WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.950 align:middle line:84% It's called "Dancing in Vacationland." 00:00:01.950 --> 00:00:04.920 align:middle line:84% Vacationland is the word that's on the bottom of Maine license 00:00:04.920 --> 00:00:06.570 align:middle line:90% plates. 00:00:06.570 --> 00:00:08.970 align:middle line:90% Maine is Vacationland. 00:00:08.970 --> 00:00:12.245 align:middle line:84% Those of you here in Arizona may not appreciate that. 00:00:12.245 --> 00:00:15.430 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:15.430 --> 00:00:17.920 align:middle line:84% Well, Vacationland-- there's so much unemployment, 00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:22.300 align:middle line:90% there's a lot of vacation. 00:00:22.300 --> 00:00:24.960 align:middle line:90% But this actually is about-- 00:00:24.960 --> 00:00:27.340 align:middle line:84% where I live there is a town called Searsport, actually, 00:00:27.340 --> 00:00:30.487 align:middle line:84% and that's right on Route 1 on the ocean. 00:00:30.487 --> 00:00:31.570 align:middle line:90% And it's a very poor town. 00:00:31.570 --> 00:00:34.330 align:middle line:84% But there's always a kind of contrast 00:00:34.330 --> 00:00:37.953 align:middle line:84% between the poverty in the backwoods 00:00:37.953 --> 00:00:40.370 align:middle line:84% and then all these cars that are driving through Searsport 00:00:40.370 --> 00:00:42.360 align:middle line:90% they get to Bar Harbor. 00:00:42.360 --> 00:00:46.710 align:middle line:84% Searsport's also called the antique capital of Maine. 00:00:46.710 --> 00:00:50.290 align:middle line:84% Well, there's a lot of antique shops. 00:00:50.290 --> 00:00:53.025 align:middle line:90% And this started this thing. 00:00:53.025 --> 00:00:59.400 align:middle line:84% This too talks about the chicken processors and other people. 00:00:59.400 --> 00:01:02.610 align:middle line:90% "Dancing in Vacationland." 00:01:02.610 --> 00:01:05.220 align:middle line:84% "The people in the houses behind Searsport 00:01:05.220 --> 00:01:09.480 align:middle line:84% are dancing, the people in tin and tar paper mobile homes, 00:01:09.480 --> 00:01:13.080 align:middle line:84% people in plywood shacks surrounded by junk cars 00:01:13.080 --> 00:01:15.960 align:middle line:84% and tires, broken furniture, hungry geese, 00:01:15.960 --> 00:01:18.480 align:middle line:84% and chickens, bored hunting dogs. 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:20.940 align:middle line:84% In ones and twos, they open their doors, 00:01:20.940 --> 00:01:24.180 align:middle line:84% weaving and bobbing out to the road-- men in gray work 00:01:24.180 --> 00:01:27.240 align:middle line:84% clothes, women in baggy print dresses, the people who 00:01:27.240 --> 00:01:30.060 align:middle line:84% process chickens, stick fingers down chicken throats 00:01:30.060 --> 00:01:32.190 align:middle line:84% as the chickens come dangling down the line, 00:01:32.190 --> 00:01:36.150 align:middle line:84% tearing out wind pipes, tearing out guts, the men and women who 00:01:36.150 --> 00:01:39.210 align:middle line:84% pick meat out of crab bodies, arrange sardines 00:01:39.210 --> 00:01:42.780 align:middle line:84% in little cans, men who work the docks in all weather, who 00:01:42.780 --> 00:01:45.390 align:middle line:84% try to run lobster boats throughout the winter. 00:01:45.390 --> 00:01:48.600 align:middle line:84% These people are now dancing from their houses of wreckage 00:01:48.600 --> 00:01:51.810 align:middle line:84% where they scream at each other and raise ignorant children 00:01:51.810 --> 00:01:53.520 align:middle line:84% and hang onto each other at night. 00:01:53.520 --> 00:01:57.570 align:middle line:84% In threes and fours, they dance toward Searsport and Route 1. 