Tamara O'Hearn's roadtrip story in NUVO might have been the start of an urban legend -- had the City of Indianapolis followed through and created the public access TV channel in 1999.

Cable Board Chairman, Carlton Curry, and PAI Board Members, Nick Hess and Andrea Price, visit Bloomington's public access center.

On the Road to Bloomington

By TAMARA O'HEARN

The first time I met Carlton Curry he was wearing a porkpie hat, blue polyester shirt, plaid pants and white penny loafers with dimes in the slots. He was leaning against his 1950 pink Cadillac convertible with the fins and I asked him for a smoke.

He didn't have one, but Nicki Hess pulled up on his motorcycle, and pulled a pack from the sleeve of his undershirt which he threw to me, sliding a hand through his greasy ducktail. In the glaring sun we lounged in front of the Broad Ripple McDonald's as the drive-thru poured cars past its speakers like a river.

We were waiting for Miss. Ande Price, who was on European time -- running late -- but there wasn't time for talk of foreign lands or anything else on this searing day in corn country.

Just then Andrea pulled up all flashy in her horn rimmed sunglasses and gauzy orange scarf around her fancy hairdo, like she expected she was going somewhere uptown.

Before our trip to Bloomington, I had always dreamed of driving to Mellencamp land. I knew, I knew like mad with everything inside me, that this would be a good trip. We would rendezvous with Mickey White, the fat cat of MCAT (Monroe County Access Television) for a tour and some community TV jive.

We wheeled through the sultry hills to B-town, stocked for the voyage with gas, oil, cigarettes and Twinkies. The gritty wind blew in our faces as we zoomed through the hills listening to blues, making small talk about the cows, the improving topography, until we reached our destination. We got there in no time flat.

The Monroe County library was swank and hi-tech, but a glitzy veneer would not convince a guts-and-juice guy like Curry that public access TV was the scene for Indy. So, we took the tour and talked the talk.

Mickey White was a smooth talker in a sharkskin suit, who cut through the negative press about public access TV like a razor through ripe tomatoes. He said that "people would be held accountable" for inappropriate material; he said that public access was a success in his town; he said Indy could do it. He gave us his card without cracking a smile. He was the ice man.

We looked at the video monitors, studio and editing equipment wistfully. Ande and Nicki took notes as they dreamt of funding and having the fourth channel.

Curry was reserved, but curious. I was inquisitive, but hungry. In the end, Carlton took the wheel and delightedly rolled us to Martinsville where there was the best cafeteria in the world. We gorged on fried chicken and talked about the future. Of course, chicken without mashed potatoes is an unsatisfying meal, and public access TV without support is a low budget black hole. We went back and forth until the only thing left to do was to go.

"Whither goest thou?" asked Nicki as we loaded back into the convertible.

"To the flatlands," Ande sighed as we journeyed down the winding freeway to Indy.

Now, this is the first time that this group has been alone and in a position to talk in the two years since this public access debate began. Questions and answers, pros and cons, talking and listening, all occurred on our voyage in a shiny car.

What is the meaning of this road trip?

It's all summed up in something a woman at the cafeteria said to a man in grungy overalls, as she was spooning a large helping of mashed taters on my plate: "You reckon if you put them things in the ground something'll grow up?"

I think some seeds were planted on our trip to MCAT, relationships were formed and if nothing is resolved between Public Access Indiana (Nicki and Ande's gang) and the Cable Franchise Board (Carlton's crew), we'll always have the cafeteria.

@ 1999 Copyright  NUVO