BetterMost Community Blogs > Messages From The Heartland
Messages From The Heartland
ZouBEini:
Hi David, I'm glad you are improving.
I've spent the last couple of hours (frickin' modem anyway) enjoying your thread. Your descriptions of Indiana are very well written. Kudos! I am glad you mentioned that Hoosiers can be verbose. At least I can and probably will be.
A few comments: I didn't realize (or remember..) that your mother died so soon after my father. Dad passed away on 29 July 2003 and I miss him every day. Of course Mom misses him more, after having been married for almost 54 years. I'm sorry to hear of your father's illness. I wish him well.
Wooly worms! I ADORE wooly worms and always have. As a 16 y.o. driver, I nearly wrecked my new car while trying to avoid running over the wooly worms on the road. I was weaving back and forth, trying to miss them (this was on a country road btw) and nearly took out one of my relatives' mailbox. They crawl rather slowly you know. The wooly worms, not the mailboxes.
http://mwrop.org/W_Needham/WoollyBearCaterpillar_031122R.htm
The canal photos were great! I have walked the canal many times during the day and at night and it's beautiful!
LS Ayres nativity scenes bring back fond memories of my childhood. My mother was a power shopper and whenever Hoosier Bargain Days occurred, she would make a day of it, with wee Larz in tow. Being from Hendricks County, we drove an hour to get there, parked in the Illinois Street parking garage and would enter Ayres from the Illinois Street side, through the tiny entrance. Of course from there, we would climb the stairs down into the basement where the TOYS were. I learned at an early age that it was much more profitable to stand and look longingly at a toy than to ask for it outright. Begging for something yielded nada, but being cute and looking deprived worked like a charm. She would wind her way through to the ladies department and begin rumaging through clothes on tables above my head. Meanwhile, I would make myself busy watching people and playing with the little (metal, then later plastic) clippy things which fell off the clothes. She would work her way from table to table, and suddenly panic, realizing I was nowhere to be seen. After re-tracing her steps, she would find me blissfully playing beneath the first table we had stopped at, totally unaware that she had been lost. Of course she was the one who was lost, not I! I was exactly where I was when she wandered away. :laugh:
A side note: I was greatly saddened to hear of the recent violence especially (not sure why, but they seem like such peaceful, gentle and forgiving people) toward the Amish children and their teacher. Very sad. This horrid situation came to mind while thinking how easily I could have been kidnapped while I was left alone (see my ramblings in previous paragraph).
Annnd we're back: Ayres had a great nativity scene! We went to see it each Christmas. I also looked forward to seeing the cherub sitting atop the clock. I believe the cherub made it's appearance immediately after Thanksgiving each year. For a time, after the LS Ayres building was sold, the cherub was missing but happily was later found and returned.
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/1102682844033980473aVCYFm
Vinyl : I'm such a geek. I still have all my LP's, 45's and a few inherited 78's. Sadly I have nothing on which to play them. Between you, me and the wall, I suspect it's just as well. They would sound like crap compared to my CD's! LOL
8-tracks: I installed an 8-track player along with an upscale (for the time) cassette stereo in my first car. I bought it shortly after I began driving. It was a '76 Olds Starfire - silver. My CB handle was of course "Silver Bullet". And I wrecked that car multiple times due to my own carelessness and inexperience. LOL, I again drive a silver vehicle and those who ride with me seem to think I still drive like a 16 y.o. silver bullet. LMAO But I digress. Being a country boy, whenever the 8-track player would "eat the tape" (remember the squeely sound when the player was sucking the tape out of the cassette?), we would roll down the passenger window and see how far we could fling the tape into the corn field. Not ecologically correct, but there it is. One could drive by a field and see the tape strewn throughout. :-\ Hey - at least I wasn't cow tipping, mailbox bashing or TPing the neighbors house!
Thanks for a great thread David!
See ya!
~Larz
David In Indy:
--- Quote from: ZouBEini on October 03, 2006, 10:42:14 pm ---
LS Ayres nativity scenes bring back fond memories of my childhood. My mother was a power shopper and whenever Hoosier Bargain Days occurred, she would make a day of it, with wee Larz in tow. Being from Hendricks County, we drove an hour to get there, parked in the Illinois Street parking garage and would enter Ayres from the Illinois Street side, through the tiny entrance. Of course from there, we would climb the stairs down into the basement where the TOYS were. I learned at an early age that it was much more profitable to stand and look longingly at a toy than to ask for it outright. Begging for something yielded nada, but being cute and looking deprived worked like a charm. She would wind her way through to the ladies department and begin rumaging through clothes on tables above my head. Meanwhile, I would make myself busy watching people and playing with the little (metal, then later plastic) clippy things which fell off the clothes. She would work her way from table to table, and suddenly panic, realizing I was nowhere to be seen. After re-tracing her steps, she would find me blissfully playing beneath the first table we had stopped at, totally unaware that she had been lost. Of course she was the one who was lost, not I! I was exactly where I was when she wandered away. :laugh:
--- End quote ---
Larz...
