Community Voices

A Memoir: The Belle Witch

By: Phyllis Nash

I have been having more experiences with lost and found! Some are quite eerie.

My son had left some footwear over here and never seemed much concerned to take it with him, so I threw it into a green recycle bag with some papers. I thought that he’d get them when he needed them. However, soon after, when he wanted them, I couldn’t find them in with the papers, but he said not to worry.

My son did want to look at some family pictures that he had found. We’d thought that they were in some moving totes, but he found those in a plastic box, underneath the bookcase. We enjoyed looking at the pictures and my son left.

Next, I continued looking in another handbag and found a camera for which I had been searching a long time. Further looking in to the green paper recycle bag, I found the footwear!

Then something from the bookcase fell by my feet all by itself. It was a book, The Bell Witch by Charles Bailey Bell, a ancestor. I’d been wondering about this prized book for several years.

Many years ago, my late father had mentioned that The Bell Witch was quite a story, but he never went into details. My late husband used to haul riders back and forth to work and one of the men came to visit after he had retired. Later, after his visit he gave us the book, The Bell Witch, and said to let him know what we thought of it. He had relations in Adams, Tennessee, the location of the story. He quoted them as telling of how the ground near the Bell land would slide under them. About 200 years ago, the wealthy Belle family and their visitors heard a woman’s voice; then strange things happened. The witch spirit caused a male relative to be poisoned. The bottle appeared and a lone spoon dipped it into his mouth and he subsequently died. The spirit would laugh at bad circumstances particularly those she caused. She supposedly liked Lucy Belle and gave her food when she was ill. From what I understood, these people did NOT disbelieve the story.

I don’t know if the story is true, but I’m happy my son has his footwear; and I have the extra camera and the prized book to read again.

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Commentary on Church and Community

Submitted by: Richard Campi

It is a difficult situation when a church and a community are at odds. A local church has reneged on its promises to the neighbors over a period of years over issues of parking and landscaping. Several times a year this church has large masses of people attending. Parking for neighborhood residents is ignored, although in the past the church said that it would provide guidance for attendees to leave spaces for the neighbors. This spring an attendee parked and partially blocked the alley. In the past attendees have parked on private property, blocking neighbors from using their garage. When the church wanted to change to angle parking instead of parallel parking, the neighbors complied with the understanding that some parking would be exclusively for residents. The city would post signs and parking would be monitored by church members. When church attendees park in residential spots and are asked to move, they often become nasty. Neighborhood resident complaints are just considered a nuisance.

Over a decade ago, the church’s thousands of members entered into a landscape project with the neighborhood association. Several thousand dollars in grants for plants, city services, and donated time provided beautifully planted traffic islands instead of ugly asphalt for all of the city residents. The pastor signed an agreement for the church to maintain these islands and trees along the avenue. At first, several members regularly watered, weeded, removed trash and generally tended these landscape projects. Over time the church has given responsibility for landscaping to its overall paid grounds maintenance. This has resulted in neglect, gross weed infestation, and often in trash accumulation. Those plants that were not dead were ignored and none have been replaced. In the summer of 2008, the area around the remaining plants was weed-whacked about twice during the season. This year they have mowed down the all of the mature sedum, lilies, yarrow, and other plants remaining. This means that several hundreds of dollars of mature plants have been destroyed without giving anyone else the opportunity to use them. It seems that the church plan is simply to mow the areas when mowing the grass.

As of June 1, no one at the church will respond to inquiries from the neighborhood residents or city representatives. Although this is near the offices of Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, no one there seems to be interested to do anything meaningful in this assault on landscaping either. Perhaps by the time this is published, someone will assist the community to have this travesty against the community restored to its original beauty.

Books and Beds:A Memoir 

Submitted By: Phyllis Nash

I was educated in public school with the Dick & Jane readers. These books did not make for quickly turned pages, but did help us learn to read. About the most exciting part that I remember was when Ned baked potatoes under a pile of burning leaves. I’ve never tried this because I would have as likely had burned potatoes. Ned must have known how to bank the fire. My dad was an expert at banking the coal stove fire. It is not as easy as one would think. It was not uncommon to have the fire go out and have to be started again in the cold morning, but my dad was a master and his fires never went out.

My favorite schoolbook was the health book. What I liked so much about that book was the Art Nouveau colors: sepia, orange, rosy pink and a shade of pale yellow that reminded me of vanilla. I’d always wish for a bed like the child in the health book. The child’s bed was a little like a medieval type of bed—it had drapes one could close around the bed. I think I read a book about Ireland, which had a similar bed. The bed was in a little alcove and there was a door that could be closed for privacy. No troubles if company came; just close the drapes or the door. I’ve never seen a real bed like that so I take comfort in remembering the one in the grade school Health book.

