Small Town America, Is This What Ghosts Feel Like?
By Jon Hanson
Dropped a trailer off at my parents farm bright and early. Left before dawn. Slow rolled out so as not to wake anyone with my pipes. Pulled into my hometown gas station to top off. Haven’t stood here at 6am for a good 7 or 8 years. It’s got a new name now. They finally put card readers on the pumps. I don’t recognize a single one of the morning crowd grabbing their breakfast burritos. None of the staff know my name. The old guys that come in at 6 every day for coffee aren’t here either. Darn Rona…
Hell I even turned my radio down before pulling in. Woulda turned it up if anything last time I was in this scene. The speed limit has gone down on the main drag. I’m probably part of the reason for that...if not, I know the guys that are. They own businesses and have kids now.
Houses have been torn down to make room for the expanding elevator. There’s a Dollar General in what used to be a corn site. The old man who slept behind the counter till somebody came in with a mower or something to fix has passed. A stranger bought his shop and it burned down.
The local family run grocery store has closed since I’ve been gone, taking with it the town’s slogan. “Home of the 25 cent pop machine”. Yep. That’s all we had going for us. The store sold cans for a quarter out of that thing for decades.
The little boutique a lady ran through Facebook and her back porch has moved to a large warehouse and store in the city. Even the tire marks that I swore were permanently burned in from when I did a burnout in my dad’s Mustang are gone. Is this what ghosts feel like?
It’s like I know this place and it feels like home, but it’s different enough it seems like a dream... How does one get so attached to nothing? I wouldn’t trade my current life for anything, but what I wouldn’t give for 5 minutes in that town as a dumb, carefree kid…
Jon Hanson is a truck driver based in South Dakota. You can find him on Twitter as the Asphalt Cowboy @FarmBoySD
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