If you know about it please don’t tell! It’s a secret.
Perhaps you have heard about the Purdue Secret Garden. The garden where your shadow may become three dimensional, leave you and enter the garden and dance. You know, the story of the little Amish girl whose fiance was killed in a fireworks accident in 1928.
Remember she attended Purdue, found a boyfriend, and witnessed a dance that took place, when both their shadows left them, became three-dimensional and entered the garden and began to dance. First with a slow waltz, then faster and faster, until they fell to the ground exhausted, and turned back into shadows again.
The garden that was patterned after the classic written in 1911. The garden that I had wondered about for decades, no one seemed to know where it was. Until recently when I thought to ask the lady that knows all and has no secrets, Mrs Google. She talks about it and even has pictures of it.
But did you know that Grabill has a Secret Garden. If I told you it wouldn’t be a secret. It is behind The Candy Store, (H. Souder and Sons General Store.) If you come on a sunny day and sit on the bench in the alley, by the parking lot, your shadow might leave you, become three-dimensional, and dance in the garden.
If you come to Grabill, be sure to visit, “The Grabill Prairie,” built by your tax money. The prairie grass is 4 ft high, and if you come in July you will see beds of beautiful wild Prairie Coneflowers, and wild Black Eyed Susans. One of the few true prairies in Indiana, I will try to include some pictures of the prairie in full bloom at a later date. The Prairie has a sidewalk loop, slightly less than a mile. If it’s warm, catch a soda at the candy store, or Common Grounds. If you visit The Secret Garden, tell Beth and for $2 she’ll sell you a candy bar. (Price subject to change depending on who is president.)
Visit the splash pad at Riverside Gardens if it’s a warm day, also the 2nd Street Botanical Garden, The Slaughter Road Million Dollar Garden, and The Highway 1 Fairy Garden. Both just a short distance north of Leo. If you get lost just ask Beth or Sasha at the candy store.
—James Neuhouser
