The 70s—The sky’s the limit!
I was supposed to be reading Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. Instead, I watched with amusement as my schoolmate, Todd Reichhelm, walked his pet bullfrog across the room. He coaxed the oversized amphibian toward the edge of the double step. With a subtle flick of his wrist, the loosely tied string slipped off the neckless creature. The frog blinked a couple of times slowly comprehending that it was unleashed, then leapt a full three feet into the shallow water at the base of the bottom step. Kersplash! Every student in the library cheered as a small, satisfied croak issued from a half-submerged distant bookshelf.
The year was 1978. I was 16 years old, an alpine ski racer with a dream of competing in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid only two years away. The library in which I sat was in the basement of Stratton Mountain School (SMS). SMS was founded in 1972 by Warren Hellman and Don Tarinelli. Both had daughters who were among the top ski racers in the country in the 1970s. Hellman was a member of Stratton Corporation’s Board of Directors and Tarinelli was general manager of the ski area. Both wanted to give their kids, and others like them, the opportunity to ski race at the highest level without compromising their high school education. Burke Mountain Academy opened about the same time. SMS and Burke were the only two ski racing academies in the United States. In the 1970s there was a saying in ski racing circles if you were tops in Vermont, you were tops in the East, and if you were tops in the East you were tops in the United States. At SMS, peer popularity had nothing to do with good looks or how flashy your car was, and everything to do with how fast you skied. If you wore a U.S. Ski Team jacket, you were the coolest kid in the wax room.
