4 - Humor, nostalgia, and commercial culture in the postmodern public sphere

Summary

Part 1:Trying to create a community of private people

refrain:

Down Home: where they know you by name and treat you like family.

Folks know: if they've fallen on hard times they can fall back home –

those of us raised up Down Home.

verse:

In the corner of the hardware store,

gathered round a checkerboard

old men tellin' lies and crownin' kings.

Kids drivin' round the old town square

cops roll down in the cool night air

go and see what's shakin' at the Dairy Queen.

hit country-western song of 1990, by Alabama

I don't know anything about him – I guess I'm falling in love. I mean, how do I know he's telling the truth about his house or his job or anything? And I've never seen any of his friends, and – I know he's a good dancer, and I know he's real cute, but how do I know to believe him about the rest that I can't see?

a country-western dance club member, on a potential boyfriend she met at the Silverado Club

Regulars at the Silverado Club and Buffalo Club's country-western dance classes usually greeted each other with warm hugs and exclamations of “Hey, there she is – at last!” and “Where've you been?” Many participants in the clubs' country-western dance classes said they wanted the place to have “a real community feel,” and to be “not just a bar, but a community center, a family place,” as one member put it.