Small Town USA: the Good the Bad and the Ugly

[David In Indy]

Did you read the story I posted in my blog tonight?

I don't think anyone has! 

*sniff*

 

[Shakesthecoffecan]

But once a Protestant friend of mine told me his minister told the congregation that all Catholics are witches and we dabble in sorcery. Apparently he was referring to the Transubstantiation (the priest changing the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ). This minister called the Catholic Mass "Black Magic". The tragic part is my friend believed it. Why? Because his minister said so. I felt very offended by that and still do, actually.

I had a similar experence when I was about 13, a friend too me to a Bible study at his Baptist Church and the preecher spoke of cults, the Moonies, othe churches, and the Catholics.

Now at that point in life I had never met a Catholic, but I knew I came from Catholic ancestors, and friend, them long dead people jumped in my soul and demanded I stick up for them. I questioned the preechers inclusion of the wellestablished Catholic chuch and he went on a diatribe about black masses, etc. I told my friend I could not go to church with him any more. It was pretty much the end of our friendship, and that hurt.

Today I have distain for the dogma of the Catholic Church, but am mindful of the refuge and tool it was to my Irish Ancestors who sought refuge there against the English. I am a mixture of all these people, and more. I hope I embody the healing of the issues that divided them.

"Small" is sometimes dosen't describe the size of the towns, but the size of the minds that live there.

[injest]

Good things

picking blackberries, getting your fingers stained and scratched, keeping a close eye out for snakes. Half hoping to see one so you can run off, squealing, not really believing any harm could come from it.

the smell of the river, dank, fishy, earthy

old, dark, dusty stores with mysterious wares and odd corners and nooks...wAndering the aisles, wOndering what this was...what that is...old things made of iron and wood.

[injest]

the big decision of the day? which flavor Icee to get....waiting to see what next weeks flavor will be.

No fast food places...if you ate out it was at the truck stop or a family owned restaurant...a rare treat. Sitting in a big booth on vinyl seats (naugahyde??)

[injest]

Easter

My favorite holiday

always a big thing when I was growing up. We would go to a relatives house, 5000 eggs and a couple hundred kids. Big bowls of brightly colored eggs. The night before we spent hours carefully decorating and dying them...each thinking theirs was the best.

There would be a prize egg for grown ups and prize eggs for the little ones. Prizes for the one who found the most.

We knew that the eggs laying out in plain view were not for us big kids (prizes not withstanding) those were for the little ones...the ones who toddled out holding onto their parents fingers and were so surprised to find eggs laying in the yard!

Little girls in dresses, slips so full the dresses were as wide as they were tall...little boys in tiny suits and ties.

[David In Indy]

the big decision of the day? which flavor Icee to get....waiting to see what next weeks flavor will be.

I reember those Icees. They always gave me a headache though. I think I was drinking them too fast. I was deep freezing my brain... which probably explains why I act the way I do today.

[injest]

I have an aunt who takes the egg hunt very seriously! as she has gotten older she has become almost pyschotic about it...

one, she HATES for anyone to assist the kids...even the toddlers! "they have to learn' she cries...

the prize egg is taken to the extreme....she has buried it, hid it in her POCKET...??...every year it gets to be more and more of an ordeal. Because NOTHING happens til the prize egg is found and the longer it takes the more agitated she gets. Just in the last few years she has begun berating our intelligence..."I gave ya'll hints I can't believe there is not a one of you that has any sense!" "A two year old could find it"...the whole time just cackling her head off...

We can laugh later (really she is WAY over the top!) but at the time it is NOT funny. It is like I said an ordeal!

Two years ago was the last straw, she has moved into a trailor that is falling apart. I have been in it several times, still can't tell you what kind of flooring it has in it. Carpet? Tile? Wood? I have no idea..it is brownish/black/grey and squishy...She has said to Don...'don't lean on that wall it is loose'.

Her yard is full of odds and ends, there is an old toilet out there...not a kitshy planter...a toilet that broke and was replaced and rather than take it to the dump she just had them throw it out front. roughly 500 old pots full of dirt and dead plants, a fence that was chainlink...now mixed with roofing tin and boards, a headstone....(she says she 'found' it...yeah, I see headstones laying outside the road all the time...don't you?) she intends to grind the name off and use it herself

Now there is a reason I am telling this...I want you to picture this trailor on its tiny lot...she had the egg hunt there...(at least there was plenty of places to hide the eggs!)

