From Wednesday, December 7, 2022 edition ...

​I lived in Grand Rapids, Michigan, from the mid-1970s until the mid-80s. I was a sales district manager for a large industrial supply company based in Ohio. I hired, trained and worked with about 30 independent sales agents. I worked in all of the lower Michigan area except the Detroit area.

I met a couple of guys that were high school basketball referees. They told me about refereeing, and it sounded interesting. After thinking about it for a while. I applied, passed all the requirements, and became a referee.

I began working some local games and I would provide the referee assignment folks a copy of my work schedule including the city I would be visiting. Sometimes they would contact me to substitute for a referee that was injured or sick.

A few years later, I started my own company and eventually moved back to Indianapolis. Starting a new business kept me very busy, but I felt that I had time to continue refereeing. I applied and received an Indiana Referee License. I started working some younger boys and girls’ games for a Center Grove league. These were elementary school students. Several of the girls’ teams had some very promising players. It wasn’t surprising to me when several years later the Center Grove girls basketball team won the state championship. I believe that was 1996.

During my time in Michigan, I met Scott McNeal (aka Gus Macker) and his brother. They both had launched a three-on-three outdoor basketball tournament in 1974 with 18 players in their parent’s driveway.

The tourney is still in existence and has been played in over 972 locations. There have been over 2.2 million players – male and female from 7 years old to 50+ – and more than 23 million spectators. After returning to Indianapolis, I worked with the Gus Macker program for several years when it came to central Indiana.
It is very enjoyable to me when I take time to reflect on some of my teams and players from Center Grove and the weekends working with the Gus Macker tournament.

Southport High School Girls’ Basketball team won a state title in 1980.

Beech Grove High School’s girls’ team won the 2003 3A State Championship behind the leadership of Miss Basketball, Katie Gearlds. She went on to play at Purdue and in the WNBA. I believe that in 2013, Katie became the women’s basketball coach at Marian University.

After several years and some wonderful years at Marian University, Katie was named Women’s head coach at Purdue University last year. Her team has started this year and at this time they have an 8-1 record.

We all have had a lot going on now. Winter, Christmas and New Year, getting together with family and much more. I enjoy watching local basketball games and visiting with friends.

Enjoy the season and enjoy going to games. Basketball is such a large part of Indiana.
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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.

From Wednesday, November 30, 2022 edition ...

Last week, Simon (our new dog) and I visited some friends over at Beech Grove City Schools. We missed seeing several folks because they were in meetings or attending programs at other facilities.

A couple of times, while visiting with friends, they brought up some memories of things that I was involved with while driving my school bus for Beech Grove City Schools.

During the years that I drove in Beech Grove, I really enjoyed having fun with my student bus riders. It also helped the students to understand the bus rules while I gained their respect. I generally had a plan for several of the holidays and of course, April Fools Day.

I had routes that connected with two different schools. Hornet Park Elementary School works with kindergarten and first grade students. South Grove Intermediate School housed 4th, 5th and 6th grade students.

We celebrated birthdays and holidays with both groups of students. Even the school bus (Named Ursula) had a birthday and we always celebrated it. I would pass out Twinkies to the students on her birthday. Twinkies have the same color and shape as the school bus. It was the only time during the school year that I was able to send some students into school with a small sugar high because of birthday treats. School bus drivers receive sugar highs from birthday parties that are held near the end of the school days several times a month.

On a few occasions, I gave the South Grove students the opportunity to participate in a Thanksgiving Turkey Gobbling Contest. I would explain to all the riders that each class could nominate two classmates to be contestants in the contest. There would be two students from each grade participating.

On the last morning before the Thanksgiving break, the contestants would come to the front of the bus and gobble like a turkey. Some would put their whole hearts into it and others just mumbled, “Gobble Gobble”.
All of the student riders were provided with voting ballots that they filled out and handed to me as they exited the bus. I had totally explained that the winner from each class would receive a major prize. They would receive a family size, full course turkey’s dinner. This would be for the winners to take home.

I always announced the winner that afternoon before we drove away from the school.

It was always exciting when the winners were named. Sometimes we had very shy winners and other times we might have very outgoing winners. When the winners were all standing at the front of the bus with me, I reached down and lifted up the prizes.

I presented each winner with a large, clear plastic bag filled with turkey food, which included corn and various seeds. I always got puzzled looks from the winners and I’d have to explain that the prize was a family size, full course turkey’s dinner…. A Turkey’s Dinner.

I could only do this contest every three years, and even then I knew that a few of the students might remember an older sibling telling them about this contest.

We always had fun and the winners always took home their prizes and helped their neighborhood birds celebrate Thanksgiving.

I can still close my eyes and remember the looks on the faces of those winners when I handed them a bag of seeds.

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.

I really enjoy looking back on many Thanksgivings that I have shared with many members of my family and friends.

During my preteen years, my father owned a country pick-up milk route. This was a seven day a week job.

None of the farmers could train their cows to not produce milk on weekends and holidays. The milk route started very early each morning. The only good thing about it was that he was finished and home by 1 p.m.
I remember having Thanksgiving at my maternal grandparents house, who lived a couple of blocks North of Raymond, near Shelby Street. As soon as my father got home from his route, we would jump into the car and drive to their house. 

