Winking Owl

Sitting on the patio last night with my beautiful bride Brenda (a.k.a. the “Head Stinker” at our Smelly Gourmet Coffee Bar, Gift and Sandwich Shop), and Catrina (the proprietor of the Cat & Fiddle Inn), sharing a nice bottle of Winking Owl Merlot (vintage maybe yesterday morning, $2.59 at Aldi’s), we were again discussing what makes Metamora so unique to our visitors when we don’t have the glitter and glitz of larger tourist destinations.

We know there is a significant appeal to many who return time after time to visit us, because they keep coming back and enjoying life with us. But, when trying to nail down the specific aspects that make our village a desirable destination, for use in advertising to grow our tourist traffic, we always get stuck on identifying the specifics.

Our conversation turned to the experiences and positive reactions of recent visitors to our shops.

Brenda and I had an experience yesterday when a large group of visitors came in out of the rain at the same time, all looking for lunch. They were part of a tour group numbering about 80 that came into Metamora on a chartered train, and apparently their tour organizer had not made sufficient arrangements for lunch.

So we got busy and did the best we could to feed them all our fine grilled cheese Panini sandwiches (in eleven varieties!). Those who are familiar with our shop know that we have four small tables each normally with three seats. That is a total of twelve seats, and it is unusual for us to feed more than four or six at a time. But here we had eighteen hungry tourists all at once.

So we got busy and cranked out their orders. Some sat outside under the covered portion of our patio, we found some extra chairs to have four at each table, and a couple sat on chairs next to the fireplace with no table. Brenda ran the back cooking like a wild woman, and I ran the front furiously trying to keep everyone happy and cheerful while getting their food to them as fast as she could prepare it.

So our facilities were not satisfactory for such a group, and some of these fine folks had to wait awhile to get their orders. But as I ran around out front and back and forth to the kitchen, I talked with most of the diners, apologizing for delays and joking with them about weather, trains, tour group organizers, etc.

And ultimately they were all happy! When they left, they were full of compliments and seemed all in great spirits (well, there was one lady, the last to be served, that even the “Smelly Himself” charm could not charm.) Many of them commented on coming back in to see us in the future. While maybe not happy with their tour organizer, they were happy with their experience in our place even if food was a long time in delivery.

Then Catrina recounted the time in her shop when she was very busy multi-tasking, preparing breakfast for a group of her overnight guests while getting other things ready for the day. Extremely unusual for her, she told us she burnt the biscuits for breakfast- not black, but overdone. (I know I’m going to be in trouble with her for writing this.)

She said she went out to her breakfast guests and started apologizing, frazzled as she was. And she took the time to engage in conversation with them and they made her slow down and sit down and eat with them (without biscuits, of course.) And Catrina said it was just a wonderful experience for both her and the guests, who have come back to stay at her Inn again despite the biscuits.

Our conversation moved on to one of the local B&B’s that none of us thought was particularly well appointed and could use some facility maintenance (paint, new furniture), but we were all aware (due to talking with customers in our shop who were guests in this B&B) how much these folks LOVE that business and as a result, the village. And we knew the reason for their intense pleasure is the personality of the proprietor of that establishment, whom all the guests just love so much because of the proprietor’s outgoing personality and attention she pays her guests.

So with these stories fresh in mind and with the clarity evoked through the Winking Owl, we realized how visitors don’t necessarily come for glitz and glitter, or night life or a large assortment of fancy shops, or even for fine cuisine (though you can usually get fine cuisine at both of our places), but what they most enjoy, and return for, is the experiences with the personalities.

We care about our visitors, and want them to have a wonderful time. We interact with them and try to have fun with them, tell them about ourselves, our wonderful village and Whitewater Valley, and learn about them- who they are, where they are from, what they do.

Yes, we also try to provide them with the best services and our products we can, but when you are outgoing, and engage personalities with them, most people recognize that despite how hard you work, sometimes stuff happens and things will not be perfect. They are quite willing to overlook things as long as we share ourselves with them.

