Across Indiana

Just enough now as you're a to see the show on this trip across Indiana. We'll see that when it comes to the losers and me the power of music. Is getting a lot stronger with each other. That. And will head out for the wild. On. This trip across Indiana is made possible by the annual financial support from viewers like you and by the following corporate sponsors the Arts Council of Indianapolis where you can experience all the arts in central Indiana at NPR dot org. Country boy makers of fine premium fuels like super diesel X for premium diesel

are plus bio diesel an ethanol blend refined here in Indiana country markets proud to sponsor across India. Greetings Michael Atwood here and for this trip across Indiana you'll need to ready the odometer pedometer and spend on. This we're going to cover a lot. Our first stop however is that a place where all of us wouldn't want to be caught in the floodwaters that wreak havoc on so many communities this time of year. But when the typical new and other rivers flooded in the northwestern part of the state this January it was friends and neighbors to the rescue not just to provide displaced families the means to carry on and rebuild but also to provide another kind of relief a place to unwind. Have a little fun and listen to some great music has been calming the waters coming up it's coming. Down. For there was no warning this came I mean these guys went to bed at 10 or 11 o'clock at night. The water hit one. And by 5:00 6:00 o'clock in the morning

they had water around their beds. They got in boats and left their houses left everything behind with no warning 5 10 minutes to grab what you can and get out. He lived on the horseshoe band since 1972 and it's the fastest I've ever seen that river line or the highest it was up to my shoulders. We try to get stuff up in the water take it and knock it over. So you know what you thought you save and into the water take a hit. I rest over there because we hit the dams with the brace and I knew my husband and his brother and our friend was there and I was afraid they were going to die. And. Actor to make sure their house before they were all killed. Kathy gave her the dam was supposed to break it. She knew I wouldn't leave so she came up and got me out. Her.

The tops of the signs. This much on a street sign was sticking out. I mean it was. It was devastating. My big chest freezer had flipped over our cabinets ripped off walls water heater was put in the living room. Somehow my refrigerator was in front of the back door and everything was filled with my. We even had dead fish in our house. It's just unbelievable and it's horrible to see your refrigerator and freezer floating and and all your belongings covered and floating. And at that point they start talking about how we could get some aid for him. You know Red Cross we're finding that it wasn't a lot. My wife came in with the idea. What do we do in a van a concert event something we bring people together and try to raise some money. What a better way to bring people together than music.

And I'm not sure if such. A lot of people can. Relate to music is a gift from. Anybody can turn on and on. If you hear a certain song it's going to make you feel better. When I. Feel. Down and Out. It feels good to turn on. Some music that makes you feel good that you can sing to that you can dance to and you can cry too. You ever got us where you come from what your faith is where we heard it is somewhere in your life a song is in the way everybody has music I'm all about. We're taking material donations monetary donations.

They're hoping to raise a lot of money here today who divide between the flood victims. We donated the facility. Corey approached me pretty early on in this thing and said we're looking for an event this and then I said Bring it on right here will do it because a lot of us are working a lot of hours just trying to clean up our house and then take the day off and just enjoy ourselves but you know as a home I think we found that this community is a lot stronger with each other than we could ever imagine in a joke. And I had one person for me now and I've asked him to help out on a Saturday. You claim. That. You know we always get a lot of your response when we visit Animal

Sanctuaries in our state. So that's where we're headed right now. Next stop. I Deville in a place that specializes in animal rescue of a unique kind. It's a safe haven where love for animals has taken on a whole new me. I Deville Indiana a town with a rather small population of people. In a large population of cats. Big ones. Angela is a Siberian tiger and he's about 13 weeks old she was born here. She's getting to the age now that she's becoming a tiger. Usually the first couple she's kind of like a domestic cat kind of playing don't bother too much. Now she's on meat. So now she's turning into a little tiger. The name of our facility is great cats of Indiana. The director Rob Craig opened it up to take in wild animals that people think are cute and cuddly. I don't understand that they can be mean eventually. Arthritis or what we call

up close and personal. You can get about three feet away from him to be able to see him up close or where like something is or is you having like so many yards away. People just like the idea that they can see him and to see how big they really are great cats even had one of their tigers filmed for the Animal Planet program growing up type. Louisiana University also chose a tiger from the sanctuary to be their new mascot. Mike. The tiger. Our mission is to educate people that wild animals need to be wild. They do not need to be in cages. People don't understand that they cannot be taught to be a house cat or a dog and then that's when they get abusive with them. We do adoption programs also to where people can adopt any of the animals that are here. They do NOT going to take them home with them but they do get a certificate stating that they have adopted the animal and then they get an eight by 10 picture. We also give them a business card

