Life was back to normal today. There was no snow, I ran outside, my wife drove herself to work, our trash was picked up, the mail arrived, and I was able to get to the regularly scheduled leadership meeting. I also did some vacuuming, picked up the dry cleaning, and went to Petsmart without incident. Next, I will need to get out of my retirement uniform and into a tie for the first of two fundraisers, while I prepare our pups for another lonely night without us. We did get out for “Date Night” last evening, despite our original plans to stay home. Needless to say, as a creature of habit, I never did get into a comfortable routine this week.

As we travel back to Indiana tomorrow night, I did call the Shelby County library to make arrangements to look through high school yearbooks from 1941-1951. There were eight Banister children who should have attended Shelbyville High School during this decade, and one of them may have been my birth mother. Since I haven’t heard anything back from the family, I would at least like to see some pictures of her and her siblings. (See Post #393). I remain convinced that my information is correct, but I will wait to see if my DNA test on Ancestry.com matches up to her nephew before I take additional steps. He is the keeper of the Banister family tree, and perhaps another gateway to potential contact with the family.

After the recent tragic Florida shootings, I was surprised to see a report on NBC’s Today Show about Shelbyville High School. I don’t think it would have caught my attention without this possible connection to my probable birth mother.  Here are some excerpts from a recent USA Today article about the NBC story:

“Cameras with a direct feed to the county sheriff office. Teachers who wear panic buttons. Smoke cannons in hallways.”

“These pieces of equipment are a big reason Southwestern High School in Shelbyville, Ind., has been referred to as “the safest school in America” since the airing of a segment on NBC’s Today in 2015 (the network recently revisited the school). Shelbyville is about 27 miles southeast of Indianapolis.”

“The system was implemented in 2015 after the Indiana Sheriff’s Association chose the school district for the first-of-its-kind security program. The school declined an interview about the program Wednesday, but an administrator previously discussed that school shootings can happen anywhere.”

It was not the only recent signal about the school that I have recently run across. A friend loaned me a copy of the book, Getting Open: The Unknown Story of Bill Garrett and the Integration of College Basketball. Was it just another coincidence that Bill Garrett went to Shelbyville High School, as well? Are these all indications that I’m on the right track to finding my roots?

I was also struck by the fact that my school, Elkhart High School, also made national news a few days ago, The area around the school fell victim to massive flooding. It’s been over a hundred years since this has happened in my home town, where my adoptive parents raised me. Rarely does Elkhart, Indiana make network coverage. 

Since I haven’t gotten a reaction back from the letter that I sent, maybe I’m just desperately looking for feedback, but I thought these reminders of my past were worth noting, as the search continues…..