The Hicks Place

Michelle Hillary Denver

I got pretty sick of Woody Allen at one time.  We're the same age but hopefully nothing alike.  His plots seemed always the same to me.  How people miss opportunities because they fail to communicate or are afraid to take risks.  I must say I often subscribe to that theory, but then I am also a firm believer in the doctrine that most things that happen to us happen for a reason.  We don't meet people by coincidence, there is a purpose for everything although we often miss it.

Sunday we saw his latest movie, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and I really liked this one.  Not because of all of the feminine pulchritude, although that was surely a plus, but because of the beauty of the Spanish architecture and countryside.  This is just a gorgeous film to look at!  I am not one who ever wants to see a movie again or read a book a second time, I don't want to waste my time if I've done it before.  I don't buy movies for home viewing for that reason.  But this one I would buy and I would watch again because of the beautiful sights of Spain. 

It also made me want to go back to the Mediterranean.  In 1999 we flew to Barcelona and took a 2-week cruise on Royal Caribbean.  Our ports-of-call allowed us to see and visit Aix en Provence,  Florence, Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast, Salerno, Pompeii, Venice, Taormina in Sicily, Rome, Villefranche, Nice and Barcelona.  One could not ask for more beautiful scenery and architecture than we were privileged to see on that trip in Spain, southern France, and Italy.  We celebrated Marcia's 50th birthday in Villefranche and Nice, and our friends Joan and Bill Dzuro were with us on that cruise.  Next year Marcia will be 60, and I hope we can go on a similar cruise somewhere with Bill and Joan, and perhaps other friends that will be as enjoyable as that one was.

In the movie, Vicky is the thinker but she gets seduced, Cristina is looking for excitement and is easy, but Barcelona and the Spanish buildings offer the real eye candy. 

Now for Michelle, Hillary, and Denver.  Michelle is smart, attractive, and the more genuine person, like Vicky.  I'm not saying Hillary is loose, but I think her character is more shallow and less grounded.  She may know what she is looking for but, if I had an opportunity to have dinner with her or Michelle, I would choose Michelle.  Michelle will be leaving Denver with her course set, like Vicky.  Hillary will go back to the Senate, but unfulfilled.  I haven't been to Denver, except the airport, but it must be a beautiful and interesting city with gorgeous views of the mountains. 

This is probably not a very good comparison, certainly not one a sane person or a talking head on television covering the convention would make,  but then I'm neither of those persons.

Chicago, and how the Chicago River flow was reversed

We spent the 4th of July holiday in Chicago with our friends who usually join us in Indianapolis for the Memorial Day weekend and the Indy 500 race.  The weather was nearly perfect!  We enjoyed the Taste of Chicago, an architectural boat tour through the heart of the city, fireworks in Evanston, the camaraderie of our friends and the fine cooking and hospitality of our host couple, Dean and Nora.  For those of you who were there and may read this blog, I will explain that your names are not included because I have recently become aware that some people are not anxious to have their names or pictures appear on the Internet without their permission.  Some of us also attended the Glen Ellyn 4th of July parade.  Chicago is an exciting city to visit and, needless to say, a great time was had by all.

I have often driven from Indianapolis up into Michigan and have noted a sign along US-31 near South Bend proclaiming the "North/South Continental Divide".  A Continental divide is just a ridge where the water on either side of it flows in opposite directions.  Rivers to the north of this divide in northern Indiana flow into Lake Michigan and the St. Lawrence basin, while rivers to the south flow into the Wabash, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and eventually into the Gulf Of Mexico. 

Everyone who takes a tour in Chicago is told the story of how the direction of the river was reversed; it once flowed into Lake Michigan but now flows into the Illinois River down to the Mississippi.  To understand how easy it was to accomplish this feat, one needs to realize that this continental divide meandering across northern Indiana extends through Oak Park, Illinois, up through Wisconsin and into northeast Minnesota (see map below).  By building a 1.5 mile canal across this continental divide a water way was created connecting Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico.   For a full explanation of how and why this was done, see the link to the right under Site of the Day; "Continental Divides in North Dakota and North America".   It may not interest you, but it did me. 

