Life in Ellettsville - then - now - and into the future: (posted 1/10/2008):
    100 years ago Ellettsville was one of many smaller-sized communities able to more or less stand alone
economically.  Its economy was based on farming and the limestone industry.  Local businesses were able to
provide employment and most basic daily needs.  A trip to the next town was a big event requiring most of a day
to accomplish.  This provided the basis for what we today view as "life in the good old days."   
    Somehow we seem to ignore that average life expectancy back then was less than fifty-five years. 
Tuberculosis, polio, smallpox, and other ailments we have since conquered were daily companions.  Horse-drawn wagons seen today in festival parades were still a basic mode of transportation.  Walking was a daily necessity not an exercise program.  Be careful where you step.
    Today, many old time communities like Ellettsville are just a road sign with a name along a modern highway to someplace else.  Some were consumed into a larger town next door.  Some are just signs beside open fields of memories.  A few buildings may remain.  A few towns like Ellettsville still exist thanks to a nearby larger economic engine like Bloomington.  These small towns preserve their sense of autonomy and self-identity.
    Ellettsville prides itself in being, "The friendly little town next door."  It is still a place where most folks know their neighbors.  However, basic daily needs are less and less met by local businesses.  Modern times
require larger establishments based on more rooftops than in town.  Most people work in Bloomington and
further down the highway beyond our town's limits.  This increases outside pressures diminishing the importance of our community in our daily lives.  More importantly, it diminishes the level of local control we can retain over our community's daily affairs.
    A similar problem faces town government and other community services.  The economic necessities of today require larger and larger size service units to stay viable.  This requires we all go through some growing pains.  Currently these are most evident in our school system, police department. and planning and zoning efforts.  A major effort is underway to bring all three areas up-to-date after allowing them to lag behind in their structure and level of service needed for our town to survive today.  Hopefully, we will NOT get so wrapped up in past
insults and problems that we lose sight of moving forward working to keep our town a viable community.
    We can NOT advocate going back to living in the previous century.  It is not prudent to ourselves and our
children to ignore the benefits of a longer useful life, the ability to travel further and faster, and other modern
improvements.  What few small enclaves that today still try to totally live in bygone eras find this option more
and more untenable to continue.  This requires us to journey down an untested path.  The opposite of growth is death.  Our challenge is to grow our community without losing its more 19^th century way of life we so treasure.
    There are two ways to drive a car down the slick, unfamiliar country road to the future in the fog of unknown future problems most of whose causes are beyond our control.  One way is to keep looking out your tailpipe making fearful comments and poor decisions when current issues go whizzing past.  You have no control over where you are going.  You get little warning about hazards ahead.  As George was told, "Watch out for that tree ..." 
    This page is dedicated to the second, and we humbly advocate, preferred method of heading into our future and beyond.  Let us focus beyond our individual fears and needs.  Individually, we need to venture beyond the more comfortable boundaries of the various social, political, economic, and religious groups that we welcome within our town limits.  We call on all who are willing to join us in the front seat to help keep our vehicles on the road we travel today to the future.  Let us keep looking forward gleaning what information we can about the changing world around us as it appears from the mist of future times unfolding before us.
    Knowing, and being on the good side of, the Mitchs, Beckys, and others of importance who do not live in our town can be useful, but, it will never replace good relationships with your neighbors.  The names and faces of outsiders will be always changing and soon forgotten.  Your neighbors, on the other hand, will become your friends and stand with you in good times and bad as has been done in small town Indiana since before our town was founded.  Hopefully, this will still be so upon our bicentennial in 2037 and beyond.  This is our goal.
    Into the future, and beyond, let us strive to always be "the friendly town down the road" where folks know and care about their neighbors.  The physical growth our community has enjoyed over the last 100 years, enabling it to still survive today, has not yet snuffed out this bygone ideal.  Preserving and strengthening this way of life in our growing future community is our mission.  Please join us in this quest.