These are not the big, defining moments in a person’s life. Rather they’re the funny, awkward, head-scratching times that you think about later and realize they’re a little more significant than you first thought. Such as the warning from a stern, ultra-Catholic aunt that it’s possible to drown in a teaspoon of water or that Biscayne station wagon, the first car that Smith’s dad bought that wasn’t a lemon, for example.

“You know that little time right before you fall asleep in bed and all of a sudden some little incident comes back to you from years ago?” Smith said. “They’re moments that aren’t really momentous, but you’re just suddenly back in touch with them, and not personally, but psychologically. I think those are really kind of important and wonderful.”

And, so many of them happened in Libertyville, where Smith spent most of his youth.

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