Norwich is not tightly tethered to technology. Cellular and internet connectivity remains spotty, which helps explain why many of the townspeople I talked to carried flip phones in their purses or pockets. Why buy a smartphone when its bells and whistles are effectively silenced by hills and forests? The townspeople have their favorite chat rooms and social platforms, but these are physical spaces — in the aisles of the general store, at the gym or the downstairs meeting room in Tracy Hall, in the shops along Main Street.

Norwich does have a time-warp feel to it that extends beyond its potholed information superhighway. The town’s de facto chamber of commerce is the family-owned general store, Dan & Whit’s, whose slogan could double as the town motto: “If We Don’t Have It, You Don’t Need It.” The gathering spot has been the site of at least three weddings, with Dan Fraser, who runs the store, officiating at a makeshift altar between the narrow aisles of flannel shirts and work pants. The store’s currency is trust, with groceries added to a running tab that is paid off at the end of each month. For the town’s poorest residents, the 6 percent who live below the poverty line, their debt, more often than not, is quietly forgiven.

Even though Norwich is relatively affluent, its model has always been one of equity. Nearly two decades before Dartmouth welcomed the first women in its freshman class, the town’s first homegrown Olympian, the 1956 and 1960 Alpine skier Betsy Snite, grew up skiing alongside the college men. The Ford Sayre program, where all the Norwich Winter Olympians got their start, was one of the first children’s ski programs in the country, offering instruction to girls in an era when beauty still trumped brawn, as borne out by sports events that included pageants as part of the competition.

Norwich is also generous in helping neighbors who are less well off. It is the kind of place where a man dies and leaves his estate to the town with the condition that his money be used to ensure that no child endures a winter without a new pair of mittens. People contribute money for scholarships for drawing, painting, photography and writing classes. Or they volunteer to flood the town green during the winter so that elementary school children can skate before and after school.