(cue the Blue Oyster Cult music…)
Yes, this snowman is real, and yes, there is also another snowman with an empty case of beer for a hat (on a nearby street in Macomb).
(Saw this via a friend’s facebook comment and had to share for my out-of-town friends.)
Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel & Dimed: On Not Getting By in America, (which I read right after it was published, and liked–and I regret not going to hear her when she was right here in town), has published an essay in The Financial Times that describes her visit to Forgotonia.
A quick sampling:
…. I’m staying at the Hampton Inn, a minimalist motel chain located opposite a Farm King, an agricultural supply store. I can’t help asking whether this is where the university puts up a genuine celebrity speaker, such as Bill Cosby. “Oh no,” I am told, “he flew in in his private plane and out the same night.”
As Heather, who made me aware of this essay, put it: it’s funny and sad at the same time.
(Make sure to catch the references to the late Spaz, and to …well, WIU. And, for those of us all-too-familiar with QC commuting, to driving along Hwy 34.)
At least her take on the experience wasn’t quite as bad as Kurt Vonnegut’s. (She at least didn’t use the phrase “Jerkwater U.”)
Tom Snee says: Hey, I use to live in Preemption! I think that’s probably the first time the town has ever been mentioned by an international news organizations.
Alison says: Tom, every time I drive through it, I make a mental note to Google it and see if I can find any info about the name and where it came from, but by the time I arrive in the QC’s or Macomb I always fail to do so.
I didn’t realize you used to live there! Got any good Preemption stories to share? Was someone from there the inventor of the Pre-emptive Strike?
Tom Snee says: Nope, no interesting stories, I’m afraid. We lived there because it was a convenient halfway spot between Monmouth–where I worked–and Moline–where my wife worked. We lived in a farmhouse we rented on the north end of town, out by the cemetery, right on 67 (technically, it was a Milan street address). We did take in a couple of friendly feral cats who lived there, too, and brought them with us after we moved on. It had a bunch of apple and cherry trees in the yard that produced an enormous bounty the first summer we lived there, but then died the second. I liked living there. It was quiet and peaceful, except when a semi rumbled by on the highway, or the farmers we rented from were planing or harvesting. it was a nice place to spend your first three years of married life, but not many interesting stories.
Alison says: Hmmm. I really like the sound of this. My bf and I should try to call your old landlord.;)
Tom Snee says: He was well into his 80s at the time, so I’m pretty sure he’s dead.
[...] to love than corn syrup. (It filled me with that same mixture of feelings I got when I had read Barbara Ehrenreich’s description of my birthplace and homeland as “industrial-agricultural [...]
I grew up on a farm in west central Illinois, where there was one stoplight in the entire county. As a newspaper reporter and award-winning columnist ("Six Degrees from Galesburg"), public-radio commentator and blogger, I've uncovered the truth behind local legends (remind me to tell you the one involving Ringo Starr's tonsils), visited ghost towns and forgotten haunts, and interviewed marginally famous celebrities who happened to be stopping through town ("Corky" from "Life Goes On," anyone?). Now, after 12 years in journalism and PR, I've moved to Davenport, Iowa, to start life with my husband and to embark on a new gig as an English instructor. I'm also working on a batch of essays about life in small-town, murderous-to-latter-day-prophet America, (see "Joseph Smith" tag below). I love to hear from people who land here. Please leave comments at the bottom of posts, or drop me a line at alison dot sixdegrees at gmail.com.
COOL
Hey, just found this blog after randomly googling “forgotonia” based on an NPR this afternoon. My girlfriend’s parents grew up in Macomb (both WIU grads) and she still has family there. I myself lived for a year in Galesburg while in college.
Cheers.
[...] Please allow me to give a huge thanks to the reader who alerted me to this story (via a comment on a previous post). [...]