One other bed that I keep in my mind was in an “Architectural Digest Magazine.” That one was many thousands of dollars and way out of my league, but I liked the bed in the health book just as much.

Avoiding a Big Bang: A Memoir

Avoiding a Big Bang: A Memoir

By: Phyllis Nash

Even after the oven glass broke, my mom still used a 2-burner kerosene stove. She would place raised bread dough in the separate oven. She would sit the oven on top of the burners of the kerosene stove and bake light bread that was great when served hot with butter, or even with the oleo that we used and had to color. It was tough being without a big oven, but at least we still had a stove!
Years later, my late husband told me how his mother had what was called a fast recovery kerosene stove that must have cooked food a little like our gas stoves. But my mother’s kerosene stove took a long time, about 15 – 20 minutes, to get to a full flame. I remember going with her to get wicks from the local hardware store.
Also the tank had to be replenished, and I think it would only hold about a gallon of kerosene. My Mom & Dad called it the “oil stove”. She was the one who would go to get the kerosene, but one day, a well-meaning neighbor called out, “Mrs. E., why don’t you have gas yet?” After that, I don’t think my mom went to get kerosene until after dark; she was embarrassed.
None of the older children could go to get the kerosene. They were not living at home or working, and Mom wouldn’t send the younger kids. I hated to see my mom feel humiliated, and I was old enough to go (about 13), yet I also never wanted to be seen with the jug and get asked questions. So I asked my girl friend if she’d go with me after dark. She was delighted to do so, and it became my job.
One time I think we were mistakenly sold gasoline for kerosene. My mom got suspicious and asked the neighbor man what he thought, and he agreed that it smelled like gasoline. She may have saved our lives or kept a potentially dangerous situation from happening.
Eventually my mom got a gas stove, saving us those trips to the gas station and the hazard of possible fire. I remember a special Dutch decal on the new, modern gas stove with the oven inside.

Lucky for Whom?: A Memoir

Lucky for Whom?: A Memoir

By: Phyllis Nash

In the 1940s, dyed rabbits’ feet key chains of many colors were advertised in magazines and stores. They were said to be LUCKY. To me, trying to be fashionable, the dyed green ones were a smart choice. I bought one.
Some time later, my late son may have found my rabbit foot and any event wrote an essay about these items for the Catholic high school he attended. “How would you like for your foot to be cut off?” he wrote. I’m not sure how the rabbit feet were obtained. But in retrospect, I’d prefer to believe the feet were removed after the rabbits were killed and sold for meat. It may not have been the case.
I think with animal rights advocacy groups developing, and Doris Day, a 50s movie star, who won awards as an animal kindness advocate, speaking out, rabbits’ feet key chains were not cool any more! My eyes were opened for sure!

Lost & Found: A Memoir

Lost & Found: A Memoir

By: Phyllis Nash

I have most admired the housekeeping skills of a butler who worked in the castle of the Carnavon family line in England. This was seen on TV, and he could find anything. He could open a drawer, which was clean and dust-free, to show off an artifact from the Howard Carter King Tut expedition. I haven’t had much luck emulating such skills, but I try to read books on a clutter-free life. Too many coat hangers are one problem I’ve managed to eliminate fairly well, but other things I need more help with.

I don’t covet or have a desire to have room-size closets that hold semi trucks of shoes and clothing! This is fine for opera costumes at the Met, Oprah, or even Goodwill. My small closets are status symbols of simpler days. I think each to their own and it’s not for me to be in the often-futile white-knuckled rat race of accumulating wealth.

Maybe I should really covet walk-in closets as they could be used to store items to be hidden. I always feel joy when a misplaced item pops up! That is the benefit when looking for a current item that I can’t find!

We speculate why a much-enjoyed green gingham summer dress never turned up. Even after 55 years, I remember that dress and wonder, “Did it get thrown out by error?”
What I really coveted years ago in the 1950’s & 60’s were the Gold Bond and Top Value Stamp Premiums. I plotted, schemed, and saved to get the 4 Vollrath stainless mixing bowls, big cake pan, small round cake pan, and the square pan. That square pan was much used for Jiffy Corn Bread even to this day!

When one buys more things, it seems for me too much to keep track of. I’d stored some new pans in the box that they came in. But the favorite old corn bread pan was nowhere to be found. Then one night in bed, I heard a big crash. The box of pans had busted open because it was too full. I was annoyed to have to get up and hated to pick up the pans at that hour. However with the kitchen light on, I saw the cornbread pan had popped out of the box. I was so happy to find it because I had looked in that box before!

So far I can’t say the same for the TV remote. I have lost it many times before, but this time I think that it really did get put out in the garbage.