It was a COLD rainy day. the kids were soaked to the skin and miserable...but come hell or high water they were gonna KEEP looking til they found that prize egg. Finally, we adults went to help, in clear defiance of her rule about not assisting...she stood on the porch glaring at us...

Finally found the egg ...she had tied it to the end of an ELECTRICAL cord and THROWN it up on TOP of the trailer...

Ok am I the only person that feels it is INSANE to want kids to start pulling at electrical cords attached to a decrepit trailer.............in the rain to boot??

argh!

No more...love her to death but not going to her house anymore for egg hunts!

[David In Indy]

Easter

My favorite holiday

always a big thing when I was growing up. We would go to a relatives house, 5000 eggs and a couple hundred kids. Big bowls of brightly colored eggs. The night before we spent hours carefully decorating and dying them...each thinking theirs was the best.

There would be a prize egg for grown ups and prize eggs for the little ones. Prizes for the one who found the most.

We knew that the eggs laying out in plain view were not for us big kids (prizes not withstanding) those were for the little ones...the ones who toddled out holding onto their parents fingers and were so surprised to find eggs laying in the yard!

Little girls in dresses, slips so full the dresses were as wide as they were tall...little boys in tiny suits and ties.

We always went to my aunt Celeste's house in Cincinnati for Easter. She had a big hill in her back yard. They always hid many eggs up there. Once when I was five or six years old, my cousin Joanne (she was several years older than me) took me up the hill and helped me find some eggs. She also led me to one of the prize eggs. I won a beagle! A real one!  

[injest]

Dang, David...ya'll had GOOD prizes!!

we got candy and money...

[David In Indy]

I have an aunt who takes the egg hunt very seriously! as she has gotten older she has become almost pyschotic about it...

one, she HATES for anyone to assist the kids...even the toddlers! "they have to learn' she cries...

the prize egg is taken to the extreme....she has buried it, hid it in her POCKET...??...every year it gets to be more and more of an ordeal. Because NOTHING happens til the prize egg is found and the longer it takes the more agitated she gets. Just in the last few years she has begun berating our intelligence..."I gave ya'll hints I can't believe there is not a one of you that has any sense!" "A two year old could find it"...the whole time just cackling her head off...

We can laugh later (really she is WAY over the top!) but at the time it is NOT funny. It is like I said an ordeal!

Two years ago was the last straw, she has moved into a trailor that is falling apart. I have been in it several times, still can't tell you what kind of flooring it has in it. Carpet? Tile? Wood? I have no idea..it is brownish/black/grey and squishy...She has said to Don...'don't lean on that wall it is loose'.

Her yard is full of odds and ends, there is an old toilet out there...not a kitshy planter...a toilet that broke and was replaced and rather than take it to the dump she just had them throw it out front. roughly 500 old pots full of dirt and dead plants, a fence that was chainlink...now mixed with roofing tin and boards, a headstone....(she says she 'found' it...yeah, I see headstones laying outside the road all the time...don't you?) she intends to grind the name off and use it herself

Now there is a reason I am telling this...I want you to picture this trailor on its tiny lot...she had the egg hunt there...(at least there was plenty of places to hide the eggs!)

It was a COLD rainy day. the kids were soaked to the skin and miserable...but come hell or high water they were gonna KEEP looking til they found that prize egg. Finally, we adults went to help, in clear defiance of her rule about not assisting...she stood on the porch glaring at us...

Finally found the egg ...she had tied it to the end of an ELECTRICAL cord and THROWN it up on TOP of the trailer...

Ok am I the only person that feels it is INSANE to want kids to start pulling at electrical cords attached to a decrepit trailer.............in the rain to boot??

argh!

No more...love her to death but not going to her house anymore for egg hunts!

Is she starting to go around the bend a little? Is she still able to take care of herself now?

That is a sad story Jess. I hope she will be okay.

Since you mentioned her trailer I should probably tell you I lived in a trailer like that once. I don't think it was quite that bad, but it was pretty bad. I had to rent it for a couple of months during college. My apartment wasn't ready yet. In the bathroom, there was a hole by the toilet and you could look clear through it and see the ground outside.

I was really glad to get out of it and into my apartment. The apartment was quite nice so I guess it was worth it in the long run.

But I never will forget that old trailer at Mirror Lake Trailer Court in Vincennes, Indiana.