How Did I Get Here ?

Body
How I came to be here in the Land of Sky Blue Waters may have begun when I was a boy sitting on a bar stool looking at the Hamm's Beer sign across from the bar. Hamm's was The Land of Sky Blue Waters brand and as I looked at the image on the back lighted sign I'd imagine myself in that mystical land of sky blue waters which of course was Wisconsin and Minnesota (the fishing states) where everyone wanted to go to get those tasty Walleyes and be far away from the filth and noise of Chicago. Of course the development model for our culture was squeezing out such fantasies as the interstate highways became a magnet for residential and industrial growth. As a child driving up to Northern most Illinois and Wisconsin the sides of the road were mostly populated by scrub pines and abandoned farms old have gone billboards and little road stops that sold fish fry on the week end, the sound of frogs and crickets very loud when the engine was turned off. I liked the deep fried fish but I hated to fish . My dad though acted as if fishing was a religious act . We'd go into Wilmot, Wisconsin just across from where we stayed for the stock car races. Sometimes we'd go to the races with the landlady's daughter Alice who liked to flirt with the drivers, most of whom worked as mechanics ( grease monkeys) and she always fucked men who could fix things. She had a plumber for a time until the plumbing was fixed then an electrician you get the drift form follows function. The country was ok but too quiet and nothing to do and it was never as pretty as the Hamm's Land of Sky Blue Waters sign. And the country girls seemed years behind the city girls when it came to making out. When I left Chicago to go Graduate School in California I wanted to get the fuck away from all the little cute lakes and fish frys and girls with freckles and the stuffy provincialism. I mean I loved things about Chicago the Low-Self Esteem City. But it just was too much for me after 23 years I wanted to see the ocean and get far away from the suffering and misery of old Chicagoland where the Catholic Priests are king and Mayor Daley had a veto on mob hits. It's hard to explain given the beautiful early modern architecture and the Art Institute is sublime, the womb of my art. And the lake is something to see and live near, so cold. My dad would get homesick for Norway and we'd head for Navy Pier where my dad would look for Norwegian ships and talk with the seaman in Norwegian. Sometimes we'd bring these sailors home for supper they'd look at my sister like she was Marilyn Monroe! So California, Oakland the home town of Gertrude Stein and The Black Panther Party for Self Defense. This was the place where the bodies came back from Vietnam and where the art school I attended was. It was worse than Chicago more hicks more just nothing going on but elements at the art school were very radical or least had radical views - say like when FUCK The POLICE becomes KILL THE POLICE. Parts of Oakland were occupied by the police it was a time of seige. FREE HUEY was written everywhere it was the cry the demand of the people. So I left Oakland less than 2 years after I arrived now with a new passenger the baby!! I found a job in Minneapolis which paid less than I was making at the post office at that time but it was no lifting and half as many hours. We drove through Chicago and visited my wife's parents. The city had gotten worst, that Democrat convention where they beat up everybody was like a message to get out of the way shut up or we'll bust your ass (paraphrase his Honor the Major R.J. Daley. ). Minnesota was nice enough but it had it's own special dangers. The populations of Native Americans were much larger than Chicago and more poor and the drinking was really out of control. So the cheapest rents were living with or near natives. Once I found a butchered deer carcass in the basement (after a party ) the deer heads in the trash barrel were attracting every dog in the hood. How to you tell your neighbor that this really not cool? I tried but they were still drunk from the day before and very belligerent. They moved and I understood I wasn't in Kansas anymore. I've been here forever and it's ok but sometimes people are too nice, nice is a sort bullshit thing - in Chicago people speak more directly, whereas here it's more constipated. Here everybody seems to not talk about anything unpleasant and if they must it's spoken in code. But you get used to not knowing what people mean and trying to decipher meaning from good sentiments. "Take care yourself "for instance means glad to see you go. From The Land of Sky Blue Waters is about branding a beer . Nice also means you get all the breaks you lucky son of a bitch!