Wawasee is basically Christian Camelot

Coming to Indiana University was like finding a cultural oasis in a wasteland of cornfields and meth labs.

In the heart of Indiana’s lake country lies two small towns, Syracuse and North Webster, which combine into one school corporation. If I had to describe the area, I would call it a heavily Christian community with a drinking problem. Don’t get me wrong, I love where I grew up, but there are often more cringe-worthy moments than moments of nostalgia.

The weirdest thing about my hometown was probably the fact that someone wanted to turn it medieval. Whereas most towns have a festival dedicated to fruit, we have a festival dedicated to mermaids.

During the 1960s, a banker by the name of Homer Shoop wanted to rename the town of North Webster to Camelot. When businesses came to him asking for a loan, he would only agree if their building had a medieval theme to its architecture. Now there remains a castle, a stage dedicated to Merlin, and a bar called Ye Olde Pub Supper Club.

During Prohibition, my town had a hand in training bootleggers to cross the Great Lakes into Canada to smuggle alcohol back into the States. The Syracuse-North Webster area is home to the largest natural lake in Indiana, Lake Wawasee, where training took place.

Because of this, the area was frequented by a couple of well-known Chicago gangsters, namely Al Capone and John Dillinger. To this day, the Barbee Hotel is believed to be haunted by Capone. It is legend the aroma of his cigar can still be smelled in the room where he used to stay.

Since we have a history with Prohibition, you can probably imagine what impact alcohol has had on our small town culture. Partying is something my community is extremely fond of. There are easily more bars than restaurants. The only rule some parents had for their children regarding curfew was something along the lines of, “Just get home before the bars close.”

When school wasn’t in session, the social scene took place on one of several lakes in the area. In the winter, there were snowmobile races on the frozen ice, or ice fishing was a hobby if cold and calm was more your fancy.

If you didn’t own a boat, one of your friends did. Summers were spent getting up at 5 am to ski on smooth-as-glass water, tubing in rough waves, laying out on the beach at the park, partying hard at the sand bar, and grumbling under your breath while the summer crowd (aka “Lakers”) splashed water from their jet ski into your boat.

Another popular social gathering spot was church, and boy, did we have plenty of those. We had a church on every corner, like Bloomington has coffee shops.

In my hometown, it was “cool” to be a Christian. WWJD bracelets were a hot commodity in elementary school. Purity rings became a fashion statement the next few years. By the end of high school, most of that had gone to hell, but hearing people say “I’ll pray for you,” was still a very common phenomenon.

Living in two towns with a combined population of 4500 people, everyone knew everyone. If you didn’t know someone, your parent did. It was impossible to go anywhere without seeing at least one familiar face.

You probably had a class with your waitress at Pizza King or you’d run into your crush when making a run to satisfy your Taco Bell craving. My town may be insignificant compared to many places people come from, but there are definitely some weird quirks and a rich history for such a small place to call home.