Persons attempting to find a "text" in this [story] will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a "subtext" in it will be banished; persons attempting to explain, interpret, explicate, analyze, deconstruct, or otherwise "understand" it will be exiled to a desert island in the company only of other explainers.
BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR - Wendell Berry's introduction to Jayber Crow.
This article was posted to Jayber on 19 February 2007 by to the following categories: Feature, Stories.
An audio version of this article is also available.
There is a winding and irregular road in Brainerd, MN called the "Yee Yee Road" that exists for two purposes: (1) to provide a paved path to and from homes in the woods, and (2) to dispense titillating enjoyment to the hillbilly Benson/Schumann clan while they raced their rusted Chevy Citation over the hilly humps, with windows down, sans seat belts, unashamedly hooting, "Yee Haw!" repeatedly throughout the mid-nineties.
Aunt Karen would dependably orchestrate amusing trips to the Yee Yee Road which were usually proceeded by riding horses at the Little Elk Ranch and sandwiched by Mini Golf (or Go-Karting, or the Batting Cages), and Rafferty's Pizza. For me as a kid, Brainerd was the definition of earthly euphoria.
My brother Brian reminded me of the Yee Yee Road this afternoon and pointed out that many times, we would try to gain enough speed on the down-slope of one hill so that we could retain enough speed on the up-slope of the next hill to get a couple of tires off the road. Getting sweet air never gets old.
Ahhh, I miss the “Yee Yee Road”…and Rafferty’s pizza!!!!
I had to listen to the audio version just to hear the robo woman say
“YEE YEE”
It was worth it.
we had a road like that. It had a bump that you could get sweet air on too. Only problem was you had to cross a divided highway full speed to hit it with any force.
Quite dangerous. Quite fun.