Friday, August 16, 2024

‘Coffee with Sages’

Shelbyville Middle School seventh grader Carson Claxton, left, takes notes while John C. DePrez Jr. answers questions about mentorship and business at a “Coffee with Sages” event on Wednesday. Twenty-two students in an Honors English Language Arts class interacted with 10 experienced leaders (including former mayor and police chief Bob Williams, in the photo background) at the first-ever session. Additional coverage will be in tomorrow’s edition. | photo by JACK BOYCE

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FOR THE CAUSE

Shelbyville High School girls soccer coaches Carter Hall and Stephanie Munger, pictured with the team last week, hold a $1,493 donation check from the Blue River Soccer Association. The check represented fees collected from the team-led Summer Camp (photo below) and bake sale, hosted by BRSA. | submitted

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NOTEBOOK:

• Contractors will be working soon on two county bridges. Work on Bridge #58, located on E. Blue Ridge Road over Conns Creek just west of the town of Blue Ridge, is scheduled to begin Monday, Aug. 26, and scheduled to reopen Wednesday, Nov. 27. East Blue Ridge Road will be marked as being closed to through traffic between S 600 E and S 800 E, which is the Rush–Shelby County Line.  There will not be marked detours for these closures, but traffic from the east can go south on S 800 E to State Road 244, west on SR 244 to S 600 E and back north to E. Blue Ridge Road during the closure. Traffic from the west can do the opposite, turning south on S 600 E to State Rd 244, east on SR 244 to S 800 E and back north to E. Blue Ridge Road (which is W 650 S in Rush County). Work on Bridge #30, located on E. Union Road over Little Blue River in between the intersections of N 575 E, north of Rays Crossing, isn’t scheduled to begin until

  Monday, October 7, and will last until reopening on Monday, November 11. East Union Road will only be closed between the two intersections of N 575 E. Traffic from the north on E 575 E will have to go east on E. Union Road before going back south. Traffic from the south on E 575 E will have to go west on E. Union Road before going back north using N 500 E. The dates on both of these projects are subject to change in case of delays caused by either weather or material deliveries.

• NATIONAL NEWS: GE Appliances found that the average American load of laundry sits wet, unattended in the washing machine for two hours, based on an analysis of 13 million wash cycles across 90,000 homes from 2020 to 2022. The answer, they hope, is two-in-one machines, a staple of Europe that has yet to catch on in the U.S. but if GE gets their way will soon be the standard manner in which Americans wash clothes. The newest incarnations — from Haier-owned GE and South Korea’s LG and Samsung — are about the same size of a single washer or dryer, and cost about $2,000, taking roughly two hours to finish a single load of laundry. (Wall Street Journal/Numlock)

• The Addison Times publishes essential news and historical content to build our Shelby County community, and is free thanks to the generosity of supporters. Those who donate a minimum of $5 a month (or $45 one-time) receive the three remaining quarterly Addison Times magazines for 2024 as an appreciation gift.

• Want the daily edition read to you? Struggling with your email provider filtering out your local news? The Addison Times Substack app will solve those challenges!

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580 West Taylor St.

Editor’s Note: The following is the next installment in a serialized version of “580 West Taylor Street,” by Joseph E. “Joed” Landwerlen.

by JOSEPH E. LANDWERLEN

Home Deliveries, Part II

Newspaper Carriers

Almost all advertisement was in the newspapers that were delivered early morning, The Indianapolis Star, and in the afternoon The Indianapolis Times, and Shelbyville News. All papers were delivered by young men who before or after school went to the newspaper office and picked up and folded their papers in such a way that the papers could be thrown onto the porch or steps, then placed the papers into a heavy waterproof canvas bag which was draped over the handlebars of their bicycle. The carriers would then disperse all over town and ride their route and throw the papers on or near the porch or steps of the homes on their routes. On Saturdays, those boys would collect for the papers that they had delivered the previous week. After collecting from the home customers, they would then pay the newspaper printer for the newspapers, and whatever funds were left was the boys’ pay for that week.