00:01:57.570 --> 00:02:00.753 align:middle line:84% Then, reaching town, they form a single line, dancing 00:02:00.753 --> 00:02:02.670 align:middle line:84% with their arms on their neighbors' shoulders, 00:02:02.670 --> 00:02:06.330 align:middle line:84% dancing in one long row between the shiny antique shops 00:02:06.330 --> 00:02:08.919 align:middle line:84% and fat realtors, one foot up, one foot down, 00:02:08.919 --> 00:02:10.740 align:middle line:84% step to the right, step to the left, 00:02:10.740 --> 00:02:13.800 align:middle line:84% lining the highway, which is crowded with tourists 00:02:13.800 --> 00:02:18.790 align:middle line:84% from the South trying to soak up picturesque views of the ocean. 00:02:18.790 --> 00:02:20.790 align:middle line:84% But this morning, all they can see 00:02:20.790 --> 00:02:23.790 align:middle line:84% are people dancing, these bloated, potato-fed people 00:02:23.790 --> 00:02:26.940 align:middle line:84% dancing, these people who live by collecting returnable 00:02:26.940 --> 00:02:29.940 align:middle line:84% bottles, by picking over the trash at the dump, 00:02:29.940 --> 00:02:32.280 align:middle line:84% by trading their bodies, their wits, their health, 00:02:32.280 --> 00:02:35.220 align:middle line:84% for a few dollars and a shack behind Searsport. 00:02:35.220 --> 00:02:37.950 align:middle line:84% This morning, because it is warm and sunny 00:02:37.950 --> 00:02:40.350 align:middle line:84% and because they just can't stand it anymore, 00:02:40.350 --> 00:02:43.410 align:middle line:84% they decided to start dancing, one foot up, one foot down. 00:02:43.410 --> 00:02:45.810 align:middle line:84% And the tourists from New York stop their cars. 00:02:45.810 --> 00:02:48.420 align:middle line:84% And the tourists from Massachusetts take pictures. 00:02:48.420 --> 00:02:49.950 align:middle line:84% And the tourists from Connecticut 00:02:49.950 --> 00:02:51.630 align:middle line:84% give candy to the little ones until, 00:02:51.630 --> 00:02:55.200 align:middle line:84% at last, the realtors and tour guide directors and lobster 00:02:55.200 --> 00:02:58.320 align:middle line:84% shack owners, until, at last, the alternative lifestyle 00:02:58.320 --> 00:03:01.980 align:middle line:84% farmers, gift shop operators, local chamber of commerce, 00:03:01.980 --> 00:03:05.440 align:middle line:84% town police, state police, and sheriff's department all band 00:03:05.440 --> 00:03:08.790 align:middle line:84% together, and a spokesperson apologizes to the tourists 00:03:08.790 --> 00:03:11.460 align:middle line:84% from the South and begs them to take no more pictures. 00:03:11.460 --> 00:03:13.740 align:middle line:84% And they try to make the people stop dancing, 00:03:13.740 --> 00:03:15.540 align:middle line:84% but the people won't listen and keep 00:03:15.540 --> 00:03:17.820 align:middle line:84% right on dancing, one foot up, one foot down. 00:03:17.820 --> 00:03:19.710 align:middle line:84% So they push them back off Route 1, 00:03:19.710 --> 00:03:22.950 align:middle line:84% push them back to the little roads behind Searsport, 00:03:22.950 --> 00:03:25.710 align:middle line:84% push them back into the tin and tar paper mobile homes, 00:03:25.710 --> 00:03:28.980 align:middle line:84% the plywood shacks surrounded by junk cars. 00:03:28.980 --> 00:03:30.750 align:middle line:84% But through the windows, they can still 00:03:30.750 --> 00:03:33.510 align:middle line:84% be seen dancing, dancing into the night in their little paper 00:03:33.510 --> 00:03:37.350 align:middle line:84% houses until, at last, they lie down and hold on to each other, 00:03:37.350 --> 00:03:39.630 align:middle line:84% hang on to each other, as if afraid of sinking 00:03:39.630 --> 00:03:42.750 align:middle line:84% into the Earth, afraid the whole Vacationland world might 00:03:42.750 --> 00:03:45.549 align:middle line:90% stop spinning beneath them." 00:03:45.549 --> 00:03:48.387 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:03:48.387 --> 00:03:52.650 align:middle line:90% 00:03:52.650 --> 00:03:55.450 align:middle line:90% I have one last poem to read.