Martinsville reconsidered

We have a fondness for lemon drops - especially the hard-to-find old-fashioned sour kind that you used to buy for a penny apiece and eat out of a little white paper sack. We found some of those yesterday in a most unexpected place - downtown Martinsville - as we made a spontaneous detour on the way home from Indianapolis.

We grew up in Bloomington and have made the trip around Martinsville countless times on our way elsewhere, but yesterday was our first time ever venturing into this tiny (population ~13,000) and relatively poverty-stricken metropolis. Our first time! Say "Martinsville" to almost anyone in Bloomington and the reaction will inevitably be: "Ku Klux Klan." Granted, there was a notorious killing there in the 60's that had strong racial overtones. There are also countless apocryphal stories told by people who have passed through the place (and by people who know people who said they passed through the place, if you catch our drift), about racist comments and threats they received. There may be some truth to these rumors, but consider for a moment that the town's terrible reputation may not be entirely deserved. After all, it is hardly the only place in the country where racist events are known to have taken place, nor is it the worst.

More to the point, Martinsville has a lot of - dare we say it - charm to recommend it to tourists. We parked on the square and walked past several curio and gift shops on our way to Ruby's Diner, where we had lunch (GREAT onion rings - another one of our culinary weaknesses). Friendly service, too. We weren't the only ones there and in fact we ran into a colleague who works at the IU School of Medicine, enjoying lunch there with her mother. Many of the downtown stores feature books and products touting favorite son John Wooden.

Coach Wooden was born in Martinsville in 1910 and played hoops for Martinsville High. Paul V. McNutt, the former governor of Indiana whose name graces one of the more popular residence halls at IU, is another native of the town .

Who knew? The place has four or five excellent antiques shops, including the old jailhouse, which has been converted into Jail Bird Antiques, complete with a tea room. And it is not the only tea room in town. There is even a tiny artists' colony beginning to take root.

Our favorite find of the day has to have been the Martinsville Candy Kitchen, also located on the square. That's where we found the lemon drops that we've been happily sucking on ever since. Their signature product is hand-made candy canes, but they also make many chocolate products, as well as a variety of fudge. We can't eat chocolate but we bought some fudge to bring home for the kids. The owner heard us talking as we paid for our purchases and pointed out a bag of lemon candy he had made. Looks like small bits of yellow candy cane, but he promised us it was all lemon-flavored and not lemony-mint. We bought the bag (for a whopping $1.49) and once we have made our way through the lemon drops, we are looking forward to that treat.

As we took our change, the young woman who rang up our purchases said, "You come back and see us soon." And we plan to... those are some tasty lemon drops.