Bread Route Salesman

The bread trucks, that were all from Indianapolis, came to Shelbyville on a regular basis are mentioned here because of their yearly bread promotions of baking, wrapping and distributing miniature loaves of bread. When word got around amongst us kids that one of the bread companies was delivering these small loaves of bread to the neighborhood markets, then, of course, our only purpose was to acquire as many as we could because that bread tasted so much better than any other bread. We would go from store to store begging to get as many as possible. I think West's Yum Yum, Wonder, and Colonial did this for about four years and then they stopped it all at the same time.

The Borden Ice Cream Man

Our very favorite home delivery person was The Borden Ice Cream Man, our father. Before he started to work for Borden's, he was a retail milk deliveryman for Spears Dairy Sales. In '47, he was hired as a route salesman by Vernon (Bud) Kramer and joined Floyd McMichaels, Dennis Browning, Earl Shepard and Dude Myers to sell and deliver Borden Ice Cream to the southeastern quadrant of Indiana.

Dad had routes in Shelbyville on Monday and Friday, a north route on Tuesday, and a south route on Thursday. On Wednesdays, the big refrigerated trucks would come down from Indianapolis to replenish the items that had been sold the previous week. All of this ice cream was kept in a large cooler at about 20 degrees below zero. It was a fun thing for us boys to help them unload the big trucks and put the items in their proper place in the walk-in cooler. It was a kids paradise to enter the cooler and just be surrounded by all flavors and types of ice cream that you could imagine. As we boys got old enough, about 9 years or so, we would go on his route with him. Over time we were trusted to go get in the large refrigerated truck and get whatever packages of ice cream out and take it into the retail stores. We got to know the routes and the customers; Dad was friends with all of them.

As soon as school was out, in the summertime, the kids in the neighborhood would miraculously congregate around our house just before noontime on Mondays and Fridays, knowing that Dad in his refrigerated truck would come home for lunch. Somehow, he would always have a broken box of Popsicles, Fudgesicles, or Dreamsicles, and these would be distributed to everyone present. I still to this day don't know how he always had something to distribute to all who were there.

When we went on the routes with Dad, our day would start about 6 a.m., when he would unlock and enter the back door of the plant at 135 E. Broadway, which is now a parking lot for the St. Joseph Church, and see if there were any special orders. Before and during holidays, Borden’s would manufacture vanilla quarts in the shape much like a brick with a theme molded through the center in a different color. For Christmas, a green tree; for Easter a pink bunny; for Halloween an orange pumpkin, etc. For instance, if the order was for 60 pcs. of the tree, Dad would get in the big cooler and get 10 quarts of tree middle and open the packages. Using a large butcher knife, he cut each quart into six equal pieces; us boys would then use the paper wraps that Borden provided, and we would wrap each piece and place them back in the original quart package. In looking back, if people then knew that 9-year-old boys were wrapping that order, they may have had fears. We jumped in the truck and rode, with no seat belts, with Dad on his routes and learned about life, business, friendship and ultimately, love. My first real talk about the birds and bees was in the ice cream truck between stops.

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SHS Courier Archive Highlights:

January 30, 1952, Part II

• Miss Aleta Ault, who had been the speech and hearing teacher in Shelbyville the prior year, had been recalled into WAVES, and assigned to a job in Maryland.

• The staff interviewed Miss Strait, the school nurse. She and Mrs. Simpson, the dean of women, worked together on many initiatives, from health related issues to ensuring students’ welfare.

• SHS junior Sara Thompson was set to marry Pfc. George Lehman, a graduate of Sandusky High School, on Feb. 24.

• The SHS basketball team lost, 53-50, in the “Columbus cigar box.” Dave Kelley, described as “Shelby’s giant center,” scored 19. “Lanky Bob Ewick, Kelley’s replacement when the latter was benched with injuries” added key points.

• Three students in the 8A graduating class won singing awards. They were Maxine Hall, Suellen Kaufman and Merle Sater.

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This Day in Shelby County History

News around Shelbyville and the surrounding area as reported on or about this date in history. Selections are curated from the Shelby County Public Library Genealogy Department.

2014: Shelby County Public Library officials discussed potentially moving from the Morristown Municipal Building. An upcoming board meeting would include discussion of potential locations.

