Tales From Southern Indiana

News items from the past about cats and dogs, fingers and toes, and good and bad luck. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Whether it’s an irritable hog, an unjustly imprisoned monkey, or an angry mother, join us for stories of bigger things that bite, and yet another news item about someone with extra toes. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

A hodgepodge of special treats including strange animals and their poop, Christmas traditions in Colombia, and Crimes and Misdemeanors in Mitchell Indiana. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

We had our own state-sanctioned vigilantes in Mitchell 100 years ago, keeping the roads safe from thieves and lovers, in their endless fight against crime and prurience. Also, a recitation of the the theme song from the cartoon show Underdog, my favorite vigilante when I was a kid. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Highlights from Festival Week in Mitchell Indiana, including the crowning of the Persimmon Queen, the Incredible Shrinking High School Marching Band, and my 50th High School Reunion, are all on deck for this special episode from my home town. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Folks’ favorite vacation activity when I grew up in Mitchell Indiana in the Sixties was staying home. And why not? Here is a comparison of the relative attractions of Mitchell Indiana and Key West Florida. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Back in the day, one of the calls of alarm from parents and educators had to do with the rash of teenagers “going steady”. According to some, the antidote to such activity was to encourage teenage girls to stay home with Mother and listen to old records. Even worse, the prevalence of “petting parties” drew suggestions of armed responses. As always, the local townsfolk were ever vigilant to make sure that nobody had any fun. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Folks were forever reporting someone else’s child to the police as incorrigible back in the day, to no apparent good end, but consternation being the mother of invention, the advent of the automatic spanking machine offered hope for incorrigibility sufferers. Finally, an amusing anecdote about a missing leg. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Marijuana grew wild all throughout the state, but it wasn’t much to write home about. This is a cautionary tale about making sure you have a working air vent if your bedroom is above the living room and your roommate is up late and committed to spending hours smoking Indiana marijuana in order to generate an appetite for fast food. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

When I was a boy growing up in southern Indiana, the pool of available friends was sparsely populated, so bad friends were better than none, kind of. In addition, today’s best friend could always become tomorrow’s murder victim. Finally, a note about the beneficial use of wolf pee in the suburbs. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Only four months until the festival! Back in the day it was a long summer waiting for the fall festival. In this episode, some odds and ends about the festival, unusual dogs and exploding pop. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

When I was a boy my mother scarred me for life by reading to me the James Whitcomb Riley poem, “Little Orphant Annie”, which was all about the horrible ways little children would die if they stepped out of line. Ah, the days before cable tv. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

If cleanliness was next to Godliness, some of us had quite a ways to go on our faith journey in Southern Indiana back in the day. Time to break out those bottles of vinegar and tackle the tough chores. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

In a town where you often waited a long time for much to happen, the local police force had to occupy themselves with something, so apparently by silent agreement, folks called 911 to report items that were on par with kittens stuck in trees. Finally a word about the bad news awaiting survivors of suicide pacts. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

As we’ve shared before on the podcast, a lot of things we might think of as fun were illegal in Southern Indiana, which may explain why folks got testy with their spouses, relatives and friends from time to time. Join us in reminiscing about the days when swearing was illegal, “provoking” could also get you arrested, and an appearance before the local Justice of the Peace passed for a therapy session. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Just as there were rules against having fun at school dances, we had some pretty interesting dress codes, with punishment for violators ranging from suspensions to getting smashed over the head with a chair. My school’s comparatively liberal policy provided that in temperatures well below freezing, the girls could wear slacks. Join us in reminiscing about simpler conflicts — culottes, sideburns and Nehru jackets — that we could only wish today were our most pressing problems. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

As hapless parents in Southern Indiana, we were almost overwhelmed with the number of things that could cause us considerable embarrassment, not the least of which was the chore of talking to our children about the birds and the bees. Starting in the late 1960’s, the school systems tried to come to our rescue by adopting sex education curricula. Those courses turned out to consist of few facts and a lot of throat clearing. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

History tended to get buried quickly in Southern Indiana, but we always had faith in folks helping us find things we may have lost, including Christmas. In this episode we share some old news items about things or pigs folks lost at Christmas time as well as buried skating rinks, Mastadons, entire towns, and way stations along the Underground Railroad. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

There’s nothing quite so irksome as being attacked by a wild animal you didn’t even know existed. Meet the coywolf, our newest neighbor in the suburbs and a much more handsome relative of the coyote but also kind of a junior wolf, and listen to a few tips on how to get past that awkward first encounter. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

We were more than a little nervous about dreaming big in Southern Indiana, as it called attention to us and posed the risk of being ridiculed, which was the fate met by the folks who once dreamed of building a replica of the Great Pyramid out of limestone or, failing that, a limestone replica of the Great Wall of China. You can probably guess how all that turned out. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

