Keep Coming Back to same Place in a Town

[Extollager]

I'm trying to identify a story or two with the idea of a traveler who wants to leave a town but keeps coming back to the same place. This idea is used, as I recall, in Campbell's "Church in High Street," but that is not the story or stories I have in mind. The setting is what was then contemporary America in the story or stories I'm trying to remember. This story or stories appeared years ago.

My sense is that this idea is, in fact, something of a cliche....

And I'm not thinking of "A Subway Named Moebius" or Disch's "Descending," although these have somewhat related concepts.

Can anyone help? Thanks.

 

[Dave]

The setting is what was then contemporary America... My sense is that this idea is, in fact, something of a cliche...

If you said that the setting was a haunted wood with no exit or an underground labyrinth with chalk marks on the walls then I would agree.

I've not read such a story but the idea of driving down Route 66 but always passing exactly the same Diner sounds interesting and original.

Not being able to leave a town has, however, probably become a cliche - from the Midwich Cuckoos to Under The Dome via The Simpsons Movie.

Sorry, I can't help with the story you are looking for.

 

[PaulMmn]

There was a short story (and of course I can't remember the name) where a farmer told of his neighbors down the road. The description and items gave you the idea that the neighbors were aliens. They had a tractor that plowed a field at night, unattended. They had an old rattletrap car that made mostly noise, but rode smoothly.
.
The townsfolk had accepted them, and they were made welcome. And, of course, the government got nosy... during those times, when you drove out of town, at some point you found yourself driving back into town. It was just when the gov't was snooping.
.
I think there was a crisis (of course), but I don't remember the outcome.
.
--Paul E Musselman

 

[Alex The G and T]

That smells a lot like a Simak story, Paul; but I can't name it either. It's been many years.

 

[Extollager]

Keep trying, folks, please. I'd really like to track down the story/ies. One of my daughters had enough trouble navigating a trip to and from Reading, Pennsylvania, yesterday, that I think she could enjoy the story or stories I have in mind, if only I can do the locating. I feel like the main story I have in mind is from the postwar 1940s, the 1950s, or perhaps the early 1960s.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

That smells a lot like a Simak story, Paul; but I can't name it either. It's been many years.

One would think I'd be well-placed to answer that, but it's been many years since I read the shorts, and I have an abominable memory. I will throw out there that it *could* be "Neighbor". I haven't been able to find my Simak short stories in years, so I can't go and look at it to see for sure.

 

[2DaveWixon]

There was a short story (and of course I can't remember the name) where a farmer told of his neighbors down the road. The description and items gave you the idea that the neighbors were aliens. They had a tractor that plowed a field at night, unattended. They had an old rattletrap car that made mostly noise, but rode smoothly.
.
The townsfolk had accepted them, and they were made welcome. And, of course, the government got nosy... during those times, when you drove out of town, at some point you found yourself driving back into town. It was just when the gov't was snooping.
.
I think there was a crisis (of course), but I don't remember the outcome.
.
--Paul E Musselman

"Neighbor" by Clifford D. Simak

It's really good!

Dave Wixon

 

[northernexposure]

As I recall, Philip K. Dick had a protagonist who kept being prevented from leaving town in Time Out of Joint.

 

[Matteo]

Does sound like Neighbor by Simak. You can check it out here: Astounding v53n04 (1954 06) (cape1736) : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

 

[2DaveWixon]

Does sound like Neighbor by Simak. You can check it out here: Astounding v53n04 (1954 06) (cape1736) : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

Or you can get "Neighbor," along with a number of other CDS stories, in the recent collection entitled "The Big Front Yard and other stories by Clifford D. Simak: volume 2 of the Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak." It currently available in e-book form, published by Open Road Media (but I believe you can find it at Amazon and so on). (But Open Road tells me they plan to put the book in paper, too -- but they haven't stated a date for that...)
(Sorry about that ungawdly long title; you can shorten it and people will understand what you mean.)

Now I think of it, in a sense, "The Big Front Yard" is also a brush with the idea of being unable to leave town...well, no, I guess I'd be pushing it too far to suggest that -- but it is a story in which aliens alter a man's house so that if you go out one of the doors, you're on another planet...
and the Simak novel ALL FLESH IS GRASS is about an entire small town that wakes up one morning to find that a big, impenetrable bubble has cut off their town from the world -- so, yes, they can't leave town, but I think that's in a very different sense than was shown in "Neighbor..."

Dave Wixon

 

[PaulMmn]

As I recall, Philip K. Dick had a protagonist who kept being prevented from leaving town in Time Out of Joint.

Is that the story that had the newspaper contest "where will the little green man appear next?"

--Paul E Musselman