The Ultimate Farewell

We attended an event in Nebraska and drove through parts of Kansas. We found a geocache at the world’s biggest ball of string, visited the center of the lower 48, and celebrated trains. But in many ways, the most interesting place was Portis and its tribute to Melvin Millar, a Looney Tunes Animator, That’s All Folks!

Portis was another Midwest town that had been passed by. It is marked by closed businesses and deteriorating buildings. It seemed like the kind of place that prompted Thomas Frank to write What’s Wrong with Kansas, exploring how a state that was influenced by left-wing populism became a bedrock of conservatism.

It has become a state where Donald Trump consistently won overwhelming majorities and has passed some of the strictest anti-trans acts in the nation. Yet, individually, another side of the state emerges. Years ago, when I walked across the state for peace and justice, people were always friendly. I like to think that if my trans son had car trouble, someone would help.  

Driving through here is is obvious that even while Democratic neo-liberals had abandoned its heartland, the supply side economics and billionaires of the Trump regime robbed it. In Portis, there isn’t much left.

“That’s All Folks” might refer to the town where visitors are greeted with the end.

The phrase has achieved a kind of mythic status where it might be recognized or used even though its context is long gone. It became a catch phrase famous for being a catch phrase. And in part that is due to Porky Pig, the embodiment of a gentle quality who announced the end so many times.

Yet, is it really the end? In Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century, after the “That’s all, folks!” ending starts to appear, Marvin the Martian pops out to reassure us, “Don’t worry, folks. After all, it’s only a cartoon.”

These days, it can be hard to recognize what is real or what is a cartoon.

My Log

With the road closure from the south, it took some time to get here. We were given alternate directions on a dirty road, but the only certain thing was that we knew we needed to come. We left it to instead come from the north the next morning.  

We came for Porky Pug and his friends, but found Portis, a fascinating Kansas town. Like other places we visited on our trip, it seemed that time had passed the town by. It’s hard to imagine that the town once had “several elegant business buildings, a large hotel and a newspaper. The Portis Patriot.” (William Cutler, History of the State of Kansas, 1883).

In more recent years, it seems like the town is slowly slipping away — would there be a reason to stay? What are the hopes and dreams of those who live here?  Perhaps it is enough to live in a small Kansas town.

I can imagine a kid who liked to draw and teachers who thought he would be better off joining Future Farmers. The town, though, had traces of art. Something that I could almost mistake for a Banksy, at a distance. Could art transform this area even as it transformed the animator’s life?

And what about Porky, a shy pig with a stutter? It took him a while to come into his own. As a kid, I was more of a Daffy fan, but I have come to appreciate Porky’s old spirit and wise demeanor. I might have wanted to be like Duck Dodgers or resourceful like Bugs, but in many ways, I was shy like Porky, although much taller and without a stutter.

Elmer kept wanting to shoot ducks and wabbits. Bugs was too smart for his own good. Daffy was a troublemaker. Tweety was annoying. But Porky was basically a good pig. He might not have been my favorite when I was growing up, yet it was fitting to find him here, doing his job, announcing with grace.

04/24/2025