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President, Senior Scribes
B L O O M I N G T O N
By Delbert Blickenstaff
Living in Grasscreek, Indiana, in 1933 was about as far removed from
the big city as you can get without being in the middle of a
cornfield. I think that there were ninety-nine residents, on a
good day. So when Dad told us that we were moving to Bloomington
for the summer so that he could attend Indiana University, we kids
yelled for joy. Dad was the principal of the Grasscreek school,
but he wanted to earn his Master’s Degree so that he could move to a
larger school. We didn’t care why, we just wanted to get out of
Grasscreek.
Besides our parents, and me of course, our family consisted of my twin
brother, Robert, our younger brother, Harold, and our baby sister,
Charlotte. We left our dog, Tuk, at home. One of the joys
of Bloomington was getting to swim in a real swimming pool, instead of
a creek or a muddy pond. Our Dad also arranged for us to play on
the University tennis courts, and to participate in other team sports
when the summer classes were short handed. The large Olympic
sized swimming pool with a spring board at the deep end was like heaven
to us. We were relatively small kids and therefore had trouble
getting much bounce on the diving board. But the big football
sized University students would help us by walking in step behind us
and bouncing us higher and farther that we could accomplish
alone. That was a real thrill.
Sunday afternoons were always a treat. Mother would usually make
a frozen chocolate pudding, and we would go to a park for a
picnic. I remember going to Brown County State Park and digging
up some red clay which we took back to Bloomington. We fashioned
small objects out of the clay and baked them on the sidewalk in the hot
sun.
Living in Bloomington was a lot more exciting than living in
Grasscreek, where there was no theater or swimming pool. For
entertainment in Grasscreek we would sometimes climb to the top of a
large tree and sway back and forth until Mother saw us. Or we
would climb on the roof of the house and run all over it. It’s a
wonder we survived. One time we built a dam on a small creek,
hoping to make ourselves a pool to swim in. But we hadn’t asked
permission from the farmer, and Dad made us tear the dam apart.
So you can see why we enjoyed our time in Bloomington.
Delbert Blickenstaff, M.D.
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