PUBLISHED IN THE WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 27, 2023 EDITION

As a mostly retired fellow, my mornings start with letting Simon (our dog) out to do his morning business and quickly open the door again for his return. I then fix him some breakfast and deliver it to his morning breakfast location.

I also prepare Harry’s (our cat) breakfast and began cooking a fresh pot of coffee. As soon as I can partially fill a coffee cup, I move to the sun room and turn on the television so I can watch the local morning news. Once in a while, as I am settling into my chair to watch the news, I have a slow wandering about the possibility of sad or terrible news.

A few mornings back, I had that exact feeling. As the television came on, the morning news announcer was explaining the loss of a local state senator. I looked up at the screen and saw a photo of Senator Jack Sandlin. I watched in silence.

Jack Sandlin was a very good friend. The very day before I was absorbing this information, I saw a posting from Jack on Facebook. It was a wonderful picture of him and his family standing beside a large diesel locomotive. They had just completed a special train ride through part of the state.

Jack Sandlin was also a member of The Perry Township / Southport Historical Society. He was a member of the board of directors. It was always nice to connect with him at a meeting or a presentation. Jack was a former police officer and Perry Township Trustee.

I haven’t known very many folks that have served as elected officers. I was honored to know Senator Jack Sandlin. Back in my younger days, I also knew a former senator that represented the Perry Township area.
Senator Harold Burnett lived on Madison Avenue. He and his family own the Burnett Hardware Store and The Burnett Insurance Agencies. Those two businesses were located on the east side of Madison Avenue at Dudley Avenue. The small building that is attached to the hardware store building was the insurance building. It was also the only location on the Southside to obtain a driver’s license and license plates.

My father’s Sunoco Service Station was just a couple of blocks north of the Burnett’s businesses.

I remember Harold passing away during the time he was a state senator. His wife, Martha Burnett took over his senate position. I remember driving their children to Edgewood Grade School during the years that my family had our school buses.
On occasion, I stop into the barbershop that is located directly across the street from the Burnett buildings. A couple of times I have pointed out to the barbers that I received my driver’s license in that small white building across the street. They all find that difficult to believe.

Lots of local people are very sorry about the death of our neighbor and friend Jack Sandlin. Thoughts and prayers are going out to his wife and family
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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. He can be reached through email at fdshonk@aol.com.

PUBLISHED IN THE WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 20, 2023 EDITION

I have a very active high school class. We got off to a slow start. We graduated from Southport High School in 1960. It quickly got to the summer of 1970 and we began thinking about a 10-year reunion. It took us a couple of years to locate classmates and put together a reunion, which made it a 12-year reunion. As I remember, some of our class cliques and hangout groups were still fairly strong and active.

After we bumbled through that first one, we got better. I believe our very next reunion was our 20th. First our celebrations were ten years apart. Then we decided that was way too long and the reunions for our class were five years apart.

Now, for the last several years, we are getting together every year. Last weekend, we celebrated our 63rd high school reunion. It was amazing. We celebrated for three days. Everyone from our class was invited to each of the gatherings. Some classmates attended all three days. Several were present at one or two of the events.

During the days of our reunion, the Southport Class of 1953 also was celebrating their reunion. That created something that I found very interesting and special. Our class of 1960 was celebrating our 63rd reunion, while the class of 1963 was celebratiing their 60th reunion. Several of our classmates had brothers or sisters that were 1963 grads. My good friends Tom and Rosie Click are connected to both classes.

We have several classmates that keep our class connected. Judy Tout-Snyder has been very involved in all the reunions and locating missing classmates. John Todd, Tom Anthony and Randi Bertram-West have also been involved in both the reunions and the class newsletters.

We enjoyed Friday evening at Red Lobster. We had an outdoor afternoon and early evening picnic at The Mucky Duck and a brunch on Sunday morning at Yiayia’s down near Greenwood. All three locations went great and allowed us to mingle and visit.

I really enjoy it when a former classmate shows up at one of our reunions that we haven’t seen or talked with for years. I was very surprised to reconnect with several this time. I looked into our yearbook after the reunion and I started identifying class members that were present during this reunion.

There are 23 pages in the yearbook that display our personal pictures. I checked and found that only two of those pages did not have a photo of a classmate that was in attendance last weekend. Several of the pages displayed two or more classmates that I personally visited with those last three days. We had a blast. Thanks to the 1960 Southport High School reunion committee.

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 fdshonk@aol.com.

PUBLISHED IN THE SEPTEMBER 13, 2023 EDITION

I’m doing a bit of updating concerning a few articles published this last month. Back in mid-August, I spotted a week’s worth of daily comic strips featuring a gentleman named Ed Crankshaft, a  school bus driver. I have enjoyed that comic strip for a very long time.

The six daily strips that I am referring to concerned Ed Crankshaft completing a visit to his dermatologist and the various parts of that visit. It was like reading something that I might have written because everything seemed to really connect. 

Ed and I are both school bus drivers. We both visit a lady dermatologist. We both have encountered that coldness while freezing bad places on our bodies. Among several other things. It was almost like Ed and I were driving down the very same streets.

