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February 1, 2012
Photos and info by Mike Kellems
(Click on photos to enlarge)
Who’da thunk it? The groundhog hadn’t even decided whether to emerge, yet the LaPorte Slicers baseball squad took to the grass of Schreiber Field on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012.
Buried in a blizzard one year ago, this week the field is ready to take on practice grounders and fly balls.
Slicer baseball skipper Scott Upp said this is the first time that anyone could recall holding a pre-season workout outside on the first day in February.
Posted in: Local Stories, Sports
January 31, 2012
The "three amigos" -- Don Tonsoni, Steve King and Greg Fruth -- stand outside the LaCrosse High School Gymnasium.
Story and photos by Mike Kellems
(Click on photos to enlarge)
The Jan. 27, 2012, south-county rivalry between South Central and LaCrosse not only delivered an exciting basketball game in a backdrop that was made for Hoosier basketball, it was the scene of a reunion of former LaCrosse teachers, a couple of D.A.R.E. officers, and an alumnus.
For those who have never been, the LaCrosse gymnasium — and the school, for that matter — look like they’re straight out of “Hoosiers.” The LaCrosse gym is a twin to the gym used in the movie. Legend has it that the LaCrosse gym was scouted for the movie, but wasn’t used because it didn’t have a parquet floor. (It does now!)
Walk through these doors and you'll step back in time ...
When you walk in the front door of the gym, take six tiny steps and you’re under the basket. The basket on the opposite side is just a few steps from a stage. The seating consists of six rows on each side. The capacity is just over 700; at Friday night’s game, the crowd was estimated at over 900. Not bad for a town whose population is around 600.
When you walk through those double doors, you take a step back in time. The place reeks of nostalgia. Until this school year, the school was still run by the township trustee, one of only two in Indiana not incorporated. The other unincorporated school in Indiana? Wanatah.
For the past few years a group of LaPorteans with ties to the tiny town near the southern tip of LaPorte County have talked about going to see a ballgame. The biannual game on Jan. 27 offered the opportunity. Greg Fruth, a longtime LaPorte High teacher (now retired), taught at LaCrosse in the 1970s and coordinated the reunion along with Norm Kleist, LaCrosse’s superintendent. Greg was joined by former 1970s LaCrosse teachers Don Tonsoni (currently LaPorte’s attendance officer) and retired LaPorte County Judge Steve King. Myself and John Boyd, both veteran officers of the LaPorte County Sheriff’s Department, taught elementary and high school Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) programs in the 1990s. To round out the group, Judge Richard Stalbrink, who replaced Judge King in LaPorte County Superior Court 2 and is a 1986 LaCrosse graduate, came along.
Not only did we have an opportunity to see a great ballgame, the prinicipal left the school doors unlocked — which afforded us a great chance to take a walk down memory lane. Judge King and Don Tonsoni walked us through their old classroom on the second floor; they joked that while at LaCrosse they were the “co-chairs” of the social studies department. (The inside joke was that they were also the only two teachers in that department!) Up on the fourth floor, better known as the Crow’s Nest, Judge Stalbrink discovered a box full of old record books and found the score book from his senior year on the basketball team.
I have to admit, it was a great history lesson as the tour came to a stop on the second floor and the group started rehashing memories of the old days; the names of the principals, teachers and staff, where they were now, how they came to teach at LaCrosse. And boy, has the world changed. We spent the better part of an hour touring and chatting; it turned out to be one of the best lessons I’ve ever had in a school building.
The basketball season is winding down, with only a few more weeks before the sectionals start. If you are any kind of fan of the game … if you have any love for history … if you want a great night of nostalgia and Hoosier Hysteria … don’t waste any time. Get to the LaCrosse Gym soon.
MIKE KELLEMS is a sergeant in the LaPorte County Sheriff’s Department, liaison officer at LaPorte High School, and a LaPorte School Board member.
Superintendent of Schools Norm Kleist (left) stands with Don Tonsoni, Steve King and Greg Fruth in LaCrosse High School.