type card that has the where they get for free a visit from year to year or the day of adoption will usually try to help people do that because that helps the running back into the facility to take care of the animals. One of the families to take advantage of the great cats of Indiana's adoption program Quinlan the family they adopted angel. We all suffer from allergies so I have like a dog or a cat. In my house is really impossible for us now. This was an opportunity here for great cats too. Adopt A. Rather unusual animation. And it's it's just a fun a fun experience. Chris loves animals and he loves to learn about them and their habits and what they do and how they react to certain things. So it's a learning experience for him as well. And it's a hands on learning experience at two weeks of age that's when everybody wants a little tiger think they're cute and cuddly and going to be like domestic housecats. Unfortunately when

they become three to four months old they start on meat which turns them into a little tiger which is what she's doing right now. And that's when it becomes extremely dangerous. They will attack because they're trying to defend their meat. Most people don't understand that that it just takes just a little incident to make them want to jump out and. Attack you. Now we're all volunteers. I'm my husband I've been here for four and a half years volunteering and the other ladies have been here for at least two to three years. The food comes from a few local farmers. We supplement some food ourselves out of our pockets if we have my fave he said we need forming our. Chicken leg quarters things like this when we can't get food in. We just come out just because we love the animals and we feel that they need a good home and a good place to live the same as. How I always say my grandkids I treat these guys the same as I do my grandkids great cats of Indiana a hidden wilderness in a state covered with corn.

A place where every day is a walk on the wild side. Still ahead this trip supports Tong with a primer on enjoying the simple things in life. We've often said that summertime travel on their stomachs and that's no laughing matter for when the thermometer climbs up into the 70s and 80s the grills come out in the summer food festival is popping up like Sisley not kernels in a bucket of boiling oil which is the most appropriate segue we could think of for our next feature or headed to the festival known for its popping perfection. There's something about down home Indiana that's a lot like dropping a stone of a creaky old bridge into the muddiest of creeks and wondering where all those ripples might end up. Even the most remote little town can reach out and touch the US of A was something to drive in while. One small Indiana town did just that

with a rich buttery flavor. About 60 miles southwest of Indianapolis lies the historic town of Brazil Indiana. Although the town is small each of the 9000 residents hold something special in their hearts. October's in Brazil mean popcorn. And that tasty treat has a rich history in this little town. A history brought front and center by the annual Clay County popcorn festival. It's like that's not for me. But for all. One of the things about popcorn here as it is so universal I think there's a fourth or fifth annual iPad and it just got bigger and better. People of all ages come from miles around for entertainment.

Carnival rides softball games and a popcorn eating contest. Why such reverence for the exploding kernel in little Clay County. Well Brazil's true claim to fame is a former citizen whose name is synonymous with delicious gourmet popcorn Redenbacher. There's a couple things that actually inspired our festival and I have to say one of them is the idea that Orville Redenbacher was born and raised here that you know we didn't have any kind of offense hold on to this guy and we know that our community is such a very important thing so Secondly I would have to say that it's just the idea of giving something back to the community as well as honoring somebody that is so well-known like Orville Redenbacher. Oh the business is no longer a family affair. We're whose daughter Gail stilla to the festival every year. Well Brazil is where my father was born. And. He. Really cared about the people here he still has relatives that live here. It was always someplace that he like to come home to. Brazil was a place where we

used to come to often and he would be mostly proud of what was happening at the popcorn festival today. I think the biggest contribution that he gave was his foresight in this the fact that he. Could see. Ahead to so many years as to the product that he thought. He wanted to produce. Dad would have just loved this. He. Had a. Pride of. Being from Brazil. He would have. Just had to think that they would have been here honoring him would have been something that he would have of loved every minute. There was nothing he enjoyed more. Than going around slapping I met Orville Redenbacher stickers on people. The one thing that he did was he mean he always felt like he was still part of the people and part of the community. He just never was too busy or

tired to shake somebodies hand or give him an autograph or talk to them about anything that that they wanted he enjoyed the fame that he had and I I never saw him really take advantage of it. As Orville climbed the ladder of success he never forgot his Indiana roots. Even in his later years he would always come back to wrist in his wound. The interesting thing about over Redenbacher is he's very he always came back to the community and he always traveled back to his homestead and the farm where he actually developed his first popcorn hybrids. He is one of the people who did come back and visit and he always went to the water pump. At his farm. And he always came back in his white limousine came up and asked the farmer that owned a farm at that time if he could take water out of the way out and he would take a tin cup pump up some water take a drink of that and first thing you say is hot still the best water in town. And just knowing that if you leave a good taste in your mouth. Brazil may be a small town but for.