I saved those newspapers and trimmed out those six Crankshaft comic strips. I taped them onto a cardboard backing and then when The Southsider Voice came available that had my column in it, I delivered a few copies of the newspaper and the Crankshaft strips to Dr. Emily Keller’s office.

I walked into the office and stepped up to the reception desk. The three young ladies on duty thought I was there for an appointment. I quickly explained that I had something for Dr. Keller and placed the cardboard with the comic strips in front of them.

As they were checking out the strips, I also explained that I was a school bus driver. They were laughing and reading those comic strips I believe each of them recognized the connection. I then showed them the article in The Southsider Voice, and they were laughing again.
  
I was very pleased that I arrived when they had a couple of minutes for me to explain my presents and deliver those newspapers and comic strips. I doubted that it would be possible to see Dr. Keller, so I wanted to explain what I was doing to some of the staff, and I was very pleased.

The very next morning at about 7:15, I answered a phone call, and it was Dr. Keller. After talking with her, I’m under the understanding that she was not in the office the day before. I remember her saying to me on that call, “I arrived at the office this morning and the entire staff surrounded me laughing and showing me the newspaper and the Crankshaft comic strips.” I was very surprised and honored to receive her call.

The two gentlemen that produced the Crankshaft comic strip are Dan Davis and Tom Batiuk. A friend of mine did some research and provided me with a phone number. I called the number and left a message. I explained my connection with Ed Crankshaft and also our connection with our dermatologists. A few days later, I received a return call and I spoke with Tom Batiuk. I explained how that week’s strip totally connected with me.

I told him about my weekly article, and he asked if I could send him a copy. I agreed and also sent him a couple of other school bus articles from the past few years.

Last week, I had an appointment with my optometrist, Dr. Colin Christie. I took a few newspapers in with me. In a discussion after my exam, I was told that the oldest Southport Alumnae was celebrating her 104th birthday. Her name is Eleanor Ramsey. Her photo is on the front page of last weeks edition. Also, in the photo are five of her children. Daughter, Bonnie Summitt is in the photo and her daughter showed me her photo while I was talking with her in the Optometrist’s office. Eleanor was born on August 31, 1919.  She also has 12 grandchildren, 14 great grandchildren and 14 great-great grandchildren.

I also spotted Linda Gammon in the photo. She is also a daughter of Eleanor Ramsey. Linda’s husband was a member of my Southport High School Class of 1960. Jimmy Gammon and I were classmates for all twelve years at Edgewood Grade School and Southport High School. We lost Jimmy a few years ago. He will be remembered at the weekend’s class reunion.

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 fdshonk@aol.com.

PUBLISHED IN SEPTEMBER 6, 2023 EDITION

I really dislike it when I turn on the television in the morning and watch sad reports about something or someone that I have a connection to. That happened Saturday.
 
Back in the mid 90’s, I had a part-time position as a charter bus driver. I normally worked local trips that could include sporting events working with both teams and sometimes fans. I also drove to outdoor concerts and those were always fun.

On one occasion, I was assigned a trip to a concert at Deer Creek (now Ruoff Music Center). Those were always fun trips and fairly easy.

The group to be picked up for this concert was on the westside. The location was a house about three blocks north of Washington Street. The side street was very narrow and filled with parked cars. I saw no place to park a 40-foot charter bus. I spotted a guy approaching the bus. He was the organizer of the group, and the guests could board the bus as it was parked in the street.

As everyone was boarding, he explained that he was a police officer and also owned a small business that provided escorts for funerals. He was treating his employees to this concert. As the bus was loading, I could tell that the party had started a few hours earlier.

Just as I figured we were set to depart, the gentleman started speaking on his hand-held radio. All of a sudden, we were surrounded by about eight motorcycle police officers, our escort to the concert.

 I had worked with escorts before, but not eight motorcycles at the same time. We traveled on city streets, interstates and then country roads to avoid traffic as we neared the concert site.

I found it difficult to keep track of eight motorcycles. They seemed to be everywhere as they zipped in and out of traffic. After we exited the interstate and were driving on country roads, families were standing out in their yards maybe thinking a special celebrity might be driving past their home.

When we arrived at Deer Creek, we were separated from several charter buses and directed to a totally different area. They parked us behind a large stage along with a couple of other buses and a large motor home. This was a totally different area to me. Most of the passengers departed the bus and went to their seats. A few remained on the bus trying to recover from the party starting much earlier.

I have a feeling that by now you have figured out that this was a Jimmy Buffett concert. I still had a few passengers on the bus, so I needed to stay close. The bus was totally surrounded by motorcycles. People around that area were very curious. I realized that we had been parked in the area reserved for all the support vehicles for Jimmy Buffett, his band and crew.

I spoke with a couple of his crew and then Jimmy himself walked up and introduced himself. I explained about my group and the motorcycle escort. He even stepped up onto our bus and said, “Hi”. He even gave me a quick look at his motor home and was shown a wonderful location to watch the entire concert.

After the concert, I drove the group back without the motorcycle escorts. It was a very special evening.

Having met Jimmy and attended one of his concerts, I was disappointed when the Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant near Southport Road and I-65 closed. I liked my cheeseburgers there with lettuce and tomato.
It’s 5:00 somewhere, Jimmy. Rest in peace.

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 fdshonk@aol.com.