So, in a sense, we realized, we are prostitutes, keeping our businesses alive by selling ourselves. People come for the experience. That experience is unique in Metamora because this is the only place you will find a Catrina, or a Smelly & Head Stinker, and those characters are real people who work to make visitors and guests have a great time and enjoy our unique surroundings.

Sure, there are some shops in Metamora whose proprietors do not understand this concept. But there is a growing number who do. And we’ll be here when you come to visit us.

Metamora – It’s Not For Everyone

If you crave 24-hour drive-through McDonald’s, or having a shopping mall or Wal-Mart just minutes away on the freeway, then Metamora Indiana may not be the kind of place for you. The nearest McDonald’s is in Brookville, nine miles away, and the closest Wal-Mart is either Connersville or Greensburg- both a half-hour or more away. Traffic on Main Street in the evenings is minimal- mostly local residents taking their trucks to the firehouse to get a load of water for their wells.

If you are in Metamora, full-fledged museums and zoos require a longer drive, though our area does have a fair amount of smaller historic homes, buildings and wildlife habitats open to the public a few days a week- you just have to check their schedules to catch them open. They are loaded with fascinating historic details. Most of these places don't make any money and are staffed by volunteers. In the village of Metamora itself, if you can’t find a local history buff to talk to you about the town, you can get a flavor of the history by walking the streets and reading the historic plaques on the sides of the buildings.

Nightlife in Metamora? Well, after Grannie's Ice Cream closes in the evening, there isn't much, except on the final Friday of each month when there is an open mic night in town (either at Tom's Cabana, or at the music stage on the east end of town, depending on the weather.) And then, Max has been organizing a cruise-in on Friday nights that has been bringing in some interesting cars on Fridays. So far up to six or eight cars. If that isn't your idea of nightlife, you could go out to the Hearthstone Restaurant on the outer edge of town- they have a full bar and pretty good buffet. Beyond that, you’re going to have to settle for a nice evening walk and/or conversation alongside the 170 year old canal with a good friend or loved one.

We’ve got a local bluegrass band and we practice most Wednesday evenings about 6:00, often outside on the street. One evening we were playing on the street when some tourists spending the night in a local B&B walked up and enjoyed the music. We got to talking afterwards, and one of the tourists asked about the nightlife in Metamora. We all chuckled, and I apologized to our guests saying that we pretty much rolled up the streets at five or five thirty. The response from the visitors was “don't apologize- that's why we LIKE it here so much.” Turns out those folks were from Chicago, where they said the city never shuts down, so they like to get away to our peaceful and quiet village.

Some of us with a shop in the village would like to figure out how to draw a few more visitors to town-there's not quite enough business to pay the light and grocery bills for a full time store without some other means of support. That's why a lot of the businesses are only open on weekends.

But, to draw visitors to town, one has to describe the attraction of the village. Now those of us that live here, and the many tens of thousands of visitors that come to visit the village throughout the year, certainly are attracted by something about the place. But describing that attraction in words? That's where things start to get tough.

It’s easy to name the water-wheel-powered Grist Mill, the Ben Franklin III canal boat, and the only working wooden aqueduct in the United States. But that doesn’t come close to describing the addictive qualities in the air.

Many of us who live here refer to our attachment to Metamora and the Whitewater Valley of southeast Indiana as a 'disease'. We're 'infected' by a love for this pre-civil-war canal boat town that is hard to explain. In an attempt to find words that will describe the wonders of our valley and village to potential tourists outside the area, we did a little research by looking at some tourist magazines. It seems that most of the articles and ads trying to draw tourist to their towns focus on the Arts, Food, and Music.

Well, Metamora doesn't rank very high in any of those categories. Yet seventy-something percent of our visitors are repeat visitors, many have been coming back all their lives for a day or weekend, according to a poll done for us a few years ago by a University in Indy. Those visitors, like us residents, have difficulty describing exactly what it is that brings them back.

Last night, as my bride and I were walking back home near dusk from getting our ice cream from Grannies, we came upon and talked with a couple from Indianapolis who were spending the weekend at one of our local B&B's. They were walking down the center of Main Street, holding hands, barefoot and carrying their shoes with them, clearly enjoying the evening. One of the things we talked about was this very problem of describing the magic in the village.

