Month: July 2015

The Townhouse (left) and the old livery stable (right)

When I was a kid, we moved to Metamora. It’s a tiny, little tourist town in southeastern Indiana full of real and uber faux old timey crap. Some of the buildings are truly historical. Some of them were moved there from other locations, to lend themselves to the pioneer ambiance. Some of them are new but meant to look old. Most every building had some sort of shop in it, selling everything from cheap plastic Made-in-Taiwan junk to beautiful art pieces to seriously old antiques. My parents had a custom cabinet and furniture restoration shop in the rear of the old livery stable.

Some folks, like us, lived in town. It wasn’t at all uncommon for tourists to walk in the front door of your house, thinking it was a shop. Even worse was when they walked in, then walked into the bathroom, which was right off the front hallway of the house we lived in (the Townhouse). Also not at all uncommon was for tourists to stop us in the road, exclaiming that they didn’t realize real people lived there, and could they please take our picture? Like we were zoo exhibits.

I have a few friends who lived there, who I’ve kept in contact with (or through the magic of Facebook, gotten back in touch with). Growing up in Metamora was a surreal experience that is hard to explain to people who didn’t live there, and we’re all aware that we share something strange and kind of special.