Scenes From a Sunday Drive

By Kevin Williams

I was once again exploring the "No Man's Land" north of Richmond, Indiana towards Union City on Sunday (more in a couple of weeks about why I was there).  This is a lush land of verdant farmfields and Indiana's highest point (something mind-blowing to me...southern Indiana is riddled with deep valleys and some darn high hills, but I guess not as high as Hoosier Hill in this area.)  I've yet been able to find this mythical Hoosier Hill, despite the signs pointing the way.

The area is riddled with small country churches like this one in Middlesboro, Indiana. Really, does it get any better than "The Church By The Side of The Road" with with Rev. Jim Truelove?

Quintessential country church

And pictured below is a  church, Bethel Long Wesleyan, in a rural patch of No Man's Land on the Ohio side of the border near Union City.  I stopped in for services Sunday morning and what a great experience it was.  Nothing like an invigorating sermon in a small country church.

Bethel Long Wesleyan Church

And below, while not a church is still a familiar sight to anyone over 40, an old full-service 76 gas station sitting vacant in Hollansburg, Ohio.  Sometimes scenes like those just evoke memories of a simpler time when uniformed service-station attendants bounded out of the buildings and filled up your car, squeeged your windows, and sent you on your way.  This filling station looks like it hung on as long as it could before the rest of the world caught up with it.  I wonder when it was last open?