I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Ours didn’t take place as we had planned, which was to celebrate Thanksgiving at our daughter’s house with family. I had smoked a couple of turkey breasts and Lyn was going to make a couple of her famous dishes to take to Michelle’s.

Lyn woke up ill Thanksgiving morning. She fixed one of her dishes but was feeling so poorly that she retired to the bedroom for the remainder of the day. Our grandson drove down to our house and picked up the smoked turkey and the sweet potato souffle. 

Saturday is going to be busy and exciting. Stuart, my therapy dog, and I have plans to help The Salvation Army with their Christmas collection program. Check out his article on Page 11 for the details. Stuart’s good buddy, Charlie O’Donkey (a real donkey) is also going to be involved. You really don’t want to miss this.

At halftime of Saturday’s 7:30 p.m. basketball game between Southport and Ben Davis at Southport Fieldhouse, the late Tom J. Hathaway, a legendary cross-country coach for the Cardinals, will be honored. He coached the boys teams to state titles in 1970, ’71 and ’75 and the girls in ’78, ’79, ’80 and ’81.

Tom Hathaway died in April 2010 at the age of 79. He graduated from Indiana Central College (now the University of Indianapolis) in 1954 and earned master’s degrees in science education and biology from Indiana and Purdue universities, respectively.

He taught and coached in Perry Township Schools for 46 years, and I remember having him as a physical education teacher when I was in junior high.

Many years later he coached my wife, Lyn, when she was competing in marathons. He was among a small group of runners that competed in a 26.2-mile marathon in all 50 of the states.

It was enjoyable to reconnect with coach Hathaway when he was coaching Lyn. 

On one occasion I think I got him pretty good. He asked me why I wasn’t training and participating in marathons with Lyn. I explained that I had already done that a few years earlier. I told him about Lyn and I training to do the Honolulu Marathon. I then told him that I had competed in two full marathons on the same day. He gave me “that look.” I then explained that the two marathons were my first and last ones. 

My hope is to see lots of friends and former classmates at both events. Helping The Salvation Army is important, and honoring Tom Hathaway is special. See ya Saturday.

Shonk is a 1960 graduate of Southport High School, a ’63 grad of Indiana Central College and a retired bus driver from Beech Grove Schools. 

Editor’s note: Fred has shared this story before. For those of you who missed it, enjoy.

I had some running around to do last week, so I took Stuart, my therapy dog, along with me. One of our stops was Rural King, where we purchased dog treats. Stuart had informed me that we were getting low on them. 

We also visited Bob Glidden in the Whiteland area. I have known him and his family for many years. Should his name sound familiar, Bob was a national champion drag racer for many years. He is retired now and enjoys life, playing golf and spending time with his dog.

Bob brought up a guy’s name and said he was going to Bloomington to visit him. As soon as I heard his name a story came to mind.

A few years after I graduated from high school a good friend of mine – Steve “Clyde” Lovellette – was getting married, and I was invited to his impromptu bachelor party. Steve lived in an apartment complex at Madison and Lawrence avenues. The rear door to those apartments were mostly used because of the parking and stairs.

We were really enjoying ourselves when we heard someone knocking at the back door, which I answered. I was shocked to see a Catholic Priest. I knew that Clyde’s bride was a Catholic, but I was surprised to see a priest stopping by the party. I motioned for him to come while trying to think of a way to give the guys a heads up. 

As I walked into the living room I made strange faces in an effort to get everyone’s attention. I was thinking about how I was going to introduce the priest. I wasn’t even sure we had made eye contact. I was shocked when the first words I heard coming out of the priest’s mouth were, “Clyde Lovellette, you rotten son-of-a-b----.”

I saw the shocked expressions on everyone’s faces. The apartment went silent, but I began to smile as I recognized the voice as that of Bob Johnson, one of our friends. Everything came together for me in less than a second. My smile quickly grew to total laughter. I turned around and couldn’t believe that I hadn’t recognized Bob when he walked in. The fellows in the room were still in total shock.

As soon as Bob broke into his famous laughter, the guys slowly developed that “you-got-me” look on their faces.

It was a perfect evening. Bob Johnson saw to it that we would never forget that bachelor party. Thanks, Bob.
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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. 

