It's the birthday of our blessed founder and benefactor here on DTL, so I figured today would be an appropriate day for me to take a moment and reflect on where we are in this crazy blog called life. This year YIB turns 28. That's 20 + 8. That's still 3 years older than Amanda Bynes. He's had a very big year, this guy, moving from jargantuan Chicago to relatively small Springfiend, and, let's face it, Springfield is nothing more than 100 small towns stack on top of each other with a capital building in there somewhere. Adjustments weren't easy, but he's gotten the hang of his new job and isn't even the newest guy there any more (I assume that guy's name is Gary or Brian).
But for far more important and selfish reasons, he's a heck of a lot closer to me. Which makes me happy and gave me this blog to work on when I get the time. I think about all the random places we've been this year, basically on his whim that we should "just fuckin' go man" like the hero stoner in my dreams. And go we did. And then kind of stopped because it was getting cold (blogging while cold is like getting your socks wet as soon as you leave the house).
Which makes me think about next year and what's to come for us. When the weather finally gets warms (expected in late February thanks to Global Warming (tm) ) we're going to be heading back out there to see what spring is offering. I know I want to check out some northern towns like Galina and Princeton, as well as some more southern sites like Greenville and Carlyle. There are definitely plenty of places to go and from the outside they look promising enough, I just hope we can come up with better reasons to be there when we're there.
I've talked about how we may need to "plan our trips better" because so many of them are turning out the same, but I'm beginning to wonder if the problem isn't so much the "there" as it is the "us". We certainly have been running into the same mentalities ("Our town sucks, why would you come here?") and certainly the same landmarks ("Lincoln thought about coming here once in 1860 but instead spent time with his favorite hound dog") and I can't help wondering if we're just missing it. There's more to all of these places that don't make them boring and I keep believing it's there, largely because of my own experiences in small towns.
I come from the small towns of Ava and Campbell Hill, IL, located just south of You Have Never Been There and Probably Never Will. And I love it there. There's Kinkaid Lake, a couple of restaurants, and a pretty good Amish grocery store. And, of course, all my family and friends which naturally makes me biased for it. But if I had to tell you why you should go there, I'd certainly have to think long and hard about it, and then ultimately not come up with any reason too convincing. Because you're not from there. Because you have maybe never been on a hayride, or gone night fishing, or gone to church with people you know, and at this point in your life those things will probably never be comfortable to you. Because you're not from there. And you can't be. And I can't give you my memories, as much as I enjoy them.
Unfortunately, even being able to sympathize about not really getting a small town as a tourist doesn't give me what I need to actually be able to do it. I want to be able to walk into a local coffee shop or gas station, find the older guy wearing a Dekalb seed hat, drinking a cup of coffee and say "You. Tell me the most ridiculous story about this town that you've ever heard. Go." I want to go to a restaurant and actually get the best thing on the menu because the waitress wasn't trying to get me to order the most expensive thing instead. I want to ask a guy at the post office why he lives in a town of population 650 and get him to say just honestly that he likes it there and that's it's good enough for him.
Instead of the typical home town bashing we normally get.
It's not to say that I haven't had a taste of this stuff, because I have. I just wish we could get it more consistently. I'm sure the fault mostly lies with me, so I'm going to resolve to get better at asking. As long as no one tells me that I'm making them uncomfortable or that I should stop harassing their favorite hound dog, I'm not going to hold back. Such is my DTL resolution.
So happy birthday YIB, and thanks for coming up with this and for including me. I couldn't have asked for a better friend to do this with.
Signing off,
D. Doctorman, M.D.
