Big City
A long drive with only a few CD’s and no real radio can get rather monotonous. So, while on our 7 hour drive we stopped off In the teeny-tiny city of Celina, Ohio. We thought we’d visit the local music store for some Strung Out and a badly craved Oasis song. (Don’t Look Back in Anger) The clerk was a mohawked, pierced 21 year old who lived in nearby Wapakoneta.
Wapakoneta is a slightly larger town than Celina and it was in the process of slowly dying. To give you an idea of the state of things there, most of the stores along the main strip were closed, windows were dusty, doors and walls had broken boards, holes etc. The stores that were open didn’t have enough inside of them to fill the floor space. It was obvious that most of them had been recently opened, new business ventures that looked doomed to fail. The only businesses on the main stretch that gleamed were the local Fifth-Third Bank (who probably owned the mortgages) and the 24-hour Super Walmart. Celina looked a little better but again was very small.
Back to the story, the guy working in the music store sort of blushed when I asked for a band they did not have. He told me I would have to go into a really big town to get the music I wanted. Now, this is why I posted this. He said the town he wanted to send me to was HUGE because they have a theatre inside a mall. He said it and paused. Looked at us and solemnly nodded. A theatre inside a mall.
Please be aware I am not making fun of him, small towns nor even America this time. When we told him we were from Toronto his eyes went VERY round. He couldn’t conceive of having all that choice. About that many bands coming into town day after day after day. Bars and clubs and men and women everywhere. Restaurants and shows and theatres inside malls and some the size of malls.
It made me think of times when tourists come to visit and ask what is there to do.. sometimes people draw blanks on that one. Or can only think of the CN or the Science Centre. But we live in a great big city that has things to do for every taste, almost every day. There is so much to experience in our city! And everyone seems to have a special little place they like to go to…
For me there is the Cloud Rain Forest, the Underground, Green Room - for others they probably can make up their own lists. There still is a lot to experience in our own city, for us to show each other and to be shown. A tourist within our own city in a way. I want to keep exploring it!
ps. We wanted to take him home with us I will admit. It was cute…
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i was recently in “smalltown”, kentucky recently. population is under a thousand people. (i had more people in my biology class at first year uni). car broke down. found a mechanic. the man hadn’t ever left the town, let alone the state. he claimed had made a plan to go fishing in ontario once, but otherwise really had no other motivation to ever leave.
is that cultural naiviety or pure ignorance in a non-demeaning way?
It’s rather odd for sure Abbas. Especially to those of us who have travelled and have seen a benefit to it. (Not speaking of course about those who only go to an Americanized resort in Mexico that really could have been in Miami with no differences)
A friend of mine who now works for the TTC had never travelled outside of the GTA except to work at GM in Oshawa for one summer. When our work sent us to Chicago, it was his first time on a plane (23 yrs old) first time in another country, first time out of the province so of course first real time out of the city. He couldn’t believe the differences and similarities. He wasn’t a naive guy but this gave his world-view a spin so I think it was PURE ignorance like you said.
However, his parents never encouraged it, they told him that where you live is just as good as where you could go so why go? Save your money and live your life here (even though they moved from a European country to here)..