Welcome to Bush Country
by Mike GodeskyMy family owns a cabin in northwestern Pennsylvania that I have been going to for as long as I can remember. I was just there this weekend, and I took note of a few signs I had never seen before. The first was in the nearby town of Brookville, PA where I spotted a new store that caught my attention:
Now granted, that’s not my best photography. I took it using a cell phone camera while traveling at close to 50 mph. So for those who can’t quite make out what the sign says, that’s an “adult supercenter.”
Now, there are a couple of things to note about this photo. First, location. An adult store located directly across the street from a Kentucky Fried Chicken is, well…delightfully ironic. But it’s strange, too, in a way. An adult store in historic Brookville? One of the Christianest places in the Keystone State? Surely, you jest. I mean, we all know they’re out there. But most of them have the decency to be a little more subtle about it. They’re not on a main road with a giant, bright blue sign saying “Adult Supercenter.” But I suppose this is what those Christian conservatives means when they talk about family values. After all, what better way of bringing the family together than spending quality time explaining to your eight-year-old child what an adult supercenter is on your way to your Labor Day camping trip.
Still, it can get lonely out there on the road. So it makes sense to have an adult store across the road from your Motel 6. And you really have to admire the marketing here. Any other adult store might just throw up a sign with a bunch of X’s on it. Not here. This is a “supercenter.” And I think the Wal-Mart approach is something that really works here. It’s about time consumers have a place for one stop pornographic shopping.
Even funnier, though, are a couple of signs I saw at a nearby deer range. Here they are:
…Maybe it’s just me, but I get the impression that these folks mean business. Really, there’s nothing that says, “The customer is always right,” quite like posting death threats all around the property.
Now, I would remind you again that this is an area comprised almost entirely of white Protestants. This is the home of the self-proclaimed “friendliest church.” Can’t you just feel the love of Christ here?
Interestingly enough, this is also a region of Pennsylvania that went overwhelmingly in favor of Bush in the 2004 election. I’m not saying there’s necessarily a correlation between voting for Bush and being a bloodthirsty hypocrite. I just think it’s an interesting little factoid.
In all seriousness, though, it actually is a great area to visit. But as nice as it is, I can’t help thinking that this region, which has a minority population known as “Bob,” suffers from a crippling homogeneity. I wonder if somebody from a more diverse area, where one cannot help being exposed to different ways of living, would be as quick to adopt the “survivors will be shot again” mentality.
haha. In missouri, they have tons of adult supercenters. I remember passing two billboards where one was an ad for porn and the other said: PORN HARMS CHILDREN!
Comment by Scott — 9 August 2005 @ 12:49 AM
I am from Minnesota, which has historically been a safe-haven for the liberal (democratic) population. A strong democratic candidate for president can usually find comfort in the prospect of “taking Minnesota.” With that being said, I am quite frankly more disturbed by the barrage of pro-life billboards that litter interstate 35W north on my way to Duluth. They pop up at least every 2 miles or so on both sides of the road. The only thing I can liken it to is the “Wall Drug” billboards on the way through South Dakota. If you are from South Dakota, you know what I mean. Anyway, I am not against someone putting up a billboard to express their views/values. I do think it is a little overwhelming, though, (especially in a liberal state) when you have to see one everytime you look up. Also, I am not in favor of “adult superstores” littering the roadway either. There is such a thing as an eye sore.
Comment by David Preslicka — 9 August 2005 @ 12:36 PM
Hey Mike– long time no see. A couple comments regarding your post. Firstly, I think the store sign, “Adult Supercenter,” is rather in tune with enlightened family values. As opposed to a sign like “Vaginas ‘R’ Us” or “Tony’s House of Duct Tape and Barnyard Animals”, “Adult Supercenter” isn’t likely to provoke any uncomfortable questions from kids seeing it from the backseat of their parents’ SUV. For me and most of my friends, the word adult didn’t acquire its tertiary, deviant sense until well into our teens. Furthermore, the fact that “Supercenter” is located in a highly visible spot shows that the community does not inflict a large amount of shame on men leaving the establishment with overstuffed opaque black bags. If anything, the presence of the store seems to suggest that, despite its intense political conservatism, the community has a liberal, live-and-let-live attitude towards sexuality.
I think the deer range signs you saw were a clever way of reconciling the community’s commitment to rugged individualism (a primary conservative value) and its liberal tolerance for eccentricity as described above. It’s important to examine the signs in context. The owners of the deer range certainly don’t want to kill a couple of good ol’ boys from the local high school who want to bag a deer to use for their senior prank. The owners probably did the same thing when they were in high school. However, the owners, committed to individuality and property rights, obviously don’t want trespassers (who, outside of Jason Godesky, would?) The solution is to put up an over-the-top, folksy sign that will scare away outsiders. If they were dead serious about keeping people out, they would electrify the fence and install razor wire.
This leads me to believe that the church’s slogan is probably truthful. As for the lack of diversity, a tolerant, friendly community like Brookville is probably emulating successful tribes by staying close nit, homogeneous, and wary of outsiders.
Comment by Justin Case — 11 August 2005 @ 11:01 PM
I didn’t know that bush invented porn? Amazing, pass the kool-aid!