It's an error that. We all have them. Memories like tossing a football around in a field until the sun went down or sipping hot cider around a roaring fireplace or making angels in the snow bank. It's the simple things that often leave a lasting impact on our hearts. Sometimes the best things can happen even over a simple cup of coffee and a sandwich. At least that's according to Danville minister Philip Gulley who's taking us to a little eatery that just happens to be his favorite. One of the first things you notice when you buy a house is that Mother Nature is always doing their best to take it away from you. Water wind and sun conspire to level your house and return it to dust. Nowhere was this more evident than in Coatesville Indiana when on March 26 1948 a tornado hurled itself at the

town. When I was growing up in a neighboring town Coatesville was still a skeleton of a place. There were a modest number of houses. Some of them listing to one side still reeling from the tornadoes punch. But it was the general consensus that Coatesville was done for. One day the blinds would be drawn the lights turned off. The door plan. Most. People have been known to lose money betting against small town Indiana gumption. And it pleases me to report that rumors of Coatesville death. Greatly exaggerated. Social scientists have spent considerable time research and money studying what makes for a vital community. I'm a little less particular than the average social scientist. I could live just about anywhere that has a good public library and a great restaurant. Good books and good food. That about does it for me. I found libraries.

In the early 1900s the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie gave 40 million dollars to build one thousand six hundred seventy nine public libraries. More of those libraries were built in Indiana. Than in any other state. Coatesville was the smallest town in the nation to get a Carnegie library. And for forty five years it was the town's crown jewel. Until the 1948 tornado. Knocked it down. A lot of places spend their tax dollars on stadiums for sports teams and the millionaires who own them. But in 2006 the wise citizens of Coatesville decided the key to their town success. Was a new library. This is the kind of library Andrew Carnegie had in mind. A light. To the community. A beacon of learning. A common man's college. But man does not live on looks alone. So around the corner from the Coatesville library is the bread

basket cafe. I first heard rumors that this cafe two years ago shortly after it opened I thought it was a greasy spoon joint so I didn't bother going. But one day I was riding through town. I heard the new siren blow at the fire station. I felt a pang of hunger. Went inside. A couple of years back Judy Saxon's youngest daughter went away to college leaving Judy at home with nothing to do. She began to pray about it and God told her to open a restaurant in Coatesville Indiana. Population. Five hundred sixty. And so Judy set a person of faith that she is opened her restaurant and now employs 23 people. Roughly 5 percent of the town's population. The other four hundred ninety three townspeople eat the food and lots of other

folks too from lots of other places. All of them profoundly grateful to the Lord for telling Judy. To open a restaurant. If I lived in Coatesville Indiana. Here would be my ideal day I would wake up kiss my wife see my sons off to school spend the next four hours riding than go to the library and read the magazines I like to read but I'm too cheap to buy. A new one. I would walk around the corner to the breadbasket cafe. And sit at my favorite chair. By the front room. Across from the cakes and pies. I would order a glass of sweet tea. They don't serve sweet tea at the breadbasket cafe but I'm hoping if I keep ordering it they'll start making it. And I'm like Sweet Pea to drink with. Me. So far it hasn't worked out we don't have a tricky club sandwich on savory bacon Parmesan bread. Cole slaw and a slice of

coconut cream pie. For dessert. I would then stumble back to the library. Situate myself in a comfortable chair. And fall asleep. A look of E.B. White essay is at my side. The librarian. Chair. Would wake me up just in time for me to get home before my wife. So I could be sitting at my desk when she walked through the door telling her how hard I had been working in her absence. She would believe me. I have these dreams and others laying in bed and I. Thinking in that little town and its attendant charms Coatesville Indiana. A restaurant fit for the gods a five star public library. What. More. Could a person. It is now for your listening and toe tapping pleasure. We're joined once again by the maestro of the book the piano himself our friend Craig Brenner from Bloomington.

Anything. Anything.

From. Anything. Anything. With. With. With. Anything. With. With. With.

The thing. With. Anything. Finally hollowing is still many moons away but if you find yourself overcome by an overwhelming urge for the macabre the good folks in Tel city have a special festival designed just for ghouls and gals with delayed gratification problems. In June you can take part in iron stop. Bestival featuring bizarre makeup. Seminars on how to concoct them and other goodies such as these

monstrous looking costumes and excess. We leave you this trip go with the event that got our attention. The cough an obstacle race. This trip across Indiana was made possible by the annual financial support from viewers like you and by the following corporate sponsors. The Arts Council of Indianapolis where you can experience all the arts in central Indiana

at NPR dot org. Country ball makers are fighting premium fuels like super diesel like for premium diesel arc plus bio diesel and ethanol blend refined here in any other country mark is proud to sponsor across India. The the the the on our next trip across Indiana we'll see that when it comes to cruisers in

need. The power of music contains the words to. This community is a lot stronger with each other than you can ever imagine. Plus we'll visit some wild thing some wild pole and hear some wild tunes. So if you're ready for a walk on the wild side you know where to find. The.