From the City to....Corn??

Originally from the Boston Area, I decided to do a social experiment of a small midwest Corn belt town. What I found was old people, midwest yuppies (yeah i was shocked just like you), and rich white christians that go to church on the basis of "social image." This is my story and life on moving from the city...to corn?

[lparsonsiv-blog]

Backward Drivers: Part 1

     Since moving out here, you learn to basically take it and understand that no matter what you do you will never be considered one of the "people". No matter where you go in Princeton you get snide looks, backdoor comments, and you may even get lucky enough to be a part of old Ms. Nancy Nedimeyer's daily gossip at one of the many estbalishments for drinking coffee for hours at a time. With those reasons pushed aside, the one thing Princetonians have no idea how to do is drive a car.

     People in Princeton think that driving is shuffling along at a slow pace and pretending that there is no one else on the road. They constantly drop below the speed limit to either stare off into people houses to get a glimpse as to what is going on in them so they have new gossip to gush over in front of all of there friends or they just have no inclination that there are others on the road. Moreover, what is there to stare at here? Corn? Churches? Nothing ever changes. It is very similar to driving in my home state of Maine, except people there actually go the speed limit. Here a speed limit does not exist. If the speed limit is thirty, then people are going to go fifteen; and god forbid that they go over the railroad tracks at a speed faster then an old man with a walker...oh right they are also staring at the old man with the walker, remember gossip for a later date! 

     All in all, Oscar Pistorius could walk faster then most drivers in Princeton, and he is in prison! So, I think this region seriously needs to go through driver’s education once again, just so they can all learn to understand the proper rules of the road. Yet, will this people listen, unlikely I say. 

[lparsonsiv-blog]

New Beginnings In Corn Country

     First things first, this blog is completely my opinion; it is not endorsed by anyone else or any other group. 

     There now that we got that out of the way, welcome to Princeton, Illinois, at least my interpretation of. As with any place anyone visits in the United States and around the world, new comers are considered outsiders. We try to fit in; adopt the culture, visit all of the local establishments, eat the local food. Yet we are still considered tourists or, in the most extreme cases, undesirables. If you are not born in the town or city you are visiting, you will be treated as if you do not belong and that you have no one on your side.

     Case in point with Princeton, Illinois; this is the land of corn, republicans, old folks, and churches. Yet it is only two hours from America's second city (which is Chicago for all of those in the county who do not know the local nicknames around these parts). The town has been said to be a sociological experiment gone terribly wrong. It is full of large groups of roving old people in their Cadillac’s looking for a fight or a coffee shop, families that keep forgetting that homosexuality is normal and that their children will grow up to be bigots just as them, churches that praise hatred of other religions even though they are all linked, and farmers that still cry that Reagan is not in office. Out of all of the cities and towns in the United States, I chose this godforsaken hellhole of selfishness and backward lifestyle. 

    Why you ask, well for opportunity and yes, love. I moved here from New England for the man that I truly love because he is from here. He was raised here and went to school here. His family still lives here. Yet, most of the time, he says the same thing that i just spoke of. It is his home after all, but even if you are raised here, you are not from here. Hell a forth generation person that was born and raised here is not even from here, or as these common folk would like to call it, they are not Princetonian. The second reason for moving here is for a great social experiment, monitoring a town of 7,700 that seems to think that they are the center of the universe. That the other 310 million people that live within our borders are not relevant: this is a study that should be taken seriously, even by a political scientist such as myself. 

      So, through the course of the many entries that are going to come, i will exam, explain, and analyze the backward living that is Princeton. I will turn heads, and i will probably piss of the city council when this gets to them. yet this will be worth it, because it is time for more than just one region to understand what Princeton is, from the perspective of a foreigner. Let us shed light on corn and oldness.