July / August 2019

Features

Through The Years

In the U.S. in 1840, President Martin Van Buren, the country’s eighth president, served his final days in office and was succeeded by Whig Party nominee William Henry Harrison. The Civil War wouldn’t begin for 21 more years. Across the pond, Queen Victoria wed Prince Albert, and later that year, welcomed their first child, also named Victoria. And in Sprinklesburgh, Indiana, (which would become known as Newburgh the year following) four lots were purchased by merchant and contractor A.M. Phelps.

Health and Wellness

topDentists and Dentist Profiles

Based on hundreds of detailed evaluations of dentists and professionals by their peers, the 2019 topDentists™ list includes almost 40 dentists and specialists in the Evansville metropolitan area. Plus, let area dental practices and their special services and team members help you smile big with the latest technology and trends in dental care.

Arts and Events

Crash of Thunder

There is no other combination of people that could have led to the formation of Thunder Dreamer — at least that’s how lead singer and guitarist Steven Hamilton sees it. As teenagers growing up and playing music in Evansville, drummer Corey Greenfield, bassist Alex Wallwork, keyboardist Zach Zint, and Hamilton never imagined they would grow up to be professional musicians.

Business and Industry

Mex in the City

Dipping tortilla chips into a bowl of ranch dip would never be considered an authentic Mexican food practice. For natives of the Evansville area, though, it’s an authentically Midwestern Mexican experience. Linda Zirkelbach, the general manager at the Darmstadt location of Hacienda, has watched this phenomenon throughout her 31 years working for the Mexican restaurant chain that started in Mishawaka, Indiana, and has four locations in Evansville.

Fashion and Style

In The Frame

 When Tina and Howie Rumjahn moved to Evansville from Los Angeles in 2010, they were impressed with the local art scene. The only thing missing in their perspective was a true art gallery. The couple moved to the area to be closer to Tina’s family in southern Illinois and opened The Rumjahn Gallery and Framery in 2016 at 310 Main St., which houses a small retail space, offers professional custom framing and printing services, and showcases local artwork in a gallery setting.

Entertainment

On Top of the World

Families across the Midwest equate summertime fun with Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari in Santa Claus, Indiana. Each day, the Holiday World staff tirelessly works to ensure guests are safe and happy.

About the Magazine

Tidying up with TPG

There’s nothing like an office move to inspire the Marie Kondo in all of us. By the time this letter is read, Tucker Publishing Group will be in new offices at 25 N.W. Riverside Drive, known as the IBM Building. For our first 10 years, Tucker Publishing Group magazines were published from the second floor of the historic Old Post Office and Customs House. Then, for more than 10 years, we’ve operated from the second floor of the historic General Cigar Building.

Encyclopedia Evansvillia

Civic Duty

On May 23, 1969, civic and government leaders gathered to dedicate the new Civic Center complex. More than 50 years since that date, the importance and promise of the event has faded. In May 1969, the new Civic Center was seen as an integral part of the city’s revival and future. Since then, the closure of Main Street, the building’s brutalist style of architecture, and the loss of iconic buildings such as Assumption Cathedral, C. & E. I. Depot, and Cook’s Brewery have been reasons to criticize the Civic Center.

Digging In

Little Paradise

 Most locals have to travel miles away for a tropical getaway, but Evansville Police Chief Billy Bolin looks no further than his backyard. Seven years ago, Bolin planted a few elephant ears in his garden, which kick-started his landscaping project. His affinity for all things tropical inspired him to turn his yard on Evansville’s East Side into a calm oasis bursting with exotic flora. “With my job, there’s a lot of stress,” says Bolin. “This is peaceful. It’s my way to deal with stress.”

Education

Top of the Heap

Going green continues to get easier. When it comes to composting, however, there aren’t many short cuts — you need time and patience.

A Little Big Impact

A few years ago, it was difficult to ignore the sudden emergence of small outdoor stands filled with books popping up across Evansville. These tiny kiosks are known as Little Free Libraries and are a part of an organization bearing the same name. In 2009, Todd H. Bol started the international nonprofit (that now has more than 80,000 libraries) to increase community access to books. The stands are placed by homeowners or organizations and are open 24 hours a day, operating through book exchanges that encourage readers to take a book and leave some behind.

Float On

On Jan. 31, 2019, astronauts on the International Space Station positioned their cameras and readied for a satellite launch. Just as the station was orbiting over the southern border of Brazil, the University of Southern Indiana’s Undergraduate Nano Ionospheric Temperature Explorer (UNITE) CubeSat was released into orbit. One of 23 CubeSat projects sponsored by NASA’s Undergraduate Student Instrument Project, the team of undergrads from USI have worked since 2016 to plan, design, and build their project for launch into space.

