Al Hunter’s Story Archive

Angels of Community North

This past October while leading a ghost tour through historic Irvington, I met a pair of lovely young women who posed an interesting question to me. The query came after I concluded my version of the Lincoln funeral train story, a tale fraught with emotional imagery and historical fancy that … Read More

The Great One, Part 2

Jackie Gleason, alongside Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, and Hoosier Red Skelton, dominated, and to some degree invented, early television. An accomplished actor, writer, composer, orchestra leader and comedian, Gleason was truly the last of the big spenders. Always meticulously dressed with a flower in his lapel, Gleason was a consummate … Read More

The Great One, Part 1

How do you define cool? Luckily, when it comes to people, we Hoosiers have a strong list to choose from: James Dean, Steve McQueen, Kurt Vonnegut. Other answers would vary: Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Greta Garbo, Humphrey Bogart, Thelonius Monk, Marlon Brando, Duke Ellington, Jimi Hendrix, Rosa Parks, Paul Newman, … Read More

Plunk Your Magic Twanger, Froggy!

To say that my dad’s sense of humor was dry would be like saying water is wet. Every Saturday morning for a half dozen years or so, I met my dad at Pleasant Run Golf Course for 18 holes of golf. Robert Eugene Hunter was an Arsenal Technical graduate and … Read More

John Mathews, Lincoln, Booth and Six Degrees of Separation

Remember the game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” that was so popular a few years back? It was a parlor game based on the concept that any two people on Earth are six or fewer acquaintance links apart. The winner is determined by the person able to use the least … Read More