The Fredösphere

Fumes from newly refinished wood floors compelled the Fredöfamily to seek shelter at my parent's farm for a couple of days earlier this month.  The time away was slow-paced and enjoyable.  On Saturday my parents took us on a field trip to the surrealistically anachronistic Greenfield Mills.

In my adolescent years I hauled many wagonloads of wheat to Greenfield, so the visit stirred deep memories.  Just seeing the old, dorky slogan "New Wrinkle Four For Quality" preserved on the face of the main building like an artifact out of a time capsule was enough to stir deep and indescribable feelings in me.  Not all of them are positive:  old man Wrinkle could get grumpy if I delivered wheat with high moisture content, and I couldn't help taking it personally.

The mill produces and sells all kinds of flour products, but the truly odd side of the business is the electricity generation.  They are the smallest utility in the state of Indiana, serving only twelve customers.  Multiple generations of the Wrinkle family maintain the dam, the generator, and the transmission lines:  not your typical family business, to say the least.  As we toured the mill, I half expected to hear a lecture on the superior virtues of small-batch hand-generated electricity, how it was "richer" or "more complex" or "healthier" than the vulgar homogenized current produced giant corporate utilities.  I imagine the Wrinkles have cousins in Pennsylvania in the oil refinery business.

Labels: Culture, local