A native of Chicago and a graduate of the University of Missouri, Eric Bernsee has enjoyed residing in Greencastle for more than 25 years. Years of consuming McDonald's iced teas, Dairy Castle flurries and Marvin's GCBs have helped make him the man he is today.

Home is where the stomach is

Posted Saturday, October 4, 2014, at 10:17 AM

Daughter No. 1 called the other day -- no, wait, let's get that right, she sent me a text the other day; nobody calls anymore -- wanting to know if it would be all right if she and husband Karl spent the night on their way from Iowa to Ohio.

So, apparently Indiana isn't just a fly-over state, it's also a drive-thru.

But that's another story.

Daughter No. 1 (she loves it when I call her that in print; Daughter No. 2, not so much) was born and raised here in Greencastle, Ind., one of the last babies born at the old Putnam County Hospital. She was in the last class to go the full K-5 at Jones School, graduated from Greencastle High School and DePauw University.

And, of course, she grew up on the Thursday night special (garlic cheeseburger, cheese fries and a drink) at Marvin's, where once we regularly fed a family of four for $8 back in the day.

So certainly this is home to her. But now she lives 7-8 hours away and has a husband and a big-time job and adult responsibilities, so I don't get to see her that much. Weddings, holidays, whenever they're hungry for Marvin's ...

Coincidentally, this is also Old Gold Weekend at DePauw, which translates into homecoming for most of us.

So throughout the past week, Daughter No. 1 kept me abreast of plans and logistics and how they expected to get in late Thursday and leave early Friday for Ohio and Karl's class reunion activities.

Breakfast was in the plans for Friday morning -- until their stomachs started growling out in Iowa.

The latest text indicated that leaving Des Moines at 2 p.m. and getting here after 10 had suddenly turned into leaving Iowa at noon and getting here at 8.

Aw, shucks, I thought, isn't that nice. They want to spend a little more time with dear, old dad. Relax and talk and enjoy each other's company for a couple of extra hours.

Whoa. Not so fast ...

The next text offered the true motivation for an earlier arrival: "Thought we could do a late dinner at Marvin's."

The Thursday night special ... but of course!

Yep, those GCBs were calling another DePauw alumnus home.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy dinner as well.

Just not so much Friday morning's garlic-flavored goodbye hugs and kisses ...