The woman told us that she didn't quite understand it, but just knew how much she loved it here. She said she had a real nice, new home in Indy which she loved, but a new home lacks a depth of character. Metamora is full of character with the amazing architecture of the past. Getting away to Metamora is a perfect retreat. She said she certainly didn't come for the pristine and manicured appearance you find in many tourist towns (which is a good thing because we don't have much of that here!); She said she just really appreciates the peacefulness, natural beauty, fascinating interesting appearance of the town's buildings. She repeated that everyone is so friendly. The people who run the grist mill, the volunteers who operate the historic Whitewater Valley Railroad here in town, and all the shopkeepers.

So, to experience the “Arts”, you’ll have to satisfy yourself with Pat Ramos’s hand-cut silhouettes, or stop in the Post Office building and enjoy a number of paintings by local artists Dorothy Humbarger and a few others. For "Food", you’ll have to satisfy yourself with one of the gourmet hot dogs at the Cat and Fiddle B&B in Duck Creek Crossing or one of nearly a dozen varieties of grilled cheese Panini sandwiches at the Smelly Gourmet. And for "Music", there’s the local Baggy Bottom Boys and other acoustic music on the Final Friday open mic night.

And while all of that doesn’t seem to rise to the level of most of those ads for other larger towns in the tourist magazines, it’s only the tip of the indescribable iceberg that is the wonder and magic of being in Metamora. It’s not for everyone. But it’s our little piece of America that is very satisfying.

Moose Tracks and Connie's Kisses

My beautiful bride and I took our evening walk again tonight, as we do most nights after we close up our shop, and went down to Grannie’s Ice Cream and Cookie Jars shop in the center of Metamora for some ice cream. They (Grannie’s) are open until seven every evening these days, so we know we can count on them being there. There are few things better than some of their delicious ice cream to cool you down at the end of a hot day.


When we walked in, Doris (proprietor of Jackie B’s in the old Post Office building) and Pat (Ramos, of silhouette-cutting fame- her shop is on South Main) were sitting there talking while watching Connie make waffle cones.

Grannie had already gone home, so Connie was running the place by herself, not too hard since there was not too much traffic through the shop after six o’clock.

Connie interrupted her work to serve my wife and me our ice cream, in between pulling waffle cones off the special irons she makes them on. Brenda got to talking with Doris and Pat, as I studied what Connie was doing.


Probably most people just take waffle cones for granted. Buy ‘em full of ice cream, and they taste great and crunchy all the way to the bottom of the cone. But, as I came to realize, there is a real art and skill to making great waffle cones. They are so good that we’ve had people write emails to the Metamora website asking us where they get those great waffle cones from (we tell them they’ve got to go to Grannies to get them.)


Connie was turning out about two waffle cones every two minutes, using two grills. The work station is very hot and steamy as the waffle irons are closed on fresh batter each time. I asked her how many of the cones she had to make- she said three batches was her goal today. I thought, that doesn’t sound too bad- only three batches.

Connie and her waffle cone making art

Then she said that there were about sixty cones to a batch. That’s a hundred and eighty cones that evening. I asked her how many evenings a week she spent doing that, and the answer was Wednesday through Sunday, usually three batches each of those days, and sometimes more during the day depending on how much business there was.

That’s a lot of waffle cones!

 As I studied Connie’s fluid motions making the cones as she talked with me, I admired the skill involved. The perfect amount of batter must be dipped onto the iron- too much and there is too much waste (I saw very little waste around her waffle irons) and too little doesn’t give you a full sized cone. Close the iron slowly and carefully. When I asked, she said if you accidentally dropped the top half of the iron when closing it, you had to hurry up and dip more batter into that grill to make a full cone, because dropping the top would splash out about half the batter, making a mess on the clothing of the cone-making person.


Once the hot waffle comes off the grill, with her bare hands, she quickly places the soft waffle on a cute little waffle-rolling device, using a waffle-rolling aluminum-looking cone-shaped thingy with a handle to quickly roll the soft waffle into the proper shape, then shove the shaped cone into a paper cone-holder. She has to move quickly because the sucker is hot!


