in the ’60s, Dam Sliding and One More Judge New Story

From Time to Thyme

By Paula Dunn

This week’s reader column actually grew out of comments I received about the previous reader column.

After the subject of the old Strawtown restaurant, the Trading Post, came up, Jeanne Flanders reminisced about her family enjoying their 1963 Easter dinner there.

While Jeanne didn’t mention attending any of the Trading Post’s turtle fries, she did report that her father hit a turtle once and that turtle was served at one of their meals. (She said she didn’t recall what the turtle meat tasted like, though.)

Jeanne agreed with me that back in the 1960s, about the only food you could get in Hamilton County was basic American cuisine (burgers, pizza, diner-type food, etc . . . )

I don’t remember any ethnic restaurants in those days except for Carmel’s Lotus Garden. It was always a special treat to go there and eat Chinese food. (If anybody recalls another ethnic restaurant in this county before the ‘70s, let me know.)

Former State Senator Luke Kenley noted that dam sliding at Morse Reservoir was the favorite sport of high school students when he attended NHS in the early and middle 1960s. He called it the “best way for a teenager to stare into the jaws of mayhem and death” that he could remember.

He also passed along a funny story from when he served as Noblesville City Court Judge in 1974. At that time he was the only licensed attorney in Noblesville not engaged in an active law practice, so he ended up being appointed to the judgeship “somewhat against my wishes.”

He hadn’t been on the bench long before about 60 teenagers were brought before him on a trespassing charge. When he asked for details, the Deputy Prosecutor told him the teens had been arrested for dam sliding.

Judge Kenley said, “You’re kidding. Dam sliding at 2 a.m. was about the most fun I ever had!”

Upon hearing that, the Prosecutor promptly withdrew all the cases and refiled them in another court “where the judge was not prejudiced.”

Senator Kenley ended his tale by observing “Probably for the best!” (And yes, I asked him if it was okay if I used his story!)

The Times head honcho, Tim Timmons, also a Noblesville High School grad (class of ’75,) echoed Senator Kenley’s sentiments, agreeing that dam sliding was “the most fun ever.”

Not for me! Watching some people slide down that spillway once was all it took for me to decide I could get my thrills elsewhere. That dam was just too darned high — and you never knew what you might land on.

I have one more story about Judge New making headlines, but I left that out of the earlier columns because it took place after he’d returned to private practice.

In 1979, a Noblesville police officer discovered New and a client trying to use a blowtorch to break into the client’s auto repair shop. (The client’s landlord had locked him out for nonpayment of rent and the client wanted his tools back.)

New mouthed off, the policeman arrested New for disorderly conduct and the former judge was transported to the jail, where he was held a short time before posting bail.

A special judge dismissed the charge, then the State Supreme Court reversed that decision, sending the case back to the Hamilton County Court.

After three years, the affair was finally put to rest when New was acquitted a second time and the $1 million civil suit he’d filed against the policeman was thrown out of court.

A reminder: The Blatchley Nature Study Club’s second Spring Wildflower Walk will take place this Saturday, April 26, from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the club’s sanctuary on Boulder Drive, which is off Edith Avenue, just north of Potter’s Bridge. Follow the signs.