Early in December, we lost our son, Mark. It has been a very long couple of months. I have been so lifted up by the response for our family and friends. I have received telephone calls from friends that now live in other states. It’s so special to pick up the phone and hear one of those special voices.
I fully believe that when you make a special friend, it should continue for a very long time. Changes in jobs or locations should not cause the end of a friendship. Years ago, long distance telephone calls caused your telephone bill to increase. Those calls were always very special.
Most calls are part of your monthly contracts now. We can contact family and friends quite often for the same amount on your monthly statement. We can also send e-mail messages and be a member of the social media application, Facebook.
I so enjoy Facebook. I have many, many friends that I have known for a long time in real life that are now also Facebook friends. I also have few friends on Facebook that I have never met in-person.
I both enjoy reading and posting things that make everyone that reads it smile. I even post the current weather on occasion. I might post on a very rainy morning these three words, “It is raining”. I always get several responses. I have Facebook friends from all stages of my life.
One of the organizations that I have been a member of for several years is The Perry Township / Southport Historical Society. Last week, we had our semi-monthly meeting and program. Jay Danner presented a great program that explained the history of his family’s retail store businesses. I remembered their Danner’s 5 and 10 Cent Store in Fountain Square and a Danner’s Store in the Greenwood area.
It is so special to me to sit in those meetings and look around at all of my great friends. I purposely do not often toss out names of friends that I encounter at meetings or gatherings. I learned a long time ago that one of my best traits was to forget to mention someone’s name.
I’m going to override that today and tell you that Sharon Darko-David sat with me at the meeting. We are former high school classmates and both members of the historical society. Several members asked me how I was doing and I even got a couple of special hugs.
A few months in the future, the historical society will be presenting a special program that will honor the Kautsky family. It is in the works now.
David Ladd has a Facebook page known as, Southport High School Alumni. This is a very special site. David posts photos from yearbooks. He allows folks to also offer their own photos. There are pictures of businesses from our southside past. Last week was a great photo of the Kautsky’s store at Madison Ave. and Epler. Many members posted their own responses about their days of working at Kautsky’s and explaining about other businesses in the area.
David posted a picture of the 1959 Southport basketball team. I believe it was taken just after the game against Manual. It also received several comments from Southsiders. David does a wonderful job taking special care of this site.
I really enjoy checking out this site and recognizing names of folks that offer comments. Like I said at the start of my column, family and friends are so important and special. I even have a good friend and family member with me right now as I finish this article. His name is Simon.
Simon says, “Have a great week”.
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.