There was a lot of reminiscing going on at the November and December meetings of History Saturday. Fran VanDerMuelen, one of our regular visitors, remembered riding on the paddle wheel that was docked at Broad Ripple Park when she was young. She recalled that it was run by her uncle, Carl Hess. Fran said her Grandmother Hess lived across the alley from the Rodockers and that her Uncle Carl lived nearby.

We had a new visitor named Don Hughes who graduated from Broad Ripple High School in 1954. His family moved in to the newly developed Sherwood Village in 1941. Situated northeast of 71st and College, it was across the street from Lilly Orchard, where Mr. Fisher was caretaker. (An interview with Mr. Fisher's daughter, Ernestine Lambertus, can be found in Vol.1, #3.)

When Don was little, he and his friends would lie down on their skateboards and crawl through the culvert under College Avenue and come up through a manhole near Foster Hall, the building where Mr. Lilly kept his collection of Stephen Foster memorabilia. When Mr. Fisher spotted them, he'd get his garden tractor and chase the boys away.

A film maker by profession, Mr. Hughes has made a movie of his adventures growing up in Broad Ripple and it includes the Lilly Orchard invasion by him and his friends. We will run a feature article on Don and his DVD.

Don discovered that another History Saturday attendee, Bob Hessong, attended the Nora School at about the same time he did. They enjoyed recalling the teachers, staff, and bus driver. They also remembered their favorite teachers at Broad Ripple High School. Don had Mr. Hall for history and developed a lifelong love of it. He worked on the Riparian newspaper and had Mrs. Griggs, and he had Mr. Kassig who was in his first or second year at Broad Ripple. We had them both when we attended Broad Ripple over twenty five years later.

The next History Saturday will be held on February 18th, 2006 from 8 A.M. to 10 A.M. at McDonald's (February & March meetings will be at McDonald's, returning to The Whistle Stop in April). Stop by and bring a photo of old Broad Ripple to share or come and hear a story.