Several times during the past few weeks, I have been reminded of friends who were either customers or employees at my father’s Sunoco service station on Madison Avenue. One of those fellows was a great guy named Warren Roller, who was a member of the Indianapolis Fire department.

During those years, and I believe it still is in effect, firemen worked 24-hour shifts and then were off-duty for 48 hours. Most firemen had part-time jobs that occupied some of their free time. I believe that Warren had a small construction business.

One weekend morning while we were servicing one of his vehicles, he asked me if I had any important plans for the afternoon. I replied that I was free for that afternoon. He then asked me if I would help him wax his airplane. He explained that he owned a small single-engine plane and was a licensed pilot. I was told that his plane was kept at the Greenwood Airport.

Warren picked me up later that afternoon and we went to the airport. He explained several important things before we started waxing it. We worked well together, and he was telling me stories about airplanes and fire trucks. When we were finished and had put everything away, Warren asked me if I would like to go on a plane ride.

A ride had not been discussed, so I was surprised and excited. Soon we were inside the cockpit, buckled in and ready to fly. After he conversed with the tower, we took off. I remember lifting up over County Line Road. As we crossed Southport Road, Warren said that we would be flying over my house on Fairhope Drive. It was amazing and exciting to see our house and our entire neighborhood from the air. Soon he banked left and we were headed west along Thompson Road toward U.S. 31. I was having a blast.

As we started flying over U.S. 31, I noticed something strange. Cars motoring south on U.S. 31 were traveling faster than we were. Those cars were driving out from under us. About then, Warren bumped me on the shoulder and pointed to some gauges on the dashboard. Then he said, “That wax is really doing a good job. This is the fastest this plane has ever flown,” he said while pointing to the speed indicator.

I was concerned that we were going slower than the automobiles on the highway, and he was excited about setting a new speed record in his airplane. I never said a word about those fast-moving cars.

Years later, when I was in the Indiana National Guard, I was attached to the aircraft maintenance unit. On occasion, I was allowed to fly with our pilots in small airplanes and helicopters. I enjoyed many of those flights, but I remember that flight with Warren Roller the best.

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 can be reached through email at [email protected].

My father, Floyd Shonk, operated the Sunoco service station for about 10 years, which was located on Madison Avenue just about a block north of Epler Avenue. It was a great business and we had some wonderful and interesting customers.

One such customer was Richard “Dick” Gentry. He owned Gentry Carbide Tool and Die Company, which was located on Main Street in Beech Grove. He and his family were good customers. We sold them gasoline and serviced their vehicles.

One day, Mr. Gentry stopped in and asked to have his car filled with gasoline. I quickly noticed that it was brand-new and commented on that fact. He smiled and began telling me a story.

A couple of weeks earlier, he had been on a business trip and was driving back to Indianapolis from Ohio. This was in the mid-60s, and the main travel road was U.S. 40. Just after he crossed the state line into Indiana, he crested a hill and detected a secluded police officer in his patrol car that was watching for speeders.

Gentry knew without even looking that he was traveling well over the speed limit; he had to think quickly. As he entered the city of Richmond, he noticed a small automobile dealership. He quickly drove into the service department and asked to have his car checked over. The service writer filled out the paperwork, and “Speedy’s” car was moved into the shop, where a mechanic started working on it.

Mr. Gentry stepped back to the front of the service area, looked out the door, and saw the same police car parked directly across the street. He stepped back inside and decided to check again later, which yielded the very same result.

He was fairly certain that the officer was waiting for him to leave the dealership, at which time he would be pulled over. This was becoming a challenge for Gentry, who didn’t think he could afford another speeding ticket on his driving record. As he continued with his story, I began to smile. I was sure that I could finish the story for him. But I refrained.

He walked into the showroom and began talking with a salesperson. Some serious negotiations were soon taking place. Within a few hours, a deal had been made. After the paperwork and insurance details were completed, Mr. Gentry drove away undetected in a brand new car while the policeman, who had been spoofed, was still waiting in his vehicle. We stood out by the gas pumps and laughed for a while. I would have enjoyed hearing the policeman’s side of the story.

Over the years, I have lost track of the members of the Gentry family. I thought of them quite a bit during the time I was driving the school bus for Beech Grove City Schools. One of my routes took me past the building on Main Street where the Gentry Carbide Tool and Die had been located.

I’d love to reconnect with any of the Gentry family.

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 can be reached through email at [email protected].

​It seems to take me quite a bit longer to adjust to changes these days. I’ve been watching school buses coming through our neighborhood and for several days I was thinking the drivers were out practicing and learning new routes. Then, I remembered that school now starts much earlier in the year.

I have lots of special memories of my school bus driving days. Several of them are connected with the start of school for the year and how that affected me. Because of a commercial on television in the last couple of weeks, a special start of the school year keeps popping into my thoughts.