She can slow down once the cone is in the paper holder, but she isn’t done yet. We now get to the headline subject of Connie’s kisses.


The final step in making the waffle cone is to take a Hershey’s chocolate kiss (I hope I’m not violating any trademark laws here) of the saucer in front of her and place it in the bottom of the cone, pointy-side down. A visual check is immediately required to ensure proper positioning of the kiss.


As I watched and discussed this whole process with Connie, I noticed that about half the time she tossed or dropped the kiss in place and immediately put the cone in the rack to cool, whereas the other half of the time she had to use a table knife to adjust the position of the kiss. She told me it’s a skill thing- sometimes she has better aim.


As I continued to watch, her little saucer ran out of kisses. She went to her freezer and came back with the saucer full again- but they were all wrapped in foil, just like you see ‘em in the grocery store. While we talked, she patiently unwrapped each kiss. Let’s see, a hundred and eighty kisses an evening…. She said they buy them ten pounds at a time. Gotta unwrap them a handful at a time because if you unwrap them too soon, they’ll melt.


So, every time you eat a waffle cone at Grannie’s, you are getting one of Connie’s kisses. Which I guess doesn’t sound too bad, unless you go there when her dad, Paul, is making the cones, in which case every cone contains one of Paul’s kisses. Now there’s something to think about!


Intent on learning the entire waffle cone making business, I asked Connie about the batter. It’s a mix they purchase from Gold Medal supply in Indianapolis. But, of course, the mix is “doctored up” to make it “right” for Connie and Grannie. Secret process, of course. But she said the people at Gold Medal told them they go through more of the mix than anyone else they know. The stuff comes thirty pounds to a case, and they just got another ten cases in.


I didn’t tell you about Connie’s “bucketing” process to store the cones without crushing until used, but you can ask her yourself about that. The only thing I’ll tell you about this is that they are going to be in trouble when their current bucket supply gets used up, because there ice cream is now delivered in cardboard pails instead of plastic, and the cardboard ones can’t be re-used for storing waffle cones (or anything else, for that matter.)


So, to wrap up this article, Connie buys her kisses ten pounds at time at Sam’s, and passes ‘em out one at a time to everyone who buys a waffle cone full of ice cream.


Oh, and Moose Tracks? Absolutely my favorite ice cream flavor at Grannies- after all, it’s got both peanut butter and chocolate in it!

Rambling Thoughts on Metamora Log Cabins

My wife and I just returned from an evening walk around our home town village of Metamora. It is so pleasant, with the corn coming up in the fields (finally, after a late start due to all the rain) and the low-in-the-sky sun casting wonderfully bright shadows (bright shadows ?!) over the quaint buildings.


We walked down Main Street through the heart of the historic district, down to the Firehouse and then around the back of the village down Mount Street past Al and Pat’s house (the big yellow house whose historic name is the Gordon Brother’s Double Residence), where we continued on into Duck Creek Crossing past the two beautiful log cabins owned by Bonnie.

The shop in the one cabin (Brook Hollow Creations, log cabin number one) will not be opened until Labor Day, and may not open again next year, another sign of the ongoing economic shrinkage of Metamora. The other (The Red Sleigh, log cabin number two) Bonnie opens every weekend. Walking past these two fascinating, well-kept cabins caused us to count how many log cabins there were in Duck Creek Crossing. While there were no log cabins in town originally, their presence since the early 1970's are sort of a Metamora icon to many tourists.  We came up with the number eleven twelve.

Besides Bonnie’s two cabins, the next one up is Pam and Ron Colvin’s (Wood Works Etc., where they make a lot of their wood furniture) (log cabin number three), followed by Dorothy Wagner’s cabin (Country Peddlers) (log cabin number four) with her great smelling candle selection.

Number five is right next to Country Peddler’s, and I think the people who were in that shop finally gave up on business in Metamora as they had been promising to do for years. A look through the window showed it to be empty.

Number six is at the end of the row, just before the public restrooms, and is known by many as Button’s & Bow’s, a great little place full of miniatures and hand-crafted padded photo albums and other cool stuff. The three ladies that run this shop are faithfully open several days a week.

Before we got to number six, we had already passed numbers seven and eight on the opposite side of the walkway. Both are owned by Jeannie, neither is a shop and both are for sale.

We continued walking up past the Cat & the Fiddle B&B and Food/Gift Shop now run by Catrina (of great local fame, currently the Catrina of the local Baggy Bottoms Boys music group) , and Don’s long-present Wood Shack (Don is thankfully still with us after beating cancer last year) into the Duck Creek Crossing gravel parking area. Turning east in the parking lot, you find yourself staring at log cabin number nine, Angie’s delightful Serendipity Frog.


And just on the other side of the parking lot is Bob O’Rourke’s log cabin (number ten) that doesn’t look like a log cabin from the outside because of the siding now installed, but once you step inside, it is unmistakably an 1811 log cabin moved into Duck Creek in the early 1970’s from Tanner’s Creek in Dearborn County. I know a bit of the history of this cabin because it was our first shop in town eight years ago. Bob’s got the place for sale, price recently dropped to about $80K, if you’re looking for a great little shop in town. Bob’s health hasn’t been the greatest lately- his doctor just made him quit his position on the local Sewer Board. His wife, Chi, had a pretty bad fall recently, so they are both hurting lately. These two have been a significant part of the village life over their close to thirty year business presence.

As we kept walking, we passed Marc and Rachel’s place, the Metamora Country Store, now sadly closed. The bottom half of the structure looks like a log cabin (the upper half has siding) so, right or wrong, we’re counting that as log cabin number eleven.

And I almost missed number twelve- The Leather Hatchery. Rose Marie would be upset with me if I forgot them. Her hubby Dale used to work with my Dad back when they were both Air Traffic Controllers. The Hartledges are still open for business with their leather products on weekends.

Bear with me for a minute: Log cabins closed with no business in them- numbers five, seven, eight, ten and eleven. Open, at least on weekends, numbers two, three, four, six, nine and twelve. Open late in the year and probably not next year- number one.

Almost half the log cabins have no businesses in them. That’s sad. It’s also typical of the non-log-cabin buildings in the village as a whole. That’s sad also. These log cabins represent so much of our nation’s history, just like so many of the other buildings in town.


The past couple of years has been pretty rough on Metamora. We think its mostly due to a lousy economy, but for whatever the reason, tourism is down, resulting in a number of businesses closed. And that makes it even more of a challenge for those of us still here to keep the history alive. But we’ll keep at it, regardless, because we love this place, the beauty and history of the canal and railroad era, and the gorgeous Whitewater Valley.  It's like a disease some of us have contracted- this places infects you to where you just love it so much.  A number of Metamorons have contracted it- there doesn't seem to be a cure.


p.s.- Lest my nostalgia make anyone think the place is dead, very much the opposite is true. Besides the people already mentioned by name in this post, there are also a number of others thriving in the diminished business environment.


In Duck Creek, there is also Tom and Monica at the Fudge Shop, Janice at Kaleidosaurus, Kathy at the restaurant, Joy with a lot of handmade things and that gorgeous Lenox porcelain at the Briarpatch, Mr. Ed’s Shop, and of course the jewel of Duck Creek, the Cranberry Junction Gift Shop run by Paul and Shari.


And then on down Main Street there’s still Chris and Myrna’s Unique Creations, antique shops run by Nancy, Dave, and George and Gail train and book shop, Anne’s two shops, Donna’s fudge shop, and others. Not to mention our own shop, the Smelly Gourmet. And Doris just opened Jackie B's where Jane & Friends used to be.  (It still up in the air if Tom will actually open a restaurant or juice bar where Jane's Road Less Travelled Cafe used to be- time will tell.)  Can’t name ‘em all.

The big move of the year award probably goes to Grannie and Connie for moving Grannie’s Ice Cream and Cookie Jar shop into the corner stone building at Columbia Street and Lover’s Lane building recently vacated by Judy (who retired after 30+ years and closed her shop, the Lace Place, to have time to take care of her father.) They’re moving a lot of ice cream and cookie jars these days.


