“This is one of two books my mom got me for my birthday, books she thrifted because thrifting is kind of her thing. Both were kind of local history things, sort of, local interest? Localish stuff.
One of the tragedies of the death of local newspapers is people like Mike Peters: Is there such a thing as a local humor columnist anymore?
I imagine most smallish cities have/had someone like this. Kind of like a Dave Barry type, but based in the region, with hyperlocal humor about certain streets that are always under construction, that one house that is painted a really strange way, the park that always floods.
Some of this concern, I admit, is selfish. I feel like growing into a late middle age and becoming a local, somewhat curmudgeonly, somewhat disliked local humor columnist is my destiny (Peters isn’t curmudgeonly or disliked, by the way, he seems genial and pleasant).
What am I supposed to do now, in the age of the internet?
Oh, wait…I guess I’ll just keep reviewing shit on Goodreads. And the good news is that I can start now.
Prepare for rants about streets that you’ve never heard of, stories of oddballs I encounter at Wal-Mart, and, basically, a weekly version of the things you see posted on Nextdoor. “