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January 15, 2004
TT: Alas, not by me
From Lileks:In the summer of 1979 I drove around the South as a representative for the seed dealer Northrup King. I took orders for the next season and gathered the racks from the previous season. Had a yellow Hertz van and a farmer tan. Slept in small motels, drank a lot of Nehi. At night sometimes I'd find myself sitting outside watching traffic and smoking a cigarette – the paperwork was done, the TV showed only snow, and I didn't feel like reading. If it was a small motel it had a chair outside the door - a detail of American roads I expect is nearly gone by now. You had all the necessary sounds for a night in nowhere: the buzzing sign, crickets, carwheels whining on the asphalt. If you were lucky you got train whistle. Nothing quite makes you feel so gawd-awful alone as a train whistle, but you also know that if you weren't alone you wouldn't hear it the same way. When you're alone it goes right down to the bone.
Posted January 15, 2004 4:37 AM
