You Can't Go Home Again

I grew up in a small town called Marengo, IL. It is near Rockford, IL and about 60 miles west of Chicago. A girl I once dated, and occasional Andy Land reader, once made describing where Marengo is in the simplest of terms. Since most people have never heard of the place it became necessary to often explain where to find it, unless you were fine with just saying you were from Rockford. She said that, "Marengo was half-way between Garden Prairie and Union". Small towns are not without their humorous folks!

The other night I went "home" to perform at the annual President's dinner for the Marengo-Union Chamber of Commerce. The fact that they even have a website for me to link to still shocks me! Marengo is a small town comprised of mostly farmers, and Chicago suburbanites looking to avoid to suburban sprawl by ADDING to the suburban sprawl of another town. I learned how to juggle there. I became a performer there. I found out the other night that I was too hip for the room when I lived there and I was too hip for the room today!

It was a good show, but it was not the liveliest of crowds. The fact that I was a home-town guy should have lent a little more generosity towards me, or at least gotten a few more laughs. That's just how these things work! But it was a crowd where the older folks who didn't understand what the hell kind of anarchist I was as a kid still didn't understand who I am now.

The folks I knew in the room were divided by whether or not they thought I was funny or a smart-ass back then. Strange night!What was strange was seeing some folks I went to high school with being productive members of society. There were folks in the room who bought me my first package of condoms, folks who's children I babysat for, folks whom I tried to date, folks who wanted to kick my ass, folks who had no idea who I was nor could they figure out why I had such long hair.

My personal favorite moment? The event was held at Donley's Wild West Town, then known as Seven Acres Antique Village, and it has always been the ONLY PLACE WITHIN 40 MILES to hold any sort of special event. Marengo used to have a nice restaurant called the Cloven Hoof and a theatre called Shady Lane Playhouse, but for all intents and purposes, any nice event would have NO CHOICE but to be held at Donley's. Sure you could have some kind of reception at the American Legion or maybe even at the high school, but then everyone would know you were poor! Naturally, every damn prom ever held in Marengo's history has been at this place. I went to 4 of them in the same very place.

In the audience was my old high school principal. I couldn't resist taking the time to make a joke about being back in the old prom location (new room, same property) and talking about having myself a Jack & Coke while I was waiting to go onstage. I followed the set-up with, "Wow. I was just thinking. I haven't had a Jack & Coke in this room since my senior prom." Got a laugh, but of course, it may be causing controversy at this very moment in my absence!

I had fun. But it was a VERY STRANGE NIGHT! If you were there, drop me a line and let me know how the town is taking my madness!