I suppose there’s no way I can write about being in a midwest-ish area and simultaneouly poke fun at the size of peoples’ belt buckles AND defend their way of life. So I’ll just have to do the latter. I don’t ordinarily mind a little good natured ribbing about being a “hayseed” but I’ll stick to the subject at hand.
I was recently shipped off to Ohio (from Boston) to do some work. And I don’t mean Cleveland or Columbus or Cincinatti. I’m in Wilmington, Ohio. I don’t know what the population of Wilmington is, but it looks a lot like the farm country in Illinois where I grew up. Except for much bigger belt buckles and a bit of a Southern drawl.
So every person who found out I was coming to Ohio got this horrified look on their faces and proclaimed “What ARE you going to DO out there?” as if I was being sent to the south pole. Well, I figured there might be fewer art museums here in Wilmington, and maybe less traffic, but I thought I’d do what I do every night after work…knit, read, shop…you know: entertain myself like an adult.
Then I ran into someone else at work in Ohio from the Boston office who proceeded to tell me how HORRIBLE it was here and how he didn’t have anything to do. He is bored, bored, BORED and he has to drive all the way to Cincinatti just to find something decent to eat. And how come I’m not going completely CRAZY by now?
I asked him, “What do you usually do in the evening after work?”
“Oh,” he answered, “I watch tv and have a beer with the neighbor.”
Which is interesting, because from the way he was talking, I thought he was going to tell me that he was born and raised on the dance floor in a nightclub. I figured he spent the evenings and weekends being chased from one gallery opening to the next by a herd of crazed Paparazzi. In fact, the way everyone looked at me in horror at the thought of being in a rural area, I thought I was the only person who didn’t go directly to the theater district when I got off of work every evening, with a glass of champagne in one hand and a mobile phone in the other for quick updates on what there is to do NEXT. Wearing an evening gown, of course.
No, us “city people” do pretty much the same thing as rural people: we sit around in our jeans and relax and prepare for the next work day. When we do take advantages of the arts and what-have-you (which I admit, I do fairly frequently) we still usually have to drive a ways to get there. And most of us don’t really take advantage of those luxuries very often anyway because of time constraints and preferences for other forms of entertainment that can be found anywhere.
Just for the record, there are a couple of GREAT places to check out antiques in Wilmington and two enormous outlet malls nearby. There is a movie theater, a bowling alley, and a great nature preserve. There are also about two dozen restaurants in addition to the standard chain and fast food places. And that guy who doesn’t know how to entertain himself, even though he’s well into his 50s? He lives 50 miles from Boston anyway.
L