Southern Indiana Living - March / April 2024

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H ow am I doing? Teachers no longer grade me; my last report card was way, way last century. Bosses quit evaluating me once I quit being bossed. My wife still hopes I improve, but absolutely knows better. Like Popeye, I am what I am and that’s all that I am. OK, that’s not entirely true. I resolve for 2024 to stream or at least to learn how. After that, maybe I will check out one of those — what are they called — podcasts? While the world expands, mine narrows. Goes with aging, I figure, to care about less no matter how much more deserves care. My energy to help change the world fades like my energy to stay awake for the 10 o’clock TV news. I took my turn as a good citizen, tried hard to make some difference. Now it’s up to others. Swallow that, OK. I grow old where I grew from the beginning — Southern Indiana. I spend my 71st year in the same house in which I spent my first, much less in the same community. I believe Southern Indiana not only to be good enough for me and my family but good enough for anyone. Swallow that as well. How is Southern Indiana doing? I love its people and places as much as always. But is it changing too much? Changing too little? Is progress necessarily happening for us or to us? I asked questions like these for a living; I was a newspaperman. I reported on leaders counted on to know what is best for Southern Indiana. Did they? Do they? In retirement I am left to debate mostly with our dog, like he deserves a say. The mutt won’t so much as chip in on his vet bill. I have written perhaps 12,000 columns or articles. Topics came and went. Other topics came and stayed. For instance, Southern Indiana decided it simply needed another, better way to and from Louisville. Build a bridge, build a bridge, build a bridge — to be a loyal Southern Indiana type was to be in Room for Improvement? A Note to Baby Boomers on the chant. For years and then for decades, bridge talk was not bridge action. We Hoosiers mostly suffered and, of course, Kentuckians tend not to get overly worked up about suffering Hoosiers. Yet Kentucky finally recognized the value of convenient commutes. Its people could benefit when they crave fried chicken at Joe Huber’s. They, too, might find a job at that amazing River Ridge place springing up at the old Army ammunition plant. Shamelessly late to the party, Kentucky agreed to be allies if two new bridges, not one, were to link their South to our Midwest. And oh yeah, they must be toll bridges. Even some of my favorite friends insisted there was no other way. So, I pay tolls and boil because toll-free bridges go up and stay up pretty much everywhere else. A win for Southern Indiana, bridges nonetheless were. A bigger win, though, they should be. Southern Indiana also needed a casino if not casinos, some locals believed. Some didn’t. Clark and Floyd counties initially passed on the prospect. Harrison County gambled on gambling. The casino there settles in as a key employer and sugar daddy for road remakes and college scholarships and much else that otherwise might go without. Negatives persist, invariably, overwhelmed by positives. No wonder Orange County joined the casino craze as soon as it could. Local governments long ran Southern Indiana’s hospitals because, well, somebody had to. One need not be a reporter, however, to realize how, though never simple, health care becomes dizzyingly more complex. Our hospitals proved attractive to big-buck operators and, in most cases, deals were offered that our leaders could not refuse. Or maybe they could have refused and just did not. Either way, Southern Indiana is less in control of its health care. Good thing? My experience is not overly convincing. I doubt I am the exception. I watched communities welcome Walmarts to town while mom and pop competitors struggled to respond. My hometown, Jeffersonville, just cut the ribbon on its 28th fancy car wash. OK, I exaggerate. No doubt, though, dear old Jeffersonville has no excuse for dirty cars. Clarksville is on its third primetime commercial stretch since the 1960s and New Albany somehow squeezes business after business along a stone’s throw stretch of State Street. Southern Indiana adds stores and restaurants, a crowd of commerce, familiar and handy, reason after reason not to need so much those new bridges to Louisville. New housing likewise keeps developers hustling and traffic sitting. Southern Indiana turns more into North Louisville and less like Mayberry. People in Southern Indiana long told me they appreciate being near Louisville but not in it. The borders blur ever steadily. Or perhaps I am just overdue for cataract surgery. IU Southeast and Ivy Tech remain vital assets that have matured smartly. If they could be better they mostly could be busier. Southern Indiana benefits when more of its residents take to heart the unrivaled upside of education. That challenge sadly lingers. Then again, Southern Indiana makes ever-increasing use of its geographic edge — its perch along the Ohio River. It also finds occasional ways to work regionally. The massive redevelopment of River Ridge stands out in this regard. I wish for a long list of examples. Turf wars get Southern Indiana nowhere. How am I doing? How is Southern Indiana doing? We both mean well. Like my bosses liked to repeat, there always is potential.• After 25 years, Dale Moss retired as Indiana columnist for The Courier-Journal. He now writes weekly for the News and Tribune. Dale and his wife Jean live in Jeffersonville in a house that has been in his family since the Civil War. Dale’s e-mail is dale.moss@twc.com Southern Indiana Living • Mar/Apr 2024 • 11
Page 1 and 2: SPECIAL SECTION: VIEWING THE ECLIPS
Page 3 and 4: MerryM Ledges IN THE WOODS LRustic
Page 5 and 6: Southern Indiana Living MAR / APR 2
Page 7 and 8: Flashback Photo A Place of Worship
Page 9: kers built to hold the powder. We t
Page 13 and 14: cars and classic signage, including
Page 15 and 16: Pitching Hope People of Southern In
Page 17 and 18: “Lots of mornings I’d wake up a
Page 19 and 20: YOU’RE INVITED! YOU’RE INVITED!
Page 21 and 22: “We provide items for you to get
Page 23 and 24: Real Life Nutrition Nutritious Sips
Page 25 and 26: SPECIAL SECTION Enjoying the Eclips
Page 27 and 28: Winery will together host the 2024
Page 29 and 30: VIsit the the Crawford County Welco
Page 31 and 32: Special Section: Solar Eclipse Even
Page 33 and 34: INSPIRE A LOVE OF READING Enroll yo
Page 35 and 36: April 19th and 20th Home and Garden
Page 37 and 38: High school boys don’t always mak
Page 39 and 40: Spring into something new. Souther

Southern Indiana Living - March / April 2024

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