Charlie Karparis doesn’t say what kind of trouble led Montpelier American Legion Post 3 to hire him as its manager about four years ago. He does say that things are much better now. The problem has been fixed.
Every morning of the week, from 6 AM to noon, he sits beneath a series of Budweiser mirrors depicting each of the military branches that are squeezed above the post’s Main Street-facing windows. Even the Coast Guard is not forgotten. He wears a Navy cap with a camouflage pattern.
What Karparis does say is that statewide, the American Legion is losing hundreds of members to death each year. Not only are World War II and Korean Conflict vets at an age where death is no surprise, but Vietnam-era vets like him are getting up there in age too.
He says that each year the American Legion’s state headquarters gives each post in the state a membership quota. He says that last July headquarters gave Post 3 a membership quota of 307 members, which is more or less what they started with.
He says that he was a Navy corpsman, or medic, and while he served during the Vietnam War, he worked in a stateside hospital and never saw combat, so he is not eligible to be a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Veterans who served their country during peacetime are not eligible for either organization. Karparis is a Legion man. And yes, he is the father of former Montpelier mayor Chuck Karparis.
The senior Karparis rummages through his make-shift office that sits directly to the left of the post’s bar until he finds the Vermont American Legion’s convention booklet. He turns to the membership page, with its long columns of numbers showing the state’s Legion membership from its founding until last year. He slides a thick finger down the columns to 1994, the peak. It shows 18,110 members. He points to the last number, 12,678 in 2014. “We’re losing members,” he says solemnly. “Losing them all the time.”
Karparis says that at the Legion, “women were once second-class citizens. Not anymore.” The Legion now depends on its Ladies Auxiliary and its Sons of the American Legion members to keep numbers up and keep the post functioning. These members are not military veterans, but are the wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers, granddaughters, sons and grandsons of veterans.
He has a picture of all of Post 3’s living commanders together. The post commander is the elected leader of a Legion post. “No young guys there,” he says. But there is a woman. He doesn’t mention women veterans, who make up about 7 percent of Vermont’s veterans, according to federal Department of Veterans Affairs statistics.
Karparis says that the Colchester Legion post has over 800 members while the Burlington post has closed, having dwindled down to less than 50 members. He says he thinks that’s because Colchester has a new post building, doing extensive renovations at a new location when the old place burned down.
He says that people ask him why Post 3 stays in the former grain store on Main Street in downtown Montpelier, “with just nine lousy parking spaces out back.” He says that people tell him the post would have more members if it had a fancy new building.
“We’ll never leave Main Street, USA because the Legion belongs on Main Street, USA,” is his reply. Plus, he says, downtown Montpelier has plenty of street parking, as long as you feed the meter.
Karparis says that the post worked hard trying to increase its membership to 307. When they bumped into members who owed dues in the drugstore, they reminded them to pay up. They even went and knocked on the doors of past members who lapsed.
Without enough members, the whole thing just doesn’t work, he says. You have to sell a certain number of sodas and enough bags of chips to be able to fund the Post’s many community projects. The sentimental favorite of these is the Post 3 Legion baseball team, which consists of high-school-aged young men whose playing expenses are paid for by the post. “Some people tell me, ‘If you ever get rid of the baseball team, I’m leaving,’” he says.
Karparis himself is not leaving. He retired once before from professionally managing Elks Lodges. Managing Post 3 is a paid job, but he is not planning on retiring again. He is 71. “When I stop having fun, then I will retire,” he says, “but I don’t know when that will be.”
Plus, what else would he do? With his children grown and his life partner having passed away, the Legion is his life, he says. He treasures his Legion family.
The front windows of Post 3 are decorated with American flags, stars, and red, white and blue garland. This is not pure patriotism. The window displays are keyed to the holidays and it is close to the Fourth of July.
At noon a member rings the bell to be buzzed in. The members usually start arriving around noon, Karparis says. The bell is necessary, he adds. It’s a membership origination after all. Not just any one can enter. The post won’t serve alcohol until the bartender comes on duty, sometime in the afternoon. Until then, members gather around the table nearest Karparis’ office, drinking coffee and talking about everything.
“You’ve heard of the Round Table?” he asks. “Well this is my rectangular table.”
“Where’s my game today?” the member asks, before he even sits down. Legion baseball season is in full swing. The game is in Burlington, Karparis tells him.
Karparis says that when veterans who are not members visit the post, “We overwhelm them with love.” Still, membership numbers keep slipping. Karparis almost can’t believe it himself, how hard the post worked to get two more members to meet their quota. But they couldn’t. In the end, they got to 305 members, but no more.
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