Indiana: What’s Beyond The Corn
Having seen and enjoyed most of New Harmony, Indiana this week, I took a drive with my friend Jerry Wade (the Wade in LemonWade) into the surrounding countryside. Corn and soybeans surrounded us at every turn in the winding roads. Crops soaked up the August heat and humidity. National Public Radio, on which I rely as a lifeline while outside the big city, provided serious background noise to our sojourn. We visited Poseyville, which, unlike New Harmony, has a dentist — a dentist whose prices are about one-fourth those of my Manhattan doctor. We visited a food market that doubled as a ladies’ dry goods store and a hardware emporium that doubled as pharmacy. (The word hybrid in these parts applies not to what’s driven but to where you shop.) We visited Torque Customs outside Poseyville, a self-described “virtual Disneyland for car designers.” We had a nice long chat with the President, Odis C. Meredith, Jr., about all the vintage cars being worked on throughout his sprawling complex. Friends who know me in New York might be surprised to find me hanging out around auto experts, but they forget that I grew up in a small Midwestern town surrounded by incessant car talk. I really enjoyed Odis and I wish him well in his dream to design and build cars for big Hollywood movies. (He’s doing work for some big show-biz folk already.)
