A PORTRAIT OF PUCKEYHUDDLE

Walking through the kitchen, I swipe a section of the newspaper and head out the back door.   On my patio deck, I pour a liberal amount of charcoal into the chimney starter, place the now crumpled newspaper pages inside, and then strike a match to set the paper ablaze.  I take a moment to ensure that I have done my part to totally immolate the newspaper.  Not once do I wonder what important stories I may be destroying.  In Sainte Genevieve, the important stories are lived, not written.

Billed as “the Oldest Town West of the Mississippi”, Sainte Genevieve (pop. 4572) can often feel like it.  The town exists somewhere in time between the long ago and yesterday.  Civic leaders have come and gone, but no viable path to the present has yet to be found.  While the President of the United States may be discussing how to ‘Win the Future’, we have no time for that.  Here, the battles of the past are still being waged.