I like to think that I stay up-to-date on interesting and fun things that go on in Indianapolis, but last week I realized that I didn’t know about the annual Spirit and Place Festival.

I read a newspaper article about a presentation being hosted by the festival at the Concord Neighborhood Center about a Near-Southside neighborhood and the drastic changes to that area when I-70 was constructed. 

During lunch with several of my former high school classmates, my friend Sharon Darko-David said she knew about the program and was planning to attend. We decided to go together.

The festival, which ran from Nov. 4-13 while featuring more than 40 events throughout the city, has a different theme every year; this year it was “Home.” The program that we went to was titled “Homes Before Highways: Communities Under the Exit Ramps.”

It was interesting to learn of the makeup of these neighborhoods and how they all seemed to get along. There was discussion about the Oriental Theatre, which was one of the many businesses demolished to make way for I-70.

As Sharon and I found a couple of seats, the gentleman sitting next to us introduced himself to us as Ronald Corn, and he said he enjoyed local history. As we were chatting I found out that he is a cousin to one of my childhood neighbors, Marilyn Kottkamp. 

The program was interesting. Many of the folks in attendance were recognized as residents or former residents. Some of the people, including a man over 100 years old, shared some fascinating stories.

A mother and daughter were in the audience, and the mom told a few stories about their neighborhood lives before the interstate changed things. Later the daughter started to tell a story. All of a sudden she stopped and said, “Whoops, I can’t tell that. Mom is here.”

The topics of discussion were amazing, and they included homelessness, historic newspapers, Riverside’s past, present and future and Veterans writing home while serving their country. 

As the program ended I heard my name being called and turned to see my friend and former neighbor Dave Alexander, who was a bank manager for Indiana National for many years. He was from the neighborhood discussed in the presentation and worked at a couple of banks in the area. As I was talking with Dave, Sharon connected with a former student who she worked with when she was teaching in Decatur Township.

Next year’s festival will carry the theme “Power.” A pamphlet promoting the 2017 program noted that power taken literally or otherwise is a complex reality. Power can be disquieting, discomforting and oppressive. It can also be illuminating, inspiring and hopeful.
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I’m so looking forward to attending.

Looking back when I grew up, I am amazed at the number of successful people who either had business connections with my father or were customers at his Sunoco station on Madison Avenue. We had a wonderful and loyal customer base. It was always fun working at the station because we never knew who might stop in for a tank of gas or a tire repaired. Sometimes friends stopped in just to visit and take a break.
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Most of the time I don’t understand when I am learning something ... but if I pay close attention it might help me all through my life. Many of our customers, business connections and friends educated me in ways I suspect they never imagined. 

For several years we serviced all of the delivery vehicles that were owned by the Southport Lumber Co., which at one time was 20. Most of the time we only had weekends to service and wash them. We also serviced the trucks for Edgewood Building Supply. 

I learned a lot about planning and scheduling to make certain all the trucks were ready to go Monday morning. All of these vehicles were taken care of in one bay of our two-bay station. Because several of the trucks were too long to completely fit inside, we could not close the overhead door. This made working on them in the winter very interesting.

Fred Van Abeele, a vice president at Eli Lilly and Co., was one of our regular customers, and I always enjoyed talking to him. 

We also got to know the Jack Elrod family. Jack was a lieutenant colonel in the Indiana National Guard at the time; he retired as adjutant general. He and my father were close friends, and Jack was instrumental in seeing that me and a few of my close buddies were able to join the Guard in the 1960s. 

I remember going to his house a couple of times when he was rebuilding the automatic transmission in his car. He told me that he had never done anything like that so he purchased a book and decided to give it a try. I also recall that the car worked perfectly when reassembled and put back on the road.

In the small strip center just south of our gas station was Heaton’s Bakery, which was owned by George Heaton and a much smaller version of Long’s Bakery. I remember Mr. Heaton owning a Chrysler, and he always purchased 10 gallons of gas. He explained to me that if he were driving on a trip the mileage that he would get from 10 gallons (about $3) would make it just about time to stop to refuel and get out to stretch. 

He told me that he grew up as an orphan in a facility near Pleasant Run Parkway. For several years he operated concessions at the Marion County and the Indiana State fairs. I learned that he took all his day-old baked goods to the orphanage. I went with him several times. 

Good memories are special.

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.