Thanks for the good times, memories
I'd like to list the people I've met who have been good to me, cooperative and kind in every sense, in my six months here at the Marion County Record.
They include (I'm sure to leave out someone I shouldn't — sorry!) Melvin Honeyfield, Eric Clark, Ronnie Davis, Rowena Plett, Kathy Hageman, Linda Schmidt, Jean Stuchlik, Wayne Ollenburger, Susan Marshall, Melissa Parmley, Bill Meyer, all the Hannafords I've met, Susan Cooper, Margo Yates;
Also, Carol Maggard, county clerk, who really knows what's going on "with the county"; the county and city commissioners; Mayor Eloise Mueller; the school administrators, school board members, and teachers I've met here, including Janet Killough; Jerry Engler; Betty Stenzel; all the friendly folks at Marion National Bank; Jim and Peggy Cather; city and county department heads and workers; Sheriff Lee Becker, a good guy in more senses than one; Janet Marler, librarian, Amy Rasmussen and Vickie Kraus, all of whom have been kind, helpful and pleasant toward me in my searches for "somethin' good to read."
What do I like? I like "scary stuff." Dean Koontz, and police procedural thrillers by the likes of Robert Parker, T. Jefferson Parker, and Michael Connelly. I loved "Mortal Fear" by Greg Iles, which made the hair on my neck stand up. I haven't read another one of his, though, that has been that frightening.
"The Poet" by Connelly and "Intensity" by Koontz are also very scary. But in them, unlike in real life (too often), the bad guys (or gals) always get their comeuppance, usually involving death (these are really bad folks, most of them male).
For good drama, without paying Broadway prices, I recommend the HBO dramas — "The Sopranos," "Six Feet Under," and this year's new one, "Carnivale." I don't think anyone under 16 should watch those first two, though. They are clearly "adult" shows. And "Carnivale" has its "adult," i.e. sexual and scatological, moments, too.
"Carnivale," about a traveling carnival in the mid-1930s, in Depression-era Oklahoma, Texas, maybe even Kansas, is eerie and spiritual, in a way. It's "The Grapes of Wrath" meets "Elmer Gantry" meets "Twin Peaks." In fact, the dwarf actor from Twin Peaks, who is very good, is the boss of all the other "carnies" on this show.
"Carnivale" is about the ongoing, never-ending battle between good and evil for supremacy and control on earth. Or at least that's what it seems to be about so far, with only five one-hour episodes aired so far.
"Carnivale" is the name of the traveling freak show. It features Clancy Brown, the great Amy Madigan (Mrs. Ed Harris), Nick Stahl (savior-to-be of the world in the latest "Terminator" flick that came out July 4), and many other unknown but fine actors.
(Yes, I did finally get my TV hooked up, after I'd been here 19 weeks. Those 19 weeks were good for me. Without the tube, I read a lot more than the usual. But I had to be able to watch the Chiefs. Other than college and pro football, there's not much on. But "Six Feet Under" and "24" will be back before long — my favorites, along with "Carnivale.")
And if you want to know what growing up and/or being a teen-ager in the Fifties or Sixties was like, watch or maybe even own a copy of "Grease" and one of "American Graffiti."
"Grease" was filmed in 1978 and is the top musical moneymaker of all time at the movie box office. "Graffiti" was made five years earlier, and is about a group of kids just out of high school in 1962 in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley.
But the experiences, emotions, and the music are universal, whether you were young in California at that time, or in Kansas or South Dakota.
"We're a short time here and a long time gone," a friend at Ponca City, Okla., used to say. When I was a little kid, a popular song said, "Enjoy yourself; it's later than you think."
Enjoy.
— JERRY BUXTON
