September 10, Lake in the Hills.
This is the town where the city voted an ordinance barring circuses from staying overnight, even though they keep wanting them to perform in their neighborhood, or so I surmise from the fact that we are asked back every year and do good business too.
Lake in the Hills is an exurb of Chicago, those suburbs on the fringe of the rural and metropolitan worlds, urban planning limbo, ecological nightmare, the sort of town that was carved and bulldozed out of farm land into rows of identical boxes later sold as American-dream homes by scores of developers, two-car garage looking bigger than the house itself, deck and the occasional pool in the backyard, arm-length contact with your neighbors, honey-I'm-home, and kids' effortless grace and joy in their soccer uniforms is not enough to dispel the malaise. The sight of these towns has always had a depressing effect on me, doubled by a sense of outrage that this could ever be an option, this life of dull, vacant plenty.
The park we're on is dirty, littered with cigarettes butts, ticket stubs and tiny bits of various plastic garbage, I started cleaning up in front of our trailer then quickly gave up. We pride ourselves on leaving the lots we play on cleaner than we found them, but it will be impossible here.
We'll be gone tonight.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
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8 comments:
So they basically say "Thanks for the show and don't let the door hit you on the way out" to the circus. Sadly, that's an old form of prejudice toward showfolk that seems to be alive and well in the 21st century and wont soon go away. I've gotten my share of that over the years but an ordinance seems like such a blatant and over the top expression of their bigotry. Do the circus audiences seem any different there than other towns and is this the only town with that type of ordinance?
Alberto Ramirez Jr.
Only town we play with that type of ordinance, that I know of. I don't know whether the audiences feel any different, good question.
I learned at an early age that I would never be able to live in that type of environment; Homes one on top of the other. We used to play Baltimore every year and I'd see the row houses and just couldn't imagine living like that. Even though we lived in a trailer parked right next to another trailer most of the time, being able to move the trailer seemed to give us some sort of freedom.
Thank you for saying all that. I will say it too, but it won't be as eloquent. In fact, it will be downright smart assed.
"We can litter all we want, but GOD HELP YOU if your soapy water gets on our precious grass!"
!!!
Happy birthday, Tepa!
Oh, that Steve Copeland. He has such a way with words. I learned the ordinance was not enacted because of a circus problem, but rather something dealing with carnivals.
I heard it was with a circus, actually, but who knows, the important thing is that they make us feel very unwelcome, if that's a word.
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