My Aunt Teddy and Uncle Happy liked playing practical jokes that involved pretending they were dying. As we delve again into Southern Indiana history, we see that sometimes practical jokers don’t have to pretend. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

They had a lot of rules back in the 1960’s designed to discourage young people from having any fun, and it started with dancing regulations. The Devil is in the details. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Not that we had a choice growing up in Southern Indiana, but there were pluses and minuses of life in the country verses the big city. So here is a list of a few of each. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

There’s a fancy name for the Southern Indiana dialect; but growing up, we just knew we sounded different from folks up north in Indianapolis. Join in to hear some descriptions of how and speculations about why we talk different in the land where I grew up. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

More a philosophy than a list of do’s and don’t, the notion was to avoid standing out or appearing to be putting on airs, while at the same time still achieving a modicum of style and neatness. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Seems like I learned how to do lots of things growing up in Southern Indiana that have no practical application in the big city. Like communicating with semaphore flags or extracting fish hooks. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Asking for what you wanted wasn’t a common talent among folks where I grew up. This led to many a dilemma, from receiving unwanted birthday gifts to waiting a long time for someone to help you get out of a hole you’d fallen into. If only the snail telegraph invention from the 19th century had fulfilled its promise. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

High on the list of situations that might have made folks anxious in Southern Indiana when I grew up there, was the fear of all the potential social pitfalls that accompanied fine dining. Here are some tips to ease the social pressure of dinner etiquette. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Where I grew up in Southern Indiana, even the words “public displays of affection” would make folks nervous and in need of an immediate conversation about sports or hunting to wash the memory of those words from their brains. Here is a guide to acceptable forms of public displays of affection where I grew up in Mitchell Indiana in the 1960’s. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Tales about the drunken monkey who lived at the end of the street and his colorful and sometimes dangerous owner. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Keeping expectations down took some of the sting out of life in Hoosier hill country. You could expect to have a nice car if you didn’t mind having it get stolen, or have a nice hobby if you weren’t all that good at it. Sometimes just average was a comfortable place to be. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Back in the day, Mitchell was a real small town with a Main Street filled with a variety of stores and businesses that seemed endlessly fascinating when I was a kid. Come on a visit with me to Main Street, Mitchell Indiana, circa 1964. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

We might have seemed a little standoffish to strangers in Southern Indiana, but we were really just being cautious because of our fear of being bitten. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

I grew up with 3 brothers, 40 cats, and 4 million fleas. Apart from staring at the flea wedding display at the Bedford museum, I didn’t much like them. In this episode we discuss some bizarre advice on how to get rid of fleas. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Mitchell’s Persimmon Festival is right up there with the Potato Festival on the old Andy Griffith Show on the list of great fall harvest festivals. In olden days these festivals also promoted fertility, and there’s some bad news for Lawrence County on that front. But good fortune still shines down on the Persimmon and its best and most tasty use, Persimmon Pudding. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Smoking at age 9 and drinking coffee at age 3 were not uncommon sights in Southern Indiana when I grew up. Hear about the unhealthy effects of cigarettes on leeches and other news of note regarding caffeine and nicotine back in the day. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

All about the strange phenomenon of tv when it first arrived in Southern Indiana in 1930, the Indiana farm boy genius who supposedly made a million bucks with his TV invention, and my own experience as a Nielsen family. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

In the days before embalming, being buried alive was apparently an irksome event - here are some accounts of Hoosiers narrowly avoiding premature entombment, plus the lighter side of being buried alive, and helpful tips for surviving the whole ordeal. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

There used to be panthers all over the place in Southern Indiana until we killed then all - but now they’re coming back, and they have a long memory! Fortunately the government has some advice on what to do if you encounter a panther. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Restaurant dining options in Mitchell Indiana in the '60's - the combination salad, Persimmon pudding, and important safety tips on toaster repair. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

More details of the Oolitic mob of 1906 that avenged the honor of a dead man through immediate civic action, plus tales of the "toy gunman" of Mitchell, the perils of making nitro bombs with light bulbs, neck carbuncles, and dangerous charity chicken. TLNsv61IXRgaid8tczcb --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Catching up on local news of the day back in the early 1900's in and around Lawrence County, shedding new light on the dangers of mixing love with dynamite, speaking ill of the dead, and chewing tobacco to excess. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

My big brother is the source of many of the stories in this podcast, so following his recent passing it seems only fitting to share a few of his stories about himself. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

The best known cave near my home town was Donaldson's Cave. Its namesake was a fascinating person - polar bear hunter, world traveler, and wealthy - and, not surprisingly, not all that well liked by the local residents. Here is a bit of his story. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Your host allegedly sings and plays on guitar the Buddy Holly sing True Love Ways. The song was recorded at his last studio session and released after his death. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Recollections of buildings burned and destoyed under suspicious circumstances, including revenge for the Moody murder, and the 1908 purification by fire of Mitchell's only university, SIN College. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

