Tag: family

Indiana Road Less Travelled, Yet…

Ah, yes! The first Saturday in May—Derby Day—First day for Gentlemen to wear straw hats and Ladies to wear white shoes (old Indiana traditions.) I, of course, went to Indiana for the Trafalgar High School* Alumni Banquet, always the first Saturday in May. 

  • [There has not been a THS since 1967 making the youngest of us to be about 75 years old. As you can guess, the crowd is a little smaller this year; more later]

I had made a plan to go very early on Friday to meet a school chum I have not seen since we graduated in 1960. Due to an illness in his family, we had to cancel. So I decided to go a different road to Indiana and visit Hanover College. You know, just out of curiosity, since it was one of the few college campuses I had never seen. So, I chose the new bypass around Louisville which conveniently gave me an exit just above the “sparkling new” Ohio River bridge and it directed me to the burgeoning town of Hanover, IN; one of several small towns along the banks of the Ohio, all about or under 4,000 happy people. 

(On the way North on Hwy 62, I slowly went through a thriving small city called Charlestown, which is spreading South toward the Ohio rapidly, also Westward toward I-65. the 2020 census says 7,775. I suggest it is already far above that.)

But as for Hanover, it’s about like always, somewhere between 3-4,000 happy people and a few old sore tails. As I entered the town I saw a nice-looking small restaurant and being curious of the name (“Mr. Grumpy’s”), I couldn’t help myself: I decided it was lunch time. If ever there had been a Mr. Grumpy, he was nowhere to be found. I found it clean and pleasant and the food, a very good Indiana Cheeseburger with BLT and mayo. 

In the booth next to me sat an elderly couple, being of the same ilk and a light farming history, I correctly deduced they were retired farmers. So, a conversation was started and went to a variety of subjects from the need for rain there when the middle of the state is drowning in too much! all the   way to a brief history of something besides Hanover College. Seems they had owned a 250 acre farm a few miles NW of town and had been very successful (my guess would be ..…as they sold it!) 

But the two of them and their stories were pleasant. As I got up to leave we introduced ourselves and then the lady added that her father was Orville Wright……I said, the airplane flying Orville Wright? She said yes, her husband not adding anything to that part of the conversation, I then asked again, “The Orville Wright?” She said, “Yessir!” I said, “Wow, I’ve met a celebrity, right here in Hanover, IN!” She giggled her 82year old giggle and we said goodbye.

NOTE: Orville Wright the bycycle/airplane man died in 1914. This lady would have to be at the least 124 years old. She already told me we were the same age, 82. She had just bold-faced lied to me and her husband let her! Is that part of the dementia stuff we should just let go and not make an issue of it? Don’t know. Also, Orville never married and died of Typhoid Fever. What a wild tale to slowly make its way out of her mouth! Ya know, most Indiana farmer-stories are the truth, I thought up till now.

Yet this couple did tell me of a local site I should see and I followed their directions as I left town and went to a truly historic place about 7 mile down the road: Eleutherian College, A single 3 story building constructed of Limestone blocks hewn from local quarries. On google, you can find a lot of info about it and its founders, their hearts for the poor and for freed slaves, who simply sought a greater education. It’s quite an historic highlight! And, if you’re ever on Hwy 7 between North Vernon and Madison, IN, take a one hour detour and stop and see the remarkable building and the care-taking that must be continued. (Call to get a guide before stopping.) 

Lest it reminds you of the word Lutheran, The founders were Baptists who first made it a school for freed slaves, then added the poor of any race who couldn’t afford to go to college. Eleutherian is from Greek and means “freedom and equality.”

Ye olde restaurant couple might have been allowing a lie to float out, but they new about their community’s history right well.

The THS Alumni Banquet was the smallest it has ever been, but somehow nostalgically enjoyable. Since last year our numbers of graduates still living was reduced by (to us) a big number: 22, and that startled most of us. My brother Jack Lockhart eulogized those who had passed, having known most of them personally. I think most all present enjoyed hearing something about all of them in such a way that might continue to bring them back in memories.

Before heading home I visited Grace Point Church in New Whiteland, IN, and was blessed by the group, the preaching and the fellowship with old and new friends afterward. Frankly, I had been worried they would not make a good choice for pastor after the initial pastor, Bro. Jim Devney, had passed away. I met the young preacher and he stands firm on both the King James Bible and the study process you find in 2 Tim.2:15—by “rightly dividing the word of truth.” (Go to gpindy.net and follow, listen and comment  that the new young preacher may be advised and criticized that he might gain wisdom and direction. You can tell him I recommended that.)

