Willow Leaves, June 14

Father/Son Campout This Weekend Fathers and sons will gather at the Bull Run campsite for a the annual Father/Son campout. There are numerous entertainments planned for the event. Friday at 4:00 p.m. the dads and their off-spring will meet at fountain square for the hike-out. They will follow clues that will lead the teams by several routes on a scavenger hunt. The teams have to find all the items on their lists in order to have dinner at the campsite as much of what they are sent to find is dinner. When they reach the campsite, the fire will be burning and after camp is set up dinner will be served. Music around the campfire will be provided by John Voigt of North Manchester. There’s sure to be a spooky story or two told after the sun goes down. The traditional bullguard will be set around the camp and it is likely that in the early hours of Saturday morning you’ll be able to hear the bull-roarers humming from up the river as the kids start to roll out of bed. Saturday will be a day of woodcraft and fishing with a variety of contests and competitions organized by the Grange. Sunday morning the dads and boys will break camp and hike into town for a pancake breakfast back at Fountain Square sponsored by the Merchant’s Association. Each of the three churches will have a special Fathers Day service and welcome the dads and their sons unshaven and unshowered. Makes us remember what Fathers Day is all about.

Town Council Meeting The town council will hold its monthly meeting Tuesday evening at 7:00 at the Fire Station. As always the meeting is open to the citizens. This month’s meeting will hear the first report of the Millenium Planning Committee. The committee, chaired by Bill Rasmussen, plans a complete remake of Fountain Square for the festivities that are slated to go for 24 hours, celebrating each New Year in all timezones of the world. This is in keeping with a long tradition of Indiana having its own time and not being beholden to any other authority. The first broadcast of the new millenium from Kiribati is scheduled at 7:00 a.m. on December 31 here in Willow Mills. The committee intends to keep the celebration going all day long and until 6:00 a.m. on New Year's Day when the broadcast from French Polynesia will mark the whole world having entered the new millenium.

Bull Run Campsite

Willow Mills is the kind of place where people show up for no apparent reason and then just stay. Take Robin and Jackie Greenwald for example.

They were a young couple who were ready to take on the world in high power jobs. Robin graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Jackie had a teaching degree and planned to find a nice English Literature class to teach. Robin had been accepted to start his Masters work at prestigious Tulane University. So a month after graduation they got married and set out in Robin’s old VW bug for a leisurely honeymoon drive south to Oklahoma.

They decided to take the rest of the summer and just wind their way south on backroads, camping out as they went. And that is what brought them one summer evening to Josephine’s café in Willow Mills to enjoy a pork tenderloin sandwich and find a place to camp.

There is a spot just above the millpond where the river is very wide and shallow. The banks widen out as well and it’s made a popular picnic spot for canoeists from The river side and drivers on the roadside. Over the years it has become an unofficial roadside rest area and sometime campsite. It was there that the couple set up their little tent and spread their sleeping bags. Late that night they were lulled to sleep by the gentle gurgle of the river and the occasional chirp of a bullfrog.

It was just after sunrise that their tent was unceremoniously ripped from over them by a wild-looking bull that couldn’t shake it from its horns and dragged it behind as it plunged into the river. As the two clutched each other in fear, a farmer in pajamas followed by two barking dogs rushed down the river bank and grabbed hold of a trailing tent peg to try to bring the bull back to shore. The bull proved too much for him, however, and the farmer was soon face-down in the river being pulled along by the frantic bull and still chasing dogs.

About that time a police car with siren and lights at full pulled in next to Robin’s VW. He barked into a walky-talky as he jumped out of the car directing a firetruck to the iron bridge above the dam. They turned back toward the river as a flashbulb went off in their eyes. Then the newspaper reporter shoved a card at them and said to come to his office this morning and he’d buy them a cup of coffee. A tractor cut across the brush above them and drove down the riverbank toward the millpond with one teenage boy driving and another standing on the fender twirling a rope like a lasso.

Robin and Jackie dove down into their sleeping bag and pulled it closed above their heads as they listened to more voices arriving and then following the chase downstream. When things got quiet again they poked their heads cautiously out of the sleeping bag. Coming toward them was a boy on a bicycle. He stopped and pulled out a newspaper from his saddlebags.

“Want a morning paper?” he asked tossing it to them. Then he pedaled on after the rest of the chase.

Well, Robin and Jackie got caught up in the town spirit that displayed itself later that day and after they started off south again they turned around and came back to Willow Mills. Oh, Robin went on to get his Masters Degree, but then they found themselves back in Willow Mills again. Jackie still teaches in North Manchester but she’ll be retiring soon and Robin ultimately became the president of a small engineering company in Wabash. But they’ve lived here in Willow Mills ever since.

And by the way, from that day forward the little roadside rest has been known as Bull Run.