My Week

A week ago at dusk, I and Jess, a Red Cross volunteer ERV (Emergency Relief Vehicle) driver from Merrillville, IN., were about to leave the Indianapolis Red Cross Chapter for Columbus, IN. in a 2 and 1/2 ton U-haul rental truck loaded with about 700 cots, dozens of blankets and a lot of bottled water.  The truck was in bad shape with loose front-end steering and a transmission that jerked when shifting gears, and the air conditioner didn't work.  I was the lucky one to drive this monster.

Over 10 inches of rain had fallen across south central Indiana from Terre Haute to Shelbyville Friday night and Saturday morning.  Columbus, which sits in a bowl where the Flatrock and Driftwood Rivers meet up and are joined by Clifty Creek about 45 miles south of Indianapolis, was split in two by flooded streets.  Water up to our running boards made it impossible to get into the city from the I-65 exit at the west edge of town.  To get to the shelter location at Columbus East High School we had to detour 45 miles out of our way through Seymour to the south and then come back into Columbus from the southeast.  It was nearly 11 pm. when we finally arrived to find nearly 500 people awaiting our supplies.  Another 200 or so people were at North Middle School in another shelter, but it was necessary to transfer the remaining cots etc. to a National Guard vehicle for transport across town to them.  It was nearly 1 am. before we left Columbus and 2:30 before we got back to Indianapolis. 

Sunday I joined up with an ERV team from Fort Wayne.  We were sent back to Columbus that afternoon with box lunches for both shelters.  We found out that at around 3:30 Sunday morning water began to enter the Columbus East Gym, so all of those people and supplies were transfered during the night to Columbus North High School.  What a nightmare that must have been.  The only good thing was that now the two shelters were within a block of each other and water had receeded so we could get to them from the north. 

Monday I again worked with Dick and Jo from Fort Wayne using their ERV to deliver breakfast, lunch and dinner to the Columbus shelters.  The Southern Baptists had a kitchen set up in Franklin and had meals ready for Red Cross delivery beginning with Monday lunch.  A shelter was also operational in Martinsville, and people were being fed in Franklin and Paragon.  

Tuesday and Wednesday, Frank from Nesbit, Ms. (near Memphis) and I drove a box truck for Bulk Distribution, delivering water, snacks, and other supplies to Nashville, Martinsville, Terre Haute and Spencer.  After our stop in Spencer Wednesday afternoon the truck wouldn't start.  We were stranded for an hour and a half while a repairman arrived, determined that we needed a new starter, the part arrived and was installed.  It was a Penske rental truck, and I must say their response was very prompt, considering our remote location.

Thursday and Friday I went back to my more or less regular volunteer job with the local Red Cross Chapter, driving patients to medical appointments around Indianapolis. 

Friday night was the annual Wallace High School Alumni Banquet.  My class of 1953 was an honored class as was my youngest brother Ernie's class of '58.  My other brother Charles graduated in 1955.  So we all three took our wives and attended this auspicious event held at the 341 cafe' in Wallace, IN., where good food and conversation with old classmates was enjoyed.

Today I was back with bulk distribution.  Frank and I took a truck load of bleach to the two shelters in Terre Haute.  Tomorrow will likely be more of the same.  It has been my luck to work with very friendly and interesting people who have some interesting stories to tell.  While I have come home pretty tired every night, I have had the satisfaction of helping people who really need it and meeting some fine people in the process.   This operation will likely continue through next week as so many people have contaminated water supply and a lot of clean-up to do.  Some will not be able to return to their homes.  But, now it appears that Iowa has it even worse.  At least next week promises to be dry and a little cooler.

More about May

My previous post was interrupted by the weather alert sirens which turned out to forecast only some more rain for our neighborhood, but there were a couple of strong tornadoes south and east of Indianapolis in that storm. 

Though we missed the Indy 500, May was a very enjoyable month for us.  In addition to the previously noted events and travels, we had a long weekend trip to Cleveland where Marcia was privileged to spend Mother's Day with daughter Jen.  Of course, Craig and I were there too which meant we also got to watch some good Cavalier basketball on TV.  A cookout at Craig's parents was an added benefit, and Craig's dad convinced me that my next outdoor grill will be a Weber.  It seems the cheaper grills I always buy have parts rusting out after two or three seasons, but the Weber's seem to be made of sturdier stuff.

