Help me thank the veterans of our community by posting a comment here.

You can thank all veterans or tell us about a particular veteran in your life.

Words can’t express how much we owe these proud Americans but let’s not let Veteran’s day pass without letting them know how much we appreciate their sacrifice.

Thanks!
Mark

I love old barns.

I’ve been noticing them more lately, maybe because I’m watching them disappear from our Wabash valley landscape.

For those of us who grew up in rural America barns hold some special memories.

Here’s a brief list of some of mine.

1. I spent countless hours in our old barn with my most prized ever Christmas present, a horse.
2. It was out behind the barn that I smoked my first cigarette.
3. Stacking hay bales in a barn was when I knew for sure what suffering and hell must be like.
4. A fond memory I must not talk about here.

Barns were the heart of every farm.

Now they’re victims of age, too old to maintain, and honestly just not needed for farming as they once were.

A while back I did a story about old Wabash valley barns.

You can check it out on our website or click here.

By the way, if you have a special ‘barn memory’, I hope you’ll share it with us.

Mark,

I’ve known some people who have achieved great things in life, but I’ve never known anyone to achieve greater success in this world than my friend Wib Grayless.

The world will not pause to pay tribute to Wib but I want to.

Here’s the short version of my friend’s amazing achievement.

Seventy years ago, Wib met a young woman named Jean.

In 1940, he said something to Jean that changed both their lives. He said ‘I do’.

They were just two kids that began their lives together, who could not understand what lie ahead for them.

But here we are all those years later and Wib and wife Jean are about to celebrate 70 years of marriage.

Seventy years!

The average marriage these days, by the way, lasts 7.8 years.

It’s not been easy for this couple.

Together, Wib and Jean have faced worldwide war, financial hardship, and even the unthinkable heartbreak of losing a child.

But through all that, they’re still standing. Standing together in the kind of love that outlasts time.

Two people who know that in every marriage more than a week old, there are grounds for divorce.

The trick is to find grounds for marriage.

No, you will not see Wib and Jean on entertainment tonight for their achievement.

Don’t look for a Letterman salute.

Not even a plague from society that says ‘MY GOODNESS, TELL US HOW YOU DID IT!’

But I, for one, am proud and amazed at their achievement.

It’s nice to know that there are two people who truly meant it when they spoke those words as young lovers.

“Til death do us part’

Mark

I love discovering little known facts about our part of the planet so when I stumbled across this one I thought I’d share it with you.

If you go down to Bedford Indiana you will see a huge hole in the ground.

Now, if you travel to 350 fifth avenue in  New York City you will see that hole standing over one thousand feet in the air.

You’ll be looking up at the Empire State Building.

Turns out the Empire State building and several other well known structures were built with Indiana limestone.

Deep below the earth at Bedford is a sea of limestone.

Its one of the largest deposits of the stone on earth.

Late in the 19^th century America’s architects fell in love with this Hoosier treasure so it ended up in buildings all over the country.

In addition to the Empire State building here are a few of the other places you’ll see Indiana limestone.

The pentagon.

The U.S. treasury.

Fourteen state capitols.

Dozens of city hall buildings.

So, if you happen to be standing near 350 Fifth Avenue in New York, take a look skyward and know that part of the Big Apple is there thanks to some Big Stone brought in all the way from southern Indiana.

Mark,

I think I have bed bugs.

Here’s why.

Ever since we did some stories about this ‘bed bug invasion’ in our news I find myself itching and squirming the night away.

This bed bug invasion does, well you know ‘bug me’.

I mean we seem to have a governmental agency for everything else.

Why is there not a ‘bug czar?’

A ‘bug bouncer’ if you will, that can come to my house, sit there all night long and make certain I’m not being eaten alive by these creatures.

I lived for years believing that we humans were at the top of the food chain.

Blood sucking bed bugs have proved I was wrong.

Their only food is us.

I feel like a ‘bed bug buffet’ in my own home.

I lie in bed at night pretending to be asleep, then about every ten minutes I leap from the bed brandishing my high powered flashlight hoping to mercilessly smash one of these critters.

Sorry Peta.

Some folks I read about are turning the bed bug invasion into cash.

One woman is suing a swank California hotel for twenty million dollars.

Her claim is that bed bugs bit her dozens of times.

Hmmm.

I need to call my lawyer.

Maybe it is just my imagination.

Okay, so maybe I don’t have bed bugs.

But I’ve not been this distracted since I watched that ‘exorcist’ movie years ago.

For months I could feel my bed lifting off the floor and imagined my wife’s head spinning around.

[I actually saw this happen one time after a night on the town with the boys, but that’s another story]

So, I’ve asked the newsroom to take it easy on the bed bug stories.

And next time you’re watching me read the news and you feel that creepy, crawly, itchy sensation.

Sorry.

Mark,

It was of course one of those moments that we can say exactly where we were, and what we were doing.

I asked some of my co-workers to recall the moment they heard the news on September 11, 2001.

