he Daily Bean Cafe where I always enjoyed  good coffee surrounded by works of local artists.  When the weather was agreeable, I sat  in the garden.  

I wanted a theme for the exhibit and Thornton Wilder's play "Our Town" kept running through my head.  Here was a historic village still alive and well in the new century.  But as I said, I was their guest and I wanted to display what I saw.  

My first picture on Clinton Street was the Mead-Tooker house where I live just after I began teaching.  From my apartment, I could  see the spire of the church  and the Academy Building.   Further down the street the window of the  Village Sampler reflected the changing seasons.

 Along  Union and Clinton Streets  there are family run business, antique shops and a pub  or two where I spent many hours with good friends..  

Walking along Union Street is a trip back in space-time from the colonial period to post revolution and to the Victorian era. Just across  the Wallkill, the past is present.  Even the tractors that welcome us to the village remind us of the past.

This exhibit was not done as a promotion for the village but rather a tribute to a community that continues
the past into the future.
 

Leaving the Village