My phone doesn't work here, if any of you need me or just want to say hi, call 618-549-6900, rm. 203
Free t-shirts are a big deal in DuQuoine, IL
I've always gotten free t-shirts since I was five when my Mom met my Step-Dad, who's been color-separating Commercial Art for a-while years. So for me free t-shirts are things you have to contemplate throwing away every year, and as I enter my mid-thirties, things you have to contemplate throwing away every few months. I think I'm going to start taking shirts that I can't bring myself to throw away on roadtrips, and take pictures of them on strangers in strange places. Then throw the shirt away and frame the print. Whenever you can clean out your closet and simultaneously creat a gallery of art, always a good day.
Unique, Shitty Heat
It rains every day. The Fair has turned into one big mudpit. The two sunny days were the hottests, wettest, grossest days I've ever lived through since I left Lewisburg, OH.
The amazing thing about Southern Ohio/Illinois/Indiana and Kentucky as a whole is it has this unique, shitty heat. It's 98 degrees and then it rains for just long enough to not cool anything down, but long enough to create wet grass which who's water can slowly evaporate over the next 24 hours when it rains again, but not too much, making it wet and 98 all the time.
Stop Being A Cliche
These honest, hardworking folk get one bone thrown to them and it can't stop raining. Hey, easier for me, less peeps. Less dumb peeps. I have encountered some of the dumbest people you will ever encounter. It's really astounding, even for me. I'm such a liberal and I grew up in a very similar area, so I try not to shake my head at some of the cliches that walk up, I try to say to myself, "hey, the guy grew up economically poor, give him a break, lay off.." but all I can think is "Jesus, this is the stupidest man I've ever talked to." I say "do you want to try and hit a hole-in-one?" ...stare... "do you want to try and hit a hole-in-one?" ...stare... ... ... "yeahhhhhh I guess...", that's at least a third of my interactions. There's a terseness with which the rural ask their questions too. "HOWSIS WORK?!" ah!, you scared me there with your inquiry. "ZIS FREE?!" is a common question.
But in the same way that you can't really encompass the pastiche of life in the city by conjuring a general "city person" you can't encompass the rural community with such a label, there are hundreds of variations and strata. There's the middle-class rural, the upper middle-class rural, the simply simple, the good-ol'-boy, bubba overalls, bubble simple overalls, the harley guy, the retarded, the borderline stupid/retarded, the burnout, the loser, and the losers from the midway who won't leave me alone. Yes you can putt, see you in an hour. Most people are enjoying the hell out of this fair (when it's not raining) and happy doesn't begin to describe most people I meet, they laugh and joke and give each other shit. They're happy in a way that many city-types aren't...or are, but just not me.
All of them are religious. I don't know if that strengthens the case for religion.
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2 comments:
Reading all these posts reminds me so much of the Great Darke County Fair when I was growing up in Greenville. Man, people would save their money all year long, not to go on a cool vacation to get out of shitty small-town Ohio, but to spend a week at the fair, blowing what's left of their paychecks on elephant ears, mirrors with Led Zeppelin logos, Confederate flags, and attempts to win a goldfish in a bowl with colored water. I haven't been back to that fair since I was in high school, but it seemed sad to me even when I was ten.
DUDE! I used to go to the Darke County Fair every year too! This one is a lot like that one. How weird that a little Rob and a little Adam may have rubbed shoulders at the dart throwing game. The mirrors I owned: Twisted Sister, Pyromania, and Rambo: First Blood Part Two - a mirror in name only.
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