PODCAST · comedy
Tales From Southern Indiana
by Danny Howell
Small town life in a world bordering on the surreal with a country flavor. Stories and music.
Episodes
-
Spooning Back In The Day
To ask someone you liked to go out on a date might require you to engage in witty repartee, a skill in short supply in Southern Indiana. However, if you were of Welsh descent, all you needed was a pocketknife and the ability to whittle a spoon. This episode is about spooning, a gentle activity…
more -
Adventures with Babies
Advice for new parents, babies switched at birth, dangers of jazz music and organized religion, and another visitation from the hair rat, all part of en episode devoted to babies and the brave folks who have then.
-
Chased by Snakes
We didn't have alligators to chase us in Southern Indiana, but we did have snakes, who preferred to be let alone but sometimes had to be emphatic about it. Here's a few snake encounters, plus an early example of the old saying, spare the tooth and spoil the child.
-
Demon Rum
What a tipsy cat will lead you to, the benefits of holding a live skunk in each hand to resist arrest, and an Octogenarian's tips on a long, if inebriated, life.
-
Mothers in Law
If being a Mother in Law was a career choice, it would come with hazard pay. Listen and you'll understand. Finally, some advice for travelers who need to spit.
-
Spirit of Forgiveness
Back in the day in Southern Indiana, if you stabbed someone a few times, stole their car, or killed them in a "sudden heat", well that was just considered misbehaving, and if you stayed on the straight and narrow thereafter, you'd stay out of the Big House and be forgiven. But what about being...
-
Provoking, Cursing, and Other Crimes of Passion
We were pretty low key folks in small town Indiana, because getting irritated could get you arrested and even killed. Join our latest adventures in the Hoosier Hill Country back in the day.
-
Bringing Back Baby
And other stories of modest and kind-hearted thievery back in the day in Southern Indiana, when even missing wash from the clothesline could come back with a bonus.
-
Kicking: Hazardous to Your (or Your Pig's) Health
In the days before videos, we had to rely on the sketchy accounts of kicking mishaps from the local papers to learn what happens when pigs fly. Also a new old word, "charivari".
-
Unhappy Accidents
Life could be risky in the small towns in Southern Indiana where I grew up in the 1960's, but going back in time, based on the old newspaper articles, things weren't much safer in the old days. From shooting at hats to teaching butchers how to kill cattle, there were lots of unusual ways folks…
more -
Thanksgiving Thievery
Stolen turkeys, lost turkeys, greased pigs and a recipe for head cheese.
-
Buried Alive Again
More stories of narrow escapes from an unpleasant demise, with some helpful hints for how to tell if someone isn't quite dead.
-
Nudity
Modesty was our watchword in Southern Indiana back in the day, so the idea of public nudity made us want to run away. Here are a few stories from the old papers about the days when scanty attire struck fear in the hearts of shy Hoosiers.
-
Shy Hoosiers in love
Back in the day, the word “lovemaking” had a softer, gentler meaning, which made for some interesting headlines that might raise a few eyebrows in the modern era, but which fit right in to the general shyness of Hoosiers about matters of affection. Also, a few items about the dangers of kicking...
-
What Once Passed For Indecency
Well, over time the view about what was considered indecent behavior has changed. In olden times it might have been playing in the orchestra for a saucy production, spitting in the French Lick post office, or wearing too many clothes.
-
News from Mitchell
News items from the past about cats and dogs, fingers and toes, and good and bad luck.
-
Bigger Things That Bite
Whether it’s an irritable hog, an unjustly imprisoned monkey, or an angry mother, join us for stories of bigger things that bite, and yet another news item about someone with extra toes.
-
Christmas, Oddities of the Big City, and More 911 Calls to the Mitchell Police
A hodgepodge of special treats including strange animals and their poop, Christmas traditions in Colombia, and Crimes and Misdemeanors in Mitchell Indiana.
-
Petting Party Vigilantes: the Mitchell Horse Thief Detectives.
We had our own state-sanctioned vigilantes in Mitchell 100 years ago, keeping the roads safe from thieves and lovers, in their endless fight against crime and prurience. Also, a recitation of the the theme song from the cartoon show Underdog, my favorite vigilante when I was a kid.