Judge Richard Stalbrink (yellow shirt) shows Judge Steve King the basketball scorebook from his senior year at LaCrosse.
Posted in: Local Stories, Our Heritage, Sports, WNLP Headliners
January 24, 2012
"This photo was during the height of the storm," Howes wrote. "My neighbor, Terry Bowman, was in his father’s (Art Bowman's) Jeep and thought he could make it through the ever-increasing snow drifts. Wrong!" This photo, looking north down Holton Road from Waverly Road, shows the Jeep mired in drifts not far from the Howes and Bowman residences on Waverly.
Photos by Ralph F. Howes
(CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE)
Ralph F. Howes
Jan. 26, 1967, started out ordinarily enough. The day before, LaPorte County had enjoyed a balmy 65 degrees. As the 26th dawned, it was colder but still quite mild, and not much snow was falling.
Then Mother Nature decided to have some fun.
By midday, the snow was really coming down — thick and heavy — accompanied by wind. It didn’t stop for 36 hours. The storm ultimately dumped 28 inches of snow — 22.5 inches of that total on Jan. 26. LaPorte, and the entire region, were at a virtual standstill for several days. Workers were stranded at their jobs, school kids were taken in by residents in the vicinity where their buses got stuck, cars disappeared beneath drifts.
Many have vivid memories of the storm, but LaPorte attorney Ralph F. Howes has something better than that. He has color slides he took at the time, when he was a teenager. Howes recently acquired a slide-to-computer scanner and sent copies of the images to WNLP. We’re excited to share these glimpses of local history along with his recollections.
“My uncle, William Fleck, had always had the finest in photography equipment,” Howes told WNLP. “When I was about 15, he gave a Zeiss Ikon 35mm camera to me along with a wide assortment of lenses. It was an excellent camera but old technology. I had to use an external hand-held light meter and then had to adjust focus and f settings, but it took really good pictures. At the time I had a job after school that paid about $1 per hour, so taking slides was more within my very limited budget as opposed to negatives and prints.
“The storm was quite an event. I remember looking out the windows at LaPorte High School and seeing snow coming down like I’d never seen it before. I believe we were at lunch when they announced school would be closing and we needed to gather our stuff and go to our buses. My bus route went out to Orchard Avenue and then on Garden Street. The bus got bogged down in heavy snow about 100 yards from Waverly Road. The bus driver couldn’t go any farther so a group of us bailed out and made it to my parents’ home at Waverly and Holton roads. One of those in the group was my good friend, Norman Garwood, who ended up staying with us for maybe five or six days.”
A few days after the storm, “I remember my sister, Barbara, myself and Norman, not having much else to do, walking down Waverly Road and offering to shovel out driveways. Sometimes folks were so grateful for the service they would pay us as much as $5 or so!”
If you have memories and/or photos of the ‘67 blizzard, feel free to send them to wnlp@whatsnewlaporte.com and we will post them in future days.
A few days after the storm, as the digging out ensued, "we needed to go to Hinton’s grocery store (later Hickman’s, which stood where Taco Bell is now on Pine Lake Avenue) to get some food," Ralph recalled. He shot this scene at the corner of Pine Lake Avenue and Weller Avenue, looking east across Pine Lake Avenue. At left is the Bastian-Morley showroom (the LaPorte company made boilers and water heaters) and in the background toward the right is Allis-Chalmers.
Days after the storm, cars remained buried in the LaPorte High School parking lot.
Another shot of the LPHS lot.
Ralph removing snow from the roof of his parents' home on Waverly Road. The snow was so heavy that it collapsed some roofs.
The Plymouth Valiant belonging to Ralph's father, Ralph E. Howes, sits mired in the Crichfield School (then Johnson Road School) lot. The elder Mr. Howes was principal of the school at the time.
Ralph's friend Norman Garwood, his sister Barbara and himself outside the Howes home on Waverly. Norman stayed with the Howes family for several days until he could get home.
Posted in: Local Stories, Our Heritage
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