More than corn in Indiana

March 14, 2007 · Posted in Reflections · 5 Comments 

But not much more!

Growing up in a farming community meant, among other things, that there was nothing to do except watch the sun rise and set. The closest thing to fun we had in our town was the somewhat antiquated park, that did have a really cool woods behind it but more on that some other time! So what did we do for fun you may ask, actually you could probably care less but humor me here! We went to the next town over, Monticello, and went to Indiana Beach!

Mind you we couldn’t do it all the time because, while getting in was cheap, if you wanted to do anything you needed some cash! When I first started going there it wasn’t nearly like what it is today. When you go there now it feels like a roller coaster park more than anything, not that that is bad just a little crowded. Anyway, so I went there a few times a summer when really young but when I got into my teen years it was practically a hang out for us. We didn’t need money then we were just there to see the girls in bikinis!

My first recollection of Indiana Beach was when I was very young and my aunt took me to see my first ever concert by my favorite group, The Banana Splits! Wow, I was in heaven, they were like the coolest thing since ice. I actually had an 8×10 with all their autographs that I managed to hold on to till my twenties, from there I have no idea where it went. At that time Indiana Beach had big names there a lot. The Who was there is ‘66 but I was only one then so I couldn’t go. I am sure I would have wanted to if I could have spoke up for myself. Sonny and Cher was there one year, but I can’t remember what year that was. I had an old printing press sheet from the year that they were there, lost that too! As you can see I am not to be trusted with anything that you don’t want lost. Although I have improved on that lately!

I think my favorite things to do there were to go to the arcade, which was pretty much pinball machines when I first got interested, and the haunted house, which burnt down. They did build a new haunted house called Dr. Frankensteins Haunted Castle which is cool but not as cool as the old one in my opinion. The rides were the next thing I would gravitate to. I wasn’t a big fan of the roller coaster there as it went out over the water and I am deathly afraid of water! I did ride it once though just to prove that I could do it.

My favorite rides were the Zugspit, which is now the music express, basically it spins you around really fast while loud rock music assaults your eardrums, I love it! There was another ride I really liked that they took out and I cannot for the life of me remember the name of it. I remember that you stood up against the wall of this large circular object and it would spin you around at a speed which pressed you against the wall, then it would tilt up at about a 60 degree angle. I remember it was fun trying to move your leg out from the wall, which unless your legs were strong was really difficult.

It has grown quite a bit since my youth, well not so much grown as they have just crammed more things in the space they have. I think they are at their limit now, they would have to buy up some land on the other side of the lake if they wanted to grow anymore. It is still fun but it is very crowded most of the time. It is best to go during may when they first open cause by the time July rolls around it is just insane there. Tourists from all over have the place pretty much crammed full and you can barely move down the boardwalk.

Thats enough of this for now. What fond childhood memories do you have? Tell me about them.

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Gin and juice

March 9, 2007 · Posted in Reflections · 5 Comments 

First let me tell you that the title has nothing to do with the post at all. I just heard Hayseed Dixie on my mp3 player with this song, it cracks me up every time!

I will try to make sense with this post but it is coming at me in snippets and it is really hard to catch them all before they fade away in that crazy memory of mine! I was thinking about school, particularly kindergarten and first grade, the two which pretty much warped me for life. I grew up in a small, very small, farming community. They had one real factory at the time and it pretty much employed most of the town, even me for two nightmarish months but were not here to talk about that!

Anyway, I still remember my first day of kindergarten. My father dropped me off that fateful day and if I remember correctly, I was none too happy to be there. I hadn’t really had a lot of playmates up to that time so I wasn’t really crazy about being in a room full of screaming idiots, not that I wasn’t screaming too. Kindergarten set me up for my first real let down too. They start you out with a half day and give you milk and cookies, plus a nap. Then, one day, you stop going. I had no idea what summer vacation was, all I knew was that I wasn’t going to that dreadful place anymore. I was sick to death of playing with blocks.

Then as summer wound down they started talking about going to school again! I mean what were they thinking. I had already done that gig I was ready to move on! So we get to first grade and all I did that first day was watch the clock. As soon as it got to noon I let out a sigh of relief as I had made it through the day. But wait, they weren’t sending us home? No, they made us go to this God awful smelling room with several tables in it and get in line, FOR LUNCH!

Now I admit that what I got at home was not gourmet cuisine, but when compared to that garbage I was ready to promote mom to the greatest cook who ever lived! They had good days and bad days, though mostly bad. I remember my favorite day was pizza day. Those little rectangular pizzas were the greatest thing I had ever tasted. Even better was the fact that half the kids didn’t like them so we could trade them the other stuff on the plate for their slice. I usually had a stomach ache by the end of the day on pizza day, but at least I was content.

Then there were the kids I went to school with. To be fair, most of them were normal, but this was a farming community so we also had more than our fair share of oddies! I mean these guys came to school on a bus. They had to get up earlier than I did and then sit on that yellow monstrosity for a horridly long time. They talked about doing chores such as slopping the hogs and gathering eggs. Now slopping the hogs I had no idea what that was, but I had went to the store with my parents many times and sometimes they let me gather the eggs from the shelf! I did have a heck of a time eating eggs for awhile after one of those dumb hicks told me where the eggs came from!

Alright, thats enough for now. I have a lot more I want to talk about on this subject but if the post gets too long then no one will read the darn thing!

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