I grew up in the smack dab middle of Illinois. I'm literally a boy from a village. It's a farming town that's basically a town square and a few churches plus some suburbs.

The whole thing looks like something out of the 50's, it's kind of both old-fashioned and modern at the same time. It's upper-middle class, but also somehow blue-collar, rural, and backwoods.

This paradox applies not only to the landscape, but the culture as well. The population is liberal and conservative, Christian beliefs are dominant but fragmented, homes are often extravagant but cheap. Everybody in town waves hello at you.

The football players could be kind of crude, homophobic, and sexist, but also kinda gay. Most of the football team was also in choir and theater, and exploring drugs and sexuality on a curve way ahead of the rest of the class body.

I remember that town as being small, beautiful, and with a peaceful remoteness that I haven't found anywhere else. I miss it sometimes. The irony is that I could probably afford to buy a house there.