So in retrospect, May was family month for us.  We saw all of the family except my two grandsons, Marcia's brother and Mom, and we even actually saw her via Internet cam, which Marcia and her Mom have set up on their respective computers.  While we all sat on Jen and Craig's new couch in Cleveland, we could see and talk to Dorothy sitting at her computer in Alhambra.  Modern technology certainly has a lot of benefits.  We have a trip to California scheduled for September to see Dorothy and Marcia's brother Tim, and his friend Darcy.

If you read my blog on a regular basis you may remember that a few months ago I was lamenting about missing the closer family connections which I experienced while growing up.  Well, May helped alleviate some of my separation anxieties.  I look forward to more months like May when I can share good times with the family, and I'm hopeful of seeing those two grandsons very soon.

Our Month of May

As probably most of the 9 readers I average daily already know, we had a much different schedule this May than usual.  Usually Marcia has a long list of "To Do's" for me in preparation for the house full of guests we have to attend the Indy 500 race.  Since my granddaughter Rachael was graduating high school at noon on race day, everything was changed.

We left here on the 16th of May by train and were at our little condo in Roanoke until the 23rd.  While there we got to see grandson Nathan, Marcia worked as usual from there that week and I got to read and relax.  Early on the 23rd we flew to Florida on Allegiant Airlines and got to stay and visit with both of my sons and their families before flying back to Roanoke on the 30th.  My son Greg and his friend Cindy had a cookout on Saturday honoring his daughter Rachael, the graduate.  Sunday was the graduation ceremony at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach.   She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Spruce Creek High School, which is consistently rated by Newsweek in the top 100 high schools in the country.  Of 514 in her class, over 50% graduated with honors.  Next year she will be attending Volusia County Community College, and then possilbly will transfer to nearby Stetson University to finish a degree in Secondary Education.  Rachael also aspires to do missionary work, perhaps as an English teacher. 

During our week in Florida, we got to the beach in Daytona one afternoon.  Our last night there we had dinner at a fish camp on the shore of Lake Jessup, which is known to have more alligators than probably any other lake in Florida.  The "Rachael Graduation Trip" photo album listed at right has pictures taken during our week in Florida.

We had lunch at our condo with Nathan, Mike and Kelley, and Kelley's parents on Saturday after we got back to Roanoke.  Then on Sunday, June 1, we caught the train back to Indy, arriving home about 11 o'clock on Monday the 2nd.  Our train was delayed for about 5 hours just this side of Cincinnati because a freight train broke down.  Having made this trip a half dozen times now, we expect the scheduled 12 hour trip to take 13 hours or so, but we have never been this late.  Oh well, we were able to sleep better when the train was stopped.

We were away of course when the severe weather including a tornado came through Indianapolis last Friday night.  There were only some limbs down in our area, but an apartment complex was almost demolished on the northeast side and the whole area got very heavy rain.  We have continued getting heavy thunderstorms since we got back, and the weather alert sirens just went off so I will sign off.

Marcia on CBS Video

Download MVI_0530.avi        I don't know if this will work.  It is a recording on my camera of our TV playing back the TIVO recording we made of Marcia being interviewed on Tuesday night's CBS news.  It will take a while to download and then some software on your computer should open it.

Marcia on CBS Evening News

I guess none of our friends watch the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.   Last night, May 6th, the lead-in to that show was part of an interview with Marcia as she left our voting place at Hinkle Fieldhouse, 3 blocks from our house.  As the show opened, there was Marcia in a close frame shot, thoughtfully saying, "I thought we had two good choices and it was difficult for me to make up my mind, (then smiling) but I did".  Then they cut to Katie for her introduction of the lead stories.  Marcia!, on national TV!, and we haven't received one e-mail or phone call about it!  Luckily we have it on TIVO, but we haven't figured out how to save it to some other medium.

