The “trail” for this week was all roads, from Shawneetown, Illinois to Newburgh, Indiana. We encountered scenic moments when our route came next to the Ohio River in Evansville and Newburgh, but otherwise the only memorable part of the “trail” was leaving behind our seventh state and crossing into Indiana. Most of what was memorable occurred in towns.
Our last town stop in Illinois was Shawneetown, where we continued to run into friendly people wanting to at least chat with us. One notable thing about Illinois kindness, people did not know about us in advance, yet responded to us as if they were auditioning for a footnote in my kindness and community presentations. One in particular, James Head, acted as our host while we stayed at the United Methodist Church in town.
James shared some of his stories from his 82 years on earth. He told us he was an 18 pound baby at birth; his grandpa walked across the Ohio River when there were plenty of trees to control water flow; there were bootleggers back in the day that would have shot us if they saw us hiking; and he lost three toes to a combine. James was one of those personalities from our journey that I will always remember and miss.
We stopped at a grocery store in Shawneetown that had been in business for only two weeks. Larry Uselton, the proprietor, recently overcame a slew of health problems before opening the store. Given his history, we really wanted to pay this new owner for our food items, but he insisted on donating them to our cause.
The last friendly person we encountered in Illinois was a motorist who had five empty beer cans in the passenger seat and another one in her hand. Had I been by myself I would have suggested, maybe insisted, that I drive her somewhere. I still wonder if I had been negligent in failing to do so.
Mt. Vernon became our first town stop in Indiana. Our fortunate chain of UCC connections having ended in Marion, Illinois, Ky “beat the bush” to find us a place to stay. We landed at the Order of Emmaus Pilgrims, a semi-monastic order founded by Pastors Nancy Johnston and Cynthis Priem. The Order was a UCC version of living in religious community with objectives of: maintaining a daily rhythm of work, prayer and nurture; spiritual support of each other; rule based living for a spiritual life; and the sharing of material goods.
While in Mt. Vernon I gave a talk at the Trinity UCC church service, as well as sang in the choir. This time I was not offered a work program in order to stay with the choir. We also gained the experience of learning what tornado warning alarms sound like, as tornadoes hit surrounding areas. Our hosts Nancy and Cynthia briefed us on where and how to proceed to the basement during the night if necessary. We slept lightly on the floor of their first floor den, but the tornadoes spared us.
Even more memorable than the tornadoes was our visit to the Hedges School in Mt. Vernon. The converted elementary school now provided space for a variety of nonprofit organizations. This centralization of services benefited those in need. The Red Cross might steer people who have received emergency care to the Food Pantry in the same building to address long term needs. Parents could bring their kids to the Park and Recreation center while getting assistance from Family Matters.
We stopped in at the Food Pantry, which changed locations from a Baptist Church to a larger Prebysterian Church to the Hedges School, while growing from assisting 50 families a month to over 600. Like the other food pantries that our journey encountered, they were supported by a ministerial alliance and other local sources while forsaking larger government assistance. The other food-based nonprofit at the Hedges School was the At the Cross Mission, which offered both a food pantry and a community meals program where we had supper. The founder, Pastor Hyman Myers, has a restaurant that was going under. He concluded he needed to be giving out food rather than try to sell it.
The nonprofits at the Hedges School underscored a reality that confronted us during the journey. A follower of the blog requested at one point that we scouted out more secular examples of community kindness. Considering that I started out mainly to observe and provide testimony for secular Lions Clubs I wanted to oblige, but my main issues were about “housing, health and hunger.” Hedges School included secular nonprofits, but the ones addressing the need for food were religious based. We found this to be true for addressing homelessness as well.
Halfway in between our hike from Mt. Vernon to Evansville we discovered the official ADT Route had been closed and we needed to backtrack 2 miles. This landed us at Hawg ‘N Sauce along our alternate route, where we asked if we could take a 5 minute break in the warmth of their establishment while contacting Ky to let her know of our change in plans as she slackpacked us along this stretch.
Instead of allowing us five minutes, the staff at Hawg ‘N Sauce sat us at a table, gave us huge cups of hot chocolate, then cooked for us cheeseburgers and french fries. They gave a Hawg ‘N Sauce T-shirt to Cindy and cap to me upon our departure. I pointed out that, being from Connecticut, no business would result from us donning their swag, but they insisted on us accepting their gifts anyways.
This bit of trail magic would be the last before a tidal wave of publicity hit the Evansville area. On our way hiking into Mt. Vernon two newspapers came out to interview us, the Mt. Vernon Democrat and the Evansville Courier Press, the latter putting us in their Sunday feature. On our way hiking out of Mt. Vernon and through Evansville two television stations came out for a story, the local ABC and NBC affiliates. This led to what I called our 15 miles of fame.
Many people waved to us in passing, while several motorists stopped to say they saw us on TV or read about us in the Sunday paper. Two insisted on making a donation (we still were not asking for any), while one went back home to get his daughter because she wanted her picture taken with us. As we hiked past the Menke muffler shop, the owners Barbara and Vernie invited us inside because the whole crew wanted their picture taken with us. As they took pictures Barbara kept repeating: “What an honor!”
One motorist, Liz Gilles, turned around her car in order to speak to us, not the first one to do so. She persuaded us to come home with her where she provided snacks and shared ideas she had about hiking and community. Then she brought us back to hike with us for a couple miles. Between the two of us, Cindy warmed up to our hostess more, another positive sign of her recovery. I wonder now if I deliberately held back just to watch them get along, pleased to witness Cindy’s gregarious nature on the mend.
The highlight of our 15 miles of fame came in a seedy section of Evansville. An African-American named Joe Lewis recognized us and wanted a picture. As we went over to him a few of his friends did as well. We gathered in a convenience store owned by Bashere, a Pakistani, where everyone wanted to shake our hands. As we took photos, Joe shouted out: “This is HISTORY, right here!” In a neighborhood where many with my skin color would not venture we got treated like celebrities.
We had become “famous” not so much because we were walking 5,000 miles across the country, but because the message of kindness and community appealed to depressed areas of the nation. This positive message ironically helped us secure our next urban base camp. Pastor Dan Kennedy of the Zion UCC in Newburgh read about us claiming kindness was natural just after delivering a fire and brimstone type sermon that same morning. Ideally, he wished we could have arranged a discussion with our contrasting points of view in front of his congregation, but he and his wife Amy settled for hosting us a couple evenings while Ky continued slackpacking us beyond Newburgh. Cindy quickly fell in love with their two dogs.
We had our discussion about kindness over dinner at a restaurant. Dan cited kids being territorial at a young age as evidence that kindness had to be bred; I cited kids being social at a young age. Had that discussion occurred now, years after I started researching brain health, I would have cited the evidence from the fields of ethnography, ecology, biochemistry, behavioral economics and even child development connecting altruism to brain health. Even equipped with that information I doubt I would have persuaded Pastor Dan that humans are naturally kind, but perhaps a walk across the country would do the trick.
