Southport High School celebrated homecoming Friday evening, which meant another parade for me and my dog, Stuart. We had previously participated in the Miracle Mile and Beech Grove Fall Festival parades. We had enjoyed them, and he quickly got excited about adding one more parade to his resume.
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We felt privileged to have joined Southsider Voice Publisher Kelly Sawyers and Associate Editor Denise Summers in helping to celebrate fun programs through parades.

A couple of young ladies who attend Southport Sixth Grade Academy rode with us in the Southport parade and assisted in the distribution of candy to spectators. 

Stuart and I once again had a large bag of multi-flavored dog cookies to toss to families that had come to the parade with their canine companions. We tried to throw a cookie to every dog we spotted. I even hurled cookies to a few of my buddies, including Dr. Marvin Christie and Steve Harnedy.

Stuart moved around in our vehicle to ensure that he didn’t miss seeing any of his friends. At one point he suddenly froze and stared at me ... he had noticed that I was tossing dog cookies out of the truck – his dog cookies!

After the parade I drove Stuart home and picked up my wife, Lyn, and we returned to watch the homecoming game with several of my former classmates. Southport athletic director Peter Hubert had nicely marked off a special area of seats for the Class of 1960. It was really fun to sit with a fairly large group of alumni members. It was like going back in time, except back then we sat on the other side of the field.

Former head football coach Ken Haupt was named a Sagamore of the Wabash during halftime. The award is one of the highest honors that a governor can bestow upon a civilian. Haupt’s family and some of his former players were on hand for the ceremony.  

On Saturday morning Southport honored the late Tom Hathaway by holding Coach Hathaway’s Running South. Mr. Hathaway was my physical education teacher in junior high. Throughout the years he ran in 131 marathons. He coached my wife as she competed in at least one marathon and several other competitions. 
As I was driving to meet a friend for breakfast on Saturday, I observed a lot of people participating in the event. I’m sure coach Hathaway was smiling down and nodding that he wasn’t surprised that I was watching from my car and not running.

Around this time last year I had the opportunity to interview the Indiana Fever’s Sydney Cater and Maggie Lucas. Sydney is now playing basketball for the Atlanta Dream. Last week I was able to talk with Maggie again, and I got to spend some time with Jeanette Pohlen.

I was escorted to the practice court when I arrived at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. 

Maggie Lucas was first to join me, and we quickly got reacquainted. She grew up in Narberth, a suburb of Philadelphia, and played a key role on the basketball team at Penn State University. Her list of accolades is long and impressive.

Her minutes per game and scoring average have increased nicely from her first to second year with the Fever. Last year after the team’s season was finished, she played in France. I asked if those were her plans this year, but she is returning to Pennsylvania to rest and spend time with her family. She plans to return to the game after the first of the year.

I have noticed that she has become one of the fan favorites. Her high-arching 3-point shots are amazing to watch. I pointed out to her that the fans really get excited when she enters the game. For that comment I was rewarded with a million dollar smile and a humble thank you.

I also visited with Jeanette Pohlen. I quickly learned that we had something in common. She lived in Southern California and attended high school at Brea Olinda. She attended Stanford and appeared in four straight NCAA Final Fours. I lived in Orange County, also in Southern California, for a couple of years.

Jeanette was picked in the first round of the 2011 draft and has been with the Fever since. She experienced some injuries and was out for all of the 2014 season. It is wonderful that she feels great now and is back to helping the team. 

I enjoy watching a player grow, improve and in some cases recover from injuries to help and support the team. My wife, Lyn, and I enjoy our season tickets. Since our seats are near the team, it’s cool to watch how the players on the bench study the game and support their teammates on the court.

Our seats are surrounded by many season ticket holders, and some of us have become friends. We have also gotten to know several of the fieldhouse staff that is assigned to our area. It’s fun to watch coach Steffanie White interact with some of the fans before and after the games.

One member of the security staff assigned to our area reminds me of Abraham Lincoln. When I glance down in his direction I often feel the desire to start mumbling to myself the start of the following speech: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” 

It is much easier to follow the game when he returns to his assigned post at the other end of the court.
Thank you No. 8 and 32. I enjoyed talking with both of you.

Sept. 10-13 was a busy time for me. My sister, Kathy, was supposed to be in town from Austin, Texas, for her 50-year class reunion from Southport High School. To make this a bit more complicated was the fact that my 1960 graduating class of Southport had a reunion planned for the same days. 

It took us some time to work out a plan where we could attend our reunions and still have some family time. Shortly after our plans had been locked in for four days of fun, some bad news came from Austin. 

Kathy’s husband, Paul, had some difficulty with a stress test and needs some additional medical procedures. Since Kathy decided she needed to stay in Austin and be will her hubby, I thought I would fill in for Sis at part of her reunion.

