Santa!
Of course, I’m talking about my home state of Indiana… because the North Pole doesn’t have Santa Claus. We do! Did you know that Santa Claus, Indiana, receives every letter sent to the jolly old man? Even better… did you know that every single one of them get a reply?
And baseball? The first professional game was held in the town of Fort Wayne in 1871. That’s about as American at it gets this side of apple pie. We have ghosts here too, y’all. Angola is known for it’s hauntings — particularly a ghost with a red beard on top of an old theatre roof that cries, “Marie, please come back to me, please!”
Get back to Indiana, Marie!
My Mom will like this one… Elvis’ last concert was in Market Square Arena in 1977 – he died 3 months later. I think we were at that concert… but I’d need to verify. I’m sure we ate Indiana popcorn while at the concert (if we were actually there), because 90% of the world’s popcorn comes from here. Why, old Orville Redenbacher himself was born in Brazil, Indiana. And if you talk about the King of Rock and Roll, you can’t leave out the King of Pop when talking about Indiana. The Jackson 5 started out in Gary.
No where in the entire world has more covered bridges than Indiana. We are the “Covered Bridge Capital of the World.” My state also has the richest deposits of limestone found anywhere on the planet. Without it, you’d not have the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, Pentagon, or the US Treasury. You wouldn’t have Raggedy Ann dolls either — but I doubt you care.
This is already long and I’ve not even mentioned IU’s highest honor in Olympic swimming (thanks, Mark Spitz), the first goldfish farm ever in Martinsville in 1899, John Dillinger or the Reno Brothers train robbery (in MY county, no less!). How bout the Oaken Bucket, and the fact that Indiana is the state where public schools first originated, and that more UFO sightings have been recorded over Hammond, Gary and South Bend than even Roswell and Area 51. BOO!
Indiana had a theme park 10-years before Walt, the Coca Cola bottle design was developed in Terre Haute, and we are home to the “worlds largest Christmas tree!” Then you have Johnny Appleseed. Oh… and Lewis and Clark started out from Vincennes.
And finally… you’ve heard — and often said — the words “grand central station.” Welp, that was Newport (now Fountain City) and was named during the Civil War as Indiana was crucial in helping slaves escape to freedom using the infamous Underground Railroad.
So if you don’t already live here, why not? Inquiring minds want to know…
