 |
| Present day view of corn field looking north along County road 11 |
Part
I
It was July 20, 1969 (55
years ago) that I, along with grandparents, moved into Elkhart County. We lived
in a mobile home beside the Cable Line Meat Market on county road 26 of Cable
line monster legend.
I set out upon bicycle to find Concord
Junior High School as I knew that would be the school I would attend upon
school start.
While riding my bicycle eastward from the
Meat Market and having run into other bicyclists of the area, in general
introductory conversation, I was told the story of the Cable Line monster and
shown the precise tree at the precise corner of legend, intersection of County
roads 26 and11. My new conversationalists identified the tree, with the
bark-absent image of a man, which one had to use abundant imagination so as to
grasp. I did my best to appear convinced of this legend. In fact, I too would
use the legend as a means of entertaining new arrivals at the trailer court in
which I lived.
But, my new conversationists, detecting my
naivety, asked me to try some corn in the nearby field and tell them what I
thought of the flavor. We rested our bikes off the road, stepped into a corn
field and I proceeded to grasp an ear and remove the husks. Now, as kid from
Detroit Michigan, having never been around farm culture, I knew some
kind of prank was probably in play but I played along anyway. I was invited to
bite into the corn cob and taste the kernels.
Asked what I thought of
local farm product, I said, with my best spirit of congeniality, “Tastey.” To
which they snickered and then explained that it was field corn grown for
animals. Attempting to maintain my self-confident composure, I replied “ Animals
around here must have well-developed tastes”.
That was my first
experience with folk in Elkhart County.
I ventured on toward
discovery of Concord Junior High. Arriving at county road 13, I rolled my
bicycle left, as directed by afore mentioned conversationalists, and eventually
rolled upon a campus of three buildings. There was the two-story building which
I was told housed the principal’s office, the three-story building, closest to
intersection of Mishawaka road and county road 13, and the gymnasium building.
The windows all along the corridor of the gymnasium building seemed inviting
and so I parked my bike on the sidewalk and entered the building. Custodial
folk where busy refinishing floors. They allowed me to enter the gym. I was
impressed at such a gymnasium. I still remember the thick aroma of a recently
refinished wood floor. That wood floor glistened and reflected light from the
large rows of windows on either side of the gym and set high adjacent to
ceiling.
And then I rode my bike
back home, stopping into the meat market to get a Pepsi from the top-load
vending machine which sat close to the meat display refrigerators.
I considered it an
adventurous day.
Part
II
Later that summer, on the
first day of school, waiting for the bus to stop and pick me up, another new
experience occurred, the area was dense with fog. I waited beside the old Meat
Market sign, which, as I remember, had an S and H Green Stamps logo suspended,
I heard a quickly paced rhythm of “click-clock, click-clock” approaching. I
knew it was not the sound of a bus. I waited, attentive to what might appear
out of the thick fog. Emerging from the fog, traveling east, was first the head
of a horse, followed by the full body. Then followed a black buggy driven by a
fellow dressed in black. I watched as the buggy drove past me and then it
vanished as ghostly as it had appeared, the rhythm of the hoofs of the horse
fading audibly as well as visually.
Mr. Stickle, bus driver,
welcomed me to his bus route, which traveled eastward on CR 26, then turned
into Miller’s Rolling Acres, picking up, as best I can remember, Tom Sisk, Jeff
Blackburn, Judy Weaver, and others. The bus then continued eastward until CR 13
at which it turned toward the junior high.
My two years, eighth and
ninth grades, at that school before moving up to the high school, are very
fondly remembered. Too many memories to go into…but for sure, adventurous!
