“The Shroyer name in Somerset was pretty big,” Tom said. “They were neighbors and they were good ballplayers at Somerset High School and that was what Larry aspired to be.” In fact, Larry became Somerset’s all-time leading scorer by the time he graduated in 1956. He led Wabash County in scoring his junior year. It would be wrong, though, to say he eclipsed them. “When you grow up in the Shroyer family,” Larry told me, “You gotta play basketball.” In 2023, he told me,

With Mr. Trump having entered the emotional full monty meltdown phase of the campaign, I’m feeling suddenly optimistic about the results...

I’ve poked around down there from time to time over the years, past the “no trespassing” sign where old State Road 513 bends west, walking north down the hill on a road that fades into tracks and then disappears into the water. I’m looking for the place where a kid learns not to stick his hand in a lawn mower. Just once, God, let me slip through a crack in the universe. If I could find that house I’m thinking that the people I remember would be there, too.