Show IN THESE UNITED STATES 7 ti tiny my vermont town picked As symbol of world peace features POWNAL CENTER VT for the first time in its history pownal center is on a map larger than that of its own township A few weeks ago pownal center was not even consid ered a wide place in the road today it is internationally fa r as the epitome of the deep and abiding peace the united states hopes to achieve for the whole world tv tv selected as a typical quiet rural scene to symbolize peace G a picture of pownal center recently was reproduced on the b back ac k cover of the united nations weekly bulletin I 1 if the UN had appointed a learned committee of exports experts to search the world over for a serene ij and peaceful community as a world model it could not have arrived at a more perfect choice than pownal center peaceful community the old white new england church lifts its octagonal steeple above a community tn in chic which h there Is neither luke juke box pool hall hot dog emporium corner drugstore or motion picture theater Us its handful of old homes its church a one room schoolhouse a garage a couple of filling stations st a little grocery store a roadside souvenir shop some neat tourist cabins a crumbling revolutionary pre cemetery and an a ancient inn strung along the highway these comprise the center no one Is very rich in pownal center and no one Is very poor it Is essentially a farming community the township meeting is held annually in march people from all over the township crowd into pow nal centers union church built in 1789 there the citizens of the township elect the three selectmen who govern the whole community as well as all other elective officers in open meeting they thresh out the matter of local taxes road improvements and school matters peace Is unmarred in the six years he has been sheriff arthur IT bourke had to jail anyone while the rest of the world Is plagued with juvenile delinquency pownal center with her inhabitants sits back and wonders why the center has never had a case of juvenile delinquency it would be quite true P in one sense to say that nothing ever happens in pownal center nothing that Is but the ebb and flow ot of the seasons and ana the ebb and flow ot of life itself of births marriages and deaths nestled in hoosic valley and hemmed in by mountains on both the east and west pownal center Is linked with postwar realities only through the rushing traffic ot of ethan allen alien highway servicemen return but there is no isolation in the world today even tor for a community that epitomizes peace out of the inhabitants 11 men and one young woman served in the armed forces during world war IT II now all the men are home again the community rejoicing that all are safe and the girl married to a naval officer during the war lives in virginia few residents Is of the center believe that the theatos atom bomb will ever shatter the peace ot of their own little valley what really worries them is what the bomb will do tor for the rest of the world |