Yeah, I loved the basement at L.S. Ayres too. Did you ever ride the glass elevator? I remember riding it from the basement up to the Tea Room, and I always loved watching the floors zip by through the glass door as we went up.
Do you remember Ayr-Way? Of course Ayr-Way was started after the Ayres downtown basement became so popular. The Ayr-Ways all changed over to Target back in 1982 I think. I bought my first home computer at Ayr-Way. It was a Texas Instruments TI 99 4/A. I think the computer was probably the very last thing I bought at Ayr-Way before they closed.
Thanks for the post Larz. I hope to see you around more often! :D
David In Indy:
I just had another LS Ayres memory...
Do you remember that annoying woman always getting on the PA system?
A little chime would ring and she would say "9-9.....9-9....... (ding).... 9-9.......9-9"
I always wondered what "9-9" meant. I think 9-9 was the only thing that woman knew how to say. ???
ZouBEini:
--- Quote from: David925 on October 03, 2006, 11:13:27 pm ---Larz...
Yeah, I loved the basement at L.S. Ayres too. Did you ever ride the glass elevator? I remember riding it from the basement up to the Tea Room, and I always loved watching the floors zip by through the glass door as we went up.
Do you remember Ayr-Way? Of course Ayr-Way was started after the Ayres downtown basement became so popular. The Ayr-Ways all changed over to Target back in 1982 I think. I bought my first home computer at Ayr-Way. It was a Texas Instruments TI 99 4/A. I think the computer was probably the very last thing I bought at Ayr-Way before they closed.
Thanks for the post Larz. I hope to see you around more often! :D
--- End quote ---
OMG - I had forgotten about the glass elevators! I remember wondering about their mechanical workings when I was little. I'm slightly older than you, and clearly recall the elevator attendants, but am not sure if they were at Ayres or not.
Thinking of Ayres, when I first began working at IUPUI, I used to take Ophthalmology departmental photos downtown to Lyman Bros. for framing. I don't know the exact history, only that Lyman Ayres was the creator of L.S. Ayres and that there was some relationship.
Of course I remember Ayr-Way! I was in mourning when they closed the one on Lafayette Road. It was my favorite. A few weeks ago, I was cleaning out my winter auto kit and found a can of spray deicer for the windshield and had to laugh that it had an Ayr-Way label. You can guess how that is, but I just put it back. Couldn't bear to throw it away.
In fact, when a tornado touched down near Southern Plaza (and damaged houses two blocks from my house while I looked out the back door-Duh me), it tore the facade off Target. Jacki got a picture of the "Ayr" which was peeking through.
I'm looking for some more things to add...working on it. hehe
Pre-enter edit: I just saw your latest post. Yes, I'm now hearing the bonging of that chime in my head. Gee thanks! LOL I think 9-9 meant "child cowering beneath table while women rumage randomly through clothing in the basement".
ZouBEini:
Yes, I have a thing for architecture, so deal with it. hehe I’m having some difficulty finding exactly what I want, but here are a few favorites:
The Scottish Rite Cathedral is gorgeous at night!!
http://www.preserveindiana.com/pixpages/indy/moreindy.htm
Here’s the Madam CJ Walker Building, aka the Walker Theater.
Here are the Pyramids on the north side of Indianapolis. David, do you have any interesting stories to tell about them?
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway original Pagoda.
And the modern day pagoda.
And just for fun, here’s Mr. Bendo at Ralph’s Muffler Shop on 16th Street!
Oh, another Ayres story: After a marathon shopping session, my mother was trying to leave the store with her purchases when one of the sales clerks began screaming and running toward us. I don't recall the incident, but apparently when we got into the revolving door, only my head made it inside while my body was dangling on the other side of the door, still inside the store. Mom was inadvertantly choking me as she pushed the revolving door. At least the newly purchased clothing and housewares were safe. *snickers*
Same thing once happened with a cat getting caught in the overhead garage door. Hmmm. I'm seeing a pattern there. [mjeyds] Is it too late to call Child Protective Services? :laugh:
edit: Apparently this guy took his photo before the rest of the facade fell off. This is very nearly the photo Jacki took after the tornado that I mentioned above. Recognize the a and part of the y from Ayr-Way?
This is the only Ayr-Way photo I could find.
http://images.indianahistory.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=%2Fdc012&CISOPTR=1177&DMSCALE=100.00000&DMWIDTH=600&DMHEIGHT=600&DMMODE=viewer&DMFULL=0&DMOLDSCALE=44.44444&DMX=0&DMY=0&DMTEXT=Washington&DMTHUMB=1&REC=19&DMROTATE=0&x=94&y=92
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version