-
Our Visit to Mitchell: Highlights from the Persimmon Festival
Highlights from Festival Week in Mitchell Indiana, including the crowning of the Persimmon Queen, the Incredible Shrinking High School Marching Band, and my 50th High School Reunion, are all on deck for this special episode from my home town.
-
Your Next Vacation: Key West or Mitchell Indiana
Folks’ favorite vacation activity when I grew up in Mitchell Indiana in the Sixties was staying home. And why not? Here is a comparison of the relative attractions of Mitchell Indiana and Key West Florida.
-
Going Steady
Back in the day, one of the calls of alarm from parents and educators had to do with the rash of teenagers “going steady”. According to some, the antidote to such activity was to encourage teenage girls to stay home with Mother and listen to old records. Even worse, the prevalence of “petting...
-
Incorrigible Children and the Automatic Spanking Machine
Folks were forever reporting someone else’s child to the police as incorrigible back in the day, to no apparent good end, but consternation being the mother of invention, the advent of the automatic spanking machine offered hope for incorrigibility sufferers. Finally, an amusing anecdote about a...
-
Hoosier marijuana - Where the Grass is Weaker
Marijuana grew wild all throughout the state, but it wasn’t much to write home about. This is a cautionary tale about making sure you have a working air vent if your bedroom is above the living room and your roommate is up late and committed to spending hours smoking Indiana marijuana in order to...
-
Who needs enemies?
When I was a boy growing up in southern Indiana, the pool of available friends was sparsely populated, so bad friends were better than none, kind of. In addition, today’s best friend could always become tomorrow’s murder victim. Finally, a note about the beneficial use of wolf pee in the suburbs.
-
Persimmon Festival Countdown
Only four months until the festival! Back in the day it was a long summer waiting for the fall festival. In this episode, some odds and ends about the festival, unusual dogs and exploding pop.
-
Poems to Scare Your Children With
When I was a boy my mother scarred me for life by reading to me the James Whitcomb Riley poem, “Little Orphant Annie”, which was all about the horrible ways little children would die if they stepped out of line. Ah, the days before cable tv.
-
Spring Cleaning
If cleanliness was next to Godliness, some of us had quite a ways to go on our faith journey in Southern Indiana back in the day. Time to break out those bottles of vinegar and tackle the tough chores.
-
Police Beat
In a town where you often waited a long time for much to happen, the local police force had to occupy themselves with something, so apparently by silent agreement, folks called 911 to report items that were on par with kittens stuck in trees. Finally a word about the bad news awaiting survivors…
more -
Domestic Disputes
As we’ve shared before on the podcast, a lot of things we might think of as fun were illegal in Southern Indiana, which may explain why folks got testy with their spouses, relatives and friends from time to time. Join us in reminiscing about the days when swearing was illegal, “provoking” could...
-
School Dress Codes
Just as there were rules against having fun at school dances, we had some pretty interesting dress codes, with punishment for violators ranging from suspensions to getting smashed over the head with a chair. My school’s comparatively liberal policy provided that in temperatures well below…
more -
The Birds and the Bees
As hapless parents in Southern Indiana, we were almost overwhelmed with the number of things that could cause us considerable embarrassment, not the least of which was the chore of talking to our children about the birds and the bees. Starting in the late 1960’s, the school systems tried to come…
more -
Losing Pigs and Finding Christmas
History tended to get buried quickly in Southern Indiana, but we always had faith in folks helping us find things we may have lost, including Christmas. In this episode we share some old news items about things or pigs folks lost at Christmas time as well as buried skating rinks, Mastadons…
more -
What to do if a coywolf comes to visit
There’s nothing quite so irksome as being attacked by a wild animal you didn’t even know existed. Meet the coywolf, our newest neighbor in the suburbs and a much more handsome relative of the coyote but also kind of a junior wolf, and listen to a few tips on how to get past that awkward first...
-
Before there was indoor plumbing . . .
