Column: It's a small world after all

column-it-s-a-small-world-after-all

Dear readers,

Just like Billy Pilgrim, a character in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five, I found myself unstuck in time this week.

I bounced around from the 19th century to the present. I was in a one room schoolhouse with my grandfather. I visited my friend Steve Marcopulos in 1961when his family relocated to Shelbyville, the city of progress. I drifted in a small boat through Fantasyland. Little animatrons frolicked in the atmosphere of global peace singing, “It’s a Small World.” 

My time travel was somehow triggered by the visit from the delegates from Shelbyville’s sister city, Shizuoka City. It has been 35 years since the sister city relationship was established. A street in Shelbyville is being named in honor of Yuichiro Ichikawa. He is the president of the Kambara International Exchange Society and has been instrumental in building the successful relationship between the cities. 

I recently met Mr. Ichikawa and Mayor Takashi Nanba along with the other delegates from our sister city. It was a rainy day. The delegation from Japan was touring Fischer Seeds and had planned on going for a walk in Meltzer Woods. Due to the rain, they stopped by the one room schoolhouse on Meltzer farm instead. 

My grandfather, Brady, and his sister, Cora, were students at the school in the late 19th century. A framed photograph of their class is hanging on the wall. I looked closely at the faces in the photograph. They looked surprisingly happy even though none of them had electricity or indoor plumbing in their homes. 

The children in the photograph are now fertilizing daffodils, just like the students whose photos were hanging in the school in the movie, “Dead Poets Society.”  Robin Williams character claimed, if you listened closely, you could hear those children from the past whispering “Seize the day.”

I don’t know if Brady, Cora, and their classmates were whispering to seize the day, but looking very closely, I could tell by their faces that they never imagined a delegation from Japan would someday visit their school. I never imagined such a visit when I was in school and I started in 1961.

The future looked bright. The interstate was coming through Shelbyville and General Electric had just built a big factory at the east edge of town.  Several families had moved to town with General Electric, including my new friend, Steve Marcopulos. Famous actor and future President Ronald Reagan hosted the TV show, “General Electric Theater.”  Shelbyville was in the big time.

No company was more American than General Electric. Beginning with Thomas Edison’s light bulb to jet engines, GE was living up to their slogan, “We bring good things to life.”

Only a few years later when I was in high school, Steve and his family moved to Singapore. His father was being transferred to a General Electric facility on the other side of the world. 

General Electric brings both products and jobs to over 150 countries.  Unfortunately for many in Shelbyville, the local GE plant closed, and those jobs went elsewhere. GE started in America but like most large companies is now international. As a boy, I never saw a Toyota or Honda automobile on the streets of Shelbyville.  Now both are not only common but are made in Indiana. 

Lucky for the citizens of Shelbyville, Mr. Ichikawa has been working with our city administrations for 35 years bringing jobs to our city of progress. 

I spent a wonderful rainy afternoon in the old schoolhouse with the Japanese delegation from our sister city. I learned a few things. Three take-a-ways for me were as follows:

See you all next week, same Schwinn time, same Schwinn channel.

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