Sunday, August 11, 2024

ABOVE MARKET

Farmers Market, including live entertainment, continues downtown Shelbyville each Saturday, 8 a.m. to noon, through Sept. 28. | file photo by JACK BOYCE

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NOTEBOOK:

• Summer homes sales in Shelby County remained steady last month, equaling the 42 closed sales of June, but lower than last July (55 closed sales) and July 2022 (67 closed sales). The median price of closed sales last month, however, was an all-time high, $272,500, up from $254,950 in June and $259,999 in July 2023. (The median price in March 2022 in Shelby County was $165,000, before climbing sharply.)

• Last Call: The Shelbyville High School Class of 1964 will hold its 60th reunion on Friday, Aug. 16, and Saturday, Aug. 17, both nights at the Knights of Columbus Banquet Room, 413 E. South St. On Friday, Aug. 16, a cash bar and cash meal will be available from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. Saturday night’s festivities will begin at 6 p.m. with a social hour followed by dinner and DJ music; a cash bar will also be available. The cost for Saturday's event is $30 per person and must accompany the reservation form. Reservations are required. For further information and reservation forms, contact: SHS Class of 1964, C/O Ann Havens, 920 Congressional Way, Shelbyville, IN, 46176.

• NATIONAL NEWS: After a slow start, this hurricane season is still projected to be higher than average. Initial predictions back in May put the number of expected named storms at between 17 and 25. In NOAA’s latest update, that figure was revised only slightly to between 17 and 24 named storms. Of those, eight to 13 are projected to become hurricanes, with four to seven of them being major hurricanes with at least 111 mph winds. The average season produces 14 named storms, seven hurricanes, and three major hurricanes from June 1 to November 30. Right now, we’re up to Debby, and Debby is up to the Carolinas. (Associated Press/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• The Addison Times publishes essential news and historical content to build our Shelby County community, and is free thanks to the generosity of supporters.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

Neighborhood Baseball

Baseball in our neighborhood was always made up of pickup games, basically just a group of boys who wanted to play some ball without the guidance of any organization.

There was no organized boys baseball program. The Jaycees started an organized program in 1965, and affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds as the Shelbyville Knothole Boys Baseball. Girls were not allowed, as we all believed girls couldn't play baseball.

Whenever the weather allowed and a sufficient number of players could be gathered, a game would begin. We were lucky kids, because there was a ready-made ballpark over in the “commons.” It consisted of two rows of maple trees; incredibly, someone in the past had planted these two parallel rows just far enough to be first and third base. Home plate and second plate were simply bare spots in the grass. The foul lines were imaginary lines from home plate to the center of the maple trees. It was often a point of discussion as to whether the hit ball was fair or foul. If a ball was hit in the branches of the first or third base trees, it would rattle around in there and change directions and necessitate yet another discussion, fair or foul.

The games were started by mutual agreement, and we just sort of meandered in that direction. I remember on occasion being awakened by one person in particular, our close friend and neighbor, Jerry Smith. Jerry was a baseball lover and he had a little crystal radio. He listened to the Indianapolis Indians ballgames on it and knew every player and their statistics. Jerry would come over to our house early and wake us boys up; I still have a vivid image of him standing beside our bed with a bat over one shoulder and a ball glove stuck on it, tossing a ball in the air with his other hand. It'd be so early, but he was ready to put on a ball game.

After getting something for breakfast, we would gather up what equipment we had and work on rounding up enough guys to head to our “diamond” and get a game started.

To pick a team, we would have two captains standing about six feet apart. One of them would toss a bat to the other one who would catch it with one hand, wrapping his hand around it. They would then alternate wrapping their hands around the bat, one on top of the other, until there was no more bat to grab ahold of. The last person to hold onto the bat got the first choice of players for his team. Back and forth they would go, until each captain had a team. These teams were composed of players with a wide difference in their ages and abilities. Teams were adjusted as players left or joined, the team that started in the morning would be entirely different from the teams that were still playing in the afternoon. With limited equipment, sometimes the team at bat would loan their gloves to the fielding team so that every player had a glove. Bats were shared as well as baseballs. So you could hit someone else’s baseball with a borrowed bat and it could be caught with your own glove on an opposing player’s hand.

