Candy Cane Lane

Jeremy has long thought that the fates intended him to live in southern Illinois--what, with its being half-way between the region whose literature he studies, the South, and the region in which he learned to study it, the Midwest. Amy has never bought that argument. Until now. We spent tonight in West Frankfort, a little town about a half hour north of Carbondale. It's where Amy works occasionally at a branch office of her clinic. More important, it's the home of Candy Cane Lane, a local tradition that began a few years ago when one family decorated their home and, over time, the rest of the neighborhood joined in. It's now a kind of museum of recent trends in kiddie pop culture, with displays ranging from Ren & Stimpy to Lilo & Stitch to Shrek & Donkey to the Incredibles.

Here, then, is a guided tour of the neighborhood that, at least for one night, has made us happier to live in the middle of nowhere.