Little Ronnie Howard must have been singing about a different Gary, Indiana in The Music Man.
Don’t know that song? Do yourself a favor and burn eight minutes on the video clip below. Delicious. (And if you bail before the Nicholas Brothers go into their dance, we can’t be friends anymore.)
How could any place with a whimsical, singable name like Kalamazoo be mean? But according to the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, and the National Coalition for the Homeless, it’s the sixth meanest city in the United States when it comes to arresting instead of helping homeless people.
Lots of moral and socioeconomic implications to this list, of course, but if you don’t mind, I’m going to swim in the shallow end here.
Kalamazoo, really? Some town and city names sound so steeped in Norman Rockwell, so pickled in Mayberry, that I get my feelings hurt a little when they show themselves to be only human, as it were.
To be fair, the NPR article linked above points out that a Kalamazoo has been highlighted for good reasons in other places–This Old House magazine likes Kalamazoo’s old houses, for example. That’s nice.
But still…
Though it was more than 30 years ago, I remember vividly my disappointment driving through Gary, Indiana. This grim, industrial burg is what little Ronnie Howard lisped about so fetchingly in The Music Man? No, surely there must be another Gary, Indiana somewhere, one that doesn’t have the scent of industrial waste hanging over it. My heart broke a little bit that day.
Well, I guess that’s what travel is about–laying waste to stereotypes … for better or worse.
But that girl in Kalamazoo really should stop being so mean.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFv_PoZ2iP0&hl=en&fs=1&]
I believe a return to Gary is in order. Your heart needs mending. Though the industrial waste may still be there–I know little of Gary’s current state–I know you’d be able to part the cloud enough to find a story or a bit of joy in its midst.
As for my own name-based disappointments, nothing springs to mind quite yet but, it is Monday. I’m sure something will filter up through the fog soon.
The key issue here, though: Which song is a more persistent earworm, “Gary, Indiana” or “I Got a Gal in Kalamazoo”?
Although I realize it’s quite far afield for this site, I’ve been told that the city of Paisley, Scotland, is apparently a drug-riddled slum. The thought of someplace named Paisley being anything but an eccentric Victorian hamlet makes my brain hurt.
It’s like naming a prison after Lucille Ball.
Oh, I’m quite certain nobody does drugs in Scotland. They just play bagpipes and golf.
Yes, that’s absolutely correct. I think it’s to be found somewhere in the Magna Carta.
Wondering about flipside experiences: have you been to any wonderful U.S. cities or towns that, sadly, have been burdened with a horrendous name?
Derek Jeter is from Kalamazoo. Just sayin’.
Bagpipes and golf to break up the Trainspotting?
Bagpipes, golf, and vomiting.