So there’s still a lot going on in Metamora. The State Historic Site still anchors the village by running the Grist Mill and Canal Boat. So come out and check us out.

Small Towns Are Like A Little Baby

Metamora in some ways is like a little baby- it needs a lot of attention from caring people in order to flourish.

I suppose big towns and cities are the same way, but there are more people to go around and do the work in a large population center- and more money too. But our little village of Metamora only has a few hundred people in residence, and many of those just sleep in their quaint little historic homes, mostly on the north side of the canal.

The number of Metamora shopkeepers or business owners that are lucky enough to live in or near the town and care about keeping the history intact, and have the time or resources to actually work at it, is pretty small. Maybe 20 or 30 people. This number includes several local people who don't operate a business in the historic district, but are just as fascinated with the village, and willing to help out.

Those are the ones that make most of the plans and arrangements for the annual Metamora events throughout the year, try to keep the business directories up to date for our visitors (the tourists), get the advertising things made up, decorations put up and taken down, etc. And of course, work their own jobs or operate their own business at the same time.

So if some things aren't always perfect, you'll have to forgive us. We'll try harder next time. If we can just figure out how to re-arrange or stretch some more hours.

But I think we all do it because we think Metamora is one of the most fascinating places in the country. We certainly don't do it for money- there isn't much of that around.

Metamora is truly beautiful and unique. You can almost taste the history of a bygone era that was so important to forming our great nation. So our "little baby" is older than the civil war, but still needs a lot of care to see it flourish.

And that is why we give it our energy- we do it for love of history and the American small town.

Fourth Time's A Charm

See the article below to understand the headline here.

Old Towns and Modern Computers

I guess the 1850's vintage town of Metamora was never supposed to be modernized- it resists most forms of modernization.

Take internet access for example: There is no cable internet access, nor DSL or high-speed wireless. You CAN get Verizon broadband, but it works only when it feels like it, which is a lot of the time, but fails at the critical moment. As best I can figure, there must be a few of the old town ghosts that monitor people's computer usage and send out disruptive energy waves at just the right time...

Then, there is cell-phone service. None work unless you've got Verizon, so don't bother with your AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile- you get the picture.

Computers just don't seem to function well in the rarified Metamora air- I'm sure some geek could come up with a technical reason for this, but I just know it's true.  Probably why a lot of local people just don't bother with them- half our locals can't even spell "PC".  But then again, more modernization will just erase the term "PC" anyway as it gets replaced by "Smart Phone", another challenge for the old ghosts to take on.

Attitudes of some long-time residents are the same way- they resist modernization of such concepts as incorporation, new sewer systems, working WITH other local merchants and county officials instead of bellyaching ABOUT them.

But then again, I guess the lack of modernization is part of the charm of living here. Sure reminds of me of living in Andy Griffith's Mayberry RFD. Which really IS charming, knowing that this form of community still exists as a part of living history.

Now trying for the FOURTH time to publish this blog article from my computer throught the Verizon broadband thing.....

Innaugural Towpath 10K Dash

Many of the handful of visitors that come through Metamora during the winter ask when the "season" begins in Metamora. While there is no official "season", the best answer to the question for this year 2011 is probaby the innaugural Towpath 10K (10,000 meter) Dash that will take runners through the town (past scenes like the old canal boat pictured below) and down the Whitewater Canal Hiking/Biking Trail. More than 500 runners are expected Saturday morning, May 21, 2011, to participate in this new event sponsored by the Whitewater Canal State Historic Site.

Starting around 8 a.m., the events will include a breakfast at the Metamora Firehouse for everyone who comes (free will offering) and live music by Metamora's own Catrina and the Baggy Bottom Boys leading up to the awards presentation at the gazebo in the park.

The Grist Mill reopens for the year on April 1st, and the canal boat begins running again on May 1st, so both will be open that Saturday for all. Full of scenic images and rich in transportation history, our village welcomes back the hundreds of thousands of annual visitors that breathe life into the pleasant springtime scenery.