Quick trip to Indianapolis

Saturday we had a quick trip (80 mph on a moving parking lot all the way) to visit my sister-in-law Jean, and a few other relatives.  We went out to eat at her favorite restaurant, Sero's, a Greek family style restaurant that serves breakfast all day. Indianapolis Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Restaurant | Sero's Family Restaurant (serosfamilyrestaurant.com)

  

Enjoying lunch at Sero's

Visiting at Jean's home

Our Joan is home, finally

"After a 10 day hospital stay; I am thankful to know the great Physician, for God’s healing and for all the prayers that were and still being lifted up for me. I praise God for His love, healing and mercy on me. I thank the Lord for the wisdom he gave to the medical doctors and for each nurse and tech, that cared for me. Thank you, Lord, for bringing me home."

In the past two weeks, we've had 10 relatives diagnosed with Covid, and five have been hospitalized (none in our city).  All are at home now, recovering.  Still quite sick. We'll continue the prayers and God's protection.

A very successful trip to Illinois

We had our fall Illinois Indiana trip this past week, celebrating my birthday there and seeing our cousins and siblings.

On Thursday we went to the lovely home of cousins Dianne and Frank for a tasty breakfast, after which we went hunting for the Nachusa Prairie Grasslands near Oregon and the bison (that adventure will be another post).  On Friday we drove to Dixon to see my cousin (once removed--my grandmother and his father were siblings) Chuck Ballard to catch up since college days at the University of Illinois, where he attended after a stint in the Navy. I think I last saw him in 1983, and we are both interested in genealogy. We had actually met a good friend of his when we were touring Ireland over a decade ago. Friday evening we had dinner with our Illinois siblings and spouses with a long chat afterwards.  On Saturday the members of my graduating class (1957) got together at the Campus Cafe across from the campus in Mt. Morris.  That afternoon we drove to Winnebago to visit with my cousin Judy Buffo, but as it turns out, that was her mailing address but she lives much closer to Pecatonica. so we drove around a lot in that area, and were just about to give up when I found a clerk at a gas station who had a smart phone and wrote down directions for me. We had a nice 2 hour visit.  I think I last saw her in 1996.

Early Sunday morning we started out from Mt. Morris  for Indianapolis arriving about 1:30 and had a good visit with our sister and brother in-law and our niece and nephew and dinner and dessert.

   

 

 

  

Euchre is a favorite in Indiana

Because everyone from Indiana (or son of—Bob Sr. grew up in Elwood and Indianapolis) knows how to play Euchre, there was a lively card game at our mini-reunion Thursday and Friday. I'm a poor loser, so I didn't play. I'm also a poor winner, because I don't like to see anyone lose. Euchre is the national pass time for anyone from Indiana, so if I really want to wow him, I offer him a game of Euchre. Boys from Indianapolis find that very sexy.

When cities disappear

I don't know why it bothers me more in Indianapolis than Columbus--it's the same in all cities--but driving that free way system a number of times this week made me think of all the neighborhoods that were sliced and diced, business districts and churches destroyed, clubs and societies split up, families separated, slums created, all by federal money to keep commerce and traffic moving. And now we see it happening again with a reverse push to move the poor, so the down town and old neighborhoods are being "gentrified" and rehabbed, old buildings being preserved, bike baths and canals and new codes being enforced so tourists and the yuppies have a playground. I suppose it's because I remember the Indy of 55 years ago, and recognize nothing today.

Memorial Presbyterian, Indianapolis, where 3 generations of my husband’s family worshipped Jesus. I believe the archives are at Hanover College.

Back home again, in Indiana

The world's largest orchid species collection is found at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana .

Tomato juice was first served at a French Lick, Indiana, hotel in 1925. The first tomato juice factory was also in French Lick, Indiana. French Lick was originally a French trading post built near a spring and salt lick.

World famous basketball star Larry Bird lives in French Lick.

The first regulated speed limit (20 - 25 mph!) was initiated on Indiana roads in 1921.

The steepest railroad grade in the world is in Madison, Indiana .

An average of 400 funnel clouds are sighted each year in Indiana .

The city of Gary, Indiana, was built on fill brought from the bottom of Lake Michigan through suction pipes.

There are only two Adams fireplaces in the United States. One is in the White House and the other in the Diner Home in Indiana .

Josie Orr, wife of former Indiana Governor Robert Orr, flew bombers and cargo planes during World War II.

