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Personal Recollections by Fred Shonk - March 31, 2021

3/30/2021

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AN INTERESTING WEEK
Last week was very interesting due to three happenings.
Katie Gearlds
The main subject of a big sports story concerned a young lady that I first met when she was a student at Beech Grove High School. Katie Gearlds became the best girls’ player ever at the school and the best in Indiana in 2003. 
After high school, she studied at Purdue and continued playing basketball as her skills always improved. She then played professional basketball for a few years with the Seattle WNBA team, and then played overseas.
I enjoyed watching her play. It was also fun to connect with her when she was back home in Beech Grove. We mostly passed each other on the streets as I was driving the school bus and she would be driving her bright yellow Mustang. We would laugh and wave.
Katie served as the women’s basketball coach at Marian University for several years, winning two NAIA national championships.
It was announced late last week that Katie will be the next head coach at Purdue University. She will be associate coach next season with coach Sharon Bersyp who is to retire after the 2021-2022 season. I think that it is so cool for them to be able to work together and have a year of transition.
My old house, the Longacre Bar

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​I began receiving cellphone calls from friends informing me that my “old house,” the Longacre Bar and Grill, was on fire. Stuart and I jumped into our car and drove up to see what was going on.
It was a bit scary. We pulled up and found a safe place to park; the entire parking lot and street were filled with fire trucks. I quickly found out that an electrical fire in the basement had been contained. The business is undergoing an ownership change and quite a bit of remodeling and maintenance was going on.
I was told that it might be a few months before the bar and grill may be able to reopen. Lots of work needs to be done. It was sad for me to look inside the front door and see a hole chopped into the floor. The firemen needed to do that to get a water hose to the basement.
Visiting our friend Christi
I’m very happy to say that Stuart and I made our first visit inside a nursing facility in more than a year due to Covid-19 restrictions. With lesser rules, we were invited to visit Manor Care Health Services where a lady, Christi, resides and is known as Stuart’s girlfriend.
This visit, we met with Christi and her mother, Pam, in a large family room. Stuart sat on my lap and we sat close to Christi. It was so special to see their reaction to reconnecting with each other.  
We were allowed to visit for about 15 minutes. Due to Covid-19, the only way we could see each other before was through her room window. This visit was much better.
Always at the end of each of our visits before, I would try to have a stern look and then I would tell Christi to behave. She would always say, “No!”  That happened again last week.
She also demanded that we arm wrestle. Over the years, we have done that many times but it was always my idea. This time it was her idea. The results of the battle were exactly the same. She always wins.
Stuart and I both so very much enjoyed our visit and we hope that it will happen again real soon. Thanks to Christi, Pam, and the ManorCare staff.
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    Picture

    Fred Shonk

    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. 

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