Published: June 27, 2008 09:27 pm            

Tribune-Star Editorial: ‘Nowhere, USA’ — not in 2008

This sure doesn’t seem like Nowhere, USA.

Comedian Steve Martin infamously branded Terre Haute with that label 30 years ago. And, indeed, the city has its share of tedious, mundane, day-after-day hassles. But “Nowhere” hardly fits in 2008.

In January, Jerry Seinfeld came to town and performed two sellout shows in Tilson Auditorium. In February, featured, well, cold weather, but never mind that, because things really heated up in March. That’s when the national media converged on Terre Haute for the first of two campaign visits by Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton. Those Washington and New York reporters came back to see both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama stop here on April 11. (That’s right, Steve, a former president and a possible future president came to this Midwestern outpost on the same day.) Television and movie stars made appearances here to persuade Hauteans to support Sens. Clinton and Obama. In May, Hillary returned, while magazine columnists and network correspondents interviewed and analyzed Terre Hauteans in advance of the historic Indiana primary election on May 6.

This month, the city gets more high-profile face time, thanks to Steve. A documentary film crew from Indianapolis’ 3Docs Productions will interview any local folks willing to share memories of Martin’s 1978 concert in Hulman Center, his return tour of the town in 1979, and the crazy, tongue-in-cheek, love-hate relationship he shared with Terre Haute for nearly four years through his films and comments on TV and in print. Their film will be entitled “One Wild and Crazy City” is expected to be completed by the end of 2008. The 3Docs team, supported by local sponsors such as the Indiana State University Foundation, will roll their cameras from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. today in the Indiana Theater.

Then on July 24, Peyton Manning, Tony Dungy and the Indianapolis Colts return to their summer home for three weeks of training camp at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

Who knows what August, September, October, November and December will bring? A visit from the pope? The Dalai Lama? Led Zeppelin?

It’s time for Steve to come back and see what a hip, cosmopolitan place “Nowhere, USA” has become. (Just don’t pick February. Bowling season gets kind of hectic that month.)

        

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