Willow Leaves November 22

Lighting the Town Set for Friday The annual lighting of the town for the Christmas Holiday Season is slated to commence at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, November 26. Lights and decorations are nearly all hung, says Town Manager Roy Johnson. This year new lighted Santas will festoon the lamposts in the city on Main Street north of Market St. At fountain square, the grand tree of lights will rise 40 feet from the fountain rim and will include over 10,000 lights. The festivities this year will include a performance by the Wabash Valley Madrigal Singers. The octet has been singing and performing together for over 20 years and are typically booked during the Christmas Season a year or more in advance. Willow Mills joins the rare group of venues that have succeeded booking the performers more than once. They last appeared at the fountain lighting in 1986. “When you start the season with a wonderful event like the fountain lighting in Willow Mills, you just know the rest of the season will be grand,” said spokesman Will Carpenter. “We always love this ceremony.” The schedule for this year’s fountain lighting is as follows: 5:00 p.m. Main Street will be closed. This will include through traffic on Market Street. The bandstand and chairs will be set up. Willow Mills merchants will begin serving hot cider and treats all evening. 6:30 p.m. Program starts with a welcome from Festival Chair Peter Nusbaum. Introduction of dignitaries. 6:45 p.m. Wabash Valley Madrigal Singers. 7:00 p.m. Lighting the Lights. 7:10 p.m. Continued Music by the Wabash Valley Madrigal Singers. 7:45 p.m. Program Ends. 9:00 p.m. Willow Mills merchants will close. 10:00 p.m. Main Street will reopen. As a reminder, people are invited to wear Renaissance Clothing to the festivities. Librarian Rosalie Walters has pulled several books with samples of costumes in them and has posted a list of internet sites as resources. Watch for a special new page at www.willowmills.com next week that describes Christmas Season in Willow Mills. Festive decorations at the site will mark the season.

WillTel Wireless

If you are driving through the Indiana countryside talking on your cell phone, you should be paying attention to where you are going and all the beauty that is around you instead. But, there is something else you should know. Remember when you looked at the map of coverage across the country for your cellular service and saw those intermittent gray areas that said “Roaming Charges Apply?” Well, one of those gray areas is Willow Township, Indiana. When you enter the township, your cell calls are picked up by our own cellular service, WillTel Wireless.

Aside from this being a minor inconvenience to you when you are traveling through our area, it was a stroke of brilliance by our local entrepreneur, Howard Bailey (Albert’s second son). Howard kept the cattle business his father started going after his brother, Al Jr., moved into town and became a barber. Howard inherited the inventive genes of his father who raised one of Indiana’s finest herds of Charolais cattle from a 12-head herd and 50 Herefords. And one prize bull.

Howard was always coming up with ways to improve things around the farm. He invented a small sensing device for the bottom of his disc that would indicate when he was cutting too deeply into the soil. He expanded the electric lines that ran to the round barn and other out-buildings so he could do indoor projects in the winter. He installed an automated lift for stacking hay-bales in the haymow, and a grain dryer so he could harvest whether the grain was wet or not and still get a good rate at the elevator.

When he first encountered the idea of cellular phones, he was all over it. He calculated what it would take to install cell towers all over Willow Township and estimated that it would be ten years before any major cell system covered their little backwoods corner of the world. But he wasn’t about to be left out and be unable to use a cell phone until they got around to putting towers up. Besides which, he’d seen the cell towers and could just imagine the hullabaloo that would be raised around Willow Mills if any outsider came in and tried to decorate their landscape with the monstrosities.

That’s when Howard came up with his great new idea. He started with the grain elevator in town and worked his way out to the farms all around. He took out exclusive leases for putting transmitters on top of all the silos in the township. Then he set about creating a telephone company. He mortgaged the farm, raised capital, hired a crew, and began installing transmitters. He set up a small office on Main Street next to his brother’s barber shop and started selling shoebox sized phones to the people of Willow Mills.

There was a lot of skepticism at first. Willow Mills had only gotten off party line systems a few years earlier and weren’t sure why they needed “walky-talky phones” as well. But surprisingly enough, it was Albert who’s sales ability turned the tide with the local farmers. All he had to do was relate how much easier it would have been when his prize bull got loose to have had cell phones to round up his neighbors and put up a barricade in front of where the bull was headed. Just think of the damage that would have been prevented and the safety of the community. Farmers started buying the new devices and the phone service that Howard sold. They installed the phones in their tractors and combines, in their cars, and in their homes. Once the townfolk realized how simple system was, Howard was in business. He originally named the company Willow Mills Wireless Telephone and Cellular Tower Company after the local penchant for business names that spell out all the details, but coming up toward the turning of the new century, Howard felt that WillTel Wireless was much more appealing.

So now when you drive through Willow Township, you get a little message on your cell phone that says Roaming: WellTel, and a little surprise on your phone bill as you pay Willow Mills roaming charges.