Hoosiers Do All Right

Kurt Vonnegut was an Indiana boy. The first book I read of his was Cat's Cradle, and I felt pretty smug when his character, Hazel, delights in the many successes of Hoosiers. Which probably isn't the point of that exchange, but I'm a fan none the less.

So here's to Hoosiers everywhere and the great Hoosier Kurt Vonnegut.

From Cat's Cradle:

“My God,” she said, “are you a Hoosier?”I admitted I was.

“I'm a Hoosier, too,” she crowed. “Nobody has to be ashamed of being a Hoosier.”

“I'm not,” I said. “I never knew anybody who was.”

“Hoosiers do all right. Lowe and I've been around the world twice, and everywhere we went we found Hoosiers in charge of everything.

“That's reassuring.”

“You know the manager of that new hotel in Istanbul?”

“No.”

“He's a Hoosier. And the military-whatever-he-is in Tokyo . . .”

“Attaché,” said her husband.

“He's a Hoosier,” said Hazel. “And the new Ambassador to Yugoslavia . . . “

“A Hoosier?” I asked.

“Not only him, but the Hollywood Editor of Life magazine, too, And that man in Chile . . .”

“A Hoosier, too?”

“You can't go anywhere a Hoosier hasn't made his mark,” she said.

“The man who wrote Ben Hur was a Hoosier.”

“And James Whitcomb Riley.”

“Are you from Indiana, too?” I asked her husband.

“Nope. I'm a Prairie Stater. 'Land of Lincoln,' as they say.”

“As far as that goes,” said Hazel triumphantly, “Lincoln was a Hoosier, too. He grew up in Spencer County.”

“Sure,” I said.

“I don't know what it is about Hoosiers,” said Hazel, “but they've sure got something. If somebody was to make a list, they'd be amazed.”

“That's true,” I said.

She grasped me firmly by the arm. “We Hoosiers got to stick together.”

“Right”

“You call me 'Mom.”'

“What?”

“Whenever I meet a young Hoosier, I tell them, 'You call me Mom.”'

“Uh huh.”

“Let me hear you say it,” she urged.

“Mom?”


I'm glad Kurt was able to goof around in Indiana.