They arrive at Tribou Park in Woodstock shortly before noon each day, rain or shine (mostly the former this week), with homemade signs.

“Deport Billionaires.” “Defend the Constitution.” “Abolish ICE.”

“Please Do Not Honk.”

Popular pro-democracy, anti-Trump themes, for sure. Well, except for the last sign that I mentioned. Aimed at approaching motorists, the yard sign was put up out of respect for any of the park’s neighbors who might be noise sensitive.

After all, it is Woodstock.

At first, the daily protests, which attract 15 to 20 people on weekdays and even more on weekends, struck me as out of character for the tony tourism-centric town that Laurance Rockefeller shaped.

But I was unfamiliar with the power-to-the-people side of Woodstock that flies in the face of the town’s button-down image.

Next Saturday, May 17, will mark the 100th consecutive day that sign-toting Woodstock residents have led a demonstration against Trump administration policies from noon to 1 p.m. at the gateway to the village.

“This is what democracy looks like,” protesters said in unison before packing up on Thursday as rain began to fall at quitting time.

Located at the intersection of Central and Pleasant Streets, Tribou Park is ideal for grabbing the attention of slow-moving motorists coming in and out of the village on U.S. Route 4.

Woodstock resident Linda Machalaba started the daily demonstrations, after the Trump administration gutted the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.

Word spread on the Woodstock Listserv about what Machalaba was up to. “Suddenly, it began to build,” said Al Alessi, of Woodstock. On a Saturday in April, the crowd swelled to almost 300 people as part of nationwide protest.

Machalaba wasn’t in town this week, but she was at the park in spirit. Her “Call Congress” sign hung from a cannon in the park, which was built in “memory of the boys of Woodstock and vicinity” who served in the Civil War.

On weekdays, at least, the regulars are mostly retired baby boomers — old enough to remember when protests against the war in Vietnam were staged on this same small triangle of public land.

Fifty-five years later, the battle is against Trump and his allies. The Woodstock protesters, like others throughout the U.S., see the country slipping into authoritarian rule. With the present administration deporting legal immigrants without due process and robbing universities it considers too woke for federal funding, I can’t disagree.

“It’s not left versus right, it’s right versus wrong,” said Alessi, who was known for his musical talent long before he joined Woodstock’s protest movement.

Instead of a handcrafted sign, Alessi, 75, lugs a large Ukrainian flag on a wooden pole around Tribou Park. It’s a way to show support for the small country that Russia invaded in February 2022, and Trump claims is to blame for the ongoing war, not his pal, Vladimir Putin.

Farther down the sidewalk from Alessi, John Bevier held up his creation: A black-and-white “Trump Lies” sign.

A white-haired woman in a Subaru opened her window as she approached the stop sign on Central Street. “He doesn’t lie, you do,” she yelled.

Bevier, 66, remained unfazed by the woman’s hostility. At this critical time in the nation’s democratic history, “silence is what we can’t afford,” he told me.

Protesters quickly develop a thick skin, if they didn’t have one before joining the group. On Wednesday, I watched a driver of a pickup with New Hampshire license plates slow down long enough to shout, “F… you, liberals.”

Since Bill McDonald, a retired dentist, began coming to the park in February, he’s noticed a change in tone from people driving by. “We’re starting to get a lot more positive reinforcement,” he said.

They’re seeing less wagging of middle fingers and more thumbs-up. On Thursday, a tourist slapped high-fives with demonstrators on his walk into the village.

The support of strangers “gives us energy,” said Courtney Hollingsworth, who along with her mother, Charlotte, is a regular.

“I didn’t know anyone here when I started come, but it’s been great,” said Bess Haartz, of Hartland. “Instead of staying home and wringing your hands, you feel like you’re doing something positive with like-minded people.

“It’s group therapy.”

I asked Charlotte Hollingsworth, a former Woodstock innkeeper, if she knew a man standing at the end of the intersection. “He’s here about once a week,” she said.

Ken, who wouldn’t give me his last name, wore a red “Make American Great Again” baseball cap and carried a “Deport Illegals” sign.

“Someone has to do a little counter-protesting,” the retired tradesman told me. “It can’t be all one-sided. I suffered through 12 years of Barack and Joe, it’s my time to shine.”

Except for the time a demonstrator accused him of staring at her dog, “everybody is peaceful,” he said.

“It’s his right to be here as much as it is ours,” Charlotte Hollingsworth said. “At least we still, for now, have a democracy where he can do his thing and we can do ours.”

This being Woodstock, protesters think they might have an idea that a chamber of commerce could get behind. “Rally Tourism,” as they’re calling it, could attract more visitors to town.

They have a marketing slogan in mind: “Come to Vermont and be part of our protest.”

But even if you like the idea, please do not honk.

Jim Kenyon can be reached at jkenyon@ vnews.com.