On Monday, March 13th, I made a presentation
about my Vagabond project at the Haaland Home in Rugby. I described the the origin of the project, the scope of it, and the way I am going about my exploration of the middlewest. And then I read to the folks gathered in front of me from my Vagabond journals, emphasizing some of the Rugby materials I have gathered. After I completed my talk, I opened the floor to questions and comments. This is part of the conversation that followed.
Vagabond: Do you have any questions for me about my project or the people I've talked to? Some day all this will be a book. My wife says sometimes she thinks I have so much fun doing the research that I'll never finish the book - and she might be right. I am having a lot of fun with the research. I have interviewed 165 people so far for the project. I'm expecting to spend perhaps another five years going to all the towns again and again - probably a total of eight or nine weeks in each of the twelve towns, which is a lot of time away from home. Sometimes my wife appreciates that. Sometimes she says, "Aren't you going out of town pretty soon!"
Audience: You said you sat on Main Street in Rugby on Sunday night and watched for an hour. What did you see? We see nothing.
Vagabond: Well, how many people know that the Overtime Bar is going to have Female Dancers on Friday night?
Audience: I can't believe that it would actually be allowed.
Vagabond: I saw that and wondered how it comes to this, dancing naked in Rugby. I saw snow swirl and dance in the street. I was sitting across the street from the Overtime Bar, facing west and looking south, and the lights from the marquee of the theater came off a window across the street, so I could see them straight to the south and in reflection. The cop came through three times. The third time, two people had just come out of Jester's Lounge and got into their vehicles. He came through the intersection just as they pulled up Main Street, so he was able to follow them up the street and make sure they were driving straight and narrow, which I believe they were. And the snow swirling - did I tell you about the snow swirling in the street?
Audience: The theater is open on Sunday night and I was thinking maybe people were out?
Vagabond: There were a lot of people out. I think there were twenty-two cars parked in front of Jester's Lounge, not all of them for Jester's Lounge. I saw a lot of people run across the street to the theater. So that's an important place in town. The bars are important, and the theater is important.
And that's about all that was happening.
To be continued....
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