me: thinking about timber Oregon or Canada oil sands or factory Michigan or coalfield Appalachia

me: and I just can’t picture going into the local industry because it was the local industry

me: not just cause of some UMC or post-68er Bruce Springsteen moral imperative to get out of my hometown

me: but what even does a local industry mean to people? like, where I grew up you could work in a store or an office or a garage. or the rivet factory, which was a hilariously primal input, might as well have made widgets.

me: I guess a lot of the kids who stuck around seem to work as teachers or social service counselors.

also me: the local industry when you grew up was developing the local area as a “favored quarter” bedroom community

also me: remember how the local recognizable business name was Toll Brothers, McMansion pioneers

also me: realize that’s exactly the industry those stickarounds are in, as quality public service providers

also me: realize that’s exactly the industry your dad was in, in land transfers and with the school district, and most of the people he knew

also me: realize that’s the industry you’ve idly been thinking of getting into because for some reason you have an innate sense of it

me: huh