By now you’ve probably heard more than you ever cared to about Springfield, Ohio. Thanks to the nonsense of Messrs. Trump and Vance, my hometown is receiving the 15 minutes of fame it didn’t ask for and doesn’t deserve. Their absurd, lurid fictions nullify so much about what makes Springfield special while cheapening the people who live there, flattening them into simple, small-town punchlines.
I’m from Springfield—third generation. I grew up in Springfield. Played backyard football in Springfield with my future groomsman. I went to Springfield North High School (Go, Panthers!) where I ran cross-country with spirited mediocrity and sat in class with kids whose parents were doctors, lawyers, farmers, and line workers. I knew one kid whose family raised pigs and another whose dad fenced stolen goods. I watched Robocop in the current mayor’s basement. Or maybe it was Predator.
I live in Los Angeles now, where I write children’s books. My first novel, A Drop of Hope, is a love letter to Springfield and the people in it. Like many love letters, it comes with its share of heartbreak. I won’t pretend that Springfield doesn’t have its problems or struggles. But it’s certainly not the ridiculous, George Miller hellscape that certain idiots would have you believe.
Springfield is a Harvester town and a college town. It’s an upbeat John Mellencamp song and a melancholy Bruce Springsteen song. And sometimes it’s an episode of The Twilight Zone (Rod Serling, in fact, went to college down the road, in Yellow Springs). It’s a town in which any where in it you go, you’re apt to run into somebody you know. Results may vary on that one.
It’s a town that has seen better days and, maybe, it will see them again. Because it’s a town that doesn’t give up.
It’s a town of stories.
That last one is my favorite. Because people from Springfield, they can tell a story. They just can. Maybe it’s something in the water. Maybe it’s because there isn’t much else to do (cow tipping is barely fun just the one time). Whatever the reason, I sincerely believe that a boring person from Springfield can tell a story better than most people in Hollywood who get paid for it.
