Category: blue bell
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Remembering Susie
Obituary originally posted here. Photo slideshow: https://www.tributeslides.com/embed/CFSIFRAM/dem10727/11m61217470d60e0 Obituary May 14, 1946 ~ August 6, 2021 (age 75) Susie Elizabeth Duncan Sexton, 75, of Columbia City, IN, passed away unexpectedly Friday, August 6, 2021, at her home. Born on May 14, 1946, in Fort Wayne, she was the daughter of Roy and Edna (Lewis) Duncan, who, in her words,…
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In a Sense…a Broad!
As I consider myself nothing nor nobody more than Peter Sellers in Being There or at my liveliest as Inspector Clousseau, it is difficult to make “Susie” sound interesting? I am proudest of being the Mother of Roy, whom I consider the person I would most wish to be. I grew up in a very…
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Blue Bell Memories
rom the Secret Columbia City page on Facebook… Sue Eberhard Kobuki: “Does anyone remember the Blue Bell factory? I worked there during the summer to earn money for my first car.” Thomas Steiner: “Yes, I sure do remember the Blue Bell factory.” Annette Melvin: “My Dad used to work there.” Vicki Meier Bigger: “Started working…
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Sad I am? Ha!
I do not LIKE “green eggs and ham” nor… computers…nor LinkedIn…nor pop-ups…nor naysayers…nor politics…nor some pundits…nor that OTHER party. Dr. Seuss, I miss you. Kurt Vonnegut, I miss you, too! And so it goes. Thinking of you both and trying to see the humor in this confused and confusing messed up world! Sad I am?…
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Susie, In a Sense…a Broad!
As I consider myself nothing nor nobody more than Peter Sellers in Being There or at my liveliest as Inspector Clousseau, it is difficult to make “Susie” sound interesting? I am proudest of being the Mother of Roy, whom I consider the person I would most wish to be. I grew up in a very…
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“FORWARD: USE AS YOU SEE FIT–LOVE YOU!” ~ Roy Sexton’s Email Subject Line!
What follows is the text of my speech from the glorious May 9th grand opening of the Historic Blue Bell Lofts – there were more than a few asides not captured here … for those, go to video! “Four Score and — Five Years Ago”…seems like only yesterday…and we are all still wearing our durable Wrangler…
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CHRISTMAS GIFT! CHRISTMAS GIFT!*
(*title borrowed from a chapter of a “Miss Minerva & William Green Hill” a dear old Southland book my mother once read aloud to me–seems like only yesterday…) Sat straight up in bed…me, the eternal free-lancing archivist…and woke up my slumbering cat friends…hobbled downstairs garbed neither in kerchief nor stocking cap but definitely clad in…
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GOODBYE, GOODBYE, MISTER MASSEY!
“You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” ~ Abraham Lincoln “Whoopsy daisy!” ~ Bill the Butcher “Strange things are happening!” ~ Red Buttons Attempting to pound out yet another nostalgia column–even when the future…
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Blue Bell Factory Revisited
Published by the Whitley County Historical Society – Columbia City, Indiana Vol. 25, No. 1 – February 1987 BLUE BELL BUILDING: Important to Area’s Economy – Work Clothing Produced There Many People Remember Blue Bell The daughter of the man some people refer to as “Mr. Blue Bell” in Columbia City has chosen to write…
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JUNK FOOD ADDICTIONS & GOURMET PRETENSIONS
Yes Ma’am and Yes Sir! Immersed in the Old South for longer than a half century, I applauded a steady stream of what I perceived to be genuine sweetness and the spirit of both uninhibited jocularity and spontaneous fun. Lately, I figure my approval of Southerners ended at my own front door…through an accident of…
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Blue Bell ‘Choraliers’ lead me to reveries of Jones Bakery
Hi, readers! On March 18, I sent an e-mail to Jennifer entitled “AN EARNEST REQUEST FROM THE OLD TYPE WRITER WHO ADMITS TO KNOWING NOT EVERYTHING THERE IS TO KNOW!” My letter and genesis for this column follows here: PART ONE — Hi Jennifer! Remember when you discovered one of your missing school medals around…
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FUR-EVER FRIENDS
Jo Ellen Adams, authenticated “Daughter of the American Revolution”, belonged to my sister Sarah who patterned herself as a kid after the petite, energetic, plucky little girl who lived in the large, elegant, brick, Civil War Era farm house on the outskirts of town. Sarah’s pal seemed to inhabit the original Disneyland and frolicked daily with…
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May the True “Salty Dog” Win the 2012 Race…
President Barack Obama qualifies for my vote to be sure! I supported Hillary Clinton in 2008; eventually “Barry” won my heart and most recently impressed me mightily with his acceptance speech at the 2012 DNC. However, I am open-minded enough to appreciate the poise, charm and good lucks of Mitt Romney in spite of his…
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THIS HAPPILY HAUNTED HOUSE
Each month delivers the angst of writer’s block, i.e. seeking a column idea. What story do I tell that I have not already shared? My preference, for the approach of September, focused on animals’ rights to thrive until old age, via a treatise heavily populated with many like-minded heroes I encounter in my activism. Local…
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“A STITCH IN TIME…SAVES NINE!”
Bustling about vacuuming, I gingerly avoided three or four disembodied hairballs deposited by two of my best friends ever, Tristan and Isolde, kitties named after legendary star-crossed lovers who cohabited in the Middle Ages. Nice save! I deserved — break-time! I willingly succumbed to Facebook monitoring where I discovered a lively string of conversation which had been prompted…
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LITTLE HOUSE ON…the Back Lot!
Tab Hunter, Lyle Bettger, Alec Guinness, Doris Day, Audie Murphy, Curt Jurgens, Sessue Hayakawa, James Whitmore and Gloria Grahame all lived in my back yard in the early fifties. So did Johnny Lillich, Craig Langohr, Jill Whiteleather, Steve More, Lester Gaff, Jane Ann Morsches, Mary Ann and Martha Squires. Still wishing that Bobby Morsches mighta…
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“BLUE CHRISTMAS WITHOUT YOU”
“Write it tight; write it bright; write it tonight.” ~Jay Greene Christmas arrives but once per year and both speeds up activity and slows down time itself as a stream-of-consciousness slide-show of vivid, or blurred, images of memories crowd the mind: My mother whizzing to the top floor of Wolf & Dessauer’s Department Store, via elevator, to stand in…
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One Season Following Another, Laden with Happiness – and Tears (a lyric from FIDDLER ON THE ROOF)
October concluded with much pageantry in the early ’50s as “gypsies, tramps and…” pirates (sorry, Cher!) paraded around West Ward classrooms, often returning home through snowflakes. Meandering around yard signs advertising this guy and that guy running for political office, we diminutive students, suffocating beneath our masks, not only dressed up for Halloween back in the day but we also voted in mock elections. …
Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels 