evidence of absence

[jazzfish]

Back in mid-February, my cousin Paul went to Helena for my uncle Jim's funeral. He took some photos while he was there. I paged through them last night. Some are of various places around Helena, and you really get a sense of how ovwewhelmingly /poor/ the city is. Most are of Jim's place: the machine shop, the house, the field.

I was doing alright up until I got to the shot of Jim's bedroom, and then the one after (a very cluttered counter with, among other things, a Budweiser can with a note under it reading "POP'S LAST BEER").

It's easy for me to romanticise Jim. I never had to live with him, so all I saw was the good times, and all I heard was the good stories from people who didn't want to remember the bad things. Still, to me he was good people, and interesting, and (from what I could see) doing what he wanted to be doing.

And now I have reference photos for whenever I get back to working on that damned story.

Comments

[candle.livejournal.com]

It reminds me of the area of rural Illinois my father's family is located. It's not that poor yet, but it's certainly had better days and jobs are only leaving. Staying with my Uncle a few years ago, I noticed the sign proudly proclaiming that the town was free of drugs. I correctly guessed that they have an increasingly bad meth problem - generally it's only the towns with drug issues that feel the need to put up denials.

My grandmother's kitchen has that same picture of Jesus that's above the door in the bedroom.

[jazzfish]

Jobs have been leaving Helena since I've been alive, I think. Phillips County's among the poorest in the country... and I literally never noticed that, growing up. It's just how it was.

There have been "drug" problems in Helena (all along the river,really) for years; meth would make more sense than coke, which had always been my first assumption.