Published: August 01, 2009 06:50 pm         

Mark Bennett: Where did the time go? TH Top 40 now 4-years-old

TERRE HAUTE — The realization radiates from your eyes straight into your chest, settling around your heart.

It usually happens as you watch a grown child graduate from high school or recite wedding vows. After a few flashbacks of first school bus rides and getting braces, the ceremony jolts you back into the present, and the question hits you …

Where did the time go?

In less-emotional terms, I wondered the same thing as my friend and editor Max Jones explained his idea to revisit one of the most popular series ever published in the Tribune-Star — Terre Haute’s Top 40. The newspaper is adding five more people, places and things that are unique to this city, or that people elsewhere connect to Terre Haute. That original list, selected by Max and the editorial staff, was compiled and published in 2005.

As we discussed the new additions, Max pointed out that a few had been considered four years ago, yet did not make the Top 40.

“But a lot has changed in four years,” he said.

Indeed, the first of those five newcomers — Ivy Tech Community College — has grown and changed impressively. Since 2005, it’s become an official cornerstone of a new Indiana community college system, grown to 6,230 students (up from 2,923 in 1998), expanded its campus and added programs and alliances with in-state universities.

Yes, a lot has changed in a short time.

That reality makes Terre Haute’s Top 40 look even more remarkable, especially right now. Just 21/2 years after we published that list, the harshest economic downturn in 70 years began. It’s still going on. Amazingly, only one of the 40 will meet its demise amid this recession. In March, Direct Brands — a descendant of the iconic Columbia Records Club — announced it would close its Terre Haute plant later this year.

A lot had changed.

When that sad news came in March, the plant employed 147 people. In 1996, the record club had 3,300 employees. In 1999, membership totaled 16 million customers in the CD, DVD and records club, famous for deals like 12 records for a penny. A decade later, Direct Brands decided to close what was left of that Terre Haute operation, along with two other plants, and “consolidate operations” at an outlet in Pennsylvania. The local shutdown will help Direct Brands “realize operational efficiencies.”

The plant had functioned here since 1953. Millions of people worldwide knew Terre Haute as the place they sent their check and order form for a new batch of vinyl LPs. Most Hauteans know a friend or relative who worked there, or wandered through its warehouse during one of those weekend Columbia Records sales. Now, it’s gradually decreasing its workforce until it closes around the end of this year.

Where did the time go?

The bulk of Terre Haute’s Top 40 are still standing the test of time.

The lights are still on at Allen Chapel, the Carmelite Monastery, Clabber Girl and Hulman & Co., First Financial Corp., Gibault, Headstone Friends, Hulman Center, Indiana State University, the Indiana Theatre, Eva Kor’s CANDLES Holocaust Museum, Light House Mission, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, St. Mary-of-the-Woods College, Sisters of Providence, Sony DADC, Square Donuts, Swope Art Museum, the Sycamore Building and the Vigo County Courthouse.

There’s still activity at Collett Park, the Crossroads of America at Seventh Street and Wabash Avenue, Deming Park, the Action Track and Hulman Mini-Speedway, Farrington’s Grove, Fowler Park and its Pioneer Village, the Lavern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course, Hulman Links, Memorial Stadium and the Historic National Road Heritage Trail.

The quiet beauty of Mill Dam and Ohio Boulevard is undiminished.

The legacies left by Larry Bird, Eugene V. Debs, Theodore Dreiser, Paul Dresser and Tony Hulman are tied forever to Terre Haute by the outside world. Gone as it is, the Columbia Records Club still holds a special spot in the community’s history, just like Champagne Velvet beer. CV hasn’t been brewed since 2007, when the guy who revived the city’s signature drink, Mike Rowe, turned the local brewery over to the makers of Brugge, a line of Belgian beers. But CV memorabilia from the first half of the 20th century remain popular items on eBay, and the historic brewing district around Ninth and Poplar streets is now a popular dining area.

When people mention “Terre Haute” in places like Toledo, Ohio, or Fort Smith, Ark., their first thought might be Champagne Velvet, the Columbia Records Club or Larry Bird’s alma mater.

It’s comforting, especially now, to know those distinctly Terre Haute connections survive, in some fashion. We’ll add five more this month, revealing them one by one in the five Sunday editions in August. At a time when the future looks so uncertain, in a business climate where everything is on the table, it’s reassuring to be able to count on some things.

The name — Terre Haute’s Top 40 — will stick, though the list is being boosted to 45 this year. Later, Max figures, we’ll add a few more. After all, a lot can change in a few years.



Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.