The Indianapolis Methodist Hospital is the largest Hospital in the Midwest .

One of the first complete bathrooms in Indianapolis was in the home of Hoosier poet, James Whitcomb Riley.

The career of Dorothy Lamour (famous for the Bing Crosby-Bob Hope Road Movies) was launched in Indianapolis.

Aviatrix Amelia Earhart was once a Professor at Purdue University.

Crown Hill Cemetery ( Indianapolis ) is the largest cemetery in the U.S. Many of my husband’s maternal relatives are buried there.

The library in Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana, houses one of the largest genealogy libraries in America .

Wabash, Indiana, was the first electrified city in the U.S.

Pendleton, Indiana, was the site of the first hanging of a white man for killing Indians.

The Courthouse roof in Greensburg, Indiana, has a tree growing from it.

The world's first transistor radio was made in Indianapolis .

Clark Gable and wife Carole Lombard (born in Fort Wayne , IN ) honeymooned at Lake BarBee near Warsaw , Indiana .

The American Beauty Rose was developed at Richmond, Indiana .

Elkhart, Indiana, is the band instrument capitol of the World.

Frank Sinatra first sang with the Tommy Dorsey band at the Lyric Theater in Indianapolis .

Purdue Alumnus, Earl Butz, served as the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.

U.S. 231 is the longest highway in Indiana (231miles).

Johnny Appleseed is buried at Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The singing McGuire Sisters spent their childhood summers at the Church of God Campground in Anderson, Indiana . (I attended camp there one summer for Church of the Brethren Youth Conference.)

The main station of the Underground Railroad was in Fountain County, Indiana .

There are 154 acres of sculpture gardens and trails at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

La Porte County is the only county in America having 2 functioning courthouses.

Nancy Hanks Lincoln is buried in Posey County, Indiana.

The Lincoln Museum in Fort Wayne, Allen County, contains the world's largest private collection of President Abraham Lincoln mementos (Lincoln National Life Insurance Company).

Crawfordsville, Indiana ( Montgomery County ) is one of the few sites in the world where crinoids are found. (What is a crinoid, you ask? A form of deep-water marine life that looks something like a starfish.)

Pendleton, Indiana, was the site of the 'Fall Creek Massacre'. A museum housing 3500 artifacts of pioneer heritage now exists on that site.

St. Meinrad Archabbey is located in Spencer County and is one of only 2 archabbeys in the U.S. and seven in the world. (Abbey Press is an operation of the archabbey.)

A buzz bomb [German ram-jet V-1, pioneer of the "Cruise Missiles"), believed to be the only one on public display in the nation, can be found on the Putnam County Courthouse lawn in Greencastle.

Roberta Turpin Willett was born in Indiana .

James Dean was born and is buried in Indiana.

The world's tallest woman lived in Indiana .

Red Skelton was born in Vincennes, Indiana  (and was a proud Hoosier 'til the day he died!)

Mae West and Claude Akins were from Bedford, Indiana.

John Mellencamp is a Hoosier and resides in Bloomington.

The inventor of the television, Philo T. Farnsworth, lived in Fort Wayne, Indiana .

Forrest Tucker was from Plainfield, Indiana .

You can't ship wine to Indiana .  (Direct to consumer, like UPS or FedEx)

Bob Greise is from Evansville, Indiana and was quarterback at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN.

Toni Tenille (of The Captain and Tenille) is from Indiana ..

Oprah Winfrey built her residence in N/W Indiana .

Florence Henderson is from Indiana .

The much sought-after Hoosier Cabinets are an Indiana product.

90% of the world's popcorn is grown in Indiana . (Orville Redenbacher was what percent?)

The Jackson Five are from Gary , Indiana .

The birthplace of the American automobile, the pneumatic rubber tire, the aluminum casting process, stainless steel and the first push-button car radio was in Kokomo, Indiana.

Frank Borman, NASA astronaut, born in Gary, Indiana.

I received this via e-mail, but most can be found at Facts about Indiana at the State Library site.

Monday Memories—Our First Apartment 1960

        

We were in Indianapolis over the week-end to attend an Arsenal Technical High School class reunion at the Riverwalk Restaurant in Broad Ripple, and all class gathering on the campus (70+ acres).  On our way to the Tech campus we drove by our first home at 1311 North Rural (apt. 2).  My.  The neighborhood has certainly changed.  This was a very tidy 4-unit, probably originally built to be a duplex, then the upstairs 3 bedrooms were changed to a 1 bedroom, kitchen and living room apartment with a side entrance (not visible here).  It’s hard to say, but it may be back to a duplex.  We couldn’t see the side entrance. 

