ARMED AND FAMOUS, the reality show taking place in my hometown of Muncie, Indiana, has been cancelled after three weeks. In a way, I'm glad. Last week's episode, featuring domestic abuse, prostitution, and assorted crackheads on the familiar streets of my old southside neighborhoods gave me nightmares. I thought it looked like a frightening place to visit, forgetting I had grown up there.
In this nightmare I was appearing on the show and responding to a police call, feeling somewhat untrained. It was very dark and I couldn't see anything as we pulled up to a house where a guy was holding his wife and kids hostage. I was sent around back and all of a sudden the guy loomed out of the darkness with a pistol to a kid's head. I warned him I was going to shoot him if he didn't put down his gun so he shot me first. As I was going down I was able to get off a shot and kill him. I saw the whole thing was being taped as I fell to the ground.
Right now JANE EYRE is on Masterpiece Theatre, and I think that's safe enough.
I stood outside in the snow tonight and cooked myself a nice New York strip on the grill, so I think I'm ready to return to the living.
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
2 comments:
I got a chance to watch that very same episode. So, what would that area be like to the average visitor? Did the show edit the whole thing in a way to make the neighborhood look worse than it really is?
Tim, I would say it is a working class area, south of the river, and a college town north of the river. But perhaps that south side has run down some since I last lived there, ten years ago. Or it just looks that way on the tee-vee.
John
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