By Melissa Cragg

(Melissa and Tom Cragg have recently become full-time Williamstown residents.)

Tom and I have just scratched the surface of area trails.  Keep in mind that we’re trying to shake off 35 years of sitting behind desks so we’re in early days of walking — what we do is too basic to be called hiking!  The Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation has a great website, www.wrlf.org.  There are two trails near us, the Phelps Trail south of Cricket Creek Farm and the Mills Hollow Trail, which is south of that.  Both trails connect to the Taconic Trail.

Tom and I have planned our retirement to Williamstown for six years now.  We bought our house here on Oblong at the end of 2009 and have traveled back and forth to Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan (a Detroit suburb) which is where we lived for the last 28 years.  We retired on October 1st this year.  We are both “financial types.”  Tom retired from the health care trust established by the United Auto Workers in the post-auto company bankruptcy days of 2008 and 2009.  I retired as the Chief Investment Officer for a single-family office established for a prominent Detroit-area family.  I continue to work part-time for the same family, mostly from here but am traveling back to Detroit once a month or so.

Tom is working on his PhD in US History, something he has done in his spare time for the past several years.  He is almost finished with the coursework and will be working on his dissertation soon.  He has no plans to teach but loves the research and study.  I love “all things fiber” including knitting, weaving and a little bit of spinning. We look forward to making new friends here and encourage people to call us at 413-884-6047 or to visit us at 981 Oblong, just north of Cricket Creek Farm.