We were about 3 houses from a lovely park, and 3 blocks from 10th avenue which had a number of small stores.  I still have a few kitchen items I bought from a hardware store on 10th.  We can’t remember where we parked our car—there was an alley and garage behind the house, and the stairs to the street were extremely steep.  Every day I drove to my job at General Mold and Engineering, and Bob caught the bus to work downtown at Ayrshire Collieries on South Meridian (11th largest coal company controlled by Pierre Goodrich at that time). 

When we lived on Rural it was a working class white neighborhood, now it is mostly black with some Hispanic.  The condition of the homes is really awful, with many boarded up.  And as you can see, a couch on the porch is not a good sign in any neighborhood, even on college campuses studies show this is a serious indication of decay and trouble.

We never thought to take any photos when we lived there, but I’m pretty sure it was painted white and the owners, who lived down stairs, were careful with the property.

Our first Christmas in that apartment

                                

A few months later, my college graduation photo from 1961, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana

Yearbooks and Annuals

I don't know what generates the ads on the right side of my screen on Facebook, but this morning noticed one for yearbooks. I have my four high school yearbooks, The Mounder, from Mt. Morris High School in Illinois, two Illios from the University of Illinois (I was married by the time I graduated and couldn't afford one for that year), one from Manchester College, The Aurora,  in Indiana, and three from Mt. Morris College, Life, 1929, 1931 and 1932, my uncle Clare's, my mother's and my father's. The college closed in 1932 and merged with Manchester. We also have my husband's yearbooks, The Arsenal Cannon from Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis, a school that was larger than the town of Mt. Morris, and Tech's memorial yearbook for the first 50 years. One of the best things about yearbooks is reading the crazy stuff people wrote in them!

Morgenstern needs to get out of the East coast bubble

Joe Morgenstern wrote a review of the film "Wecome to the Riley's" in last week's Wall Street Journal. He didn't particularly like it. Sounds pretty awful to me--would I pay that much and go to a theater for that or wait til it comes to the dollar theater?

But what I noticed was this line, "Doug (James Gandolfini) speaks for unspecified reasons, in a Southern accent" although the play takes place in Indianapolis.

I guess he's never lived in Illinois, Indiana, or Ohio, just a little below the center line, because a Midwestern speech pattern here (and I've lived in all three) might just sound "southern" to someone living in the northeast or New York City. We have a heavy dose of Appalachian English around here, which by the way, is the way the Scots Irish immigrants spoke English in the 17th and 18th centuries, Mr. Morgenstern. Their English just might be more pure than yours. To my ear, most of my Indianapolis relatives sound "southern," but then I grew up in northern Illinois, and still put and R in Washington.

Welcome to the Rileys, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, and Monsters | Film Reviews by Joe Morgenstern - WSJ.com

Friday Family Photo

This is a really terrible polaroid shot--wasn't even good when it was new. I think my father-in-law was just learning how to use it and didn't get the preservative fluid on it right--remember you had to smear it with something? This was taken at my in-laws' ranch style home on Mitchner on the east side of Indianapolis. They had moved there in 1957, and in order to finish at Arsenal Technical High School in the city, my husband listed his address as his aunt Bert's--the other half of the double they had lived in for about 15 years. And the furniture! I still remember the bright red couch with lime green accessories, step end tables and those funny lamps. One looks like a flying saucer about to land, the other like a strangled boa constrictor. That huge old TV with rabbit ears--wow! Did my parents even own one? Their decor was so much more modern than my own parents' style, that I'm sure I was impressed. My father-in-law worked for RCA and they had had a TV since the late 1940s. I wore that outfit, which was new then, for years--black and white wool tweed with black leather trim.

This photo is so tiny I had to see it on the computer screen before I realized that we still have the coffee grinder that's sitting on the end table. I knew it was from their home, but didn't know its age. Now I know it is at least 45 years old.

What you don't see here is our struggle to smile. Our only child had died about two months before, so this may have been one of our first ventures back into normalcy by attending a family function, perhaps Easter, but I noted only the year on the back of the photo.

