Hometown memories

[Magical Realist]

Rebecca Askew
Feb 10, 2013

My Hometown

"I am from a place,
Like a place Bruce Springsteen
Sings about.
It's really nowhere special,
Everyone dreams of getting out.

We had nothing special,
But we really had it all.

There's a hundred
Factories, or maybe more.
Going to the Bowling Alley, on
Friday nights,
And that old corner bar, I adore.

Long country car rides,
I've got a mix tape and my
Lonely thoughts.
Just an old tired chevy,
But it gets me around.

I could drive around forever,
Blowing smoke out the
Leaky window,
With my hands freezing cold,
And my soul, so full of soul.

We had nothing special,
But we really had it all

There's a lake so big
You can't even see across.
And several old abandoned buildings,
There's no one there, that has not suffered a tragic loss.

We had nothing special,
But we really had it all.
I miss that small town."

[Image: Small-Town-Downtown-copyright-Anna-Surface.jpg]

[Image: small-town-america-sherri-meyer.jpg]

[Image: Small-Town-Railroad-Tracks-copyright-Ann...5_pBR).jpg]

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Stop and Go

By M.R.

"Raised in a highway town
Off of 181.
Green signs
Dairy Queen
Lit up Stop and Go.

No townsquare or city park
Just a 4 laner and gas stations
With new housing editions behind them
Red/Green traffic light flashing at main exit.

Just a streamlined place to stop and go
On the way to somewhere else."

[C C]

Stop and Go

By M.R.

"Raised in a highway town
Off of 181.
Green signs
Dairy Queen
Lit up Stop and Go.

No townsquare or city park
Just a 4 laner and gas stations
With new housing editions behind them
Red/Green traffic light flashing at main exit.

Just a streamlined place to stop and go
On the way to somewhere else."

Probably the result of fuzzy memories, but one town seemed so changed that I needed the sign to verify it, after passing down its way again on a trip (and I'm fairly sure it was never hit by a tornado after we moved away). Almost the opposite for another, with several abandoned buildings making it look like it was on the road to ghost-town status. Never actually lived in the former, only went to the elementary school there. A one-year stint at each place, back when our parents were in their early nomadic phase.

[Magical Realist]

Stop and Go

By M.R.

"Raised in a highway town
Off of 181.
Green signs
Dairy Queen
Lit up Stop and Go.

No townsquare or city park
Just a 4 laner and gas stations
With new housing editions behind them
Red/Green traffic light flashing at main exit.

Just a streamlined place to stop and go
On the way to somewhere else."

Probably the result of fuzzy memories, but one town seemed so changed that I needed the sign to verify it, after passing down its way again on a trip (and I'm fairly sure it was never hit by a tornado after we moved away). Almost the opposite for another, with several abandoned buildings making it look like it was on the road to ghost-town status. Never actually lived in the former, only went to the elementary school there.  A one-year stint at each place, back when our parents were in their early nomadic phase.

My hometown as since turned into Anytown U.S.A.--a sprawling  bedroom community 7 miles north of Corpus Christi strewn with shopping centers, Super Marts, fast food franchises, and hotels. Not to mention numerous protestant churches, symptomatic of the compensative need of dysfunctional families for meaning while  trying to live out all the vapid surburban cliches and stereotypes. A cultural wasteland concealing alcoholism, drug abuse, mental illness, and typical WASP overwork stress vented in the form of spousal abuse, teen angst, overmanicured lawns, and xenophobic tensions.

[Image: suburbia.jpg]