Thanks for reading, the Elder

THE MORE NEWS I READ

started 1/4/25

THE MORE NEWS I READ………the more I think I got a lot better news coverage for a dime a day when I was a kid.

I got a big 8 page 8 column giant headlined front section (the news) with pictures and statistics. Then, another 8 page section all about the people who lived within a 30 mile radius of Indianapolis, part of which usually had a section of celebrity news. A third 8 page section was sports-in-season with photos and stats. Last, but certainly not least, a 4th 8 page section of classified ads, legal information right down to who’s getting a divorce. Then, the best part of the whole thing: the funnies, also known as the Comics,,,,and boy! were they great!

All that for 10 cents…..I don’t even want to know what the cost of all that is today, the way it all comes to me in emails, individual subscriptions and business magazines- – Electronically.

Indianapolis News (or Star), where are you!

Indianapolis had 3 newspapers in the ‘50s, the News, the Star, and the Times. Times was the weakest and it and the News were both afternoon delivery. The Star was a morning delivery —  but usually too late for my Dad to read before leaving for work, so we chose the Ne between the other two. The News- – all the news that was the news, all you needed to read, some you didn’t want to read, and some you didn’t understand!

Every day, from my Dad down to me (and that was a long line) the Headlines, the Editorial page, the Sports or the Comics produced conversations and opinions which would get started in the living room and carry on through supper, some even lasting into the bedrooms…… What an education tool! We all grew up knowing how to differ and not hate, how to laugh at each other’s mis-pronunciations, even how to bemoan “our team” defeats, and gloat quietly when our team one and a brother’s was defeated, and stay a strong family unit.

All that for a dime a day— the whole family.

My Dad had only a 3rd grade education yet, if he could get to it before one of us boys did it, he worked the crossword puzzle every day. After we were all gone from home (1960) he worked every day’s puzzle till he passed away in 1987. Still ringing in my memory is him asking any one of us, “What’s a 6 letter word for am star?” And most times we would reply, “Got any letters yet?” He says, “R is the last and T is the 3rd.” Then, usually more than one voice from all over the house would say, “Arthur!” – for instance. (Oh, if you don’t know who that is, it merely proves you didn’t yet live in the 50s.)

We learned as much at home from each other, the comics, the news and the editorial pages as we did in school, I think. Well, probably not in the basic 3Rs capacity, but how to get along in the world, how to argue without a fight, how to absorb all sorts of slings and arrows, wins and defeats, happiness and sadness, ad infinitum. 

About the 3rd grade education; Daddy told us when we were little they had to burn the school house down to get him out of the 3rd grade! The truth was after his 3rd year in a one room school in a tiny town in Kentucky the school caught fire and burned, probably by a lightening strike. There was no school board to petition for tax money to build a new one, so only the well-to-do families took their children elsewhere. My grandfather “reckoned,” he said, “that a 13 year old boy could just go to work!” (No, he wasn’t a 13 year old boy, but he knew his numbers and how to read, what more did he need from a school house?) Smartest 3rd grade graduate in the world!

After I told my parents about getting saved at home alone one night, Daddy encouraged me to read the bible, of course, and told me he learned to read better by the bible. When my mother gave me Daddy’s grandmother’s bible, published in 1885, she said Daddy told her his grandmother read him the bible by fireplace light every evening after supper (he lived with her for about 4 years between 8-12, I think) and that’s when he really learned to read. It’s interesting to note the font size in that bible is so small I have a hard time reading it with the best of lighting and wearing corrective glasses. By the fire light. Wow.

About the 3Rs—I heard from an early age that someone like Abe Lincoln, or Mark Twain or even maybe Will Rogers said that the 3Rs were “readin’, ‘ritin’ and ‘rithmetic.” Today’s Google search gives nothing of the sort (although, strangely, several references were made that people referred to them as Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic), and that it started in the 1950s by an Agriculture professor.

When I was about 25, a college student friend working part-time for me said that his professor told the class the original 3Rs were Reading, Recollection and Rhetoric. That always made sense to me, but that Google search never did turn up such a thing. What about you, where did you hear that came from? — the 3Rs

One last learnable thought from all that: my great-grandmother read to my father, yet he learned how to read because of it. How many of you had a teacher who read to you? I had two really good (teachers) readers, and I read to my kids who, of course passed me up at a really young age—Phap!

Thanks for reading, the Elder