As Marcia left the voting place, she stopped and talked briefly with an acquaintance who was handing out literature for one of the candidates for governor.  When she turned to leave she heard a woman nearby say, "should we interview her, does she..." and then very quietly she might have been asking someone if Marcia fit the profile they were looking for.  Next thing, the women was asking Marcia if they could talk with her.  Marcia said she would get nervous and not do well on camera, to which the woman responded, "don't worry, you wont have time to get nervous", and the camera was rolling.  The reporter asked Marcia if she thought this was an especially important primary, and an unusual opportunity for Indiana, to which Marcia replied, "Absolutely, it is unusual for us to get all of this attention, and I hope we send forth the right candidate."  Then the reporter asked if Marcia had any trouble deciding how she would vote.  Marcia said yes, she had given it a lot of thought, and then made the statement above which apparently caught the tone of what someone at the network was looking for. 

This all happened about noon time, long before the polls closed and before it was apparent that the Democrat Presidential Race was going to be so close in Indiana.  As it turned out, Marcia's comment was certainly appropriate for what was to come.  As she was walking away Marcia realized there was no logo on the truck and she didn't know what news organization had done the interview.  When she asked, the cameraman said it was CBS, that if Marcia was shown it would not likely be on the local affiliate but on the national news.   

Marcia came home and set up TIVO to record both the local and national news on channel 8.  Neither of us saw it live.  Marcia was busy with work as usual, and I went out to get a bite to eat and brought carry out back to her.  We didn't watch the TIVO until about 11 o'clock because we had been watching the election returns live.  I was in the bathroom when I heard Marcia scream!  "I'm on!  It's me!  I'm the first on the CBS news."  And she was, even before a shot of Katie, there was Marcia, looking great and sounding smart, her 10 second sound bite on National TV.

Culture in Indianapolis

Maybe many of you will be surprised to learn that Indianapolis does have an International Film Festival.  We have attended several screenings so far.  Monday evening we saw  a documentary I would recommend everyone see:    

Beyond  Belief.  It's about two Boston area women who became widows by 9/11, but have since organized a charity for widows in Afghanistan.  I found it interesting that these women came early to realize, as the Administration in Washington never has, that aggression is not the way to fight terrorism. 

Afterward we saw Cochochi which is the first feature film in the Tarahumara language.  An entry from Mexico, it relates the contrast between two young Indian boys graduating 6th grade, their interest in further education, and their trip through a beautiful landscape to deliver medicine to an old woman.

Tuesday, Marcia saw  Operation  Filmmaker ,
which relates the experiences of a young man from Baghdad who wants to become a film maker, and how he takes advantage of some of his benefactors.

Last night we saw a Mexican comedy about a young man who is a script writer for a soap opera on Mexican television.     

It's  Better if Gabriela Doesn't Die, proves that you had better be careful about telling secrets, particularly if they involve information about what has yet to happen.

Tonight we expect to see a Russian film    

Cargo  200, which is billed as, Part police procedural, part thriller, part horror film, and all political allegory, Cargo 200 is Balabanov’s (the director) harshest indictment of the former Soviet rulers. 

To see all of the details about this cultural event, go to Indianapolis International Film Festival April 23 - May 3, 2008.  You'll see some of us really do have a world-wide view here in our little oasis in the mid-west.

 

Ah! Spring!

You couldn't ask for a more perfect week, weather wise, than we have just had here in Indianapolis.  The seven days up to Friday, April 25th were mostly sunny with temperatures reaching the 70's to low 80's everyday.  Everything is in bloom!  The dogwood, redbud, Bradford Pear, apple, magnolia, crab apple, every kind of blooming tree is just about at
its peak of flowering.  The forsythias and daffodils were gorgeous a week ago.  The leaves on the trees are coming out more each day, from their tiny, light green tenderness towards their shade giving fullness which wont be complete for another couple of weeks.  Marcia likes this time of year, when the tiny leaves in various shades of green, from light chartreuse to olive, contrast with their black and gray trunks and limbs.  That contrast is even more noticeable just after a Spring rain, but we haven't had any of that to speak of in the last several days.

Last evening, between 5 and 6 pm., we were driving out in the country toward the small town of Ladoga where I went to my first 5 years of school.  We were noticing all of the afore mentioned shades of green in the wooded areas and across the landscape, and we agreed that the Spring colors are more beautiful than the Fall, because beside the greens you have the white, yellow, pink, and raspberry colors of all of the things that bloom.

