Woodstock, VT

February 6, 2018 3:53 PM

Woodstock, Vermont: what are the haps? Is this a good place for a couple to retire in New England?

They are of retirement age, and they liked the town when they visited. They are looking for a quiet place to retire with plenty of nature; one is a birder, the other enjoys good books and movies. All their friends are moving hither and yon as they retire, so eventually they are going too. Florida is not their speed. They asked me to learn what I could about Woodstock as a residence, but I'm not getting much.

I have trouble drawing a bead on the culture of the town. Everyone I met when I visited was very friendly, but I do not know how to find out whether there is a real social scene there, or whether they would welcome newcomers. I am also concerned about winter isolation -- they are not from hard-winter country -- and proximity to good healthcare in the event of an emergency.

I would appreciate any websites, experiences or information you don't find online about small towns (e.g., is there a Wicker Man).

posted by Countess Elena to Society & Culture (12 answers total)

There is proximity to smalltown healthcare but not right in town. The nearest hospital is 14 miles away on a road that is dicey in Winter. I live in Randolph VT which is a little further north and we tend to think of Woodstock as nice, a little snooty and very Old New England. Which doesn't mean that the people there aren't nice, they very much are, but that there's definitely a feeling there that you either already like and want to live within it, or you're going to have a hard time warming up to the place. It's a cute little town. It has a great library. It's a little far from things (i.e. 12 miles off the main highway which can be a lot of there's traffic). There's basically two roads that go through the place which are often full of bad drivers from other states. There is a lot of tourism there and industries that serve it. Birding is good there!

I feel (as a sort of thrifty yankee type) that it's expensive, like there's no place to just get a slice of pizza. If they are okay with that, it would be good. The taxes are high as these things go, relative to other towns. I might encourage them to look at other towns unless there is something very Woodstock specific they are in to: Middlebury. Brattleboro. Heck even Randolph, we have our own little cinema and TWO pizza places (tho I am biased, but I also live across the street form a hospital and houses are MUCH cheaper here than Woodstock). And I'd be a little curious where they live now?
posted by jessamyn at 4:48 PM on February 6, 2018 [6 favorites]

I have a friend who refers to Woodstock as Disney Vermont. It’s a perfectly nice town (very nice in the times I’ve been there), but it just seems like it’s VERMONT turned up to 11. That’s said, it’s close enough to Norwich/Hanover/Lebanon area that you’re generally going to be able to find other things to do if your taste for quaintness gets saturated. Although, on preview, as jessamyn points out, those miles on non-interstate roads may feel like a lot if you’re trying to access health care in winter (on the third hand, though, Dartmouth is a great hospital). The place that my friend offers as a counterpoint to Woodstock is Stowe; that’s a pretty Vermont place too, but feels a bit less Disnified.
posted by Betelgeuse at 4:55 PM on February 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: jessamyn: Mississippi. They're cool though! One draw of New England for them is not living in a state that you have to make excuses for. They're used to semi-rural living but not, as I say, a lot of snow.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:10 PM on February 6, 2018

Friends of friends just retired from New Jersey to the Quechee area. They are liking it so far (though it helps that their daughter already lives in the area), but pretty much the first thing they decided was that their cars were not adequate to deal with the roads in winter.
posted by gudrun at 6:13 PM on February 6, 2018

Woodstock is pretty but I don't think it has much of a local culture - lots of people there are "from away" because it's so crazy expensive. They'll be among a lot of retirees and tourists from New York and Connecticut. Getting to a hospital is not too bad when the roads are clear, but could be challenging in snow and ice. Walking out your front door is challenging in snow and ice. Mississippi to Vermont is a long jump - I'd advise them to spend a January there before relocating for good.
posted by Daily Alice at 7:18 PM on February 6, 2018

The local police are highly invested in ensuring that nobody go through that town at more than 25 MPH, and extracting revenue from locals and tourists alike for every moving violation possible. I was once pulled over there because the litttle light illuminating my license plate was out. Not even a signal light, or anything relevant to safety- just any violation possible to squeak some revenue out of a passerby or otherwise take a chance to harass a mostly innocent motorist.

