Morocco Homecoming

On Sunday we visited Recher Park in Morocco to see what the Morocco Homecoming 2010 had to offer. Recher Park is a couple blocks south of the old downtown. It would have been the site of the Newton County court house if Morocco had not lost out to Kentland.

We arrived in time for to see some of the Pinewood Derby. We missed the 5k and 10K races that happened early, as well as a breakfast, a parade, the Little Miss/Mr crowning, and a church service.

At 4:30 there was supposed to be a Veterans' Memorial Dedication, but we did not stay for that. The Veterans' Memorial is in the center of the park.

Most of the kids seemed to be quite interested in the many inflatables and did not pay much attention to the permanent playground equipment. I thought this climbing wall apparatus was interesting. It is considerably taller than the climbing walls in the Rensselaer playgrounds.

This slide is taller than anything that currently is in the Rensselaer playgrounds, but there used to be one this tall in Iroquois Park. Note the neat water fountain in the foreground.

I found the Morocco Times booth and bought a copy of the Newton County: Indiana Historic Sites and Structures Inventory so I do not have to deal with overdue notices from the SJC library. I met Yvonne, the editor and publisher. Morocco Times publishes a little monthly. It also has a very active Facebook page, and if you want to keep up with what is happening in Morocco, you should "fan" it (which in the new Facebook setup means you like it.) The closest equivalent Rensselaer Facebook page is the Visit Rensselaer page, but right now it is not nearly as active as the Morocco Times.

While I was there, I met a Morocco author, Bradley Hartman, who has a website at www.hartfeltbooks.com. He has a new book out called Strange Adventures of Jesse Hunter, which uses a number of Newton County people, though I think the names have been changed. If you are interested in local authors, check him out.

Bubba's Pork Skins intrigued me, but not enough to make me try them.

Did you know that the only antique snowmobile museum in Indiana is in Morocco? It is in the back of the Blaney law office at Clay and State and is open weekdays. Dan Blaney has about 30 old machines there. The one in the picture is not one of them--it is only a few years old.

At 2:00 it was time for the kiddie tractor pull. However, we decided to skip that and take the historical tour, an adventure that deserves its own post.

After the historical tour, we visited the Morocco branch of the Newton County Library because a presentation of a collection of Indian artifacts was on the schedule. That, too, deserves its own post. Then we headed back to Rensselaer, missing fun events such as live entertainment, a donation hog roast, and fireworks.