It was a fairly large house with a big dining room with a big dining table that sat 10 people. Mom had three brothers. So, mom and dad, her three brothers and their wives and grandpa at one end and grandma at the other really filled out that table.

All of the children that were old enough to eat by themselves shared a couple of card tables in another room. We all really enjoyed getting together and celebrating Thanksgiving. The entire house had that special roasted turkey aroma and there were lots of different desserts for everyone to share.

As the grand kids grew older, sometimes one of the families had to do something else on Thanksgiving and could not come to the family gathering. I remember the first time that I was invited to sit in the dining room with the adults. I really felt honored. We had meals at our grandparents several times a year, but that was the first time for me to sit at the big table.

Almost every time that I watch an episode of “Blue Bloods” and they have a family Sunday Dinner, I remember my grandparents and their home.

When I got a bit older, I accepted a job with a company in California. I was about to complete my 6-year Indiana National Guard tour. My bosses in the guard worked out a plan so that I could move to Southern California and when my time in the guard was completed, I would have to return to Indianapolis to be discharged. They were covering about eight months for me.

My discharge date was about three days before Thanksgiving. I flew home and attended to my discharge requirements and also got to enjoy Thanksgiving with my family.

I was scheduled to return to California early the next week. When I arrived at the airport and presented my ticket to the airline employee, I was shocked because I knew him very well. We had been neighbors as teenagers. We talked a minute and then he grabbed my ticket and stamped it “First Class”. There were no computers or other ways to challenge my ticket being first class. I thanked him and I was off to the plane. (My only time ever traveling first class.)

I had to change planes in St. Louis. There was a lot going on at the boarding station. When they finally called for the First Class passengers to board the plane, I was ready. There were only two other people in the first class area of this plane. I was very surprised.

The first person that I walked past in the plane was Art Linkletter. He had been a television show host for many years. It looked like he had already gone to sleep. Going to sleep sounded very good to me. It was about 1:30 in the morning.

When I sat down and looked across the aisle, I saw Mary Tyler Moore. She was not asleep. Once the airplane was in the air, the fun started. She got Art Linkletter awake and we started trying to guess what cities we were flying over. We would guess and the pilots would tell us if we were correct.

At some point Mary told me she was returning from Minneapolis/St. Paul where they filmed her tossing her hat in the air. She explained that she was putting together a new television show based in Minneapolis/St. Paul and the hat tossing would be in the beginning of each show.
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We had neighbors over for pizza last week and I remember telling them about the special Thanksgiving weekend. I also saw on television that a gentleman that was very involved in Mary’s new show had just passed away. During that part of the news telecast, they showed Mary tossing her hat in the air.
We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving...

The last couple of weeks, I have recalled many memories of my years driving a school bus in Beech Grove. One of my friends that also drove a school bus for Beech Grove City Schools was Karla Richardson.

We both drove there for several years. It was fun to get to know her kids. Karla is on Facebook and it is always nice when I read something posted by a friend. I was shocked when I received a post from her explaining the death of her long time boyfriend and later husband, Brian.

I was amazed when I began reading the special responses from all her friends and family. I’m not sure if I ever met Brian, but after reading many of the responses that included stories, I believe I got to know Brian pretty well.

I changed a couple of things around so that I had the opportunity to attend the visitation for Brian Orange at the funeral home. Shortly after I entered the funeral home, I ran across Karla’s daughter, Kelsie. It was nice to see her.

The room was very busy. I had an opportunity to visit with Karla for a short time. She seemed to be doing pretty good. She told me a couple of of Brian stories. I also saw her son Jake, but didn’t get a chance to talk with him. I spoke with a few other folks and we exchanged several great memories.

I found out later that Karla’s niece, Lori Danielle Middleton, provided a very nice stuffed bear to all of the grandkids. The bear had a note attached that read, “When you’re missing me and feeling blue, hug this bear and know I’m there for you.” “In loving memory of Papa Brian.” That was very special. I remember seeing some kids with bears, but I didn’t know the story at that time.

Last week I was informed that another friend and former employee of Beech Grove City Schools had also passed away. Julie Raker Page had been the receptionist. During about my third year of driving for Beech grove Schools, I was assigned a new route driving for Hornet Park School.

This school provides education for the kindergarten and first grade students. When I had any questions or problems, I would go into the office and Julie would help me out.

The Hornet Park staff was always very handy if I needed assistance. Julie took great care of the students, the parents and the entire staff during her years at Hornet Park.

At some point, Julie opened a home day care that was mostly for kids that had parents working at Beech Grove City Schools. Julie also had a bout of cancer. After it had been gone for several years, it returned. I think she had a tough battle for a couple of years.

Her family held a private ceremony to honor Julie last week. I’m certain that like myself, many of her former friends from BGCS, that would include staff, students, student’s parents and many other Beech Grove residents and good friends of Julie have been holding their own private ceremony remembering this special lady.

Last Saturday, Lyn and I celebrated our anniversary. Because we are both recovering from some physical problems and the weather was yucky, we stayed home, sat in our favorite chairs and on occasion said to one another, Happy Anniversary!”

We usually make a special trip to Brown County each year on November 12.

Maybe when she gets to feeling better and a nice beautiful day shows up and we are not busy, maybe we will sneak down to Nashville for the day.
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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.