Jeremy B. Jones’ (thejeremybjones.com) essays appear in Quarterly West, Crab Orchard Review, and Killing The Buddha, among others. His work has won the Emma Bell Miles Essay Prize and been named Notable in Best American Essays 2009. He teaches writing at Charleston Southern University, and he’s currently at work on a book about the confused identity of his native southern Appalachia, a place where defunct things go to live forever. He misses the days of Coach King: the burly, indifferent PE teacher who taught them the Electric Slide to Boot Scootin Boogie (Brooks and Dunn) in the purple and gold gym of Apple Valley Middle School. Jeremy sometimes asks: Will I ever be able to look as cool as the 12-year-old me in a small phys. ed. uniform, socks no shoes, a gelled butt-cutt stuck to my head, rocking back and forth just below the free-throw line—yeah, heel, toe, dosey doe, come on baby let’s go?