Good Living

Still the One

A 1950 Mercury convertible is a rare sight alone — one sporting a pearly purple paint coat with the words “Still the One” in nostalgic script along the back definitely turns heads. “It’s a unique car,” says owner Jerry Walker. Over the last 19 years, Jerry and his wife Myra have worked to restore and customize the car. “There’s not another one in the world like it because of all the changes we’ve made.”

House Hunter

Selling historic homes in Evansville is a far cry from working in computer science — but for Lucas Neuffer, it has been the perfect career path. The New Harmony, Indiana, native originally started his studies at the University of Southern Indiana in computer sciences, but quickly realized it wasn’t for him. Neuffer finished his major, but continued on for a degree in German and classical Latin as well. However, he still was searching for more.

Roll With It

It’s hard to miss DeAndre Wilson. The Evansville native often is accompanied by an almost 6-foot tractor tire he rolls throughout the city. The idea came from his father Curtis Wilson who passed away from liver cancer four years ago and began rolling the tire to stay in shape and raise awareness about cancer. Earlier this year, Wilson decided to continue rolling the tire in his father’s memory. The farthest he has rolled the almost 250-pound tire so far is 10.55 miles.

Departments

The Door to Fall Color

If you think the best thing about summer is that it is followed by fall, then a trip to Wisconsin’s Door County is in order. On a peninsula jutting into Lake Michigan, this one county contains 11 towns, an island, and 300 miles of shoreline along with 53 public beaches. In and around these charming villages, visitors find wineries, breweries and a distillery, orchards, boutiques, art galleries, lighthouses, and hiking trails — under a brilliant fall cloak of color.

City Life

Out of Darkness

The 13-foot tall sculpture standing in the Bicentennial Park in downtown Princeton, Indiana, draws attention not just for its size, but its color and shape as well. The work — commissioned by Princeton resident Linda Settle — was completed by Oakland City artist Bob Zasadny and erected in May. The semi-colon is a symbol many suicide awareness organizations adopt as a way to remind those struggling that their stories are not over yet. The colors (black, purple, teal, and yellow) represent a theme of “out of the darkness, into the light.”

Reunion Tour

Music often is referred to as a universal language — and in the 1960s, the group Up With People used music as a way to reach out to young kids throughout the U.S. “We had a lot of turmoil going on, and this was a response to what was going on in the country for young people,” says Rob Engelbrecht, one of the organizers of the Evansville chapter of the organization in 1968.

Dining

Mobile Munchies

Food trucks in Evansville have gained speed over the last few years, with the scene thriving during summer days. Get your fix from your favorite trucks at these hot spots!

Midwest Delight

In the summertime, nothing delights us in the Midwest more than a ripe tomato. Bake them up in a tasty pie, and you have a classic dish not many can resist.

Outside The Box

Diners in Evansville can take advantage of al fresco eating in a whole new way thanks to a new variance approved by the Vanderburgh County Commissioners in September 2017. The variance allows restaurants to open their spaces to the outdoors through windows, garage doors, patios, and other open-air arrangements. Before, restaurants had outdoor patio seating but were required to keep the building itself completely closed off to the outside.

Recipe for Life

Cooking has been a life-long passion for local chef Pam Heironimus. She grew up in her parents’ Italian restaurant Tony’s, formerly on 319 S. Green River Road, which sparked her love of food. Now, she gravitates to the Mediterranean flavors of her childhood, combining them with creativity in her own kitchen.

Icing on the Cake

A two-tiered pink birthday cake with a birdcage on top was the starting point for Julia Inzhirov’s path in baking. A 26-year-old native of Moldova (a small country between Ukraine and Romania), Inzhirov admits she didn’t bake much before or after her family moved to Chicago in 2005. “The only cake I really baked is my dad’s favorite, which is a Napoleon cake (puff pastry filled with a custard cream),” she says. “I did see my mom bake a lot, but I wasn’t very interested in it at the time.”

Final Detail

Hit The Road

Quitting your job, selling your home, and hitting the road full time sounds crazy to most, but it’s the life former Evansville residents Jason and Misty Massey have been living since Oct. 16, 2017. After losing Jason’s 18-year-old son in an automobile accident in June 2014 and feeling unfulfilled with the corporate 8-to-5 grind, they decided to jump on the RV bandwagon.