{"id":3104,"date":"2022-01-30T19:33:01","date_gmt":"2022-01-31T03:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/?p=3104"},"modified":"2024-12-20T08:38:49","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T16:38:49","slug":"1978-buick-station-wagon-by-ed-skoog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/1978-buick-station-wagon-by-ed-skoog\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201c1978 Buick Station Wagon\u201d by Ed Skoog"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"76\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Found in Willow Springs 76<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to Author Profile<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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\u201c1978 Buick Station Wagon\u201d by Ed Skoog<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Like a diplomat with an assassin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

closing in, I never take<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the same way home twice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

through Topeka streets,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

making string figure, stairstep<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and spiral through neighborhoods<\/p>\n\n\n\n

split and stitched across railroad<\/p>\n\n\n\n

track, highway and river,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a new fugue for each journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve never known anyone’s body<\/p>\n\n\n\n

as well as I learn those roadways<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of the late 1980s, each turn the turn<\/p>\n\n\n\n

an idea makes, luck-damaged<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and sprawled. Make of that what you will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I myself have never understood it,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

how that unremarkable American grid<\/p>\n\n\n\n

compels me to connect each street<\/p>\n\n\n\n

with the bouquet of song I understand<\/p>\n\n\n\n

clearest through battery-animated<\/p>\n\n\n\n

cassettes unspooling<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in passenger side boombox. And wider,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

beyond the city, I want to hear<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the whole concept album of Kansas,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

drive to college towns for art and donuts,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

remote chapels, the ice cream store north<\/p>\n\n\n\n

with its one pinball machine featuring KISS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have a travel placemat from before<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the interstate recommending stops<\/p>\n\n\n\n

along scenic hi-way 24 including Topeka,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

where at the Ira Price Cafe<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00bd mile east of the cloverleaf junction<\/p>\n\n\n\n

breakfast is served any hour, and chicken<\/p>\n\n\n\n

is a specialty. It closes at 9 p.m. on Saturday<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and opens in time for church<\/p>\n\n\n\n

but other than that is air-conditioned and modern<\/p>\n\n\n\n

24 hours a day. Maps seem earnest,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

even though expulsive, and experience<\/p>\n\n\n\n

may not corroborate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The people in the little houses of Kansas<\/p>\n\n\n\n

look out windows and nothing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

invisible is real. There is, the placemat<\/p>\n\n\n\n

assures me, plenty of parking.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":25234,"featured_media":614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpo365_audiences":[],"wpo365_private":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3104"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3104"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38360,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3104\/revisions\/38360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}