Population: 485
Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time
by Michael Perry

List Price: $13.95
Pages: 256
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0060958073
Publisher: Perennial

Michael Perry was raised on a dairy farm in New Auburn, Wisconsin. He has worked at a variety of jobs including forklift driver, backhoe operator, truck driver, proofreader, physical therapy aide, and put himself through nursing school by working as a cowboy in Wyoming. His writing has appeared in Esquire, Newsweek, New York Times Magazine, Salon, and many others. To date, Perry is the only member of the New Auburn Area Fire Department to have missed a monthly meeting because of a poetry reading.

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A Conversation with Michael Perry

Q: What made you decide to return home and write this book?

MP: I had been home for several years before I wrote the book. As a matter of fact, this book came about after my first book proposal -- in which a middle-aged guy (me) embarks on a voyage of self-discovery by going back to work as a cowboy on a ranch out West -- was derailed at the last minute by the publication of a book in which a middle-aged guy (not me) embarked on a voyage of self-discovery by going back to work as a cowboy on a ranch out West. Figure the odds on that one.

In the meantime, I had written a piece about volunteer firefighting for Esquire and another about backwoods ambulance runs for Salon. Someone suggested that I use those essays as a starting point for a story about my hometown. And so I went from navel-gazing cowboy mode to navel-gazing firefighter mode.

Someone asked me once if I moved back to New Auburn so I could write about this place. I told them what I wanted most was to write from this place. Now I've done both. I'm a lucky guy.

Q: You shared a lot of personal details about yourself and fellow town members in this book. Do you regret sharing any of your experiences? Have you heard anything from the people you discuss in this book?

MP: About three weeks after the book came out, I went to the Friday night football game. It was Parents Night, so most of the population was there. I figured if I made it through the game without coming under assault, I'd be good to go. Everything went smooth, plus I got to have a hot dog. So that worked out nice.

In general, I have had two complaints. The most frequent complaint comes from people who want to know why they're not in the book. Of course, when you write a book like this, ink, space and time dictate that you can only focus on a relatively few characters, buildings and incidents.

The other complaint came from one of the ex-wives of a man in the book who said he knew his marriage was in trouble when she wouldn't let him see the checkbook. She recently informed me that she would have shown him the checkbook if he would have shown her the girlfriend.

If you think I'm getting in the middle of that one…

Q: How did you become interested in writing? Was writing about yourself and your family difficult?

MP: I came to writing the long way, often crawling and walking backwards. I wrote off and on from childhood, and I had two teachers -- my seventh grade English teacher and a creative writing instructor in college -- who made a big impression on me, but I was out of college and working as a nurse before I began to approach writing with the seriousness the craft requires. Went to the library, got a copy of the Writer's Market, and have been typing ever since.

If I had to identify one single thing that led to my becoming a writer, it would be the fact that I have read voraciously ever since I was four years old. Cowboy books and cereal boxes included.

Writing about myself is strangely easy. I say strangely because on a day-to-day basis, I am reserved and hermit-like. But when it's three a.m. and you've been typing since noon, and you're all hopped up on black coffee and Little Debbie Zebra Cakes, you tend to reveal more than is advisable. Which seems to work out just fine. I deal with it by pretending the guy who wrote the book was someone else altogether. And if we ever chat down to the cafe, you'll probably agree. In daily conversation I am as full of "umms", "y'knows" and "um, like"s as your average eighth grade cheerleader.

Writing about my family was something I gave much thought to. My parents are extremely private people. They live simply and want no attention. I have tried to respect their wishes as much as possible. As I say in the acknowledgements section of Population: 485, anything decent is because of them, anything else is simply not their fault.

The last chapter of the book is about a tragedy involving my brother. The book was nearly complete when the incident occurred. It was never intended to be part of the story, and yet it spoke to the very heart of the book. I went to his house and we sat at his kitchen table. I asked his permission to write the chapter. I told him if he said no, I would never bring it up again. He thought for a moment, and then gave me permission. He also said he didn't think he could ever read it.

Q: Has life in New Auburn changed since you've enjoyed the minor celebrity of being published?

MP: Nope. I am surrounded by people who know me too well to be impressed with me. One of our favorite sports is the perpetual deflation of each other's egos. If you run close to the ground, you don't have so far to fall. Someone told my 70-year-old neighbor I had a lovely style of writing. The 70-year-old lady, who once changed my diapers, said, "Well, that's not how he talks." Perfect.

Q: You have held a variety of different jobs. Which was/is your favorite and least favorite and why?

MP: I was once employed as a roller-skating Snoopy. Every Saturday morning and afternoon I would put on this sweat-ridden fake fur suit and giant reeking head and lead a mob of sugar-spiked children through the Hokey-Pokey and then on the Snoopy train skate. This was not a bad job, I mean you had a certain celebrity vibe going, but the kids used to insist on pulling Snoopy's tail, and eventually this began to wear on Snoopy.

Q: Do you prefer firefighting or writing? Why?

MP: It's not the sort of thing you compare. I never tire of writing. I am deeply grateful for what writing has allowed me to experience. I am a fortunate, fortunate fellow.

I love firefighting because it is fundamental. You use your hands and back, you put water on fire. A while back, my fellow department members and I were fighting a trailer house fire. I had been out on book tour for about three months, traveling all over the United States, doing radio interviews, finding motels, bookstores and television stations. It had been fun, but pretty much nonstop. I had only been home for a day before we had the trailer house fire. And there was this moment -- my partner and I were right in the face of the fire, big flames rolling, people running, lights flashing, the hose bucking in our arms -- when I realized I hadn't been this relaxed in weeks.

So each serves its purpose. Again, I am grateful for this life.

Q: Do you still live in New Auburn and do you plan to stay there?

MP: I might like to move out nearer the farm where I was raised, and I do still enjoy hitting the road for stretches, but I my mail has been coming through the New Auburn Post Office for eight years now, and it'll take some sort of major development to change that.

I've always been from "Nobbern," even when I lived elsewhere.

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Excerpted from Population: 485 © Copyright 2009 by Michael Perry. Reprinted with permission by Perennial. All rights reserved.

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