Monday Memories of Memories

The Tech Reunion

The Committee for the Reunion did a fabulous job. From the nametags, to the dinner to the visit to the campus, it all ran smoothly, and we saw lots of old friends and heard many, "Do you remember when we. . ." I do wonder though what's happening to the classes behind us. There was no 25th or 40th for those classes, even though the other years we've attended there have been. Where are the classes of 1967, or 1972 or 1977?

For some reason, we don't have a copy of my husband's senior picture--red hair and sparkling green eyes.

These two friends hadn't seen each other since 1960, and without an announcement, probably couldn't have found each other at the dinner. My husband became an architect and Ron (on the right) became a very successful commercial artist. Now in retirement, they are both painters.

My new Tech friend Barb (on the right) who loves RV-ing, seeing the country, and reads my blog! Check out her reunion site for more photos and memories.

The Tech campus has 76 acres with many new buildings since the 1950s, but this landmark is called Stuart Hall, opened in 1940, named for the first principal. The first students arrived September 11, 1912 and classes began 5 days later.


My husband earned a letter in track and cross country. It is one of the few schools in the country where you could run cross country and not leave the campus.

The class gathered on the steps of the Arsenal Building for their class photo. There were more people at the evening event, and some here that didn't come to the dinner. If I'd been in charge, of course, I'd have asked all the ladies to put aside their purses and papers, and tell everyone to take off their sun glasses. However, no one appointed me to problem solve for the class photo. The Arsenal Building stored military supplies during the Civil War, and today has administrative offices.

The Awards Ceremony was held in Anderson Auditorium (1975), and the Alumni Choir sang below an American flag with 34 stars (found in the attic of one of the buildings).

Three members of The Slobs (social club) standing on the second floor of The Barracks, which at one time was under the command of the U.S. government (which owned the entire site). It was the building in which these guys had ROTC. One of The Slobs, Scott, brought his mom to the Alumni awards ceremony and lunch--a Tech grad of 75 years ago. And she's still beautiful!
Good-bye Tech. Maybe we'll see you 5 years for the 100th anniversary of your founding.

Friday Family Photo

This is my husband, about age 4 or 5, his sister Jean, and cousin Norma Lou with their grandfather, whom they all called "Biggie." He was much adored, and my husband still talks about him 60+ years later. Norma lived with her grandparents and my husband and siblings stayed with them almost every week-end.



Their grandparents were a part of their lives in ways I couldn't even imagine, because these little ones all had divorced and remarried parents. I had six grandparents and thought they were just nice relatives whom we visited every Sunday so I could see my cousins. I really grew to appreciate my grandparents when I became an adult and understood the difficulties and joys of their lives better. And I was fortunate to have them many years--I was 43 when my paternal grandparents died, and 21 when my great-grandmother died.

2417 Today's writing prompt

Our writing group rotates the responsibility for snacks and prompts. Two weeks ago we received the prompt that we read today, and it is on reunions. The prompt writer suggested 14 possible topics, each broken into even more narrow options.

I've written a lot about reunions, so I've really been scratching for something new to say. I've written an oral history that I gave to relatives at a 1993 reunion and I've expanded on the story about how that oral history came about; I've written about a cookbook for a family reunion and about a recipe in that reunion cookbook. I've written about our 40th class reunions; I've written about my husband's club (the Slobs) reunion; I've written about other people's reunions. If I dig around in my files, I'll find a poem I wrote about reunions. I've written about reunions of books and reunion of furniture, long separated. One of the first pieces I had published was about books long separated that had a reunion of sorts in a computer database, Bruce, Norma J. "A Bibliographic Field of Dreams," AB Bookman's Weekly for the Specialist Book World, 94, no.14 (1994): 1290-1302.

Yesterday I was waiting for the washing machine to finish a cycle and pulled a small album of extra photos off the shelves. There were photographs in it apparently that had not been included in our regular album. But like an answer to prompt-prayer, there were photos of the SLOBS (my husband's high school social fraternity) at a mini-reunion at our house. As I recall, we first met downtown at a hotel for lunch. One couple had come from Kentucky, one from Indianapolis, one from Akron, and we of course, live in Columbus. How this was decided, I don't remember, but probably Columbus was central and the nearest for everyone. Then after lunch, we came to our house. This photo of Danny, Duke, Bob and Dick, may not represent everyone who was at the hotel. We all had grown children, some had grandchildren.

