…in the Great Central
Valley
In
grade school
about a half-century ago, my classmates and I collectively read “California Rancho
Days.” Part of the California
State Series – before major publishing houses were ceded tacit control of the
curriculum – this state sanctioned, cloth-bound volume contained text and
pictures of a pastoral landscape.
Although
probably printed in black and white (or maybe brown and white) my vision of the
content was a full-color display of rich rolling fields, carpeted with
wildflowers and gently grazed by cattle and sheep. In the distance, snow capped
peaks towered over and provided sustenance to the verdant valley. Small streams formed rivers that
coursed across the fertile plain.
Modest hand-hewn houses dotted the valley floor and foothills, each with a well-tended
garden and a tiny orchard of ever-blossoming fruit trees. Folks living in that time rode working
horses, made tortillas by hand and danced, fiesta style, every evening.
Somewhere
in the back of my mind, this harmonious vision still exists for the Great
Central Valley of California.
© 2013
Church of the Open Road Press
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