Good morning! I am thoroughly perplexed how to start organizing the swirl of thoughts I have, so I think I will have a go at explaining the title of this blog. How did I become a Hoosier? It is all the fault of a drum kit I loaned to a friend about 15 years ago.
A friend and I both worked for the same company, his son wanted to play, the kit was collecting dust due to the demands of my job, so off it went. Not here in Indiana, but back East in Cheektowaga, NY, a suburb of Buffalo. The name is supposedly Native American (you know, Indian) for "Land of the Crab Apple". Lots of Indian names in that area; Tonawanda, Lackawanna, Scajaquada, Catteraugus. You get the idea, nice long phonetic names. Quite a contrast to the numerous French names here in the Midwest; Des Moines, Des Plaines, Bourbonnais, Joliet, many of which do not follow French pronunciation and are disagreed upon by the local inhabitants. Yet the Indian names are Iroquois, which looks very French to me. Puzzling, and my sincerest apologies including the French at this early juncture. I hope to avoid them in the future.
Anyway, when I tried to recover the drums for my own use, I found my friend had been transfered to the Chicago area to direct an acquisition. Several months of cajoling convinced him to bring me along as well. It was a great opportunity at the time, since I had acquired a wife and two children. One weekend of touring 27 different homes and we found our new homestead on the prairie. A lovely little "trilevel", which I believe is French for "looks bigger than it is". The move from New Jersey where I had been working temporarily for 3 years, to Indiana went smoothly and we were soon firmly ensconced in our first home.
One friend, no family and the golden promise of a bright future!
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