Midnight in Lafayette Indiana

I am lounging in a Super 8 Motel along I-65.  Purdue University is a couple miles away along the Wabash River. 

People think that "Back Home in Indiana" is the state song because Jim Nabors sings it every year at the Indianapolis 500. It is not. 

Paul Dresser wrote "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away"  in 1897 and it became the second best selling sheet music in the 19th century (1800's). In 1913 - the legislature made it the official state song.

Here are all the words - 

Round my Indiana homesteads wave the cornfields,

In the distance loom the woodlands clear and cool.

Oftentimes my thoughts revert to scenes of childhood,

Where I first received my lessons, nature's school.

But one thing there is missing from the picture,

Without her face it seems so incomplete.

I long to see my mother in the doorway,

As she stood there years ago, her boy to greet.

(Chorus)

Oh, the moonlight's fair tonight along the Wabash,

From the fields there comes the breath of newmown hay.

Through the sycamores the candle lights are gleaming,

On the banks of the Wabash, far away.

(Verse)

Many years have passed since I strolled by the river,

Arm in arm, with sweetheart Mary by my side,

It was there I tried to tell her that I loved her,

It was there I begged of her to be my bride.

Long years have passed since I strolled thro' there churchyard.

She's sleeping there, my angel, Mary dear,

I loved her, but she thought I didn't mean it,

Still I'd give my future were she only here.

With two great songs about this one river - tomorrow I must go in town to see it.

Things are good - moral is high. Weather is nice. And everything is going as planned.

I would love to post some pictures and video to the web page - but I forgot my USB cord that goes from the camera to the computer. I am just too cheap to buy another one. Pictures and video will wait another few days.

I also forgot my comb.