We were on our way to attend the annual Alumni banquet of Ladoga High School.  I have never been to this event before, because I didn't graduate from there, but I have often wanted to, to find out what has happened to a lot of the kids I knew in those first five grades.  David French, who rode the same school bus as me, was the only one of my classmates there.  At various times over the years I have run into one of them, the most unlikely meeting being with Bill Strickler who was on active duty, stationed at Ft. Riley Kansas, while I was out there on a field exercise during six weeks of ROTC training between my junior and senior years of college.  Danny Boone, who graduated from Ladoga and went on to IU when I did, died several years ago but I talked with his younger brother Bill who is the President of the Ladoga Alumni Association.  We sat across the table from David French and his wife, and Harley Barnard (who was a grade ahead of me) and his wife, and they were able to catch me up on several of our teachers and classmates.  I learned that my class of over 20 had diminished to only 16 by the time they graduated.  I enjoyed reminiscing, seeing several people I remembered, and some good food, and Marcia endured it well.  We drove back by the "Hicks Place", stopping in the road where I used to get on the bus; the house and other buildings are gone except for the old barn, with only a hint of its red paint left.

I have been spreading mulch all around the place.  We and the neighbors had 16 yards of the stuff delivered and dumped in two piles in the driveway which we share, and we will split the mulch.  By spreading several wheel barrows of it a day, I am now down to just the side patio area and the area under the spirea by the garage to finish.  I have cut the grass twice.  Two evenings this last week I had a martini with neighbors on the front patio.  As I sit writing this, a robin is taking a bath in the fountain outside the door in front of me, the sun is shinning and the temp is 55.  It promises to be another beautiful Spring day.

My Grandfather Hopkins

My grandfather was a radio buff.  He was born in 1882, died in 1961, and was 53 when I was born.  In my earliest memories of him, he is sitting in a rocking chair next to his radio, dressed in the gray work shirt and bib overalls which he almost always wore.  I don't know when he got his first radio, but I know he loved to listen to Indiana University basketball games, major league baseball, Fred Allen and Jack Benny.

A little radio history courtesy of Wikipedia.  On Christmas Eve, 1906, Reginald Fessenden used a synchronous rotary-spark transmitter for the first radio program broadcast, from Ocean Bluff-Brant Rock, Massachusetts. Ships at sea heard a broadcast that included Fessenden playing O Holy Night on the violin and reading a passage from the Bible.  At the time, my Dad was 2 months old.

The first radio news program was broadcast August 31, 1920 by station 8MK in Detroit, Michigan. KDKA AM of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (owned by Westinghouse) started broadcasting as the first licensed "commercial" radio station on November 2, 1920.  This is

the RCA Radiola Model III, introduced in 1924. Priced at $24.50, it became very popular and sold in the thousands.  That would have been a lot of money in 1924 so I doubt granddad had one of these.

But I remember he had one that looked a lot like this one.    Of course these were battery powered models.  In fact, my grandparents didn't get electricity in their home until about 1950.  Many areas of rural Indiana didn't have electricity until just after WW II.

My Hopkins grandparents lived on a 40 acre farm into the 1950's, a mile from the small town of Barnard where there was a church, an elementary school, a grocery store and a nearby grain elevator.  They never owned a car or a tractor.  They raised 4 girls and 2 boys to adulthood, growing themselves almost all of their food. 

Fittingly, on Dec. 7, 1941, Granddad and Grandma Hopkins were sitting at our kitchen table, having just finished Sunday dinner, when the nearby radio announced the attach on Pearl Harbor. 

One food my grandparents did buy was breakfast cereal.  Maybe they were convinced of its benefits by John Harvey Kellogg  and his brother Will  Kieth Kellogg.  During WW II they ate a lot of it, and I was the beneficiary of many punch out models of fighter and bomber planes from the backs of their cereal boxes. 

This is my grandfather, Ernest Hopkins as a young, and might I add a handsome man.

                                                                                                          Then a picture of the grandfather I remember.