The first thing on the agenda for her reunion was an afternoon tour of the old and current high schools on Banta Road. I asked and received permission to assist with the tour of the older building. 

It was a fun afternoon. I visited with several of my sister’s classmates, some of which I hadn’t seen in years. I met up again with Jackie Ellis, who had been a close neighbor of ours when we lived in the Madison Avenue and Thompson Road area. I had also ran into her at our Edgewood Grade School reunion. I probably hadn’t seen Jackie for 55 years or more before seeing her twice in one month.

Later that evening, my wife, Lyn, and I headed to Greenwood for a reunion picnic. There were many people in attendance, and the food was delicious. I enjoy running into old acquaintances and retelling stories with good friends who I have remained close to over the years. I visited with Bill Wasson and had the opportunity to chat with his cousin, Don Wasson, at the afternoon get-together of my sister’s class.

The following afternoon, Diane Spaulding-Eberhart, one of my sister’s best friends, came over to our house. I saw Diane at the school tours. I was so glad that we had a little time to get together and visit. She was excited about being able to meet Stuart, my therapy dog. 

Both classes had golf outings at different courses. Pat Benner-Rau set up the outing for my class, and I heard lots of folks thanking her.

The Class of 1965 met at Primo Banquet Hall & Conference Center on Saturday evening. My class met at the Hilton Downtown Hotel. 

These reunions are a lot of fun; we are already planning one for next year.
This week is also going to be busy as the Beech Grove Fall Festival starts today.

Friday marked the start of a several events that I had been looking forward to for a long time. 
The first was lunch with a few of my former Indiana National Guardsmen. We were members of E Company 738th Maintenance Battalion. Five of us met at Shapiro’s Delicatessen. I had not seen a couple of these guys for about 45 years.

Joe Dillon, Jack Hickson, cousins John Dell and Ross Kinman and I were members of the motor pool for our unit. E Company was the maintenance company for the aircraft assigned to the guard. Joe Dillon, our leader for several years, was a helicopter pilot assigned to our unit. One of his additional duties was to oversee the motor pool. He was also the helicopter pilot for WTHR Channel 13 for many years.

Ross graduated from Southport High School. He and his family owned Kinman Wrecker Service.  
Jack and I became friends when his family moved into our neighborhood when we were young boys. We graduated from high school together, and he worked for my father at our Sunoco station. We joined the Guard at the same time and attended basic training together.

I had not seen Joe and John for more than 45 years. I have crossed paths with Ross and Jack several times over the years. We spent a couple of hours telling stories and laughing. 

Directly after lunch I had an appointment to meet the new principal at Beech Grove High. I had the pleasure to sit down with Elizabeth “Lizz” Walters, and we shared some stories from our experiences at Southport High – mine was as a student, hers as a teacher, dean of girls and assistant principal. 

When I tossed out the name Blanch Penrod, I noticed a slight shiver. Miss Penrod was dean of girls during my time at Southport. There are many stories. I’m fairly sure that Lizz has heard some of them.

On Saturday, Stuart, my therapy dog, and I had the honor of riding with Kelly Sawyers and her grandson, AJ, in the Miracle Mile Parade. Barbie Overbeck and her son, Matt Holden, also rode with us. Kelly is the publisher of The Southsider Voice and Barbie is the paper’s newest account executive. We had a great time and saw lots of friends.

The Indiana Pacemates, Boomer, the Pacers’ mascot; and Freddy Fever, the Indiana Fever’s mascot; preformed a bit behind us. I know Freddy Fever because he sometimes messes with me at Fever games. I was hoping that he would ride his bike up close to us so I could wave hello to him. (Hey, this is Stuart, I got my picture taken with Ronald McDonald. He was happy to hang out with me for a while.)

For several weeks my wife, Lyn, has been converting a storage shed to a more secure, permanent house for our three chickens, which have been watching the progress with much anticipation. I have a feeling they are expecting a flat screen television and Wi-Fi, of course.

Labor Day was Stuart’s 11th birthday. After adopting him from the Southside Animal Shelter, we chose Sept. 7 as the day to celebrate his birth. Sept. 7 was my father’s birthday, and that seemed like a perfect time to honor them. We celebrated with Shelly Meadlo Condon and her family and met at Ritter’s Frozen Custard before heading to our house so Shelly’s children, Ava, Oli and Ian, could meet our hens.

Last thing, 48 years ago I competed in the U.S. Nationals at Raceway Park. Tom Click, Steve Lovellette were a couple of the crew men on my team. I was the owner/driver. (Hey, this is Stuart again. Fred drives 25 mph these days.)