It takes me back to the mid-60s. Some of my buddies and I decided to put together a special car to legally drag race for the upcoming season. We studied the NHRA rule book and came up with a plan. I purchased a 1960 Ford full-sized nine-passenger station wagon and following all the rules and guidelines, equipped it with all to legal high-performance parts that Ford provided to vehicles of that size but not station wagons.

We put this all together over the winter and it was great to have several friends involved who could provide expert knowledge to put this car together. Steve “Clyde” Lovellette was the welding expert and I remember Bob Glidden helping with rebuilding the automatic transmission and a few other items.

We were ready when spring arrived and we started traveling to different racing facilities to finish learning about our new race car. Once we were happy with the car’s performance, we started attending NHRA races. Our home track was Raceway Park. We also needed to travel to other locations in a few other states to be able to earn enough points to qualify for the NHRA Nationals in early September.

We had a good season and acquired enough points to be invited. We were excited. We prepared the car and on check-in day found ourselves at the back of several long lines. I remember other racers stopping by and inquiring about our car. Most of the cars racing in our class were much smaller vehicles with smaller engines. The classes were made up by connecting the weight of the vehicle to the horsepower of the engine. They had never seen such a large car in this class.

When we arrived at the front of our line, it was time for the official inspection for our race car. I remember a large group of guys standing around to observe the inspection and ask questions about the legality of our entry.

When the inspectors walked up to check us out, I was amazed because we were going to be checked out by some inspectors that we had seen several times during the year. They walked up and checked our paperwork, walked around the car a couple of times and announced that they had seen the car several times throughout the season and it passed with flying colors. We once again passed and were told to move on.

We didn’t think that we needed any practice, so after the check-in, we pulled out of the facility and drove home. We didn’t return until the day that we would be competing. Once again, we had guys interested in our race car and how much different it was from all the other cars in our exact class.

I had the opportunity to have one practice run before the eliminations would begin. We lost in the first round of eliminations. I believe we were up against the eventual class winner. Once we were finished, we packed up and went home.

All in all, it had been a very busy three or four days. And we had competed in a national championship. I believe that our car traveled the quarter mile at Raceway Park in about 15 seconds and was going about 102 miles per hour at the finish.

A couple of days later, I climbed into my school bus and drove students to their first day of school for that school year.

Talk about a change in driving styles.

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 can be reached through email at [email protected].

PUBLISHED JULY 31, 2024

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to scratch something off of my bucket list. To be totally truthful, I added it to the list about seven minutes before I was certain that it would be scratched.

A good friend and former classmate of mine needed to relocate from the Southside to just a bit north of the Broad Ripple area. I had some running around to do on the northside, so we decided to have lunch on that day. I arrived and took a tour of the new living quarters. We then hopped into my car and headed out. 

Back in the 1970s, Kenny Otto and I operated a commercial driving school in the Broad Ripple area. I drove down to 62nd Street and we drove past the building that we operated that driving school.

We continued looking for a suitable location to have lunch. We did not drive past any place that caused both of us to smile and nod our heads. At some point, my friend explained that there was a restaurant in a business that we had just passed on Keystone Avenue.

I quickly looped around and drove back to that location and pulled into the parking lot. It was at that exact time when I added it to my bucket list. My list is stored safely in my little brain. I added, #36 Eating Lunch in a Hardware Store. I parked the car, and we walked into Sullivan Hardware and Garden.

As we walked in, we asked for directions to the restaurant and a friendly employee gave us directions. We walked down the main aisle of the store, and it was probably over the length of a football field before we came upon Sully’s Grill.

We found a nice table and soon our server was helping us order and delivering our lunch. It was a very tasty lunch and we both needed carryout containers. Near the end of our lunch, our server stopped at our table and inquired if she could get us anything else.

I thought for a few seconds and then asked if she could get me a dozen 5/16 x 1 ½ hex head cap screws. She took a couple of steps back and said, “Do they sell those here?”  We all laughed, and I assured her that I was fairly sure that all sorts of fasteners would be sold at a hardware store.

As we returned to the car carrying our to-go boxes, I mentally scratched off #36 from my bucket list. I finished off the second half of my hardware store lunch the next day at home.

I am enjoying the television coverage of the Olympics in Paris. Sometimes we get a view of parents to one of the competitors when something special is happening. Sometimes it is extremely exciting and sometimes it can be an incredibly sad or upsetting time. I have become remarkably familiar with the box of tissues that resides near my recliner chair.

The other morning, I was sitting in my recliner and watching the Olympics. I needed to refill my coffee cup. As I started to stand up, Simone Biles was standing and getting ready to start across the floor mat. We both began at the same time. She ran, jumped, flipped, turned, twisted, and landed before I completed my difficult stand up to get coffee.

In one week, I scratched my bucket list and almost beat Simone Biles. It was a very good week.

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 can be reached through email at [email protected].