the daily grind

‘Salem’s Lot is a nice little microcosm. The way King describes how all the different people go about their days and they way they think and interact with each other is pretty much exactly how I think of small town America. The farmers get up early to milk the cows, by 6:45 most of the blue collar workers are on their way to work, Susan has no problem getting an appointment at the local beauty salon last minute, and everyone knows each other. I couldn’t help but think of the small towns that litter Michigan’s Thumb. When I was younger my family would drive the 2 ½ hours from metro Detroit up to our cabin in Caseville nearly every weekend. As a little kid I always found the drive excruciatingly boring. The Thumb is nothing but flat farmland and small towns. One of these small towns was Owendale, Michigan. I remember Owendale because aside from the houses there were two buildings. A high school and a church. According to Wikipedia, the 200 census states Owendale to have a population of 296, with an area of 0.7 sq miles, and the demographic of the town is 97% white. I assume that most kids are homeschooled until they reach the 9th grade; however, I know that many kids who grow up in the small towns of Michigan’s Thumb never finish high school and instead opt to go into the family business: farming (usually corn). It just boggles my mind when I think about what it must be like living your entire life (hopefully not, though) in one of these small towns. I can completely understand how this type of environment can make an entire town (albeit a small one) very close knit where everybody knows everybody and outsiders are met with inquisitive stares.

Here a link to the Wikipedia page for Owendale, Michigan.