Exit 129 on Interstate 70 heading east toward Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, where have you leaves you in the small town of Casey, Illinois. In Casey, the streetlights have signs indicating residents off fighting foreign wars and what division they are. The Bank of Casey boasts a mural of four baseball players with the tagline “We’ll go to bat for you.” And the people of Casey sit around at cafes, gas stations, golf clubhouses, curio stores—all waiting and watching the visitors’ cars whiz past from one big thing to the next.
Casey, Illinois, not to be confused with Gary, Indiana as I have done many a time, calls itself “A Town of Big Things.