SLOBS Reunion at our house
Because these photos are extras, I don't have the dates recorded so I had to narrow it down by hair styles and clothing. Dating photographs is something genealogist do all the time. So using my incredible powers of discernment, I notice that the shelving behind us went into my husband's office in the family room about 1995. I have on a snazzy sweats outfit--the bright colors indicate it had probably not yet been washed. We bought our cottage in the fall of 1988, so this outfit was probably purchased during the summer of 1989. Duke (the tall guy) still has dark hair; he now has white hair. My husband, shorter red head, actually has hair in this photo, which also places the photo in the late 1980s or early 90s. I have a curly perm, which puts it after the summer of 1989. We all seem to have on warm clothing, so I'm placing this as maybe January or February 1990. Later, I'll go look through our albums and see if I can find a date.

My husband was the only one thin enough to get into his letter sweater

561 The Reunion of the SLOBS

Last night we attended the 50th anniversary of a high school social club called the SLOBS (they aren't supposed to tell their wives what the acronym stands for). The club was "chartered" (they kept a scrapbook and minutes of their meetings) in 1954 and my husband was the first pledge. The last meeting appears to have been in 1959 with the class of 1961, the class of 1956 being the largest and most active of the members. This all male club now has female members, the widows of some of the members, some of whom attended wearing their husbands' SLOB pins, and a sister of one member.

Entertainment after dinner was reading from the minutes and the scrapbook which included a lot of paper memorabilia and photos. With a few guys chiming in with the memories, the minutes were really hilarious, and I paraphrase a 15 year old secretary (they changed officers every quarter), "I'm not sure what happened because I was in the kitchen eating sandwiches." After dinner when the guys went in the next room to have their photo taken, I leafed through the scrapbook and found photographs of my mother-in-law who must have been about 39 years old, blond, leggy and glamorous as a movie star, with all the boys at my in-laws cabin in Brown County, Indiana.

I wrote about Arsenal Technical High School in 540 "Two Classes One Reunion," however, I learned last night that after a few years, the boys began pledging guys from other high schools in Indianapolis, like Washington, Manual and Scecina and a some lived out of the district but attended Tech. Considering the distance they all lived from the school (my husband rode a city bus) , a once a week meeting with fines for not attending seems pretty ambitious for a teen-age boys social club.

The schools sponsored many clubs for many interests--but these were under the radar. The main activity of the guy social club was having "exchanges" with girls' social clubs from Howe, Broad Ripple, Shortridge and Tech, and apparently the Indianapolis Star of that era included a column for "subdebs and squires" where they printed up the events the groups had. These little clippings were carefully pasted in the scrap book. The groups had names like PIMZ, CHIX, ZEBZ, SPARKZ, KIMZ, JINX, ZEALZ, PRIMS, MICAS, EBBZ, ALGES, ELITES, HUNZ, TARAS, TYTANS, CROWNS, COUNTS, FAROS, and BARONS. The dues for the SLOBS were a quarter a week, and with this money they had parties, and a few philanthropic events, and even bought one share of stock in the Indianapolis Indians baseball team.

After all the laughs, the men went around the table and in 3 or 4 minutes each told about their lives after high school--and being typical guys, careers were the story, not family, church or hobbies. It was a wide range--two architects, a few engineers, an airline pilot, an actor/poet, a civil war historian you can see on TV, the mayor of the town where we met, television and radio, and sales.

A really nice bunch of SLOBS.

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Update 2007: The 1957 class reunion.

#21 High School letter sweaters

My friend Nancy is amazed that I was able to have a “vintage clothes closet” in our former home of 34 years. No attic. No basement. And the cleanest garage in town in which both vehicles were parked.

Among my vintage clothes is my high school letter sweater. It is a wool, deep red cardigan with tiny moth holes, and no block-letter black “M,” which was probably removed if I wore the sweater in college.

We also still have my husband’s high school letter sweater--a deep hunter green V-neck with a bold white block “T” sewn on the front. The difference being, he was actually an athlete (cross-country) and I was in the pep club. And his high school was larger than my home town.

In the early 80’s it was popular at our daughter’s school for the girls to wear their father’s clothing--blazers, top coats and sweaters. It wasn’t the grunge or the baggy look, but I don’t recall what that fad was called.

One day she wore her dad’s letter sweater to school. She was (and still is) very striking, with a “build” as we used to say. So you can imagine what the boys said about that letter “T” on her chest.

She got a little flustered, and couldn’t remember the name of the high school (Arsenal Technical High School), so she assured the young men that it stood for “Arsenical High.”

It killed them, I’m sure.