My wife, Lyn, and I were out driving around Friday, and we noticed how few automobiles were at banks or their drive-thrus. This caused us to recall how the banking industry has changed over the years.

In days gone by, many folks were handed their weekly checks on Friday. Many of these people stopped at their banks to deposit their checks. This is why banks stayed open a few hours later on Fridays.

Some small businesses had a larger amount of cash on hand to cash payroll checks for good customers. My father always made a trip to the bank on Friday afternoons to get cash for our service station’s weekend business.

My dad always banked with Indiana National Bank. When we first opened our station on Madison Avenue, just north of Epler Avenue, the closest INB was at Terrace and Madison avenues. That was a long drive to make deposits and do other banking. It was wonderful when an Indiana National Bank branch opened at South East Street and National Avenue. That was a much shorter trip.

There was not much credit card business during those days. Our station sold Sunoco gas and oil products. Sunoco developed a credit program called SunChecks. It was a checklike credit system that a customer could use to purchase products and services from Sunoco dealers and be billed by Sunoco. The checks were filled with those old-time primitive holes that a computer could read.

Of course, without much credit card business, we accepted a lot of checks. This was another reason for daily trips to our bank. Since we went to the bank so often, we got to know the tellers. 

I remember having an interesting morning at my bank many years ago. I was living in Greenwood and doing quite of bit of traveling for work.

One Monday before going on a weeklong business trip, I stopped at my bank to get some cash. The money machines were sort of new, and my bank’s machine issued money in $25 increments. If you wanted $50, you got two envelopes.

I went to the machine and followed the instructions to get $50. When the little door opened I saw some envelopes. I took them out and counted eight of them. I then checked my receipt and saw that I was charged only the $50 that I had requested, but I got an extra $150.

I walked over to the front door of the bank and saw several employees, but the bank wasn’t open yet. I knocked several times before a stern-looking manager walked to the door. He pecked on his wristwatch, shook his head and walked away. I knocked again with similar results.

I got his attention on my third knock. He stormed to the door, opened it and loudly told me that they were not open. I apologized profusely and showed him the six envelopes that I had discovered.

I then witnessed a fast change in his manner. He invited me inside and apologized as he took some information from me. 

I’ve often wondered if the proper person ever received his money envelopes.

The past couple of weeks have been busy and a lot of fun. Stuart, my therapy dog, and I visit a couple of Beech Grove Schools, where the students read to Stuart, who really enjoys listening to the them. He always gets excited when we pull into the school parking lots.

Our visits to Manor Care Health and Madison Avenue Health are also going well. We are friends with staff members and residents at the facilities. 

In the works is an opportunity for Stuart to be on “Pet Pals TV.” We have had a couple of delays, but host Patty Spitler has assured us that when everyone is ready, the show will go on.

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Southport High School’s Class of 1960 hosted its 57-year reunion over the weekend. It also served as a 75th birthday party for most of us. I keep trying to explain that I am only 37 – and have been for several years. But I always get invited.

I help a little bit with the planning. As a class we also attend a home football and a basketball game each year. We will attend Southport’s homecoming game Sept. 29.

I inquired about the possibility of the Southport Cardinal making a special appearance at our class reunion picnic. I was given some contact information, and things worked out perfectly. About a couple of hours after we gathered for our picnic, we looked up to see that a giant red cardinal must have landed in the field next to our picnic area.

He was friendly and came right up to everyone. We felt that with him arriving at our picnic at the approximate time that we might be starting to eat, maybe we should provide him with an acceptable meal also.

We were prepared with a bird feeder filled with some black sunflower seeds. I know from my experiences in feeding birds that cardinals love sunflower seeds. Our special visitor was no exception. As he departed our picnic area, he was carrying his new feeder in his beak.

We had a special two days. Because of other commitments, some of our former classmates could only attend one of the two days. 

During the Friday evening dinner and visit, I was asked several times about Stuart and why he wasn’t with us. Therapy dogs have different responsibilities and rules than do service dogs. Therapy dogs don’t go into facilities that serve food, so Stuart was home catching up on his naps.

Saturday was a different story, it was an outside event and I figured he could visit for a while and then I could drive him home and return to the festivities. Lyn had a small conflict and wasn’t going to arrive for a few hours. So Stuart hopped into the car and attended his first high school reunion. 

He made many new friends. After about 2 ½ hours I could see he was getting a bit tired. He said goodbye to everyone and I drove him home.
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I think he was working on his fourth nap of the day before I could back out of the driveway.

Editor’s note: Stuart, the therapy dog of Southsider Voice columnist Fred Shonk and his wife, Lyn, is back at the keyboard. This time he’s writing about what he’s been up to lately.