If I had to live there and practice absolute vehicular perfectionism on the one main road there every day of my life, I would go nuts.
posted by slateyness at 9:14 PM on February 6, 2018

I'm in Maine and we are due for a fierce snow storm today with 8 - 12 inches. We had a couple weeks where the temperature did not get above freezing. It gets dark at 5 ish. I'm used to winters here and they are still a drag. If they can ski, snow shoe, skate, or otherwise enjoy winter, it will help a lot. They should visit in winter, preferably experience an ice storm, before deciding. Northern New England in winter is vastly different than the other seasons. Sitting by the wood stove with coffee and a book while it snows is excellent, but you have to bring in the wood, you have to deal with icy roads to get to the library and grocery, sidewalks are often icy if they are even shoveled. We have only a little snow on the ground, but it rained on it, so it's icy, and bringing in wood is a new level of difficulty.

It will if they can budget for vacation time in warm places.
posted by theora55 at 6:36 AM on February 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

I really enjoyed living in Vermont but would never have chosen Woodstock-- for reasons of expense, if nothing else. If they can afford Woodstock, they can also afford places like Norwich where you are close to university-level healthcare and a lot of other resources and social possibilities.
posted by BibiRose at 7:08 AM on February 7, 2018

I would encourage them to look at senior living. This is based on my cousin's experience moving from Kauai to Seattle. Their new neighborhood was full of busy families, no one else was retired. They moved to a senior living community. They had no maintenance, other people who had time to "play," and made lots of new friends.

They could try it out, as suggested above, with an overnight stay.
posted by MichelleinMD at 9:30 AM on February 7, 2018

Response by poster: I really appreciate all your input - thanks!
posted by Countess Elena at 9:55 AM on February 7, 2018

No, there isn't a Wicker Man, or if there is they're very quiet about it (per village regulations). The birder would love it. For culture people often go to Hanover, NH (about 30 minutes drive away) where there are all kinds of good things, including Osher. There's a nice library in town, and you can buy all the essentials, but they'll need a car to do most stuff. I don't know how welcoming people are to newcomers; my relatives have lived there for about 30 years and have an enviable social life, but I don't know how long it took them to form that. There are a lot of clubs for meeting people. It's full of retirees and I wouldn't move there as a young person, but I would as an older one.

For medical needs, my relatives get day-to-day stuff taken care of in town, and for larger issues they go to Hanover.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:50 AM on February 8, 2018

My grandparents lived nearby in South Pomfret and then as they got into their 70s, dealing with the snow and their steep driveway became enough of a problem that they moved into 'downtown' Woodstock. It's a cute town with kind neighbors. Definitely has a bit of a "Disney Vermont"-feeling since so large of a fraction of people are tourists / part year residents.

Snowy and slippery sidewalks started to be a major concern for my mother, especially as they got older and their vision + quick thinking started to weaken, which made us worry a lot more about them driving themselves to restaurants + doctor visits. They never had a problem getting to the hospital when they needed to, since VT is very good about plowing roads.

They loved the town and didn't want to move away, even though their children (i.e. my mother and aunt and uncle) might have preferred them to move somewhere cheaper, closer, and easier to visit. Getting to Woodstock involves flying to NH + a 2 hour drive or taking a bus from Boston to Dartmouth and getting picked up there, so not awful, but not the easiest place for relatives to visit you. Eventually they moved into a assisted living community in Woodstock Terrace, which wasn't cheap but is charming and well run and let them stay in the community they loved.

Hope that helps. It's definitely possible to retire there, but might not be the best/easiest option unless you have a very strong preference for staying in that area.
posted by vegetableagony at 12:09 PM on February 9, 2018 [1 favorite]