I was at home.  I was cleaning house getting chores done for the day when my husband called me to tell me the news.  It all seemed so surreal.  That day and for at least a week I was glued to the coverage of the tragedy.  I did a lot of crying that week, as did lots of Americans. 

Patrece Dayton

I remember sitting in my study hall class as a freshman in high school.  Our teacher turned on the TVs after both towers fell.  The video of different events from that morning kept replaying on the TVs.

Pamela Gardner

I was a freshman at Syracuse University, just a few hours drive from NYC.

I remember hearing that something was happening after my first class.  I walked to Spanish class and we turned on the television but our professor would not let us continue to watch it.  I think it was for the most part because no one realized the significance of what had happened.

Dan klein

I was in college lying in bed when I heard the news.

To the best of my recollection I witnessed on live TV the second plane going into the other tower. Later that day I went to work as a waitress and we only had one customer, which was rare. The streets were as empty as the newspaper boxes were. People were glued to their TV.

Jane Santucci

On 9/11, I was taking the I-Step test my sophomore year in high school. I remember coming into the hallway during one of our breaks and hearing the chatter of the classmates. We quickly learned about the awful attack in New York City. Needless to say not much concentration was going on and by the end of the test every one of us was glued to the T.V. set in the classrooms.

Kate Greene

I was sitting in the weather office preparing for my next weather cut-in

I saw a “Breaking News” countdown which actually cut-in to our programming

The next thing I remember was our whole morning crew all gathered around in the studio watching this unfold on a monitor in the studio for hours.

David Wire

What about you? Share with us where you were and what you were doing on that morning in September.

The terrorist attack on America was so horrific.

So shocking that I can’t imagine we’ll ever forget.

I certainly hope not.

Mark,

Here’s a list of some of my very best buddies in the past thirty years.

Bob Light

Paul Wilson

Jim Ammerman

Jim Mchargue

Bobby Davis

Here’s a list of some of my very best buddies I watched die of cancer during the past thirty years.

Bob Light

Paul Wilson

Jim Ammerman

Jim Mchargue

Bobby Davis

I’m sure you have a list of your own of friends or family you’ve lost to this hideous disease.

Which brings me to a program I want to plug.

This Friday night there’s a program that will air called ‘Stand up to Cancer’.

The telecast will raise funds to accelerate innovative cancer research.

Just about every star in Hollywood and beyond has signed up to appear on this program.

It will air on every TV network known to man, and on the web.

It will air in 195 countries!

I don’t usually spend my time here promoting programming but I hope you’ll watch this one.

And, if you can, I hope you’ll contribute.

I know that we all hope cancer will be defeated, and I also believe that once we choose Hope, anything is possible.

Mark

In 1990 I was keeping a daily journal.

When I read back on some entries from this month, one stuck with me that I’ll quote from.

“started anchoring the news with  Patrece Dayton this evening.

She seems like a pleasant person and very professional.

Guess we’ll see how it works out.”

Well, it’s ‘worked out’ for twenty years this month.

As I write these words it’s still hard to believe that twenty years have come and gone.

And for twenty years, twice a day, Patrece and I have sat next to each other delivering the evening news.

We barely knew each other then.

Now we know each other so well that we each  know when to start talking just by the subtle movement or breath of the other.

When I last checked we were the longest running news anchor team in America.

There were several times Patrece had the chance to move to a larger television market, so I was secretly pleased when she met the man she would marry here in Terre Haute.

She and I have always placed family before fame so the attraction of big city television never really interested either of us.

Right about here it would be nice if I said something like “we’ve never had a cross word’.

That would be a fib since we’re too much alike and sometimes simply annoy each other.

But after twenty years I can tell you this.

I couldn’t have chosen a better teammate to anchor the news with.

And I’ll always be grateful to Patrece for proving my wife wrong when she’s said to me ‘no other woman would put up with your junk Mark’!

Happy anniversary Patrece.

Good night and sleep well.

Mark,

I like traveling the back roads of Indiana.

The view is more interesting than interstates where one can drive from one end of the state to the other and see absolutely nothing.

Take the towns you come across for instance on the back roads.

I’ve always wondered where towns got their name.

Here are some of the ones that still make me say “hmm’. 

Gnaw Bone—What was someone or something doing when people said ‘yep, let’s name our town that?’

Collegeville—I checked, and nope there’s not one college in Collegeville

Needmore—obviously named by a politician

Fairplay—obviously not named by a politician 

A couple of towns come under the category of ‘I don’t want to know where the name came from’

They are…….

French Lick

Gas city

 Toad Hop has always intrigued me as a town name.

So has Loogootee. [Don’t ask how I pronounced that one the first time I said it in a newscast]

By the way my hometown is Brazil.

I’m embarrassed to say I have no clue why it carries that name 

I’m sure there are more unusual names of Indiana towns.

If you have a favorite I hope you’ll share it with us. 

Mark,