The

MEGAPHONE

Elwood, Indiana                                                                    Elwood High School(s)

Volume 5, No. 8                                                                                     Sunday, August 1, 2004

Contents

(The page numbers are links!)

Page 1 . . . Your Old Home Town -- Sharon (Benedict) Hurst 

Page 2 . . . Remembering Annie -- Mark Rogers

Page 3 . . . Desiderata and Reflections -- Nancy Sumner

Page 4 . . . "My" Bicycle  -- Jane Ann (Seright) Lemen

Page 5 . . . Caruso -- Deborah (Bozell) Donahue

                            Dog Days of Summer -- Bob Hinshaw

Page 6 . . . Some Things Never Change -- Julie (Stout) Crim

                            One Night In The Fall -- Cindy (Benedict) Odom

Page 7 . . . The Huntsinger Family -- Ginny (Hocker) Noble

Page 8 . . . Elwood City Hall -- Endangered -- Megaphone Special

Your Old Home Town

 by Sharon (Benedict) Hurst

Hello to all from your Old Home Town . It has been really cool here for the past couple of weeks. What my mother used to call "sweater weather."

The construction crews are moving along and are ahead of the scheduled time to finish the Anderson Street project. They are pouring the sidewalks and curbs north of the bridge now and the project should be finished in a couple of months. The new street lights, stop lights and signage along with the new trees will make the north part of Anderson Street as attractive as the south part. The Elwood Main Street has purchased 4 coordinated signs that will announce to all that they are entering "A Historic Uptown Commercial District." This will also make a grand impression on people who are just passing through the community.

Many people here felt that the north part of town had been really neglected through the years. The work that that has been done with the sewers should eliminate the flooding that has caused so many problems for so many years. Now, with the improvements that have been done and with the new sewers and drainage systems, it will be up to the property owners to make sure they keep everything looking well at their own places. Hopefully, this will help instill a lot of pride to those who live in this community. Just think, in another couple of years Main Street will have the same improvements and will look the same from the east side to the west side. It will really be something to drive into this small town of Elwood when this is all finished. How proud all of you will feel when you come back to visit this Old Home Town of yours.

I am anxiously waiting for all of the work to be finished so walking all the way up and  down Anderson Street can be done. When you think that it is only 2 miles from Fairground Road to South P Street,  you realize what an excellent choice this walk will be. Not only will it be nice to have the new sidewalks to walk on, but as evening arrives it will bring the beautiful street lights shining to show us the way. As more and more people take advantage of these sidewalks , perhaps a new place somewhere along the route can be opened so we can stop for a cool drink in the summer or a warm cuppa in the winter and on the colder days.

I am really excited about the way the new bridge at North F and Anderson Streets looks. I hope that someone will help us get a picture scanned to send out for all of you to see. The bridge is concrete but looks a lot more elegant than you would think a concrete bridge could look. Willkie Park, with the new drive, footbridge over the creek and street lights along the drive, looks great also. I cannot wait until the landscape work is finished and we can all enjoy this wonderful new look.

Perry Boyer, who has been the official photographer for the Megaphone, is in the hospital with cellulitis in his leg. He has been having quite a problem for several months with both of his legs and medical studies have shown a complete arterial blockage in one leg that will require by-pass surgery and some other places in both legs and also his abdomen that will require Angioplasty with a stint. He is in St. Vincent Hospital at Indianapolis right now receiving treatment with an IV drip of Vancomycin. For those of you who are not familiar with this medication, it is a very strong antibiotic and can cause many side effects which can range from a severe rash and pain at the infusion site to liver and/or renal problems. It will  certainly knock out the infection which causes the cellulitis though.  I am very familiar with this antibiotic since it is the one that has been used when I have had cellulitis  because of the lymph edema in my left arm that was caused by the radiation I had during the treatment for breast cancer. You can believe that I take very strong preventive measures to avoid infection on that left side. I have received a lot of flack for being so careful, but one bout of cellulitis is bad enough and I have been treated 3 times for this.

The new amphitheater at the park is to be dedicated in a couple of weeks. Mary and Jerry Dunnichay have made it possible for this community to be entertained by the Radio Knights. This is a group that sings the kind of songs we used to listen to on the radio, hence their name. They are also the group that performs for the Senior’s prom each year that is held at the Elks.

One of the Radio Knights singers started with a band called "Big Bob’s" and if you haven’t guessed …. Yes, it was our own Bob Sturtsman. When Bob gave his final concert for those of us who had reunited on this Panther Den on-line site, this performer and a couple of others from Bob’s band were on hand to entertain us at the Sturtsman’s lake home. I will always remember this last gift from Bob Sturtsman, he needed to be on oxygen to breath because of the emphysema and only removed the oxygen when we arrived at the lake. Gayle Sturtsman and the rest of the family had provided "fried turkey" and all of the fixin’s for those of us who had gone to hear the music. We were very surprised when Bob took the microphone in hand and proceeded to sing to us. What a bitter sweet delight! His voice was still as beautiful as it had always been but he had not been able to blow his horn for many months.

Bob will always be remembered for this gift of love. He was so grateful that he had found the Den site and that it had helped him through those last months. We did not realize the sacrifice Bob had made until we found out that he would no longer be able to meet with us for our monthly breakfasts. I will always be grateful for knowing Bob Sturtsman and I realize that when that final day comes for the rest of us, as it surely will, the trumpet we will hear that welcomes us into Heaven will not be Gabriel, but our own dear friend, Bob Sturtsman.

May God keep all of you in the palm of his hand.

Sharon (Benedict) Hurst '53

Elwood, IN 

Out on Fairground Road

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