Pink Houses and Danville Illinois

I spent a majority of my formative years (ages 10-18) in a little tiny town called Danville, Illinois. It is located in central Illinois about 5 miles from the Indiana border. It is very hard for me to summarize my feelings about his town. A lot of shit went down there, good and bad. I went to public middle school there. True I was in the small contained classes with all the gifted kids, but damn if lunch and PE weren't difficult with the masses.
I learned to drive here. I had preteen and teen crushes here. I learned how to shop at the mall here. I had paper routes here. I rode my bike around this town for hours on end. I walked to the corner store to buy Lemonheads and bags of chocolate chips to stash in my room.

But what does John Mellencamp have to do with this? When ever I hear this song, Little Pink Houses, or Small Town I think of dinky little Danville Illinois. Mellencamp is from Indiana and the songs were in pretty heavy rotation in this small town in the 80's. When I think of Danville, the images that are shown in this video play through my head. There are cornfields and highways and trains, small town people and small town houses, but ain't that America? This song makes me feel all patriotic inside and wish for my olden days of 10cent Lemonheads, fireworks at the VW, sitting on picnic tables at the Custard Cup, and putting clothes on layaway at Maurices.

I'm going to stop by in a few weeks while in town for my high school reunion. I went to the fancy high school 30 miles away, so this will be a side trip into the town of my middle school years. The local Danville high school is also having it's reunion that weekend. I hope to see a few familiar faces at the Royal Donut.

Last time I went through town a lot had changed and not necessarily for the better. Some of the kids I knew there are still in town and trying to make it work in this small town and I wish the best for them. It's a hard place to make it. Most of the businesses have moved on. I think SOLO cups and Quaker are still in town. Some of my favorite stores and restaurants were gone. Downtown, after trying to revitalize in the 80's and 90's, seemed to have succumbed to most small town's fate: empty buildings and faded signs.

No matter how faded it's glory, I will always love this town. Get ready Danville, I'm coming home.