Thirty Rooms to Hide In: Insanity, Addiction, and Rock 'n' Roll in the Shadow of the Mayo Clinic

316 Pages·2012·3.87 MB·English

by  Luke Longstreet Sullivan

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ThirTy rooms To hide in
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ThirTy rooms
To hide in
Insanity, Addiction, and Rock ’n’ Roll
in the Shadow of the Mayo Clinic
6
Luke LongsTreeT suLLivan
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis • London
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Readers interested in seeing more about the Sullivan family,
including letters, photographs, and home movies,
may visit the website thirtyroomstohidein.com.
A prior edition of this book was published in electronic and print-on-demand formats.
The photograph on page x by Shelley Aubin. Photographs on page x by Susie Blackmun.
Copyright 2012 by Luke Longstreet Sullivan
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
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Gone
A poem by my mother, 1981
You disappeared before they were born,
all of them—
except maybe the first
when you weren’t quite gone
just beginning to go—
not over a cliff
with punctilious grace
leaving me most of a body to mourn;
not with somebody’s gaudy wife
a flick of rue on your face
a farewell flourish on the MG’s horn
and a monthly check
to prove your going was done.
No, you just disappeared
in bits,
like grain from a sack invaded by rats
a farmer finds
still standing in the corner,
empty.
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Contents
Funeral 1
The Millstone 00
Skeletons in the Closet 00
Bone Doctors 00
Grandma Rock Sentences Everyone to Hell 00
Little Christians, All in a Row 00
Little Monsters in Every Room 00
Memory: Throwing Up 00
A Library of Her Own 00
Forts, Death, and Bedtime 00
Cold War 00
Five O’clock Shadow 00
Head X-ray: Roger in 1957 00
Shit Gathers in General Area of Fan 00
Cyclops and the Fallout Shelter 00
Memory: Dad Helps with Homework 00
Hidden Books, Hidden Letters 00
Eleven Twenty-Two 00
Fun at the Foot of the Volcano 00
Rat Helicopters 00
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U N N O Cause of Death: Unknown 00
The Pagans 00
“Spats with the Wife” 00
Memory: I Am “Suave Ghost” 00
The Alcoholic’s Guide to Ruining Evenings 00
Snowballs Somehow Made in Hell 00
Memory: I Am “Little Brother Man” 00
Leaving the Millstone 00
“We’ve Always Lived in This Castle” 00
Haunted House 00
Ceiling Tiles over a Psychiatrist’s Couch 00
Memory: I Am “Quiet Man” 00
Things That Were Scarier Than Dad 00
Baba Yaga 00
Memory: I Am the Fifth Beatle 00
Hiding in the Bathroom from Bullets 00
Hiding in the Tower Library 00
Memory: I Am the Incredible Hulk 00
Memory: I Am “Lonely Guy” 00
Pagan Rites 00
Eye of the Hurricane 00
No Help from God 00
Case #34233 00
Daydream: I Am “the Bullshit Police” 00
Suicide 00
One Last Good Christmas 00
Tiny Details in Family Pictures 00
Daydream: I Save Dad 00
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U N N O Goodnight, Irene 00
Whiteout/Blackout 00
Meltdown in West Palm Beach 00
“Do I Owe You Any Money?” 00
The Famous Final Scene 00
Zee Tortured Arteest 00
Phone Calls from the Dead 00
This Mortal Coil 00
Room 50 00
The Irish Flu 00
Sunday, July 3, 1966 00
Pagans in the Temple 00
One Last Look 00
Sunlight Streams through a High Window 00
I Believe in God Briefly 00
The Big Bad World 00
Take a Sad Song and Make It Better 00
This Very Room 00
“And Every Winter Change to Spring” 00
Epilogue 00
Acknowledgments 00
Author’s Note 00
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FPO
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