Indianapolis hunt came up empty

Editor's note: This column is being reprinted from April 5, 2006, shortly after the Jay County High School boys basketball team played in the Class 3A state championship game. Jack arrived early enough to go on a wild goose chase in downtown Indianapolis. He saw some friends and learned a valuable lesson, but was unable to fetch any fowl.

Like most folks, I arrived early.

It was about 4 p.m. when I parked my car in a garage on Pennsylvania Street not far from Conseco Fieldhouse. With a little time to kill, I gave Ray Cooney a quick call and asked if there was anything I could do for him in advance of Jay County’s debut in the IHSAA state basketball finals.

There was.

A memory card for the digital camera he was using — and which Mike Snyder would be using to shoot the game — had failed. He’d borrowed a replacement, but it would be better if I could pick one up before game time

No problem, I said. You can buy media for digital cameras at just about every drugstore or big box discount store. Some convenience stores stock them.

No problem.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Downtown Indy isn’t the right place to shop for that sort of thing. It doesn’t sell things people need. It just sells things people want.

My first stop was Border’s, though I had little hope I’d find what I was looking for. Thousands of books and CDs, but nothing camera-related.

So I set out for Circle Center Mall. Big mistake.

It was a great chance to see a lot of people from Jay County. There was something dream-like about all those familiar faces plunked down in the middle of an urban landscape.

But Circle Center has absolutely nothing practical for sale.

I could have bought over-priced kitsch by the truckload, but nothing utilitarian was available. Finding the mall directory, I scanned it for something like a CVS. The only thing remotely close was a health food store.

If I’d wanted herbal tea or echinacea, there wouldn’t have been a problem. A compact flash card for a camera was a problem.

The search continued.

Thinking back to the time we lived and worked in Indianapolis, I remembered a camera store on the circle and set out in that direction.

Trouble is, we lived in Indy more than 30 years ago. Sure, there used to be a camera store on the circle. But there used to be a J.C. Penney store there too. Both are long gone.

Everything was at once familiar and alien when I got to the circle. Some of the old landmarks were there, but most had evaporated.

I went around a corner onto Market Street expecting to see Weiss’s delicatessen. It had vanished. I went around another corner, hoping to find Ober’s stationery store, and found a parking garage instead.

Finally, I wandered back into Border’s. There, a helpful clerk suggested a store two blocks away, the last of the independent camera stores in Indianapolis.

Heading back into the streets, which by now were looking more like the Jay County Fair than a Saturday in the state capital, I found the shop.

As I reached for the door, I heard a click. Through the tinted glass, I caught a glimpse of a figure turning quickly away and moving toward the back of the store.

Closed.

As it turned out, we were able to use another card which we borrowed from Clint Anderson of the Berne Tri-Weekly and everything worked out all right.

But I’ve learned my lesson. If I ever need something practical, I won’t look for it in downtown Indianapolis.