Thanks, neighbors

Essay by Alan Kesselheim

Small-Town Life – November 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine

I TOOK A LONG TRIP with my family last summer, six weeks away from home. Well before we left, during the school year, we found some ideal house sitters. A young couple my wife knew who needed a place during that same time and who were eager to trade some yard work and house upkeep. One of those rare win-win situations, a relief to all.

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The drive-by roostering

Essay by Patty Lataille

Small-town life – August 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

MARAUDING ROOSTERS at large. Laying hens. Cock fights at 5 a.m. Chicken sex. Uniformed police officers ready to whack my roosters. I never dreamed that the intricate details of chickenhood would be the source of such controversy in my lifetime.

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Alma wants to be a quieter place

Brief by Central Staff

Small town life – November 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

There was a time when Alma, a few miles up the Hoosier Pass road from Fairplay, was a rip-roaring mining camp.

But now it would prefer to be a quiet place.

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When anatomy meets geography

Brief by Central Staff

Small town life – March 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

Since the days of the Great Depression, Salida has billed itself as “the Heart of the Rockies.”

That’s a safe body part, especially if you consider the fate of Lorrie Baumann, who used to be the editor of the Battle Mountain Bugle in Battle Mountain, Nevada.

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Why my ugly town is beautiful

Essay by Paul Larmer

Small town life – May 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

EVER SINCE I MOVED to this small town on the edge of the Rocky Mountains seven years ago, a “For Sale” sign has marked the vacant lot next to the railroad tracks on 2nd Street.

It isn’t much of a lot, just a triangle of gravel-covered, weed-infested land squeezed by an alley and the tracks. Often, I have stood next to it, waiting for a 100-car train to rumble past with a load of coal from the mountains. The ground shakes. The air shatters with the sharp blasts of the train’s horn.

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Can we avoid putting up gates?

Essay by Ed Quillen

Small-town life – March 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

AT A MEETING in Denver nearly four years ago, I joked that development hereabouts was turning us into the easternmost gated suburb of Los Angeles — a protected enclave for people of means who prefer to live only among people like themselves.

But that isn’t entirely a joke, and it isn’t just happening to us. It’s a national phenomenon, as explained by a recent article in The Washington Post: Racial segregation is diminishing in America, but income segregation is rising.

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