Back in the 1950’s one of the things a lot of homes in Southern Indiana lacked was an indoor toilet. Hear all about outhouses and their native charms (and hazards).
-
Dreaming Big
We were more than a little nervous about dreaming big in Southern Indiana, as it called attention to us and posed the risk of being ridiculed, which was the fate met by the folks who once dreamed of building a replica of the Great Pyramid out of limestone or, failing that, a limestone replica of...
-
Practical Jokes
My Aunt Teddy and Uncle Happy liked playing practical jokes that involved pretending they were dying. As we delve again into Southern Indiana history, we see that sometimes practical jokers don’t have to pretend.
-
School Dances
They had a lot of rules back in the 1960’s designed to discourage young people from having any fun, and it started with dancing regulations. The Devil is in the details.
-
Mitchell Indiana verses the Big City
Not that we had a choice growing up in Southern Indiana, but there were pluses and minuses of life in the country verses the big city. So here is a list of a few of each.
-
How We Talk Different
There’s a fancy name for the Southern Indiana dialect; but growing up, we just knew we sounded different from folks up north in Indianapolis. Join in to hear some descriptions of how and speculations about why we talk different in the land where I grew up.
-
Personal Grooming
More a philosophy than a list of do’s and don’t, the notion was to avoid standing out or appearing to be putting on airs, while at the same time still achieving a modicum of style and neatness.
-
Worthless Skills
Seems like I learned how to do lots of things growing up in Southern Indiana that have no practical application in the big city. Like communicating with semaphore flags or extracting fish hooks.
-
Telepathy
Asking for what you wanted wasn’t a common talent among folks where I grew up. This led to many a dilemma, from receiving unwanted birthday gifts to waiting a long time for someone to help you get out of a hole you’d fallen into. If only the snail telegraph invention from the 19th century had...
-
Dining Etiquette
High on the list of situations that might have made folks anxious in Southern Indiana when I grew up there, was the fear of all the potential social pitfalls that accompanied fine dining. Here are some tips to ease the social pressure of dinner etiquette.
-
Public Displays of Affection
Where I grew up in Southern Indiana, even the words “public displays of affection” would make folks nervous and in need of an immediate conversation about sports or hunting to wash the memory of those words from their brains. Here is a guide to acceptable forms of public displays of affection…
more -
Mike the Monkey
Tales about the drunken monkey who lived at the end of the street and his colorful and sometimes dangerous owner.
-
The Key to Happiness in Southern Indiana - Don’t Expect So Much
Keeping expectations down took some of the sting out of life in Hoosier hill country. You could expect to have a nice car if you didn’t mind having it get stolen, or have a nice hobby if you weren’t all that good at it. Sometimes just average was a comfortable place to be.
-
Christmas in Southern Indiana
The annual stealing of the Christmas trees, favorite memories of Christmas in Mitchell Indiana.
-
A Walking Tour of Main Street
Back in the day, Mitchell was a real small town with a Main Street filled with a variety of stores and businesses that seemed endlessly fascinating when I was a kid. Come on a visit with me to Main Street, Mitchell Indiana, circa 1964.
-
Biting
We might have seemed a little standoffish to strangers in Southern Indiana, but we were really just being cautious because of our fear of being bitten.
We're indexing this podcast's transcripts for the first time — this can take a minute or two. We'll show results as soon as they're ready.
No matches for "" in this podcast's transcripts.
TOPICS IN THIS SHOW
Loading reviews...
ABOUT THIS SHOW
Small town life in a world bordering on the surreal with a country flavor. Stories and music.
HOSTED BY
Danny Howell
CATEGORIES
Loading similar podcasts...
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Tales From Southern Indiana have?
Tales From Southern Indiana currently has 93 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Tales From Southern Indiana about?
Small town life in a world bordering on the surreal with a country flavor. Stories and music.
How often does Tales From Southern Indiana release new episodes?
Tales From Southern Indiana has 93 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Tales From Southern Indiana?
You can listen to Tales From Southern Indiana on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Tales From Southern Indiana?
Tales From Southern Indiana is created and hosted by Danny Howell.
URL copied to clipboard!