Potato Fest at Medaryville Part 1

On Saturday, August 14, I drove over to Medaryville to see what the Potato Fest was like. Medaryville has a Potato Fest because from about 1940 until sometime in the 1970s the William Gehring farms to the west grew large numbers of potatoes. Medaryville was even called Tatertown. There are no potatoes grown close by anymore, but the Potato Fest continues.

Medaryville, by the way, was named after Joseph Medary, who was a governor of Ohio. It was a railroad town, built along the tracks of the New Albany and Salem Railroad, which eventually became the Monon Line and is now part of CSX.

When I arrived I was worried about where I would park. I should not have worried. I could not tell that any kind of festival was underway. The downtown was empty.

I wandered around a bit and found people in the park that is just south of the downtown. Some guys were even playing horseshoes, so there must have been some kind of horseshoe contest.

The day was cloudy, as you can see in the pictures. That kept the temperatures a bit lower and made the high humidity tolerable.

I thought some of the playground equipment looked like it would be a lot of fun for kids.

I was planning to attend an event that started at 3:30 Medaryville time and was about 45 minutes early, so I wandered around a bit to take some pictures. The old Evert House, also known by some other names such as the Joseph B Shultz house, was the second building built in Medaryville and was restored a couple of years ago by Brian Capouch. The last time I was in Medaryville the ruins of the old Horner Bank were still standing across the street from it. It was built in 1905 and in its prime was the most impressive building in downtown Medaryville, Since my last visit to Medaryville, it has been demolished.

I checked the Pulaski County Indiana Historic Sites and Structures Inventory to see what they liked in the downtown and found that even these nice Italianate buildings dating from about 1890 are just listed as "contributing." Perhaps that low ranking is because the bottom floors have remodeled.

I also checked out the Medaryville branch of the Pulaski County Library.

It is rather small, but very attractive inside.

After a look inside the library, I went to the Medaryville Historical Museum, which will be the topic of part two of this adventure.

Update: Part Two has some corrections to this part.

A garden favorite

One of my favorite garden vegetables is producing very well this summer. You do not see it often or maybe at all at the farmers' market, and because no one else in my family will eat it, I get them all.

Are there any other okra fans out there?

Toward a parking lot

Workers and machinery were busy on Monday morning filling where the old jail had been with crushed stone. A number of dump trucks were waiting to unload, and the drivers were watching the grader smooth rock that had already been deposited.

It was another step toward a new parking lot. Maybe it will be finished in time for the Little Cousin Jasper Festival on the second weekend in September.

Care Center Open House

On Saturday the Rensselaer Care Center had an open house and I stopped by to see what they were doing. They had an inflatable out in front that no one was using when I arrived, and a tent with tables under it.

I entered the building, wandered around the building a bit, and asked a few questions. They have a capacity of a bit over 150 and a current census of 110. Most of the wings in this building that I find an undecipherable maze are for long-term care, but one wing is for rehabilitation, that is, for people who are between the hospital and home. I believe the picture below is from that rehabilitation wing showing a vacant room.

They have in the past two years redone the hallways and some of the dining halls. They will be redoing some of the therapy rooms soon.

They expected between 300 and 400 guests based on what they got last year. I assume that this is a yearly event. If it is and they want some free advice, I suggest that they get an effective greeter who would welcome people, explain to them the purpose of the event, answer any questions, and tell them what could see and do.

White Vervain

After noticing blue vervain a while back, I stumbled on its cousin, white vervain, which is actually very common in the area ditches, though it is so unimpressive that I had never noticed it. With its tiny little white blossoms, it has to be one of the least impressive of our wild flowers,

It looks rather weedy--a bit like a smaller version of giant ragweed.

I bet this one does not get planted in flower gardens.