Pownal Vermont

There's an iconic hairpin turn cut into the side of Spirit Mountain on the Mohawk Trail in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, and some 50 summers ago this steep, white-knuckle  portion of Route 2 is where my Dad, hauling a one-horse trailer with the family station wagon, had an agitated Thoroughbred kick open the back door and leap to a near-certain death over the edge of the precipice. As dusk and state police cruisers descended upon the scene, my father, Paul, asked a trooper to have the dispatcher phone nearby...