Onaga, Kansas, when I lived there, had a population of 900 people. I don't remember a distinct odor to the town, though I was usually in the gym after school which smelled like 30 boys who rarely showered and who wore the same dirty shirt to sports practice every day until it was too crusty to wear any longer.

There were fourteen boys and only one girl in my 8th grade class. I joined a weightlifting club run by weightlifting champion Gene Gilsdorf and eventually placed 4th in my weight class at the AAU Junior Olympic Games. We moved to Manhattan, Kansas when I was fourteen. Andy Van Slyke was still my favorite baseball player and Nirvana's Nevermind saw regular rotation in my Walkman. I had a silk banner of Nirvana hanging in my bedroom until Kurt Cobain shot himself and my parents made me take it down.