{"id":3711,"date":"2016-01-23T11:36:46","date_gmt":"2016-01-23T17:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=3711"},"modified":"2016-03-26T16:14:41","modified_gmt":"2016-03-26T22:14:41","slug":"it-took-me-four-days-to-hitchhike-from-saginaw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/01\/it-took-me-four-days-to-hitchhike-from-saginaw.html","title":{"rendered":"“It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Saginaw<\/a>
Saginaw skyline<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Ann Althouse talks about the new Bernie Sanders ad<\/a>, in which he uses a montage of farmers and \u201ceveryday-life\u201d images as well as bits of campaign rallies, set to the music of Simon and Garfunkel\u2019s \u201cAmerica,\u201d with it\u2019s refrain of \u201cthey\u2019ve all come to look for America,\u201d then, in a follow-up post, dissects the song\u2019s lyrics, which are not as sunny and optimistic as, say, \u201cGod Bless the USA,\u201d but rather express a longing:<\/p>\n

There\u2019s this deep feeling we have about America. It makes sense to speak of looking for it, longing for it. Obviously, we are right here in America, so what\u2019s to look for? But that obviousness is obtuse. We understand the idea of looking for America, finding the real, more essential, more beautiful America, the America that fulfills our dreams and lives up to our ideals. Donald Trump says \u201cMake America great again,\u201d as if there\u2019s one America and sometimes it\u2019s good and it can go bad and it can become great again. But another, more poetic way to put that would be \u201cMake America America again\u201d or \u201cWe\u2019ll find our way back to America.\u201d I don\u2019t recommend that as a slogan for Trump. Too easy to call him reactionary and racist. But you see my point: Americans understand the idea of searching for America: We\u2019ve all come to look for America.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And \u2014 thinking in those terms \u2014 I thought about one of the lyrics in the song itself: \u00a0\u201cIt took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Wikipedia<\/a>, the reference comes from having been in Saginaw, performing there in 1966 and writing the song during his stay. \u00a0But is this just coincidence? \u00a0Did the word itself just fit into the lyric\u2019s rhythm?<\/p>\n

What was Saginaw like in 1966?<\/p>\n

Declining.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a small town in the grand scheme of things, with a population of 100,000 at its peak in 1960<\/a>, to a present population half that size. \u00a0In the 1960s, White Flight hit Saginaw, when an equal-opportunity housing ordinance eliminating segregation within Saginaw led whites to leave the city altogether<\/a>. \u00a0Like Flint and Detroit, it was a city which grew considerably in the first half of the 20th century, and, specifically, was the home to multiple GM plants by the 1960s (see Wikipedia<\/a>), and like them, it has suffered from plant closures and staff reduction due to automation. \u00a0What\u2019s more, the city\u2019s problems are (per Wikipedia and echoed elsewhere) \u00a0further blamed on the fact that, unlike other towns, it ceased annexing suburban areas early on. \u00a0Saginaw is, as a result, second only to Detroit<\/a> in the percent of its children living in poverty.<\/p>\n

Had industrial decline hit Saginaw as early as 1966? \u00a0It\u2019s hard to say, as the town is too small and the date too specific to find anything online.<\/p>\n

But in any case, there was clearly unrest, as, when the 1967 Detroit riot broke out, a similar riot also occured in Saginaw<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What did Paul Simon see when he arrived at, and performed in Saginaw, that inspired him to write this song? \u00a0Was he, even then, looking out his hotel room window or through the cab windows, aware that Saginaw was a place to leave, to \u201clook for America\u201d?<\/p>\n

Of course, Sanders skips this lyric, and jumps to \u201ccounting the cars on the New Jersey turnpike.\u201d \u00a0And I\u2019m not going to read anything insidious about this omission of Saginaw in the commercial. \u00a0But, still, what with neighbor Flint in the news, interesting, and sad, no?<\/p>\n

(Image: \u00a0Saginaw skyline, from\u00a0https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/WNEM-TV; By User:Hsxeric (Own work) [GFDL (http:\/\/www.gnu.org\/copyleft\/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ann Althouse talks about the new Bernie Sanders ad, in which he uses a montage of farmers and \u201ceveryday-life\u201d images as well as bits of campaign rallies, set to the music of Simon and Garfunkel\u2019s \u201cAmerica,\u201d with it\u2019s refrain of \u201cthey\u2019ve all come to look for America,\u201d then, in a follow-up post, dissects the song\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":3712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[275,272,273,274],"class_list":["post-3711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ann-althouse","tag-saginaw","tag-sanders","tag-simon-garfunkel"],"yoast_head":"\n"It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ann Althouse talks about the new Bernie Sanders ad, in which he uses a montage of 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