Keys To My Heart

The Indianapolis Colts are going to the Super Bowl, but not until I had sufficiently yelled at Sylvia’s fabulous big screen tv and squashed and banged a Mountain Dew bottle to pieces. I definitely did NOT like the first quarter, but things started looking up in the second one. I did spot Erica, my cousin’s daughter and a Colt’s cheerleader, a couple of times, but they put a great big black text over top her. Why do the tv people do that? If you’re going to have a big sign up on the middle of the screen, at least put background shots, not people’s faces! Good grief! It was a great game though. I’m just hoping that Brock, the teacher whose room is right next door to mine (and a former student as well), will not be too tortured tomorrow at school. I have a feeling he will be because he actually showed up at ND in a Jet’s jersey. Erica’s and Brock’s pictures are below as well as some flash photos from the Indy Star website. All that Blue is beautiful!

First of all, I found some Shoals pictures on Google in the Life Magazine section. Evidently, Life Magazine came to Shoals in 1950 to photograph the Robert Sanders family. Robert had been captured by the North Koreans during the Korean War. I did a Google search and found only one piece of info about him on the website of the Korean War Project. There was this post by Tony Sanders, his nephew, from 1998:

21st Inf Reg

Looking for information re service record of my late uncle, Paul Robert Sanders. Captured and POW for 38 months, Korea. Don’t know a lot about his service there. Life Magazine did a piece on him and my grandparents in their 20 Sept 1950 issue. I have discovered that he was a POW from 7-11-50 to 8-29-53. I believe that he was a Sgt. at the time of capture, not sure.

That would be an amazing thing to have a piece of your family’s life documented, no less than by Life Magazine. The photos they took are really interesting. Here they are in all their black and white glory. My favorites are of the downtown scenes. When did we have trees on Main Street? Well, I guess in 1950, but I sure don’t remember them, and I was born in ’56. And we had a Ford dealer downtown too? I can’t remember the post office being on Main Street, but I remember when the new post office was built, so I’m sure I went to the old one. What in the world is the building at the new post office location? Was it a large home or a hotel or something? I also love the depot pictures. You can see the Cutsinger Hotel where Lucille stayed (presently the American Legion) and even part of the Sherfick Furniture Factory in the background. It would only be two more years before the factory would burn down. I wish these photos would be in color though as I would love to know if the cars were different colors–like that popular 50′s turquoise color–or if it was not quite the fashion yet in 1950 and so all the cars were shades of gray. Also, was the sign that said Meats part of the original Tredway grocery store? I have a picture of the inside on my genealogy website. Did Coca-Cola give away free signs or something? It seems like every store had a Coca-Cola sign.

My second find was at a YouTube site. After my first success at Google Images, I tried searching for Shoals on YouTube and found this great video. It must have been made by a Terre Haute TV station, although I’m not sure which one. It tells the story of two unusual Indiana Mascot names. Ironically, I lived at both places. Shoals Jug Rox and Speedway Sparkplugs are the featured mascots. I lived in Speedway for two years when I first got married in 1978. It was the time of the Speedway bombings and the Burger Chef murders. Four kids who closed the restaurant were taken out to some fields and gun-downed. Oh, and I also worked there up to a few weeks before–arrrggg. You know, after that happened, I seriously began to wonder about myself. My grandma was in a horrible fatality, and her car was brought in to the Ford dealership while I was at my high school prom–right next door. I go to the University of Evansville, and the whole basketball team and several others die in a horrible plane crash. Then I move to Speedway, and a bomb goes off in a dumpster in the shopping center right next to my apartment. Not to mention the Burger Chef murders where I worked just for the fun of it. I knew two of the four kids killed. Wouldn’t you know that my brother-in-law was in the Pentagon on 9-11 in the very section where the plane hit it?

Well, at least this video is cheery. It shows my sister’s classmate, Mike Harding. And one thing more, the plaster Jug Rock on the principal’s desk in the video was made by my grandmother (the very same one who was killed on my prom night). I know because she created the mold at her flower shop. Are you hearing any weird Twilight Zone music? Doo doo doo doo . . . . . . .

Good finds. Happy hunting.

Christmas is over so I thought I’d upload some of my pictures before I forget. There are more at the gallery site, but I got tired of uploading at multiple sites. You can find them HERE. Carrie got together with her dad before he flew down to see Sarah in Florida. I am so glad that he was able to go there so she wouldn’t be alone on Christmas. Sarah did spend time with her grandma and grandpa Sherfick, and she visited her grand uncle and aunt, Bill & Joan. I’m sure she was very busy at Disney on Christmas too. I can remember one Christmas when the girls were tiny, and Mark & I took them on Christmas Day to the Magic Kingdom. We stayed in Bill and Joan’s place in Kissimmee, had our own little Christmas, and then plowed through the biggest crowds we had ever seen. It was beautiful but stressful. I wish I could have seen Sarah over Christmas, but we talked every day, and I’ll make sure I head there over spring break.

Carrie and I had our Christmas, and then we went to Sylvia and Nicks. Here are a few pictures. Don’t forget to check out the gallery.

Oh, by the way, the graphics I used above are by Tammy DeYoung and can be found at Aimee Asher or at Plum Creek Collectibles. She even has several fabric designs at JoAnn Fabrics and Hancocks.