Comment by Zeus — 13 October 2005 @ 7:57 PM
Deleting spam brought this to my attention. Must’ve missed this…
Surely you can do better than that. This isn’t a statement about Bush, so much as it is about the hypocrisy of the “morals voters” who support him. Their morality permits pornographic super-centers and shooting trespassers on sight (so much for “turn the other cheek,” huh?)–to say nothing of that jump in approval he got from Abu Ghraib and all the people who explicitly said they liked him for torturing people, even when they knew that some 98% of Abu Ghraib’s prisoners were detained “by accident”–but not to letting a man see the person he’s loved and lived with for 25 years to be at his side in the hospital in his final hours because, well, that’d just be icky.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 26 January 2006 @ 4:58 PM
Jason, you should read this blog. Highly relevant to the topic about Bush Country.
Comment by Peter — 26 January 2006 @ 5:05 PM
I live in Brookville PA. it sucks and so does everyone in it. I spent my senior year here tryin to find a good paying job, didnt happen. The porn store moved in and so did every god loving person who wanted it out!! Couldnt even pick up the newspaper without seeing letters to the editor, that all read the same thing “KILL ALL PORN LOVERS”. In 2005 a man shot his wife in the face, up here on a hill in good old brookville, he killed her, in their own home infront of her son. He told the judge he didnt know why the gun went off..HE GOT 7 YEARS IN JAIL!! 7 years, I say he is out in 3. That man got 7 years for taking a life, the porn store just got shut down last week because it had locks on some doors and something about codes. Instead of a big blue sign that says “Adult Supercenter” I think the town of Brookville needs a big sign that says “COME TO BROOKVILLE, KILL YOUR WIFE AND GET AWAY WITH IT!!” People of Brookville need to stop worrying so much about porn and start worrying more about the murders, drugs and the kids around here that dont have food to eat. I hate this town, and I hope one day I have enough money to leave it.
Comment by JJ — 14 March 2006 @ 1:18 AM
hello,
i happen to be from this sleepy little town; thanks for helping put us on the map.
first: the speed limit on that road is 35, so you’d better be careful driving 50, as people from out of state are very likely to get pulled over. one lady shopping on main street got a big fine and was told to “leave town right away and don’t come back” for leaving her dog in the car. The citing officer took the time to get the local paper there for a photo op before he ‘rescued’ the dog though.
second: now there is an even funnier sign in town, right adjacent to the porn shop. This one is a big billboard with a crying little girl that says, pornography pollutes: body, mind and soul. Its been put up by a local witchhunting reverend with a “non-profit” called ‘brookvillians for family values’ or something. He’s also got a newspaper and a radio station.
Just an update for you. Also, the porn store is currently closed down because of some kind of health-code violations.. not sure the exact nature but I knew someone who worked there and there were fairly minor infractions
Comment by derek — 14 May 2006 @ 10:25 PM
here is a better picture of the Adult Super Center, I was driving down I-80 going home from vacation and stoped in Brookville to eat, and thought the Adult Store with the Poronography Pollutes sign nextdoor was funny, so I took a picture also.
Comment by Jeremy — 6 May 2007 @ 11:42 PM
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23515081@N00/487639581/
Comment by Jeremy — 6 May 2007 @ 11:43 PM
OK, I’m from Brookville. I hated it when I grew up there and, like every other kid I knew and probably like every kid in every small town in America,I couldn’t wait to graduate and leave. But having traveled across the country several times, I gotta tell you that Brookville would not make my list of the 10,000 worst places in America. Not even close. We had a place to hang out and shoot pinball,a free place to swim in the summers (when they came on a weekend!) and as many as four rock or soul live music venues to pick from every Friday or Saturday night. We even had our own freak district known as Hippie Hill. Brookville lost its only industry in 1965, but still managed to thrive instead of becoming another of the many ghost towns you see everywhere. Yes, the population is racially homogeneous, but this is the rural northeast/midwest! We didn’t burn crosses at the town limits; Blacks in general chose to move to the cities. Look it up. And although few Blacks settled in Brookville, a whole lot of them passed through. Brookville was a major hub on the Underground Railroad (some of which is actually underground there) and hundreds of Southern slaves enjoyed our hospitality and aid on their way to becoming free Canadians. Brookville voted overwhelmingly for Bush? What a shocker! Brookville voted overwhelmingly for Reagan, Nixon, Ike and Lincoln too. This is Republican country. The Jefferson County Democrat Party holds its conventions in a phone booth. But back in “the day,” Brookville was also a local center for radical anti-war politics and yes, even The Killer Weed! The high school had a walkout war protest and hung the principal in effigy. One journalist asked the rhetorical question of whether kids were actually at the local school dance or getting high in some squalid, mattress-covered hippie pad in Brookville.
Don’t worry about the signs. I really doubt if you’d get shot and killed for sneaking into a deer range, but they take deer hunting seriously and a night or two in jail for trespassing would be a real possibility. And if you think about it “Get out of town and don’t come back” was really a kind-hearted reaction to someone who left a dog in a broiling hot car. I think PETA would approve.
Comment by Groucho Lenin — 16 February 2008 @ 12:04 PM
I grew up in brookville… and I also dated the guy that owned the porn store before it was shut down for health violations. i know a lot of what goes on there… behind the scenes, in a sense.. if the churches and health department know HALF of what I know, they would be shut down for good. but why should I? what’s in it for me?? a good old fashioned “burn the witch at the stake” party? oh well… drugs, people murdering one another, and teens getting pregnant… my questions is, what’s the harm of a little porn? the whole town has already gone to hell!!
Comment by Joie — 6 April 2008 @ 10:15 AM