July 29th, 2023
After we landed in Chicago, I picked up a rental and headed to Hammond, Indiana. As we drove, I realized that I had not been to Indiana before and realized the only thing I knew about it was that the Music Man, was from Gary, Indiana (which was repeated over and over again in the song). When I booked the trip, I thought I would spend my time at the festival and revisiting the places that I used to go when I worked outside of Chicago. Maybe I should explore Indiana to see what it has to offer.
It turns out that the hotel is next door to the Indiana Visitors Center which again, got me thinking that I should explore Indiana. I stopped by after the we went to the festival and it was a very nice visitors center. I was immediately confused, just outside the front door was a statue reenacting the triple dare from a Christmas Story. Inside there was a place to take selfies next to the leg lamp in the front window of the house, the gift shop was filled with magnets and souvenirs from the movie.
I am not a huge fan of the movie but not too long ago, I saw a news story about the house which had been converted into a tourist attraction. The house was located in Cleveland, Ohio. I grabbed my phone to make sure I remembered it right. It turns out, Jean Shepard used the fictional town of Hohman, which is Hammond and where she grew up.
My next question was “What is Hoosier”. I guess people from Indiana call themselves Hoosier. You should google it, some of the theories as to how that name came to be is pretty entertaining!
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