Profile: Herschel Musick Background: Born in Summitville in 1923, Musick attended Alexandria schools through the 10th grade after his farm family moved further north in Madison County. "Times were tough and dad was out of work, so I quit school when I was 16 and went to work to help support the family (including two younger siblings)." He was a machinist at a now-closed Anderson company for most of his working life. Music's wife, Betty Jean, died in 2002 -- a year after their daughter died. Musick, who suffered a stroke in 2004, lives alone. He has a son, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Tough times lately as well, how have you managed? "I was in Ball Hospital for three weeks on a rehab floor, then they let me come home -- but they wanted my son to stay with me that first night. He did, along with a grandson. "In the morning, my son asked where I wanted to go for breakfast -- and I said that I would fix breakfast. "And I did: hot cakes, eggs and bacon. I've been here ever since, and I have someone come in and clean house once a month. I still drive, my reflexes are still good, and I plan to keep driving until they aren't." Were you in World War II? "When the war broke out, I was working at Plant Two for Ball Brothers making glass medical syringes. I was drafted, but because of the work I was doing, I was offered a deferment. "I said, 'I'm no better than anyone else who has to go,' and I did go. "And I would have shipped out had I not come down with pneumonia. After I was well, I worked at a POW camp for Japanese Americans placed at an Indian college in Arizona -- and later I worked in the mess hall at a POW camp for Italian Americans, in Coolidge, Ariz. I was never shipped overseas." Herschel and Betty Jean had been married for nearly 60 years. "She was from Alexandria, and we were married in 1942. We moved into this house in 1952. Our daughter was small, and we both liked the idea of smaller schools. "This house and most of the homes around it had outdoor toilets at that time." What did you and she do for Daleville? "Jiggs Maddox had been the park board president, but he died before the gazebo was built. The idea fell apart, until we took over." The Musicks and other volunteer businesses and individuals, including the building trades class at the Central Indiana Carpenters Union, built a band-sized gazebo in 1999 near a former depression-era filling station that had been moved to the center of town and is now used by local historians. Daleville good and bad? "When we moved here, there were two groceries and two restaurants, three barbershops, a canning factory where the high school is now, and a pool hall. Now there is not much downtown. But we still have a bank, and we have the new Heartland Business Center in the former factory shops -- and that is good." Michael McBride Originally published April 18, 2006 The StarPress (Muncie, Indiana)