Heartland

from the LP Jeopardy, Korova Records, 1980



I spent a brief tenure flunking out of college in the middle of Indiana, about as “heartland” of a place as one can find around this country anymore, rows of corn and soybeans as far as the eye could see; for a boy that grew up at the beach, getting high in the middle of a cornfield was surprisingly exhilarating, the dappled night sky above us untainted by city lights and the contiguous silence of the countryside pairing to produce a truly alien landscape to any urban spawn. In fact, I never went to class at all. My poor mom & dad, arriving for parent’s weekend only to be met by the faces of puzzled professors, one after another, explaining to them as soothingly as possible, “…um, well, I’m sorry to have to tell you, but I’ve never met your son before…what did you say his name was again…?” Looking back, I’ve gotta say, I’m thankful for my time in the heartland: days spent with my fellow flunking allies, driving aimlessly through the quartered counties, Graffix hookah firmly entrenched in between the driver & passenger seats, clam baking all the while---nights spent tripping on weak microdot and chugging cheap tequila, hitting up girlfriends for the use of their cars (no shame) when Travis was in dispose (namely his sisters wreck, but that’s another story for another day…). Shit, we probably listened to Dark Side of the Moon & the Dead’s Europe ’72 over a hundred times that fall… Here’s to rural Indiana! Happy birthday Verratti!!