Small-town girl
Cindy on July 14th, 2008
I wanted to look for NeHi Pop and Burma Shave signs and drive through the kind of small towns that Deanna Durbin and Mickey Rooney used to inhabit in the movies….I wanted to see America. I wanted to come home.” — Bill Bryson, The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America
Practically everyone I know has tried to convert me. My family has taken me on fabulous trips to some of the most incredible cities in the world — London, Paris, Rome, Glascow, New York City, Boston. I’ve admired the great museums and portrait galleries, photographed the landmarks where famous people drank or slept, oooohed and ahhhhed the awesome architecture, sampled the famous restaurants, shopped the world-class department stores and … complained about the god-awful traffic and wished I could go home.
All-knowing friends and editors try to shame me for being so provincial; for favoring quirky rural villages and small college towns. I should know better. But that’s just who I am. I’m the sort of person who cranks up the volume every time John Mellencamp’s “Small Town” is playing on the radio; the sort of person who admires Henry David Thoreau for truly believing that his own neighborhood in Concord was the most fascinating place on Earth. And, yes, I like living in a town where everybody knows my name.
Which is why I was honored when an essay of mine was chosen for Hometown America, a new collector’s anthology of writings just published by Ideals (a Guideposts company). The essay was selected from my own book, Writing Home, and it’s the one about the neighborhood kids who’ve grown up with my son and become part of our family. Other excerpts in Hometown America include pieces by Faith Andrews Bedford, Garrison Keillor, Chris Bohjalian, Susan Allen Toth, Philip Gulley, Edgar Guest, Marjorie Holmes, and many other writers and poets with whom I’d love to shoot the breeze on a front porch. — CL
July 15th, 2008 at 5:55 am
Deanna Durbin was in a movie called NICE GIRL, and it was set in a lovely small American town where everyone knew each other…
July 15th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Thanks for the tip. Thinking about my favorite films, I also notice that many of my favorites center around small, close-knit communities. LOCAL HERO comes to mind, for starters. I also liked the GILMORE GIRLS (TV series); the quirky small-town charms of Stars Hollow appealed to me.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Congratulations, Cindy! What an honor to have one of your essays selected for the book!
July 17th, 2008 at 1:19 am
Bravo, Cindy, on your inclusion in this book. I would love to spend a lazy summer day reading these essays! I couldn’t find it on Amazon, is it available elswhere yet?
July 17th, 2008 at 7:45 am
Cindy, I choose to live in a small town, though we’ve grown quite a bit, no thanks to the housing boom. I get remarks and subtle put-downs about why I’d choose to live where I do when Chicago is so close by. But I lived in Chicago during my free & single 20s–a great time to be there, and dream of a loft when the kids are grown. But I love raising my family here. And even in the city, I craved a sense of community and tried to build that in every neighborhood I lived in.
I too have always loved stories centered around close-knit communities. Northern Exposure comes to mind as one of the best TV shows that did this – and as a fan of Gilmore Girls, they did it better than that show, even.
Finally, congrats on having your essay picked up. That’s got to feel great.
July 17th, 2008 at 7:58 am
What excellent news! Congratulations.
July 17th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Thanks everyone! And Leslie, you asked how to find a copy of “Hometown America” …. I was told that the book is being offered first as a special “collector’s edition” to Guideposts magazine subscribers. It might be available mass market later on, but meanwhile you can contact Ideals Books and inquire about how to obtain a copy. Here’s the link: http://www.idealsbooks.com/index.asp?PageAction=CONTACTUS
If that’s of no help to you, let me know.