Lloyd Den Boer

Imagine a serene Sunday morning in a prairie town a lifetime ago . The day being young , the town lies still in the cool of the morning . Soon church bells begin to toll , first from one area of the town , then others , saturating the air with glorious sound . As the bells toll , families gather in their churches . In time , the services start . The people rise , sit , and bow their heads at the bidding of their pastors . The pastors urge their congregations to live worthy lives . The congregations respond with hymns . Finally , as the services come to their ends , the organists throw the swell shutters on their instruments open , rattling windows with postludes that bring worship to a jubilant end . Then , if the town is like the one where I was born , the rest of the day is tranquil . All businesses are closed ; no work is done . Families gather for meals , friends arrange visits , and children play quietly . The streets of the town are empty because the town agrees that Sunday is a day of repose .

That was decades ago . These days , churches in towns like the one where I was born no longer ring bells , pipe organs have fallen out of favour , and Sundays are less tranquil . Still , the deepest changes lie elsewhere . When industrialized agriculture replaced the family farms that once dotted the countryside , the rural population surrounding these towns collapsed . Some towns became derelict shadows of their former selves . In towns that prospered , familyowned businesses were closed as restaurant chains , big box stores , and factories owned by corporations took their places . In each successful town , a society built by small independent entrepreneurs — whether farmers or businessmen — changed into a society of corporate managers and their wage labourers . Soon newcomers needing work moved into these towns . The perception that everyone belonged based on a common European settler lineage no longer made sense .

According to some , progress saved these towns from rural blight . Others noticed that the pathways to individual , self-made success had narrowed , leaving only the kinds of jobs that big corporations offered . The more those who felt left behind looked about them , the more they felt like outcasts in their own towns . Sometimes , they concluded , even newcomers were shown more respect than wage labourers whose families were long-time settlers

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