It’s not often we can say Dillsboro’s the place to play today, but this
is the weekend for Dillsboro to shine. The Dillsboro Homecoming Festival has to
be the first of its kind this year. It features live music by the Scallywags on
Thursday, Midnight Special on Friday, and the Dearborn Jazz Band on Saturday
afternoon.
In
fact, Saturday looks to be hot and sunny and a fine time to wander the streets
of downtown Dillsboro. Consider the jazz from 1 to 3 as your background music
as you take in the festival.
If
you need more persuasion to head to US 50 this weekend, how about the Great US
50 Annual Yard Sale? Zoom to US 50 Yard Sale It will be running along with you as
you drive the old road as far as you’d like Atlantic to Pacific, but our
version here in the suburbs of the Whitewater Valley concentrate on Highway 50
between Versailles and Holton.
East to west on US 50 starting at the Ohio River in Aurora, it goes
Dillsboro, Versailles then Holton. It’s a pretty ride and there’s the
Versailles State Park along the way to recreate or for housing if necessary. Zoom to Versailles State Park
If
you’re thinking of staying overnight, according to Ripley County Tourism, you
have three choices in the area, the Moon-Lite Motel in Versailles and/or two
B&Bs in Osgood, just up the road. They are Newman-Vollmar House B&B and
Victorian Garden B&B.
Big name of the week
The Oak Ridge Boys will be performing in two shows at the Civic Hall in
Richmond this Saturday. The afternoon show starts at 4 pm and the evening show
at 8. Tickets are pricey but commensurate with the quality of the talent. You
gets wha’cha pays for.
‘What it is’ award
The winner of the first-ever ‘What it is’ award is the Mud Stash at
Perfect North Slopes in Lawrenceburg this Saturday. The honorarium for the four
hour event is $70 for which we hope participants are awarded much mud. BTW, the
equally mysterious Spartan thing in Haspin Acres that cold Saturday in April
netted a reported 3,600 participants and had another 7,000 watching and
mingling. In other words, despite the cold and rain it was a super success. What
these two have in common we don’t know, except they seem to promise mud, sweat
and tears. Ostensibly the Spartan winner won $20,000 which in these economic
times would make even Alexander tear up.
Liberty in Sherlock legacy
The modern dress adventures of an amped up, electronically animated
Sherlock, Series II playing for the past two weeks on Masterpiece Theatre,
under its guise as Masterpiece Mystery, has exposed the secret CIA base in
Liberty, Indiana. In fact, ‘Liberty in’ was the early clue which eventually
unraveled the mystery.
The story was loosely based on Conan Doyle’s novella, ‘The Hound of
Baskerville.’ But Hound sounds strange and archaic to the uber-detective who
soon discovers H.O.U.N.D. makes up a bunch of scientists working at that CIA
facility back home in Indiana, deep in the Whitewater Valley.
In
fact, Sherlock discovers all when he finds a photo with the five wearing
t-shirts with ‘H.O.U.N.D. Liberty, In.’ The plot goes on, introducing a gas
which makes regular nightmares like a large wild dog on the midnight moor even
worse, a gigantic, red-eyed demon.
But the important point for us here in the Whitewater Valley is that one
of our own has been inducted into the great hall of Sherlock Holmes
memorabilia, and therefore Liberty In. is forever immortalized so long as there
is paper, video and the English language as a genuine esoteric item.
Congratulations, Liberty, In!
Power and spirit
There was musical mastery on the steam whistle of engine #126 on Friday
afternoon.
It
was broad daylight yet the ghostly whistle made it feel grayer somehow, less
transparent, more mysterious, more together, connected as the tamed banshee was
made to wail on a musical scale of historic calls and return.
The whistle master echoed the high, lonesome sound off the very ridges
of the hills rising up abruptly from the basin. Clear across the bottomland,
rising up to the tree top ridge then slinging back as an echo slightly off time
but perfect to mix with the new tone of whistle advancing.
In
this way there was music; in this way there was mystery for who knows what the
echo of a lonesome whistle will do? It told those who heard it of another
presence in the valley, one of power and spirit. Zoom to Steam Train Photo Essay
Why don’t we have a depot in Metamora?
Metamorons to a man and/or woman, if they have any sense and are up on
the latest news, would say at least some of that $100,000 grant recently
awarded to Franklin County for beautification should come to Metamora. When
pressed to come up with what the money would be used for, again to a man and/or
woman, parties diverge.
Would it be too much to ask for a large prize? Burying the power lines
in historic Metamora is a laudable idea but it costs millions of dollars. A
train depot would not be inexpensive but it would only be in the tens of
thousands range, maybe tens of tens but not millions.
We
have a Depot but it’s across Highway 52. Maybe we should move the Depot to the
trackside where it belongs. Not flamin’ likely!
More sensible would be to find one uncared for and unloved but with some
work can become an historic asset to Metamora where the depot was over the
canal at one point in not so ancient history.
Since we’re only dreaming of asking, let’s include some historic
accuracy or at least historic homage. Let’s find a railroad station built by
Monroe Allison, the Metamoran who built train depots throughout the Whitewater
Valley and used the surplus lumber, especially the gingerbread trim, to create
his little jewel of a home, called today The Gingerbread House, and in severe
need of some TLC, btw.
Or
if not so lucky, then find plans of one and replicate it to the best of our
abilities and/or finances.
It
would be great to greet National Train Day 2014 or 2015 with a new old Allison
built or Allison built replica train station in Metamora to greet guests on the
Whitewater Valley Railroad in style.
Regarding the $50K grant
Main Street Brookville is being rewarded for their continuous efforts
over the past how many years to improve their town which they properly consider
the gateway to Brookville Lake. Traffic studies show one and a half million
people travel through Brookville on their way to other things, mostly fun in
the sun at the lake.
The reward of $100,000 is intended to stop some of that traffic by
making Brookville more attractive. Brookville State Rep. Jud McMillin led a
coalition of organizations who came up with promises totaling $50,000. The PBI
Fund put in the other $50,000.
Because the window of opportunity on this Place Based Investment Fund
Grant [Zoom
to grant info] opened and closed so fast, certain characteristics besides
the wherewithal were necessary, in other words, hustle.
Government is often accused of moving slowly, but not this time.
Completed grant applications were due Friday, April 13 by 4:30 pm. Brookville
Town Council was briefed on the PBI Fund opportunity by Rep. McMillin’s office
sometime between April 2-6, and at their regular board meeting on April 10th
the council committed $25,000 or half the local match.
The
$25,000 Brookville spent returns rich rewards including: Construct a serpentine
riverscape seating project in the already beautiful Brookville Town Park on the
East Fork of the Whitewater River; create a West Fork overlook with seating and
future river access along Progress between 4th and 5th;
purchase decorative and informational pieces to be used on Main Street in
Brookville.
The fund seemed tailor made for what Main Street Brookville with the
help of Brookville Town Council was already accomplishing. They wanted a
parking lot so visitors would stop and shop. They identified the spot and got
it. They wanted a restroom downtown for visitors to stop and stall. They got
it.
They had set a clear agenda with four items and were ticking them off
without what turns out to be a $100,000 windfall.
With this money town improvements go beyond Main Street Brookville’s
to-do list. You might say Brookville is reaching into their wish list, which as
we all know resides behind the to-do list.
Congratulations to all, but, we wonder, has Brookville yet seen its
largest chicken statue?
