It is amazing how I can be driving down a street and suddenly see something that shifts my mind in a totally different gear as I start remembering things from my past. Last week while on Emerson Avenue I read the advertising on the back of a truck ... and yes, my brain gears began backtracking into years of yore.
During my high school years my dad operated a Sunoco service station on Madison Avenue just north of Epler Avenue. We did maintenance and repair jobs for our customers.  

One of the things that I remember was the amount of flat tires that we fixed. It wasn’t unusual to have six or eight tires piled up to be repaired. This was during the time when tubed tires were being modified to tubeless. I remember spending hours using our tire-mounting tools to repair tubeless and tube-type flat tires. 
The truck I saw was operated by a distributor for Tech Tire Repairs, which carried the same products that we used to fix our flats. A distributor called on us and kept our supply cabinet stocked. As soon as I noticed that truck my mind was flooded with memories. I suspect I smiled all the way home.

Another one of our vendors (also a neighbor) was Joe Langley, who for many years was a chief mechanic for several Indianapolis 500 race teams. He worked on race cars and built the engines in a shop behind his home on Madison Avenue. It was neat to drive down Madison and hear a powerful Offenhauser engine being revved up in Joe’s back yard.

A few years after retiring from his chief mechanic position, he went to work for the DA Lubricant Co. as a sales rep. He would stop at our station to promote products and visit. I have to tell you that it was sometimes a little intimidating to have a former Indy 500 chief mechanic looking over your shoulder as you completed repairs on a customer’s car.

We had many great suppliers and customers. One of our good friends and customers was Maj. Gen Jack Elrod, the adjutant general of the Indiana National Guard.

Sometimes when he stopped by, we played a game where the loser was required to buy cold soft drinks for all the players. Jack would pick one person to be known as player No. 1. We then loudly counted eins (one), zwei (two), drei (three), horsengoggle and held out one to five fingers on one hand. We added up all the fingers, and starting with the No. 1 player, we counted clockwise until that number was reached ... that person lost.
The loser had to buy the soft drinks, which was a big deal because they cost 10 cents each.

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. 

I have told many stories about when my parents, my sister and I lived on Madison Avenue. I was 16 or 17 when we moved, so all of my childhood years were spent at 4813 Madison Ave., which is now the Longacre Bar & Grill. It is wonderful to walk into that establishment and have those priceless memories come flowing into my mind.

My mother didn’t get a driver’s license until I was about 14. Dad helped her learn to drive, and she practiced on the driveway. I recall walking down Madison and seeing my mother driving toward us. We waved at her, but she was so focused on her driving that she didn’t see us. That was sort of scary.

During my early grade school days, when Mom needed to go shopping during the day, we had to ride a bus Downtown. The suburban lines had a route adjacent to State Road 431 (Madison). Mom, Kathy and I would catch the bus at Morgan Drive and ride Downtown.

We started our shopping at L.S. Ayres, William H. Block and H.P. Wasson. I remember when J.C. Penny opened a store on Monument Circle. That was a big deal. We only went to Sears  the late afternoon or early evening. It was located at Alabama and Vermont streets, which was out of our walking territory. Sears had stuff that guys liked. Tools and mowers were things that Dad could look at while Mom was shopping.

We often stopped into a couple of the 5 and 10 cent stores. Danner’s was always one of Mom’s favorites, mine also. The store had great merchandise for young boys, and we usually stopped in around lunch time.
Sometimes we met our maternal grandmother, and that was always fun. These trips consumed the entire day. On special occasions we might have lunch at the popular Ayres Tea Room, of which there is a wonderful replica in the Indiana State Museum. You can have a great lunch there. 

The Indiana Historical Society in the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center is hosting its You Are There program. Guests can walk through parts of the old Ayres store and converse with actors portraying store employees. 

When Downtown was the only shopping venue in Marion County, it was amazing. We enjoyed those trips. When I was a bit older I was allowed to go down there alone.

Things began to change with the opening of Eastgate Shopping Center. I remember Dad driving us out there for the first time. Soon, shopping centers were being developed all over the city. Southern Plaza was breathtaking. The big department stores from Downtown were opening branches at the neighborhood centers.

When I remember fun shopping trips, I always seem to remember going Downtown with my parents. 
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.

My sister, Kathy, her roommate, Sandra Byrne, and I were at the Rose Bowl in 1968 in Pasadena, Calif., to watch the Indiana University football team play USC. We attended the famous Rose Parade before the game. 
We also went to Disneyland and an amazing restaurant. It was a wonderful couple of days; I am sure that none of us will ever forget that trip. 

That was a busy time for me. I had attended a school bus contractors convention in New York City, where I met lots of people and made some good contacts.
A few months after the Rose Bowl, my dad and I came to an agreement with Perry Township Schools for the district to purchase our fleet of buses. This was going to increase the number of buses in their fleet, and my dad was going to be in charge of maintenance.

I made some calls to people I had met at the convention and soon had a new job with Community Bus Co., which operated more than 700 buses in Southern California. I had five months to get there. 
The year before I had purchased a wrecked Econoline Ford delivery van. I had it repaired and painted and was driving it. It was only a couple of years old and was mechanically in great shape. I got my things together and headed west.

I wasn’t in a big hurry, and my path took me to visit friends in Austin, Texas. I also spent some time on Route 66 and slept in the desert one night. 
I had already secured an apartment in Garden Grove, Calif. When I arrived I still had a couple of weeks before my job started. I made new friends, and some of them invited me to go with them to Disneyland (it was only about a mile from the apartments). I was told it was going to be a special evening of musical entertainment for local residents. And it was. We saw Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, Dizzy Gillespie and other performers. 

A couple of months later, I remembered that nice restaurant we had visited when we were in Pasadena for the Rose Bowl. I asked my friends if they had ever eaten there. No one had, but one of the gals said she would like to go, so we made a date. 
I was planning on her driving because I only had my van. I asked her if we could use her car, but it was in the shop. We had to take the Econoline to the restaurant.

Young men rushed out to greet us as I pulled up. They opened both doors and helped us out. The guy on my side gave me a ticket before jumping into the van to park it. 
The Hoosiers didn’t make it back to the Rose Bowl in 1969, but I was ready if they had.

A long time ago my dad and I operated a small fleet of buses (14 or 15) that we contracted to Perry Township Schools before the district had a fleet. We were based out of the building that is now Long’s Bakery. 
When the township decided to start building a fleet, we sold them our buses. This made the district’s operation large enough that it needed a director of maintenance, which turned out to be my dad. Victor Blankenship was director of transportation.

As a result of that deal, I took a job with a large school bus contractor in California. The company had contracts with school systems all over the state. I was involved with the training of new drivers and upgrading employed drivers to larger equipment. At that time the seating capacity of their largest bus was 103 passengers.

One day I noticed a new business, Ling Driving Center, going into a building that was close to where I lived. I stopped in one afternoon and was given a tour. This was a commercial driving center that was teaching beginning drivers. What made the company so different was that it used simulators.

Ling Corp. made simulators for aircraft and wheeled vehicles and was planning to open centers all over the country. Once I had learned a good bit about this operation, I called my good friend Ken Otto, who was in charge of driver education for Indiana. I explained the franchise to him, and within a few months we opened a center. 

I moved back to Indianapolis, and we went to New York City to discuss the franchise and start the paperwork. We found a good location on 62nd Street near Broad Ripple. The simulators were delivered, set up, and we were open for business.

We offered classes for adults and students beginning to drive. We offered classroom training and then simulator training before the students operated one of our cars on the streets. 

Within a couple of years we were contracting our student program to a couple of private schools. The classes were held at the schools and did not use the simulators. Most of our instructors were licensed to teach in schools.

We also had a great driver improvement program for employees who drove vehicles that belonged to their employers. We worked with Indiana Bell drivers and a few others. 

We had several great instructors, and I learned a lot from them. We also had some special students, some of whom I still remember.

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.