We often think that specific events tip him off to what time and day it is. This is mostly visible when food is involved or an impending visit to a school or nursing home. He seems to get a bit agitated when something alters his customary practices.
Last Friday morning as I was en route to Beech Grove to coach a team of school bus drivers, I remembered how my Fridays unfolded several years ago. At that time I drove Bus No. 5 (Ursula). Except for Fridays, my weekly mornings didn’t vary.
On Fridays I left home somewhat earlier and usually stopped at the McDonald’s on Emerson Avenue for breakfast, where I picked up a copy of the two Southside weekly newspapers and checked them out. This was a few years before I started writing a column for The Southsider Voice.
I enjoyed reading Voice articles and weekly columns. Big Dan Pfeiffer’s “Car Nutz” was always one of the first ones that I read. Scott Mohr’s “Reminiscing” would take me back 60 years to some of the events of that week. “The Bookman,” by Don Fogleman, always had an interesting perspective on life, and Kelly Sawyers used “Kelly’s Korner” to report on fun happenings.
There was a columnist in the other weekly paper who was also high on my list of favorites ... and I would generally save Sherri Coner’s weekly offering for last. I needed to have my food eaten and had to make certain that I was not drinking coffee as I started reading. She could cause me to begin laughing almost uncontrollably in just explaining the things that could happen to her while filing a fingernail. It was amazing how many hilarious things could invade her life each week. Sherri discussed everything from her daily activities to stories about her kittens and puppies.
A short time after I became a columnist, I met Sherri, and I wasn’t surprised to find that talking with her was exactly like reading her articles. Over the past few years I have heard gals describe some of their friends and/or themselves as a “hot mess.” I was fairly certain that that term was used to describe Sherri many times.
She moved to Florida a few months later, and I have missed her stories. I’m sure moving was difficult for her, but I think she has settled well in the Sunshine State as she continues to write articles and blogs, and she has penned a few novels. I can keep up with her on Facebook and on her website, http//sherriconer.com.
Shonk is a 1960 graduate of Southport High School, a ’63 grad of Indiana Central College (now the University of Indianapolis) and a retired bus driver from Beech Grove Schools. He is married to Lyn Shonk.