Back to Indiana
I moved away from Evansville when I was 11. Then when I was 18 I moved away again to go to college in Boulder, Co. My parents just moved back and I’m driving down the street on the way back towards our old neighborhood. Déjà vu is a dumb way to describe it, it’s like a dream I once had a long time ago that I vaguely remember but somehow is still shaking around in my seemingly full brain cavity. Driving around with that familiar humidity and the smell of fresh cut grass in the night air wafting through my window. The sound of crickets and frogs out in the night never to be found, the bumping of bad radio station music in the distance, cars all next to me. Wife beaters, ugly tattoos, and Nascar hats are the majority, but somehow a feeling of utter acceptance exists no matter what. Not kindness, but a general understanding that all these people are your people. No outsiders here. There are nice people in boulder, smiley, friendly, open the door for anyone coming their way and annoyingly patient types, but people here are real. I’ve tried for years to explain what Evansville is like to anyone brave enough to ask, but I won’t ever get it right. Its terrible, smelly, dirty, developed, chain-restaurant filled, and I’ve come to find, too beautiful in a way to describe.
