BETTER THAN HEARSAY - Wise Beyond His Years

At home in the shop, Cooper Hulbert (left), ready, willing and eager to lend a hand to shopman Junior Corey and whoever else seeks assistance.

Three generations of renters, repairers and retailers; grandfather Scott Powell, grandson Cooper Hulbert (who parked the tractor for the photograph) and father Eric Hulbert.

WINDHAM - The wind had been whipping three straight days but there was young Cooper Hulbert, out in it, where he prefers to be, his shoulders huddled against the cold, headed for whatever might need doing next.

Cooper is 14 years old, turning 15 in a couple of weeks, helping out at Windham Equipment Rentals, the family-owned business.

It seemed story-worthy, seeing him bounce from one thing to the other at the shop, something he says he’s done, “ever since I can remember.”

Part of the reason is, “I like being with my dad,” Cooper says, meaning Eric Hulbert who is paternally linked to Scott Powell who is paternally linked to the late Stanley Ingalls.

Stanley Ingalls was the founder of GNH Lumber, down in the valley towns of Greenville and Norton Hill, thus the acronym.

The well-respected brand later spread to Windham, on the west end of town, where Stan re-birthed an equipment rental business previously operating under a similar name.

Fourteen summers ago, Windham Equipment Rentals lost everything in the destructive flooding from Hurricane Irene, situated in an unfortunate spot, on a sharp bend in the engorged and backed-up Bataviakill.

Being the sort of folks who don’t quit, the business was rebuilt, moving to its present location five years ago, also absorbing Crown Fuels.

So the point is, young Cooper comes from good stock (maternally too), though he didn’t do much to clean up the mess left behind by Irene.

He can be forgiven - since he was still learning to ambulate - and that was probably the last occasion he wasn’t in the thick of it.

Cooper, a freshman at Cairo-Durham, isn’t a typical Digital Age teenager. He actually welcomes stocking shelves, putting together chain saws or weed whackers, and unloading and loading trucks.

“I used to go on deliveries with my dad before I was big enough to do much of anything,” says Cooper, who isn’t a video games lover, unless he is impossibly bored which is essentially never.

Not with skid steers, backhoes and bulldozers to shuffle in the front lot and endless ways to make somebody else’s job pleasanter.

“Maybe I’m biased, but I’ve gotta’ say he is exceptional,” says grandfather Scott Powell, smiling. “He enjoys being hands-on with everything and he cares about people.”

The three R’s are what they are for Cooper who already has his mind pretty much set on trade school, learning welding and securing a CDL license.

Old-fashioned stuff and, oh yeah, he loves fishing and hunting too. “We’ve got a camp in the Adirondacks,” Cooper says, getting fidgety with the interviewer, clearly wanting to get back to the nuts and bolts.

“If I could, I’d spend the whole summer there,” the country kid says, showing he ain’t all-work and no-play, as well as wise beyond his years.

The future will come, he figures. Meanwhile, “I like living here,” Cooper says. “The people are nice, I know where everything is.”