Author Archives: Charlie McAtee

Some of my earliest memories include watching my grandmother sew and sleeping with the quilts that she and my great-grandmother made for me. I thought of this while searching for an article topic for the Spring/Summer 2024 issue of Connections. I wanted to choose something that was not only personal to me but also to […]

Depending on the genre of music you enjoy, you may or may not be familiar with the wheezing sound of the accordion. Whether the button variety, played by Bob Annis above, or the piano accordion, played by his friend, accordions have been used throughout time. Invented in the 1820s, the accordion is most known to […]

At eleven o’clock on a Wednesday morning in 1930 government dignitaries and civic leaders gathered to lay the cornerstone for a structure that represented, according to an editorial writer for the Michigan City News, “a new industrial era” for the city—a $9 million generating plant for the Northern Indiana Public Service Company. The writer envisioned […]

Part two of this blog series examines the aftereffects of Urban Renewal Project No. 1 from 1964-1969.  The previous blog in this series examines the planning and start of this project from 1957-1963. A new mayoral administration in 1964 noted that Urban Renewal Project No.1 had built no residential buildings. Instead, it parcelled away the […]

It’s National Egg Month. When prices are high like they’ve been this year, one of the most important things, in my opinion, in regards to eggs is their safe transport. It just so happens that the Mapes’ Safety Cushion Egg Flats were produced in my hometown, Griffith, Indiana. I find this to be most eggcellent. […]

Spring is in full bloom throughout our state, sunshine warming the air and the soul. The National Days selected for this month’s installment of our National Day Calendar series reflect this heavenly springtime weather. The image above is a cropped portrait of the Clowes family (from our Clowes Family Collection) taken while on vacation in […]