We're re-airing a show I produced, "Off the Map," this weekend. Like I hope you do from time-to-time with something you discover, I really got into the subject after it aired. So much, that I made my own map.
It’s a fictional map set in the small town of Kinsman, Ohio. I made a collage from maps I got from second-hand stores to create mine, adding points of interest like, “Site of the World-Famous Porcupine Fight of ‘86” and “Flight of the Burning Paper Airplane at Jimmy’s Sleepover.” On Main Street (right past the Roller Rink) just before it meets Route 5 at the Cross Bar sits the DQ - “Where Karen Ellwood Was Hit by a Car."
The map is filled with points-of-interest marking the stories 12-year-old Billy Boyd (Karen’s best friend) told her over a summer while she was bedridden and recovering. Billy was Karen’s eyes and ears of the happenings around town. He embellished, of course, but his stories made for a good map. The map (at the tippy top) also contains the ominous marker, “Last Place Billy Was Seen Alive.”
I got a lot of joy from making this map. And I'm even writing a short story based on it (I mean, who doesn’t want to hear Billy’s story about what happened at the “Great Blackberry Bramble Fire”?)
– Charles