2004: Deborah Keaton of Morristown received the single largest payout in Indiana Downs history. Her $2 wager paid $322,561.40. She and her husband, Richard Keaton, had both already planned to retire within a year. “This will just hurry it up,” she said.

1994: Four bicycles were stolen in one afternoon. Those reporting stolen bikes were Debra Peck, Mildred St.; Phillip Goggin, S. Harrison; Bobby Macklin, S. Noble St.; and Carl Adkins, McNay Lane.

1984: Groundbreaking was held for a 50-unit apartment building at the site of the old Charles S. Major School. The old school would be demolished in early September.

Scott Olinger, a senior education major at Butler University, was named the 1984 winner of the John R. Hayes Memorial Trust Scholarship. Olinger had been on the Butler’s dean list every semester. He was the son of Charles Olinger and the late Susie Olinger.

1974: Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Cortese purchased a photography studio building from Mr. and Mrs. Byron Nash at 10 E. Taylor St. Cortese had operated his own freelance photography business for six years.

1964: Mark Conover was named Flat Rock Junior Fireman.

1954: Fred Elias, 66, 450 W. Washington St., was accidentally shot in the stomach by two young boys who had been cleaning a rifle. He was recovering at the hospital. (Elias recovered and eventually moved to Florida, where he died in 1960.)

1944: Norman Smith, lifeguard at Little Blue River in the stream at Kennedy Park, saved a three-year-old who had fallen into the water. There were no adults with the child.

1934: Over 1,600 vehicles parked inside the Shelby County Fairgrounds on the final day of the Shelby County Fair.

1924: The cornerstone of the new church under construction by the congregation of St. Vincent’s Catholic Church was laid. The new church would replace one destroyed by fire a few months before.

1914: Thomas Wilcoxen, of Morristown, and Harold Kittle, of Aurora, walked from Morristown to Aurora in three days, winning a $50 wager put up by some businessmen. The boys walked from Morristown to Rushville, then to Milroy, on the first day. The went to Greensburg and then to Batesville on the second day.

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OBITUARIES

Edith Pearl Robinson, 84, passed away Wednesday August 14, 2024 at Majestic Care of North Vernon. She was born September 18, 1939 in Galopis, Ohio, to Charles P. Bryan and Alma Belle (Wiseman) Bryan. Pearl graduated from Lisbon Central School in Lisbon, N.Y. She then went onto graduate from North Central, Indianapolis, Ind., in 1993 with a degree in Nursing. She had a love for reading and gospel music. She also loved playing games on her tablet. Pearl was an avid collector of birds and bells. She enjoyed telling jokes and making people laugh.

She married Ronald F. Robinson in 1957, in Lisbon, N.Y., and he preceded her in death in 1974. She is survived by her daughters, Carol (husband, Daniel) Holtz, Teresa Loss and Alma (husband, Ward) Fong; her sons, Kenneth (wife, Sherry) Robinson and Aaron (wife, Trisha) Robinson; her grandchildren, Jason Holtz, Maggie Federowicz, Sebastian Robinson, Aleece Palmer, Jennifer Phillips, Kyle Phillips, Angelina Caprio, Chrystal Loss, Hope Burke, Jonathan Robinson, Hailey Robinson, Hannah Lucas and Bradley Stevenson; 21 great-grandchildren and two sisters. She was preceded in death by her parents; three brothers; two sisters and great-grandson, Lennon Robinson.

Visitation will be Wednesday, August 21, 2024, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Murphy-Parks Funeral Service, 703 S. Harrison Street, Shelbyville, IN 46176. Funeral services will follow at 5 p.m. at the funeral home with Pastor Greg Albert officiating. Funeral Directors Greg Parks, Sheila Parks and Stuart Parks are honored to serve Pearl’s family. In lieu of flowers memorial donations can be made to Dementia Association, 50 91st St. #100, Indianpolis, IN. 46240 or Spina Bifida Association, 1600 Wilson Blvd. Ste. 800, Arlington, VA. 22209. Online condolences may be shared at www.murphyparks.com.