To start a game, the pitcher would pitch a ball to the batter in the strike zone, so that the batter had a reasonable chance of hitting it. We had no catcher and no backstop. That being said, if the pitcher did not throw the ball in the strike zone, the batter had to run after it. If a pitcher threw the ball three times in a row where the batter could not have a decent chance of hitting it, the pitcher had to run and get the ball back. Once the ball was hit, the formal rules of baseball took over, kind of. Foul balls were called foul balls. Base calls were made by committee and mutual agreement. There were more than a few disagreements. A few confrontations took place but were usually forgotten by the next day in time to play more baseball all over again.

The equipment that we had to play with was not the best. The wood bats were usually handed down from older brothers or came as a birthday or Christmas gift. The balls were used until we literally knocked the covers off of them. I can still hear the sound of a baseball being hit and that loose, flapping cover flying through the air. If you were the one that finally tore the cover off of a baseball, after a short lull in the game and few complaints, you would be forgiven. But if you broke someone's bat, it was a different story. All playing stopped, all gathered and glared at the offender, and a long discussion started about the life of that piece of wood. The talk centered around the offender's ability to properly hold a bat, if he hit the ball on the trademark, and if he was choked up enough on the handle, etc. Everyone got his turn to hold the broken bat in his hand and inspect the damage, turning it every which way until each was convinced that it was an unfortunate accident or a definite error on the offender. The broken bat was finally laid with respect at its final place on the grass; with solemn hearts and long stares at the offender, the game went on.

In addition to myself and my brothers, George and Jim, I remember these ball players: Jerry Smith, Dale Smith, Larry Killen, Carl McDaniel, Jim Phillips, Kenny Walton, Kenney Bayless, Mike Bayless, Don Dow, Kenny Dow, Charley Dow, Eugene Sanderson, Tom Harding and many others whose names escape me at the moment.

BELOW, left to right: Charlie Moore, Larry Killen, Marlin Thomas, Jimmy Sparks, Carl McDaniel, (unknown), Larry Phares, Kenny Walton, Jim Phillips, and Eugene Sanderson, circa 1953.

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SHS Courier Archive Highlights:

February 14, 1984

• A group of juniors and seniors prepared to take a trip to Washington D.C. via bus. The bus would leave school at 7 a.m. on March 29, have lunch in Grove City, Ohio, dinner in Breezewood, Pa. and arrive in Alexandria, Va. at 9:30 a.m. for a stay at the Howard Johnson Motor Lodge, Mrs. Vera Murphy, Chairman of the Social Studies Department, said. The group would tour a variety of government-related buildings.

• Show Group was preparing to perform in Fort Wayne. Members of the group were Roger Armstrong, Pat Ault, Lisa Callahan, Lee Ann Christian, DeAnna Debaun, Brian Ernstes, Todd Gavin, Troy King, Misti Kramer, Tom Kremer, David Mack, Jenny Morrow, Tonya Napier, Jill Neeb, Kevin Nolley, Donna Owsley, Greg Pence, Diane Pruitt, Barbie Ragsdale, Shirley Rogan, Tina Sebastian, Joyce Sleeth, John Smith, Ken Smith and Keanne Woods. Show Group Instrumentalists were Andy Simpson, Sean Couse, Brian Ress, Greg Kranz, Robbin Hatton, Brian Branson, David Jordan, Greg Soller, Todd Crenshaw, Steve Knecht, Jill Nelson and Tonya Craig.

• The girls gymnastics team faced a year of rebuilding, Coach Debbie Kelso said. Team members included Michelle Meal, Michelle Kuhn, Kate Gallagher, Karen Kreinhop, Maria Rhodes, Cheryl Linville, Teresa Johnson, Jaynie Eubanks and Lisa Mariarty. Assistants Gilly Wheeler and Amy Richards helped with equipment.

• The frosh basketball team was making progress, Coach Dave Hunton said. The team consisted of Jeff Bailey, Scott Shaner, Jason Heaton, Darin Bernard, Greg Kranz, Marc David, Curt Porter and Scott Kohler.

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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: Blue River Pharmacy closed with virtually no warning. All of the pharmacy’s patients’ prescriptions were transferred to CVS.

2004: A ground-breaking ceremony was held for C.P. Morgan at Central Park subdivision, on Saraina Road, behind Kroger.

1994: A waiting list was formed to obtain one of 49 apartments being built in the old Shelbyville High School. The apartments would rent for $300 to $400 monthly, the developer said. The elevator was still under construction.