I can’t believe that summer is over. During the summer we seldom visit Beech Grove Schools, where some really nice children read to me. While most kids enjoy school being out for summer, I really miss seeing everyone at the schools and hearing those great books being read to me.

On Sept. 7 we started listening to the students at Central Elementary and South Grove Intermediate. Now, if that wasn’t exciting enough, that day was also my birthday. I was 13, which is 75 in human years. We visited Ritter’s Frozen Custard to get a treat.

I’m looking forward to meeting a couple of new friends (therapy dogs) at Beech Grove Schools. I’m sure my good friend Findley will be back to work at South Grove. Findley works with Mrs. Keeley and always says hi when we stop by.

The reading programs are so much fun. Sometimes we visit with someone who is feeling sick or sad. I understand that it is important for them to be able to sit or cuddle with me or one of my canine therapy friends.

Most of the time I enjoy my duties. We meet with a lot of people at the nursing facilities we regularly visit. 

About seven weeks ago, my dad (Fred) and I made several trips to Southport’s city offices, where everyone seemed busy and sad. A few times we sat near the police car that had been driven by Lt. Aaron Allen. I learned that Lt. Allen had been killed, and then I understood why everyone was so sad. Some of his friends and co-workers hung out with me for a while. I could feel their sorrow. 

I have heard lots of stories about people and organizations uniting to do good things to help Lt. Allen’s family. 

About a month ago Dad took me for a ride. I like to look out the window and try to figure out where we are going, but this time I didn’t see anything that seemed familiar. We parked and walked around a building and sat down at a table. In a few minutes a nice lady walked up and introduced herself. She and Dad talked for a minute before she was introduced to me as Patty Spitler. 

From what I gathered, she has a television show called “Pet Pals TV,” and she wants to do a piece on Dad and me when we are visiting patients at the local nursing homes we stop by. Her production crew will meet us and do the taping. When they are finished doing stuff to the film (I think it’s called editing), it will be aired. I’m familiar with editing. My friend Scott Mohr does a marvelous job cleaning up my columns.

I have a lot going on, and just typing this article out has made me feel the need for my second nap of the day. I’ll keep everyone posted about the “Pet Pals TV” segment in Dad’s weekly column. I think it is called “Personal Recollections.”

As I tell all my canine friends, “Keep your tail wagging,” and I’ll see you later.

Last week I called a good friend of mine who lives in Florida. I just wanted to check in on him and his family to make sure they were getting prepared for Hurricane Irma. 

We also talked about the U.S. Nationals, which are always held Labor Day weekend at Lucas Oil Raceway. We were excited that we knew several of the competitors.

Many years ago some of my buddies helped me build and compete in a dragster that over the season gained enough points to be invited to the famous Nationals.  

We all were busy during that Labor Day weekend. There was practice, qualifying and then the eliminations. We had a blast but didn’t win anything. As I look back on that weekend, it still amazes me that after three days of drag racing I climbed into a school bus on a Tuesday and drove students to their first day of school. Talk about a change in driving styles.
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The Edgewood Grade School reunion was Saturday evening at The Atrium. I have a double connection with the school as I attended Edgewood/Riley and was a bus driver for the school for about seven years. 

I reconnected with Kathleen Hash, who rode my bus. We have been friends for several years, and she helped organize the evening. Ted Lobdell and Barry Hix were the main coordinators, and they all did a fantastic job.

I felt honored to sit with former Edgewood teachers Bill Pickard, Vern Chandler – they taught me – Phil Paswater and Nancy Paswater. 

I remember my first day of driving a school bus. I had just turned 21 and was unsettled. I knew my routes well, but I was unsettled because I had only driven them without students.

I recall pulling to the first stop on my high school/junior high route. My first passenger was Marcia Gunnion, who greeted me with a dazzling smile. At that moment I knew I was going to be OK. I reconnected with Marcia several years later and was sad to learn of her death a couple of years after that. She was a real sweetheart.

My other route was the Edgewood School one. At about my third stop, Denise and David Morris boarded, and they also greeted with big smiles.  

I had those routes for several years and always felt that those three students really helped me that first morning. I ran into David a time or two several years later but had lost track of him and his sister over the years.

As I was visiting with several people at the reunion, a gentleman walked up to me and held out his hand. I didn’t recognize him so I snuck a peek at his name tag, which said David Morris. Boy was I surprised.

David told me that he recently retired and is now a school bus driver. Plans are being made for him, his sister and myself to have lunch in the near future.

I saw so many friends and former classmates that if I tried to write about all of my conversations, this article could fill six pages, but that wouldn’t get past the editor.
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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.