Pleasant Valley

By Cris (Fowler) Ballek

My Home Town A repository for once constructive citizens, the community of Pleasant Valley, which some may still refer to as a town, reclines languidly against its backdrop of gently rolling hills and incessantly beckoning valleys. Its one Church, school, general store and town hall now sit empty. They smell of the dark, neglected, unneeded spaces tucked behind cellar stairways. Their walls are cold inside and out, no longer needing the warmth of the out-dated boilers and fuel burning furnaces that once brought comfort to their streaming flow of muttering and chuckling visitors. Cattle lowing in the distance and the droning of tractors greet your ears as you step into the cool sunlight of this Northern Minnesota community. Self important fields of waving grain and pungent alfalfa symbolize the men and women who cling to the meal ticket of farming that they continue to brandish even as the evidence overwhelmingly points to its futility. The majority of its members are beyond the age of productivity, claiming the status of retiree. A small number of the younger generation have given up on the thought of leaving poverty behind and lean on the sustaining hand of government programs and subsidies as they remain. A few commute to larger areas of economic growth to grasp at their goals of independence and financial success. All who have left to find their fortunes in the world of power and money yearn to return to the place they still call home. Love you guys, Cris Oh yeah, I found a place to rent. Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! .