"Rough on Rats" was a popular pest poison from the turn if the last century that was used so often by women to poison their spouses that it might have been called "Rough on Husband's". Sharing storiea of some historical murders in Southern Indiana, including my home town. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Your host plays guitar and sings the Sixpence None the Richer song, which probably sounds like Elvis singing Sixpence, but on the eve of our 15th wedding anniversary, this was our first dance song. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Thoughts about Indiana high school basketball, my little home town's only trip to the state basketball tournament finals in 1940, and embalming. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

How time flies now, and how time crawled when I was a kid. Recollections of the things we found to do to pass the time. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Memories of Thanksgiving in Southern Indiana a ways back, with seldom seen relatives who kept whatever they were grateful for to themselves. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Your host sings Kirsty MacColl's first single, "They Don't Know", which was a top ten hit for Tracey Ullman in the U.S. and U.K. in the eighties. It has one of my favorite hooks, which MacColl sang herself on Ullman's cover because Ullman couldn't hit the high note. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

My three day Career as a postal worker taught me respect for the hard work postal employees do, and appreciation of my own limitations. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Lots of prejudice and not so much pride describes a lot of the history of Southern Indiana that I recall, including persecution of and armed warfare against Italian limestone quarry workers. Hear the graphic gunfight descriptions in the old newspaper articles from the early 1900's, which included reports of considerable violence against shoes. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

The clouds where I grew up in Southern Indiana weren't just made of moisture - some were floating cement dust. Also sharing a related memorable explosion from 1961. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

One thing a lot of folks from southern Indiana are simply unwilling to do is bargain for something - it just goes against the grain of who we are. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

My home town's version of the Keystone Cops makes a big bust in 1959, nabbing 5 poker players (including my father), 5 decks of cards and $110, striking a righteous blow against the evils of gambling. Hear the complete newspaper report from page one of the May 2, 1959 edition of the Bedford Daily Times-Mail! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Fond memories of switches and paddles at home and school, and the rules and practices that went with them. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Where I grew up, shooting at people and missing, or shooting them with a shotgun with shells filled with rock salt, was not considered an arrestable offense. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

You can buy a real haunted house for sale in my home town. It's located not too far from the remains of the Limestone Replica of the Great Pyramid. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Our Scoutmaster was the school janitor. He was also the smartest Man in town. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Folks today can be heard to say "I'm proud to be a Hoosier.". As was said in The Princess Bride, "you keep saying that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

For sale: a 1953 Chevrolet from a guy named Catfish, who only used it to haul fish to the market once a week. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Warning: this is your host actually singing and playing guitar. George Martin wrote that he found perfect pitch to be boring, that what was interesting was how the singer reached the correct pitch. I'm still reaching, as you'll hear. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

When I was a boy, the corner grocery store was where I first learned to make hard choices on a tight budget. Did I want candy that tasted good or candy that lasted all day? --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

My first job was supposed to be grill cook and dishwasher. But then all the managers quit at once. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

For a small Town kid, the big University held many mysteries, such as why no one was eating the squirrels that infested the campus grounds. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Protesting against pep rallies, entering the cheer contest with an especially violent offering, and publishing an underground school paper were some of the things that kept high school from being terminally boring. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Headed south on highway 37 to Fort Knox for no particular reason, we happened upon a bull, at an impact speed of 50 mph. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Strange memories of the faculty at Virgil Grissom High School in the early Seventies. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Sometimes you really have to go, but peeing can have consequences, including the a riot end to a romantic evening - hence the tune following the monologue. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Forced to play simple country songs who I first learned guitar, I noticed how silly some of the lyrics were, but came to appreciate them nonetheless. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

You might find medical care a bit wanting in my home town --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Recalling the passenger train this still ran when I was a kid, and the only taxi in town. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Someone almost always needed stitches or a tetanus shot after we kids finished playing. Our games were ranked by degree of danger. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Back in the day, the teachers' punishment for grade schoolers who misbehaved was a little different from how they do it now. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

The dangerous old clunkers I owned as a young guy are more vivid in my memory than the newer safer cars I drove when I got older --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

The first funeral service I attended as a boy may have sidetracked my faith journey. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

I had fond feelings for the cats I had growing up. Their feelings about me were probably more mixed. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Remembering when ads didn't overpromise. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Small Town real world law enforcement required real world solutions. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

The annual stealing of the Christmas trees, favorite memories of Christmas in Mitchell Indiana. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Beverly Hillbilly cuisine, Southern Indiana style. Plus, find out how to make a "combination salad". --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

There really never was any news per se to print in the weekly paper, so what got printed tended to be a bit quirky. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

New folks find out how the little town they've moved to is on the edge of reality. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

A favorite hometown sport, fondly remembered. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

The best ice cream in town was at the pool hall, which sold ice cream, knives and ammunition. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

Going to Walmart for the first time? Listen to this first. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danny-howell/message

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