The Neighborhood and Surrounding City, 1926–2019, and: The Neighborhood Girls Catch Lordstown Syndrome, and: The Neighborhood Girls Fantasize about the WKBN Meteorologist, and: The Neighborhood Girls Ask the WKBN Meteorologist, and: 10¢ Beer Night at Municipal Stadium, Cleveland, Ohio, June 4, 1974, and: The Neighborhood Girls Go on Strike, and: he WKBN Meteorologist Finally Stops by the Dairy Queen, and:

Abstract

The Neighborhood and Surrounding City, 1926–2019, and: The Neighborhood Girls Catch Lordstown Syndrome, and: The Neighborhood Girls Fantasize about the WKBN Meteorologist, and: The Neighborhood Girls Ask the WKBN Meteorologist, and: 10¢ Beer Night at Municipal Stadium, Cleveland, Ohio, June 4, 1974, and: The Neighborhood Girls Go on Strike, and: he WKBN Meteorologist Finally Stops by the Dairy Queen, and: The Neighborhood Girls Offer Me Allison Pitinii Davis (bio) The Neighborhood and Surrounding City, 1926–2019 [North, to Cleveland. West, to Akron. East, to Pittsburgh. South, to Wheeling.] lordstown assembly: The last local GM plant. Opened in 1966. Produced almost two million Pontiac Firebirds. Site of 1972 strike: “The strike lasted a total of 22 days and cost GM $150 million. Later strikers elsewhere who similarly engaged in disrupting production lines were labeled as having ‘Lordstown Syndrome.’ . . . Due to their ‘hipness,’ long hair, and mod fashion, the strikers were referred to by the magazine Newsweek as an ‘industrial Woodstock.’” Shut down in 2019. downtown: enter a chorus of Rust Belt fathers: Let [ ] = the demolished. “Those [ ]s were where the mills were.” “And that [ ] is where we danced.” “No, it was [ ].” “Maybe for white people who don’t remember the [ ].” en route, Glenwood Avenue: Foster’s Theater: 1939: Hold That Co-ed— “Swinging, Singing Football Fun Frolic.” 1960s: Fellini’s 8½. 1979: Summer Heat—“The Deer Hunter of Porn.” wkbn: First News at Noon: The weather moves from west to east, like English. [! ] First News at 6: The Neighborhood Girls are in love with the new meteorologist. First News at 11:00: A meteorologist will let you know/if you’re reading glare or snow.//Around white space letters form a cage:/a storm system on a page. [End Page 9] en route, Market Street: Uptown Theater: 1926: Joan Crawford stars in Sally, Irene, and Mary. 1979: Rocky II. 2017: for sale for $75,000. Contact Jose Cupeles. the neighborhood: North Midland region infinitival copula deletion: “Your car needs washed.” “Your clothes need cleaned.” “Your yia yia needs picked up.” “Your baby wants fed.” “The circle needs cut.” car tinsel car tinsel car tinsel the dairy queen on market street: Up the road from the Youngstown and Southern Railway (1904–1993). Employer of local neighborhood girls. Right off the turnpike and down the road from a trucking motel. the mahoning river starts at the Ohio as Beaver River, then flows from the southeast to the northwest. Petroleum hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and mercury are above safe maximum levels. [End Page 10] The Neighborhood Girls Catch Lordstown Syndrome but if you want our version, you’ll payin installments. You’ll neigh in a stalluntil we come out and free you. We hear you,we hear you over the factories and over the wildcats, the slowdowns, the one of manyslanted atop another. All marked downfor condemnation, demolition—baby, do you parsethis diction? Merciful, our kind of telling. Its sheen: our boyfriends’ sweat rolling off the car plant.We caught their syndrome—a tragic case—spreading at the conveyor’s pace,but we’re no fodder for your headlines. Our picket line is understood:another day in the neighborhood. [End Page 11] The Neighborhood Girls Fantasize about the WKBN Meteorologist The last one barely made it. Starter job.Fair-weather friend. But you, with your brand-newdiploma, your knack for atmosphericpressure—after your projected forecast, our cars need washed. Our mouths need fixed.Our grammar’s all grimed: primers don’treach these parts. Our parts are perfect,you’ll need a coupon. Our moms coupon Tuesdays, don’t dare disturb them.This whole town—a little much. But then againagainst the summer with heatindexing our index fingers, with the layoffs driven clear through May—it’s not half bad. Weather it. Stay. [End Page 12] The Neighborhood Girls Ask the WKBN Meteorologist do we accumulate? At apexes of lake effectwe Fahrenheit, we divide downto single digits—could you grip a girl who dipsbelow zero? Will you hero that mythologyweekdays at 6? We’d watch your station all shift exceptwhen you flip the fronts aroundour Blizzards drop, we...