Wandering Through Christmas Memories
I may have mentioned once or thrice that I love reading some of the folks in our paper. John Marlowe is a friend I’ve known for decades, although we fell out of touch for a while. Still, his wonderful perspective and amazing wit never cease to entertain . . . and often, make me think. Paula Dunn often shares stories from Hamilton County’s past that keep me riveted. And of course Betsy Reason’s daily look at life here is always fun to read.
But one column in our Crawfordsville paper from Butch Dale really caught my eye recently. Butch wrote about how kids today spend too much time on electronics, and not enough playing outdoors – or even indoors on non-electronics, like board games. He mentioned BAS-KET. Briefly, this was a basketball court in a box about the size of a TV tray (google it, millennials). There were 12 holes the “basketball” (a ping-pong ball) would fit. Under each of those 12 holes was a lever attached to a spring so that you could “shoot” the ball toward the basket by flipping the lever.
Like many of Butch’s wonderful columns, it took me back. My Dad, who was a standout player for Thorntown in the 1950s, loved basketball. When I was really little, he put a nail above a door and hung a clothes basket off it. He’d get on his knees and we would play basketball with a balloon. For a toddler just learning hand-eye coordination the balloon moved at a perfect speed. When I got a little older, Dad and I played BAS-KET. I remember at sectional time, the Noblesville Ledger would run the entire state tournament on a page sponsored by Dahlke Standard, a filling station on the corner of 10th and Conner. Dad and I would then play that entire tournament on our BAS-KET game, a few games each night after he got home from work. I don’t remember how long it took, but it seemed like we were getting done about the same time as the real state finals.
What a wonderful memory, and thank you, Butch, for the column that prodded it.
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ANOTHER THANK you goes to Larry in Chattanooga. Larry reads our paper and sent me a note that absolutely floored me.
It’s that time of year for Christmas movies – and don’t know about you, but my favorites are the classics. Miracle on 34th Street, It’s a Wonderful Life . . . and topping the list is White Christmas with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen and Dean Jagger.
Until Larry’s e-mail, I never knew that movie had an Indiana connection.
For those familiar, remember the role of Gen. Thomas F. Waverly? He was played by Jagger. Dean was born in Ohio and dropped in and out of school a few times . . . before ending up at little Wabash College over in Crawfordsville. He didn’t stay but a year or two and was a member of the Lamda Chi Alpha fraternity as well as the football team. After leaving he did a number of things until he finally landed some acting jobs in Chicago and later New York. He wound up in a gig as Spencer Tracy’s replacement and the rest, as they say, is history!
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SPEAKING OF Christmas, this is my last column before the big day. Of course we won’t have an edition that day or the day after, but please allow me to wish you and yours the most blessed Christmas ever! I hope that doesn’t offend anyone, but if so, please know that’s not the intent. While you are clearly entitled to believe whatever you like, so are those who believe the holiday celebrates the birth of the Christ child. So, from the bottom of my heart, Merry Christmas!
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WHILE WE are on the subject of Christmas – check out the Santa Tracker on our website. The wonderful folks at NORAD each year post Christmas games, music, videos and more on the web – and that includes a link to actually track Santa via radar on Christmas Eve. For all you good little boys and girls, be sure to click on it in a couple of days and then get to sleep so the big guy won’t skip your house!
Two cents, which is about how much Timmons said his columns are worth, appears periodically on Thursdays in The Times. Timmons is the chief executive officer of Sagamore News Media, the company that owns The Noblesville Times. He is also a proud Noblesville High School graduate and can be contacted at ttimmons@thetimes24-7.com.