Still More Real American Stories
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From the story "Grandmother and Inventions": Two other things happened in that year of 1891 that I am sure she didn’t know about at the time, but which I think are of interest. In England, a dentist who didn’t have many patients started writing stories. I am sure most of you reading this article do not know his name from his dentistry, but you have certainly read or heard his stories. The dentist was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and he wrote about Sherlock Holmes, the detective. The other event that even my grandmother became interested in took place in Springfield, Massachusetts. A college professor named James Naismith wanted a game his physical education students could play indoors during the winter. He put two peach baskets at opposite ends of the room and had 18 (yes 18) boys divided into two teams to try to put a ball in the peach basket. Thus, the first game of basketball was played. Obviously many changes have been made in the game since that day, but I think two were the most interesting. First, some genius thought to cut the bottom out of the peach basket so they wouldn’t have to get a ladder to get the ball out of it all the time and, second, the number of players was cut from nine to five on each team. It’s interesting that one of the players in that first game moved to Crawfordsville and introduced the game to Indiana. It was then that “Hoosier Hysteria” was born.
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About the Book
The book contains almost fifty stories whose topics are drawn from world history, local history and family history. They cover the author's travel adventures and those of his family members. He writes about the local impact of big events such as World War II and of smaller things like a graduation ceremony or a drive-in movie. Big-city life and rural America each have stories included. Articles on sporting events are scattered throughout the book and include players and games ranging from local high school basketball through professional baseball.
About the Author
Bob is a retired teacher and school administrator who has traveled extensively. He is a natural story-teller who likes to reminisce about events in the past two centuries with his stories often tied to members of his family or people and events from the central Indiana area. His style is is designed to make the past relevant to his reader by relating it to something they know and understand. If there is a story to be told that he finds interesting, Bob tells it.