Stories From Your Town

[TimothyBFan]

I've been a resident of New Carlisle Indiana since 1989. My husband was born and raised here but I'm from Bremen, Indiana, about 40 miles south of here. We are a VERY small, one stop light town, an hour south east of Chicago, 20 minutes away from the south side of Lake Michigan and 10 minutes over the Michigan state line. It's "quaint" and very old town but stifling at times. I actually live in one of the oldest houses in town--it was built in 1889, but it's been added on to, sided, etc... We've never gone back to the "historic" way it was.

We are the snow capital of Indiana because of the location off of Lake Michigan. We average about 100 inches of snow every year. Here's a link where I posted an article in the Indianapolis paper in the How's The Weather thread in January of 2009 about our record snowfalls.

https://www.eaglesonlinecentral.com/...&postcount=207

One of the funniest things about our town is the fact that we are divided by 2 different time zones, Eastern and Central. I live in the Eastern Time Zone but 2 blocks away switches to Central. It's the most ridiculous thing and hard to keep track of--everyone has to keep track of rather an event, the time, etc.. is "slow time" (Central time) or "fast time" (Eastern time). It wrecks havoc on our cell phone times.

Oprah had a huge place here for several years by one of our local lakes and it wasn't unusual to see her on weekends jogging or at the local Kmart (I'm not kidding. LOL) She even stopped one evening at the park when my daughters dance team was rehearsing for a regional competition. A big white stretch limo rolled up, back window rolled down and she watched. When the girls were done, she yelled to them, "Way to go girls!", waved and rolled away. We are also known for several of our old houses that were part of the underground railroad. It's rumored that on several occasions, Al Capone and some of his gang would hide out in a couple of the homes in the rural area when they needed to lay low out of Chicago. One of the homes still has a tunnel that the door is visible from the road that ran under the property and into a "hideout".

Here's the link to our town.
http://www.townofnewcarlisle.com/

[sodascouts]

New Carlisle has a lot goin' on for such a little town!

My current home of Memphis, as most know, is famous for being the "birthplace of rock'n'roll." Most people think immediately of Elvis and Graceland, but there's also the famous Beale Street with its string of blues clubs. The blues is as much a part of Memphis as the scent of barbecue and the Mississippi River. However, other music types such as jazz, gospel, and soul also flourish here.

Famous musicians who got their start in Memphis or are from here:
Elvis (of course lol)
Johnny Cash
Aretha Franklin
W.C. Handy ("father of the blues")
Jerry Lee Lewis
Roy Orbison
Carl Perkins
Otis Redding
B.B. King

Other musical landmarks include Sun Studios where many of the above recorded their first tunes and Stax Records. Stax Records studio no longer exists, but there's a museum on the spot filled with music history.

Memphis music has influenced every rock'n'roll band, including the Eagles: Glenn calls the style of "The Long Run" a "tribute to Memphis, Tennessee."

Also, in the late 80s, Joe spent a great deal of time here; he would often go to Beale Street and sit in with bands or do shows at small clubs. I hear the cover charge was usually $2. He is listed in the Memphis Museum of Blues and Rock'n'Roll as someone who recorded in Memphis. A photo of the famous Memphian Theater (now torn down, sadly) is on the cover of his album Got Any Gum. (See it here).

On a more serious note, Martin Luther King was also assassinated here. There is a Museum for Civil Rights at the hotel where he was killed, and you can go and see the very room and balcony where the tragedy occurred. The museum is thorough and informative about the entire Civil Rights Movement; it's not just about the assassination. I've been there twice and it's fascinating.

I love living in a city with so much music history and I will be sad to move away when the time comes.

[Houston Baby]

3 facts about Houston from my Snapple bottle today:

1) Most air conditioned place in the world

2) First word spoken from the moon

3) Bigger than the state of Maryland

[prayfordaylight]

My hometown in Pennsylvania is mostly known for two things nowadays: it's also the hometown of P!nk (we went to all the same schools but she was a few years ahead of me) and the movie "Signs" was filmed here. The farmhouse was built on the campus of the agricultural college here and I drove by the set almost every day on my way home from school.

[Troubadour]

Cool about the movie, PFD! I love Joaquin Phoenix.

[Tiffanny Twisted]

My hometown in Pennsylvania is mostly known for two things nowadays: it's also the hometown of P!nk (we went to all the same schools but she was a few years ahead of me) and the movie "Signs" was filmed here. The farmhouse was built on the campus of the agricultural college here and I drove by the set almost every day on my way home from school.

do you still live in bucks county or did you just grow up there?(doylestown area central bucks??)

[Troubadour]

I just came across this pic in my Photobucket account and thought I'd share it. It's one of the six mortuary chests in Winchester Cathedral. Originally, they contained the skeletons of some of our earliest kings, but when the cathedral was badly vandalised in the Reformation, the chests were opened and the bones were scattered over the floor. So now, the chests still exist and they still contain the bones of our kings and queens... but they are all mixed up! Nobody knows which bones are in which chests.

[Tiffanny Twisted]

very beautiful picture ans even more intresting story . what is the catherdial called?

[prayfordaylight]

do you still live in bucks county or did you just grow up there?(doylestown area central bucks??)

I don't live in Doylestown anymore. I moved to DC/VA about 10 years ago but I'm back frequently as my family is still in Bucks/Lehigh County.

[TimothyBFan]

That is a very cool story but yet a bit disturbing, Troub.

What PFD said about the movie reminded me. The movie Prancer was filmed in our town the year Larry and I were dating. My sister in law even had coffee with Sam Elliott and met Cloris Leachman during it and my niece Barb was an extra in the school dance scene. How did I forget that? The house that Cloris Leachman lived in in the movie was an old abandoned colonial house on the town hill in great disrepair. It has since been bought by the town and is now a bed & breakfast called The Old Republic. Here's what it looks like now.