UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI

Driving West into Gary on U.S. Highway 12/20

by Ellen A. Orner

Andy’s on 20 – Vienna Beef. Drifter’s Restaurant and Lounge. Absolute Air Heating and Cooling. Depot Dog – Vienna Beef. The People of Gary Welcome You. Need a Divorce?

Marsh grass. Cottonwood. Goldenrod. Mosquito swarm. Freight train. Amtrak. Another freight train. Honey’s Gentleman’s Club. PolekatZ. Lightning Fireworks – We Have What the Others Don’t. RomantiX. RomantiX. RomantiX.

Dune grass. Cottonwood. Sand dune. Honey’s 2. Laser tag warehouse with caved-in roof. All Mart Flea Market. Asphalt. Cinderblock. Discount Cigarettes. Ponderosa Steakhouse. Smog. Wing Wah Restaurant. Mufflers 4 Less. Used Truck Tires. Republic Frame and Axle. Fresh Fish. Temptation Gentlemen’s Club. Dunes U Store. Steel Transport – Safety Inspection Lane. Trailer park. Move Your Home Here – 219-938-0772. Semi Truck Parking. Deep Foundation Contractor since 1977. R&G Pallets. Pepe’s Mexican Restaurant. Shangri-La Gentlemen’s Club. Banquet Hall/Church/Full Kitchenette with Fridge/100+ Digital Channels/Free Phone for $696 per month with FREE SUNDAYS.

Jonathan’s Pancake House. Empty sign frames. Northwest Indiana Humane Society. Fortune House Chinese Dine-in. McDonald’s. Miller Beach Home Center. Arman’s for Jolly Good Food – Vienna Beef. South Shore Line Train Station. M & M III Beauty Supply – Dollar Gifts. Darnail Lyles, Esq. Attorney At Law. Cottonwood. Maple. Oak. Miller K Market. Fagen Pharmacy Liquor. Race Way Gas. Sporting Life Liquors. Healthy Smiles. Dom and Pete’s Point View Bar: Package Liquor, Fine Food. GoLo Gas. Cottonwood. Pine. Train tracks. Long line of 1940s pre-fabs. Smog. Power lines. Concrete. Road Construction Next 5 Miles.

Danger High Voltage. Pandora’s Show Club – Now Hiring. Junction Interstate 90. Milkweed. Marsh Grass. Hurt in a Wreck? 222-2222. Motel with green roof and no walls. Cottonwood. Dune grass. Ramp to Toll Road. Junction Interstate 65. Dunes Highway/West 12, West 20. Mint-green warehouse. Door 17. Red brick. Smokestacks. Road Construction Ahead. Walter Bates Steel Corporation. Rail Road Crossing. Centennial Processing. Rusted bridge. Rusted steel coils.

Dunes Court Apartments. Lake Street Express I: Full Line Groceries – Fresh Fruits and Veggies. Handmade signs. Painted brick houses. Yard with weeds taller than fence. Yard with close-clipped grass. Ivy on brick. Grass on roof. Life-sized Christ on cross.

Avila’s Auto Repair – Body and Mechanical. The Difference Between A Parent Who Hits His Child & A Parent Who Doesn’t…About 10 Seconds! SHARKS: 1 lb. shrimp $9.98. Freight train. Ambulance. Mr. Archie’s Grill and Sports Bar – No Standing Outside Vehicles. US Steel SteelYard – Home of the RailCats. Passenger train. Decommissioned steam engine. Junction Indiana 53. Life-sized statue of Elbert Henry Gary, Lawyer, Industrialist, Benefactor, Founder in 1906 of the City of Gary.

Lake County Superior Courthouse. Greyhound Station. Three-story brick houses. Wooden fence. Chain-link fence. Bright blue house. Molding yellow house. Charred cement house. Row of burned-out houses in pastels. New sidewalk. Row of dog runs. JR’s Liquors 2. Two-story brick houses. Single-story brick houses. Yards. Houses.


Ellen A. Orner is communications director at the University of Tennessee School of Art and reading series coordinator for The Sundress Academy of the Arts. She was the 2016 nonfiction editor for Grist: A Journal of the Literary Arts and nonfiction coordinator for the 2018 Best of the Net Anthology. She was born and raised in Gary, Indiana.