Willow Leaves August 9

Labor Day River Race The Grange announced plans for the annual Labor Day River Race this week. The race will occur on Labor Day, September 6 at high noon. The race starts at the Bull Run Campsite a mile and a half east of town and ends at the sand beach at Holy Waters Baptist Church. Here are the rules: No boats, rafts, canoes, kayaks, or other closed-bottom vessels are allowed. Every racer must wear a personal floatation device. You must be at least 16 years old to participate. Men, women, and all ages race in the same class. Some kind of shoe is recommended. Racers run into the water at the starting gun and run and float downstream to the finish line on shore at HWBC. Racers must stay between the river banks from start to finish, (including over the dam). No portages are allowed. Maximum innertube size is 38" outside diameter. The record time for the 2-mile course is 27 minutes and 12 seconds. The river is low this year, so times are expected to be a little slower. To sign-up for the race, show up at least 30 minutes before the start and receive a number. You have to wear something on top to pin your number to.

A Pox on Them! On the Thompsons, we mean. Chicken pox to be precise. “This will surely be the most memorable vacation our family ever had,” said Althea when they returned from the Grand Canyon last week. “Six kids, one Caravan, and chicken pox.” The Thompson family was stricken with the childrens disease over a thousand miles from home as they neared the Grand Canyon. Faced with an imminent disaster as one child after another broke out with the itching rash, the Thompsons acted quickly to comfort their children and still salvage their vacation. They located a remote campsite, acquired some yellow caution tape and strung it around the perimeter, and lathered the kids with Calomine lotion. After a couple days, they decided they’d rather keep traveling than stay confined to the tiny campsite, so they proceeded to remote viewpoints of the Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert, and the Petrified Forest. The worst part is that Janice feels that her wedding invitations are contaminated and she doesn’t want to send them out. So we’ve agreed to run the invitation for her here and join her in inviting all Willow Millites of all ages to the celebration.

Weeping Willow Hotel

The Weeping Willow Hotel is a fine three-story brick building sometimes referred to as the high-rise by folks in town. It has twelve large rooms and a breakfast cafe, though the rooms also have a refrigerator and hot plate for cooking meals.

There is no elevator.

There is a single suite on the ground floor where Arnold and Alice Lambert, the hotel’s owner/managers, live. They have a bedroom, living room, and kitchen/dining area. The latter is a large affair that Arnold built by knocking out the wall between their suite and the hotel kitchen. So he fixes his own meals and breakfast for as many as care to come into the cafe, all in the same kitchen. The hotel office is connected to the apartment as well, so the Lamberts actually occupy all of the main floor except the reception/lobby and the cafe.

There is no bar.

There is an old blue law on the books in Indiana that you can’t rent sleeping rooms in the same building where you sell liquor. It’s not enforced anymore, but folks here just got in the habit of going next door to the Dowsing Rod if they wanted a drink, so no one ever bothered to put a bar in the hotel.

It’s one of several blue laws in Indiana that aren’t enforced, but people around here obey out of courtesy. Like no retail businesses open on Sunday. There was a lot of discussion on this point, but it was finally determined that restaurants weren’t retail businesses.

Bottled liquor is sold only across the street at the drug store. At one time the law required that it be dispensed only by a pharmacist for medicinal purposes.

Well, it might seem strange to you, but it’s the way things have been in Willow Mills for many years, and no one’s seen fit to change it.

By the way, if you are just in town for a visit, don’t try to get a room at the Weeping Willow. It’s strictly a residence hotel now. There’s a motel over on Route 15.