I love Bellows Falls, Vermont, Maria and I often go there when we visit our inn in Vermont, it is one of those charismatic, scrappy old industrial towns that the politicians and economists and corporations abandoned to make more money in the new global economy, where we seem to always remember what corporations are for, but never what people are for. These towns, filled with wondrous architecture and old mills and waterways, are sacrifices to our greed and loss of humanity.

Bellows Falls is struggling, there are abandoned storefronts, empty old mills along the beautiful canals, there are also many new signs of life and rebirth, artists are moving into lofts and apartments, there is a new elegant paper store, a new restaurant, a funky movie theater, a new sporting goods store and our tattoo parlor, Mountainside. “Fat Franks” hot dogs are quite special, so is the elegaic Bellows Falls Diner, and an old fashioned Pinball parlor. This is the kind of town I would move to in a heartbeat if I didn’t love my little farm, it will not quit, will not say die, will not be forgotten. It is a thumb in the face of the economists and the people who run the country, it is coming back all the time.

The artists are leading the way in Bellows Falls, there are signs of coming life everywhere.