Idle Mills

Welcome to north country. The roads are flat and straight up here. You pass Ford dealerships and farms everywhere you go. Trucks are the personal vehicle of choice. Some are rusted out with the word “redneck” proudly decalled on the front windshield. Others are cherry mint, right off the lot. And many have Calvin pissing on the Ford or Chevy symbol depending on the drivers preference. Calvin and Hobbes was a fun cartoon. It taught me a lot about the power of imagination. Somehow, Calvin was highjacked by the 4X4 culture. Although the comic strip is retired, its legacy lives on in streams of urine on the back of many pickups.

Packing plants, cheese factories, and a pharmaceutical firm make up some of these communities alongside Lake Champlain. The most read periodical is the Church bulletin. The only news the local paper gets right according to the townsfolk is the obituaries.

Against this backdrop I saw for the first time, a wind farm. I was by exit 40 on the Adirondack Northway on my way to my parents house when I looked left and saw the huge white wind mills sprinkled all over a mountain. They must have been 40 miles away from me but I was still able to make out what they were. I told my dad what I saw. He asked me if I wanted to take a ride and see them up close. I said sure. We set off across the flat roads of north country. I was passed by a bunch of pickup trucks. They like speed up here even though there’s no place to go. I was on a road lined by evergreens when straight ahead, a windmill finally came into view. It was even larger than I thought it would be, and I was still miles away.

Finally, the trees cleared on both sides and we entered a town named, Churubusco, NY. The windmills were everywhere. To the left, to the right, in the middle of cornfields and on hills. They were in the backyards of a double wide lot and in the fields of a farm.

I pulled off the road at the only store in town. It was called, “Dicks Country Oasis. Guns Gas Groceries and Guitars.” In the parking lot of the store, I looked at the windmills some more. They were massive. I felt like an ant next to them. Some people think these contraptions will ruin America’s landscapes. I’ve got to disagree with them, they’re more pleasing to the eye than a smoke stack or a nuke plant.

Although it was breezy, the blades weren’t spinning. I asked my dad why. He said that with the economy tanking some banks pulled funding and laid off technicians and maintenance personnel. With all the infrastructure in place it seems a shame that they can’t just flick a switch, catch the wind and harness some energy for people to use.

The future of energy is no longer in the future. It stands idle, here in Churubusco, NY. The new grid is visible in the parking lot of Dick’s Country Oasis, guns, gas, groceries, and guitars. The mills stand tall and proud amongst cornfields, double wides, and tin roofs in north country, waiting for a switch to be flicked.