Friday, August 12, 2005

When you move from a small town to a big city (they combined three high schools for my graduating class ) it seems you become the airport pick up for anyone who ever travels out of the state.

I just got an email from my cousin who I am picking up from the airport tomorrow with my aunt and some perfect stranger. Then I am taking them to Mall of America (my idea of hell) and then out to eat which means either the Rainforest Café or some place like Hooters. I kid you not!!!

And so far I have answered emails like:

Where do you go to church on Sunday?
We feed the children beer and sleep in.
Is 7 am too early to get up and go site seeing?
Fuck yes

Okay so those weren’t my actual answers b/c I do like my aunt. She's a very cool mid wife but if it had been my other aunt who printed out my poems from my first really big interview and showed my grandfather I used the word “penis” in a public place, hell I’d be driving around the airport waving at ‘em.

In Maine penis in print is a scandal.

Maybe that should be my new book title. Penis In Print by T.E. Ballard. It IS kind of catchy.
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4 comments:

Artichoke Heart said...

Me too. Most definitely. And maybe you could get something about Maine in the title too b/c that, for me, would be the ultimate coup de grace, I think.

12:51 PM
early hours of sky said...

Yeah, I could work Maine into the title for you:) Two books sold only 3000 more to go.

7:09 PM
Lyle Daggett said...

I broke up laughing reading this. I've grown up in the city, but visited a small town much with family when I was a kid (relatives in Iowa), where saying "belly button" or "swell" out loud was a scandal...

The one place I've actually seen and heard people point up at the sky and say excitedly "Look, an airplane!" was in the small town where we visited the relatives. I'm intentionally keeping the town anonymous to protect the innocent (there must be a least a few of them there).

I think Penis in Print is an inspired title. Penis in Print in Maine would be a good one too -- gives it a little bit of a Gertrude Stein flavor.

7:02 PM
Pris said...

I vote for the title, too:-)

And as for small towns, I grew up in one. I'm not sure WHAT you can say without creating a scandal, but Lyle is right, 'belly button' ranks right up there with penis (unless you're referring to a baby)

3:51 PM

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