We Move to Loonville

A few weeks ago, I started this series on String Too Short to Tie. I'll catch you up here over the next week or so; then we'll continue on Tuesdays as we are doing on STSTT.

Blog Pally Lin refers to her village as "Weirdville." A few nights ago when Morpheus declined to visit me, I got to thinking about the strange people and behaviors in my neighborhood. I realized that none of that was happening in the town of Perfect where we live. In Perfect, all the realtors, car salesmen and preachers are honest. The women are all comely; and just as in Lake Wobegon, the children are all above average.

But wait! I thought. Though it is ancient history, I did live for six years in Loonville. And my memory is quite good for details of experiences forty or fifty years ago. (Just don't depend on me to remember my dental appointment, or where I put the car keys.) And thus for the rest of the night I "wrote" the story of Loonville. I hope to share it with you in dribs and drabs from time to time. How do Tuesdays sound? I think I'll do it on Tuesdays. So excited was I about this that I had to grab my steno pad and write the first installment before the computer was booted up.

We moved to Loonville, Indiana in 1963. Loonville, not to be confused with Loov'l, which is a major city across the river from Indiana and in another state.
Loonville is today home to a little bit under a thousand souls, just as it was then: LOONVILLE
Population 949.
About half the population, as you might infer trom the name, were "looney". The other half were either on their way there or on their way out of town.

At the time of our arrival we had three children, the oldest just turned six. A fourth would arrive during our residence there. I had just taken a contract to teach in a community twelve miles south and west of L-ville. I chose Loonville deliberately so that my children would not have to attend school where I was teaching.

Loonville is situated in the extreme southeast corner of a very long county, north to south. This village was actually closer to county seat cities to the east, to the west and even to the north than it was to its own county seat. This created some issues if one had business in the courthouse, and who doesn't have? To its credit, the Indiana BMV maintained an office in Loonville, though it has long since been closed, which is less inconvenient today than it would have been in the 60s. I was lucky enough to obtain license number "49" preceded by the county code. So proud of my "low number". But I was young, and I thought that that had meaning. Ah, the delusions of youth!