Ladies' Pond

By Erica Heilman

Published August 3, 2025 at 9:30 AM EDT

Women in water leaning against paddleboard with one woman sitting on paddleboard — Women at No. 10 Pond, Calais, Vermont.

In swimming holes all over of the world, since the beginning of time, there have been groups of women of a certain age who stand up to their thighs, talking. This is a show about them.

Note: A portion of this segment features conversation about expediting the end-of-life process.

No. 10 Pond in Calais is where I go swimming in the summer. All kinds of people go there. Kids, grownups, grandparents, mothers and fathers, dogs. But always there is a group of ladies ... standing thigh deep in the pond, talking together. All over the world since the beginning of time, ladies of a certain age have been standing thigh deep in water together, talking. It’s a scientific fact. So here in my town, for hundreds of years —even before recorded history — pieces of these ladies' conversations have been drifting around on the pond.

This is a show about ponds, and ladies who stand in them.

Pond on a summer day. Pebble beach foreground and people standing in calm water. — No. 10 Pond, Calais, Vermont

Credits

The women in this show are: Clare Dolan, Holly Rae Taylor, Alison Bechdel, Deb Fleischman, Annie Greensfelder, Rosana Vestuti and Tamar Cole.

Thanks to all the kids and families and dogs and loons and crows that were there that day on the pond. And the trumpet guy.

Huge thanks to Chelsea Edgar for her edits. Thank you Jay Allison for listening to my mix and thank you Jeff Towne for giving me so much good advice … about whales.

Rumble Strip is a podcast produced by Erica Heilman and distributed on the radio by Vermont Public. Learn more about the show here.