BY KRISTINA HACKER AND JOE CORTEZ

The Journal

James F. Hanley and Ballard MacDonald’s early 20th century song “Back Home Again in Indiana” is an Indianapolis 500 tradition, and one that repeats through this editor’s head every time I return to my hometown in the Hoosier state.

I grew up here and didn’t move to California until I was in my early 20s. There are many things I miss about living in Indiana: The abundance of trees, friendly people, catching lightning bugs in summer, canoeing down the “crick,” the gorgeous display of fall colors in September/October and the taste of corn on the cob and tomatoes taken straight from a backyard garden.

As an adult visiting my home state, there is also the number one thing I envy of my Indiana friends — the lower cost of living.

A trip to the nearest gas station made me almost weep, as my friends paid only $3.15 per gallon (and they said it was under $3 last week). A dozen eggs are up in cost in Indiana at $5 for a dozen, but still under the $7 to $8 we pay in Turlock.

Let’s compare home prices: In my hometown of Cicero, you can get a three bedroom, two bath 1,340 sq. ft. home built in 2015 on a 1.4-acre lot for $300K. In Turlock, a three-bedroom, two bath 1,258 sq. ft. home built in 1948 on a 0.4 acre lot goes for $525K. Enough said about that.

While it may seem like I am talking myself into moving back to the Midwest, whatever economic and nostalgic benefits I would reap, pale in the cost of leaving my adopted Central Valley home.

Not once since I moved to Turlock have I worried about my water pipes freezing in the winter or if I may be driving out onto black ice. Several people my Indiana friends know are at this very time figuring out how to rebuild after devasting tornadoes ripped their homes to literal pieces. While we have the occasional tornado in the Central Valley, the destruction is much less than what Midwest folks endure every year.

It’s not just the weather that makes a move back to Indiana unattractive. I would very much miss the diversity of culture that makes Turlock a great place to live and work. Since moving to the Central Valley, I am now aware that both the Hindu festival of colors Holi and the Assyrian New Year just passed and we’re getting close to Portuguese festa season. I look forward to attending Las Posadas events in the region every Christmas and enjoy the public menorah lightings that used to be held in Turlock during Chanukkah.

So while I may “dream about the moonlight on the Wabash,” I am now a Turlocker through and through.

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ONE-MAN MISSION — Turlock’s Nick Patterson was once again outside of the city’s lone federal building — the U.S. Post Office on Main Street — protesting proposed cuts to federal programs. Patterson, a former longtime Republican, not only is against drastic cuts to specific federal programs, he’s also not thrilled with the way Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is conducting those cuts. He’ll be out again on April 19, when the next “Hands Off!” event is slated to take place nationwide. “I had a woman come up to me on (Thursday) and ask who was paying me to be out here,” said Patterson, 74. “I told her that nobody was paying me; I was out here on my own. She said, ‘I don’t believe you.’”

While many from this area were participating in the “Hands Off!” rally in Modesto on April 5, Patterson opted to conduct a one-man protest in Turlock.

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CANNONBALL! — We’re just a little over a month away from the official grand re-opening of the Columbia Park swimming pool, which has been out of commission since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Beset by delays and rising costs, the park will provide sweet relief from the blast furnace that is a Central Valley summer. Turlock City Councilmember Rebecka Monez (District 2), who campaigned hard on the pool issue in 2020, has vowed to be the first one to jump into the refurbished pool. 

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TRIVIA ANSWER: Last time, we asked which City of Turlock official in their four years of competition at Stanislaus State established school records in the javelin and shot put and was a three-time NCAA Division III All American in the javelin, and two-time Northern California Athletic Conference champion in the javelin. The answer is Turlock Mayor Amy Bublak. The former collegiate athlete recently got back out on the field and in 2023 put in a gold medal performance in women’s javelin and shot put at the U.S. Police & Fire Championships and captured the World Police & Fire Games’ women’s javelin championship while setting a new world record.

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TRIVIA QUESTION — In 1973’s “American Graffiti,” Paul Le Mat’s character (“John Milner”), while cruising in Modesto, asks a teenage girl if she knows Frank Bartlett. She replies, “No. Does he go to Turlock High?” Tell us, where does Bartlett attend school? Bonus points if you know what kind of car Milner is driving in the scene.