Three Rivers functions in much the same way that it has for years. People still work in specific places that everyone knows about. The town’s citizens shop in stores and visit businesses where they are as likely as not to see someone they know. They take part in social and civic activities and groups, some of which have been around for quite a while. Whether we are aware of it or not, life in Three Rivers centers on its factories, which have changed a lot over time, but which have set many of the same economic and social patterns for generations.

“What kind of a town is Three Rivers? If you are from here, and you’re seated next to a stranger on a plane, how do you describe this place? You can, of course, talk about its size and its location: ‘oh, it’s a little town in farm country about 35 minutes south of Kalamazoo.’ But what about its character? What things make it alike with, or set it apart from, other places? Where does it fit into the catalog of typical small towns across the United States? What would you say defines the essence of Three Rivers and makes it what it is?”