PUBLISHED IN THE WEDNESDAY, OCT. 11, 2023 EDITION

​Last week several things happened that first got my attention, then the memories kicked in. The first was all the breaking news on television and daily newspapers about a monkey that got away from his owner and their house on the Eastside of Indianapolis. There were a few days of updates until the monkey was found and captured. This was covered by both local and national news.

That kicked in my memory of the day that I confronted a monkey on the sidewalk of our home on Madison Avenue. I was riding my self-propelled little fire truck from the front of our house to the backyard when I was stopped by a well-dressed monkey standing in my path.

I bailed out of my ride and ran to our front door and yelled to my parents and some other relatives that a monkey was out here. I recall a great amount of laughter from those adults. I yelled to them a couple of more times before my aunt finally walked to the door and came outside. Once she spotted my new friend, she scampered back to the door and yelled, “There is a monkey out here”.

The monkey climbed up into a tree in our yard and was still there at my bedtime. By morning, he had moved on. We later found out he had escaped from a small animal show that was performing at Longacre Pool and Park. He returned to the park and reconnected with his human and animal friends.

All of this took place and there was no coverage of his escape, his visit to our place or his return from radio, television or newspapers. My how things have changed.

Also last week, I was informed that a good friend and former co-worker had taken a bad fall and was nursing a broken foot. I saw a photo of her wearing one of those large foot supports. It seems that she had taken the terrible fall maybe in the kitchen or cafeteria of the school. I also found out that stepping into some applesauce might have contributed to the plunge.

I sat down with our dog, Simon and told him about our friend’s nasty fall and broken foot. He listened carefully and then explained that in his former life he provided assistance and training to humans with broken body parts.

He offered to provide training and therapy for her using a pogo stick. That didn’t sound all that good to me, but I know very little about physical therapy. He escorted me to my office and had me make him a few fliers that promoted his new pogo stick therapy business.

We drove over to the school and dropped off a copy. We also stopped in a couple of other offices and shared one of his fliers.  We were informed that she was not at work but probably a few copies might be e-mailed to her.

Simon and I made those deliveries last Friday afternoon. We were also reminding staff members that there would be a totally different schedule for most of them for the next couple of weeks because of what is known as “Fall Break”. Simon tried to explain to several of them that starting a couple of weeks of fall break should not involve falling and breaking your foot.

I hope that everyone that is connected in any way with fall break has an opportunity to enjoy some of it.

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.

A few days ago, I received a telephone call from a good friend. I haven’t talked with Amy Graves for a long time. For several years, we both were school bus drivers at Beech Grove City Schools.

She began bringing me up-to-date on her family. Her three girls attended Beech Grove schools and sometimes assisted us on the bus routes. The older two girls are both married now and are raising families. Her younger daughter Emma is turning 21-years-old soon.

Amy was telling me about her and Emma driving out to visit older daughter, Chelsea. Emma doesn’t like driving on the interstate so she has a really good state highway route figured out.

As they got started on their trip to Chelsea’s, they were driving on Troy Avenue when they thought they spotted another one of our former co-workers. They weren’t certain, so they turned around and drove back by, spotted her again and wrote down the address. After that delay, they had to get going to Chelsea’s. I was so surprised to find out that they had sort of reconnected with a former co-worker. We have a strong group of co-workers at Beech Grove. I met Amy when she started at Beech Grove. It was about my fourth year driving there. We became good friends very quickly. She was great at her job. I don’t remember her having to take off for sick days or anything. Quickly she was involved in the training of new drivers.

Several years later, when I decided it was time for me to retire, it made me real sad to know that I wasn’t going to connect with all of my good friends each school day. My last day was very emotional. We all finished our routes and said our good-byes. Lots of hugs and handshakes. We made sure that we had everyone’s telephone numbers.

I was already planning to get together with my friends over the summer. I even stopped into the office on occasion during the following school years to try to stay connected with my good friends.

The young lady that I connected with so quickly when she started at Beech Grove continued her daily duties. She had her daily routes and on occasion did field trips and sporting events. Amy and several other drivers and staff were always telling me how good she was doing.

A few years later, I was informed she had switched to a substitute position. Not long after that I heard that she had also retired. I have purposely not mentioned her name. She was so very well known in Beech Grove. Her name is Ursula. She was my work-mate. I was so sad when she disappeared.
​
Amy’s telephone call to me last week was to inform me that she and Emma spotted Ursula parked in a large truck, trailer and bus storage lot on Troy Avenue. Simon (our dog) and I hopped in the car and drove up to Troy Avenue.

We found Ursula exactly where Amy told me. I introduced Simon to Ursula and we had a great reunion. I showed Ursula my driver’s license and explained that I was signed up for the organ donation program and I could tell by looking at her that she too was providing many of her organs (auto parts) to her brothers and sisters.

Ursula was named after the young lady that held case number 5 on the television show, Deal Or No Deal. Ursula was bus number 5. 
​
It was a special reunion…

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
.
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.