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Episode 1810Original air date: 3/17/2008
Doing the Tooth Fairy a Hair Better
| Watch This Segment Online. | | Description: | Life didn’t seem all that fair to Cicero’s Kim Martin. In fact, she could get downright angry about it. She lost one son to cancer and her only daughter, Andrea, was waging the same battle. But then, inspiration hit. Kim wrote a book about the “hair fairies,” sprites that visit children with cancer on the day they lose their hair to chemotherapy and who leave gifts under their pillows. Soon, she found herself making some “hair fairy” puppets to take on her regular visits to Riley and Peyton Manning Children’s Hospitals, gifts in hand. “’A’ is for Angel, the word that comes to mind for children with cancer of any kind,” reads 8 year-old cancer survivor Katherine McGee. “When you are going though tough times,” Kim Martin says,“ you learn to appreciate all the little things – I’ve found my voice writing to children.” | | Credits: | Twila Snyder | | Location: | Cicero |
Finding Bliss in the Little Things
| Watch This Segment Online. | | Description: | For years, Indianapolis’ Jan Schroeder had been meaning to call upon Joan Willies. After all, as an artist, Jan had been hoping to meet North America’s greatest expert on the medieval art of painting miniatures. It just so happened that Ms. Willies and Ms. Schroeder’s aunt lived a block apart on the same street in Miami. And so, karma struck, for this meeting launched Jan on a career for which she feels destined – painting elaborate still-lifes and portraits the size of a credit card—and in keeping with medieval techniques, adding gold and jewels to her paint as well. “I used to feel guilty painting because I love it so much,” she laughs. “Isn’t a job supposed to be work? Sometimes, I’ll paint all day and think I’m done and go to bed—only to wake up in a hour and rush out to paint some more. You can’t stop it. You can’t stop painting any more than you can stop living.” Sounds like “a muse” talking. | | Credits: | Jim Simmons | | Location: | Indianapolis |
History Matters: Brotherhood of the Battlefield
| Watch This Segment Online. | | Description: | The Civil War Battle of Chickamauga isn’t as famous, as say, Gettysburg, but it was pivotal in opening the way for Sherman’s decisive march to the sea and the defeat of Southern forces. And for the 17th Indiana Infantry, it was anything but conventional. For instance, when the troops weren’t given the new Spencer repeating rifles (but were stuck with muzzle-loaders), their commander, John Wilder of Greensburg, bought the rifles himself. Soon, his troops were nicknamed the Lighting Brigade and were commended for bravery in battle. Wilder’s personal aid, Henry Tutewiler, kept a journal of their adventures and the tales of the Lighting Brigade come alive for us today in the words – not of a historian—but of a common soldier in an extraordinary war. The bond between Wilder and Tutewiler was mutual, for at Tutewiler’s passing, Wilder remarked that he could not be fonder of the man even if he were his own son. | | Credits: | Kyle Travers |
The Notorious Mrs. Winston
| Watch This Segment Online. | | Description: | As we’ve just seen, while the facts of history never change, how they become known and are communicated to us can shift over time. One fun way that this is done is through the historical novel—a combination of actual events like the Civil War—all wrapped up in the travails of characters like Rhett and Scarlett. So, put yourself in the author’s place. Just where do you draw the line between yesteryear and your imagination? Indianapolis native and author Mary Mackey might just have the answers for you. She’s done a little delving into Indiana’s involvement in the Civil War herself, writing about a fictional character whose pristine life was never quite as simple or pure as it seemed. | | Credits: | Sarah Mynett | | Location: | Indianapolis |
How Sweet It Is
| Watch This Segment Online. | | Description: | Take a look at the average bottle of maple syrup and you might find, to your unending horror, that there’s really no “maple” in it. But fear not, for folks in Indiana are devoted to the genuine article and you can now find a new place to pay homage to the amber elixir ‘way down south in Medora. Most of us know Medora for its famous triple span bridge, the second longest covered bridge in the country. But now that landmark has some company, for folks here are in the second year of what they hope will be an annual event, the National Maple Syrup Festival. That’s the good news. The bad is that March weather in Indiana is more suited to a dogsled than our own “Hungry Hoosier” reporter Scott Hutcheson. Still, spurred on by the thought of a stack of pancakes, Scott braved snow drifts as tall as Reggie Miller to file this story, hot off the griddle. | | Credits: | Scott "The Hungry Hoosier" Hutcheson | | Location: | Medora |
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