Thread by @Chris_arnade

Next installment of Walking America? Breezewood Pa!

Fifteen miles, two days, in the most mem-ed small city in America.

Coming tomorrow (assuming I am not rained out)

I spent a lot of time in these type of truck stop/rest-stop towns. I call them places of "permanent transients."

They are some of the most unique places in the US.

Gots a McDonald’s, Dunkin, Flying J. What more do I need. Here I come, torrential downpour or not

Kumar says Hello from twitters most hated town in America*

*(per capita as measured by my completely made up survey)

Already overwhelmed with options — but probably going with the one with beer (non brown bag)

So begins my 12 mile walk (to be continued tomorrow— rain delayed it) through & around the meme

Thank you tattered American flag for starting me off with a metaphor alert

Auditioning for horror movie

Iconic photo bleh in backdrop. Small unnamed Human tragedy in foreground

Literally in five minutes the bleh is gone and you are in this. (Worth fighting for?)

I am a sucker for anthropomorphism, but mr mighty flame might be pushing it.

Just a side note as a hard core pedestrian— semis often most thoughtful & aware drivers when I am walking.

Dunkin & history (rain has delayed walk till tomorrow. Guess I will have to hang in franchises. Darn)

Some of the last old school arcades are in truck stops

😶

In three minutes, in no matter which direction you go, the sprawl is gone, and all that remains of it is distant sound of downshifting

Gonna keep my roethlisberger washed up takes to myself

Name that franchise (good wall)

🍕

Forgot the hash tag

Breezewood isn’t a pretty place by any stretch, Or at least this half mile strip, but like in any place, you can find punctuating the bleh a few oddly striking scenes

Breezewood prepared for a revolution that hasn’t reached Breezewood

Ok. Cold I can deal with. No sidewalks also. But not sleet & cold rain. At least my room is very sweet.

PS: While I wait out the sleet, Please join my substack. It is free.

intellectualinting.substack.com

So begins the Breezewood night shift

Just like Brooklyn.

Reminds me of the 80s in Baltimore, when Yuengling was good & I liked porters.

Ps: this is still good.

My bartender Shelly. Trying to buy the bar. ‘Got so many great ideas for this place, but I gotta get the loan.’

Lost her husband 6 years ago to cancer. ‘It is what it is, but it still hurts’

Me showing some regulars the Breezewood pic/meme/joke, which they didn’t know about.

“it is a fucking exit off the turnpike, what they expect it to look like? Heaven?

Showing them this

“Ha! If it wasn’t for Breezewood people would be shitting on the side of road, running out of gas, and out of stuff. Also it gives people jobs. Shut the fuck up”

“Everyone comes through Breezewood. I met carrot-top. Met the lead singer of Metallica. All in Breezewood”

Internet: Breezewood is capitalism incarnate, the physical & aesthetic manifestation of all wrong with America!!!!!!!!

Breezewoodians: It is a fucking exit where you can piss, eat, and sleep & maybe even see carrot top while gassing up

“People used to do heroin & crack around here then they found meth. Now they say they clean because they only using meth. Like. As if since you can’t die immediately from fucking meth that makes it holy water.”

Costa Ricans in the house (tourist who couldn’t make it to DC tonight because of the rain )

Turning down shots, by drunk Costa Rican’s yelling “God Bless America”, is harder than I thought. (I don’t do shots. Ever)

Gotten political in here

“Biden giving everyone $600 a week to not work. Girls coming in lazy and fucked up with designer bags. That is what you get. My dad says, ‘when I was a kid you worked or starved’. Now they paid to be lazy. Why work? “

Since I am in real America, decided to put the working class troubadour on the jukebox

Alright everyone. Good night. My hotel heater doesn’t work. It is 33 out. But I got nice socks and the gentle rumble of passing semis.

Tomorrow I got McDonald’s, another walk, and a long drive to wonderful, wild, Florence SC to inspire.

Ok. Last image of Breezewood

Guess my simple take-away is; relax internet, Breezewood is an damn exit off the turnpike. It isn’t evils of capitalism incarnate, it isn’t a romantic working class something or other.

More interesting to me is what surrounds Breezewood, and that is very familiar to me from my work on my book Dignity:

Normies being normal & being judged for it

Last Breezewood photos. Not easily memed though