1984: The inaugural Babe Ruth Bambino World Series opened in Shelbyville to a stream of dignitaries and a rainbow of helium balloons, but deflated ticket sales tarnished the weekend. “We have people here who have traveled thousands of miles to watch their kids play, but we can’t even get our people to travel five minutes to watch Shelbyville play,” Shelbyville Mayor Dan Theobald told Gregory Weaver with The Shelbyville News. John Luck, local chairman of the World Series executive committee, said he was disappointed, but the Babe Ruth International public relations director said attendance was comparable to other cities that had hosted for the first time.

A downtown ceramic shop had a painted greenware piece of a motorcycle driver smoking a cigar and wearing a helmet with a swastika in their window display. An employee told The Shelbyville News the swastika could be interpreted as an “Indian sign.”

A truck belonging to Bob Yung Sung, St. Paul, was vandalized while he was on a construction job. Sung told police he wasn’t upset about a flag being painted on his 1964 truck, but rather that the flag was Chinese. Yung Sung was Korean. “Chinese are communists. I’m not communist,” he told police.

1974: The Eagles team of the Knothole A-League won both the season and tournament championships. Team members were Tim Bowen, Eric Brown, Greg Wertz, Scott Brattain, David Tingle, Bill Collins, Kelly McKenney, Mark Zerr, Mark Gibbon, Mike Willis, Mike Barrett, Pat Starling and Lance Amidon. Dick Wise and Bob Bowen were coaches. Warren Wise was the batboy.

Floyd Conover and Tom Balting used beef liver to land two snapper turtles - one weighing 30 pounds and the other 10 pounds. They pulled them from Big Blue River near Sunset Park. Conover said he had been watching the turtles for two weeks before catching them.

1964: The Shelbyville News reported numerous local students were using tape recorders as study aids, even using them to record school lectures. “Too, when study time is over and it’s time for fun, the same stereo tape recorder that helps with lessons stands ready to provide the finest in music for dancing, parties or pure listening pleasure for student and family,” the article said.

Plans were made to extend natural gas pipelines to the northernmost edge of the city and to include Rolling Ridge addition if residents were interested, Indiana Gas & Water Co. officials announced.

Shelby National Bank signed a lease for a branch bank in the Bel-Aire Shopping Center, which was under construction at the intersection of State Road 44 and Progress Road.

1954: Comstock Standard Service, U.S. Highway 421 and State Road 9, held its grand opening. George McCain was manager. With the purchase of five gallons of gas, customers would receive a free 6-bottle carton of Coca-Cola. (Deposit required for bottles.)

Plans were announced for a Boys Club, to be located on the first floor of the building located at Broadway and Post St., formerly occupied by Linne’s Pastry Shop. The building was owned by the American Legion. Nate Kaufman had negotiated the lease for about half market rate.

1944: Drought conditions reached a serious stage and were threatening to greatly curtail the production of corn, oats and soybeans. Tomatoes were the one crop that seemed to be holding up in the absence of rain.

1934: The main floor of the Hamilton building, at the northeast corner of Harrison and Hendricks streets, was chosen for use as the Republican headquarters for the fall election campaign. A speakers’ platform would be built at the east end of the room.

Recent improvements at Laura Morrison Park included reconditioning of playground equipment, construction of a clay tennis court, six 30-foot-long stationary seats and a 60-foot-long picnic table. The next federally funded projects would include painting the public library, building a new bandstand in the park and constructing a storm sewer on Taylor St., between Miller and West streets.

1924: McClellan Mann’s home in Blue Ridge was damaged when a large motor truck, owned by the Rush County Milling Company, left the road, traveled over the lawn and crushed through the side of the house. One side of the home was wrecked, and a piano was broken. The truck was coming down a hill when a hog appeared in the middle of the road. The truck hit the hog and then plunged from the road across the yard.

Goodman’s had offered their giant overalls on display free to any man who could fit them. Although locals said no such person existed, John Beard of Needham came to claim the overalls. Beard was six feet, six inches tall and weighed 375 pounds. The overalls measured 63 inches around the waist and were 36 inches long, perfect for Beard’s fit.

1914: A burning boxcar threatened the whole village of Boggstown. The car had caught fire while passing through town. The crew, seeing the car was doomed, sat it off on a siding and proceeded on their way. The siding, however, was located a few feet from the Red Men’s hall and J.A. Strickler’s warehouse. The residents of the town, however, immediately formed a brigade to put out the fire.

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OBITUARIES

None today.