Word: small-town
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Reagan could never master the arcana of nuclear weaponry or arms control. Even the finer points of economics, one of his majors in college, eluded him. But he understood Middle American folklore and myth very well. After growing up in small-town simplicity and pursuing his first career in Hollywood, Reagan needed no tutoring in symbolism. By 1980 a frustrated, confused America had lost all patience with stagflation at home, impudent adversaries abroad and ambiguity from its leadership. The moment was perfect for a leader who dealt in stark simplicities. When he declared that "government is not the solution...
...houses and businesses in Osage, a town of some 3,600 people in northern Iowa, seem just like buildings anywhere else in small-town America. Only a close look reveals the difference. Examine, for example, the new insulated roof on the local hospital that shaves utility bills 20%. Or venture into the basement of Steele's Super Valu grocery to see the wall that owner Everett Steele built around his cooling compressors to capture heat, which is then pumped into the store. Osage's model conservation program saved the town an estimated $1.2 million in energy costs...
Koepp has applied his inquisitive mind to the news since he graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and took a job as a reporter at the Waukesha (Wis.) Freeman (circ. 23,000). In 1980 he wrote an award-winning series that revealed how a small-town mayor was determined to spend $6 million of taxpayers' money to dredge a local lake, in part so his friends could use it for water-skiing. Koepp moved to TIME in 1981, and in five years as a writer he probed such topics as the declining quality of American service, national gridlock...
...written this on a banjo, not a typewriter, is feeling sorry for his hero and probably for himself too. What saves the book is that he is skilled enough to pull sympathetic readers into his own mood of regret, not just for long-gone youth and foolishness, but for small-town, big-sky Western life as it was before shopping malls and industrial parks ate the best...
...proves a difficult year for these teenagers and their families, both of which have enough problems without the additional shadow of the Vietnam War. The movie pits the passions of the '60s love and drug culture against the conventions of small-town America, the obligatory collegiate life of demonstration against the rigid demands of a fearful but patriotic older generation. Within the families, though, Scott must deal with a stern, unfeeling father (Bruce Dern) and a disenchanted, prayerful mother (Mariette Hartley), while Ralph must deal with his own widowed mother (Joanna Cassidy...