Who Is A Famous Person From Your Hometown❓
🐖 | MY HOMETOWN | 🚜
I was born and raised outside Princeton, Indiana, in the United States. It is near the Kentucky and Illinois state borders. This is where the Midwest meets the South, although geographically speaking it's the Mideast. I guess "Middle East" is a danger word where I was born, so therefore it's called the Midwest.
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://res.cloudinary.com/dmuksl47x/image/upload/v1567024932/5881913723_10e54e374a_b_nwwwj8.jpg)
The old train depot, now a restored tourist attraction 📷 Source
Princeton is a pretty typical midwest small town. There are a lot of corn, soy, watermelon and canteloupe farms. Princeton has a methamphetamine problem like many small Midwestern American towns do. My stepfather's family had a corn farm and my Dad was a coalminer, all too typical jobs for this economically depressed area.
🥂 | PRINCETON'S FAMOUS PEOPLE | 🎉
"Famous or quasi-famous?" I guess it's all relative depending on how small your hometown was or is. I hope some of you have at least heard of these two people on my list.
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://res.cloudinary.com/dmuksl47x/image/upload/v1567027453/71gfVRUUvZL._SL1003__um92lh.jpg)
The popcorn baron advertising his product 🍿 Source
- Orville Redenbacher
Surely you have heard of this guy; he is the popcorn barron. I have seen Orville Redenbacher branded popcorn all over the world, from Albanian grocery stores to Cambodian roadside shops. He actually worked with my stepfamily's popcorn farm, Princeton Farms, until he went on to fame with his own seed.
I don't know the full story, but it's got something to do with intellectual property rights, genetics, branding and lawyers. Whatever happened, my stepfamily's farm is now defunct, but we still have Princeton Farms microwaveable popcorn bags left over from the 1990's. It keeps forever, and I always eat some when I go home.
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://res.cloudinary.com/dmuksl47x/image/upload/v1567123857/dt27_klymoa.jpg)
Dave Thomas actively not acknowledging his customers 🍔 Source
- Dave Thomas
If you're American, you've probably eaten at a Wendy's fast-food restaurant at least once in your life. Dave Thomas is the CEO and founder of Wendy's. He lived in Princeton during his childhood, and it's rumored he got the idea for a local burger and shake shop known as Greek's.
I don't know if Greek's still exists or not, but Dave Thomas also worked for KFC before starting Wendy's. It's rumored it was Dave's idea that Colonel Sanders appear in the KFC TV commercials, which turned out to be a big hit. Colonel Sanders was actually from Indiana too. He moved to Kentucky when he bought a gas station there, where he starting selling fried chicken.
Thanks for posting through TravelFeed.io!
You have received a 25% bonus upvote from us. We hope to see you soon on TravelFeed.io!
Woohoo!
Congratulations @justinparke! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOP
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!
I used to live in Delavan, WI... where "Radar" from MAS*H was born.
Radar, that's classic. I used to watch M.A.S.H. everyday after school. He was the guy who used to dress up like a woman and act like a fool so he could be sent home if I remember correctly.
That was Klinger.... Radar was the nerdy one with the glasses.
Killer memory.
Ok...I’ll give this a whirl.
I’m from Union, New Jersey in the states.
2 names that are probably somewhat biggies are Ray Liotta & Robert Wuhl.
Ray Liotta is probably best known for his portrayal of Henry Hill in Goodfellas...although he has a tremendous body of work under him from Field of Dreams, to Narc, to Blow, to Hannibal, and the upcoming Sopranos prequel.
He would sometimes pop back home to visit his folks who still lived there long after he had made it big. I met him once at a local convenience store called Quick Check right after the film Unlawful Entry was released. I was just a kid but was so star struck that my siblings made fun of me for what seems like decades.
Robert Wuhl is another actor and also a comedian. Bull Durham, Batman, and a slew of movies are to his credit. He had an HBO show years ago where he played a sports agent called Arliss. Loved that show. When I was a senior at Union High School in 1998, he was inducted into our Wall of Fame. I did a quick shitty interview with him for my television production class. We took a picture that cake out blurry as hell which I still have somewhere.
Artie Lange is another.
Posted using Partiko iOS
That's what @blank7 said, Artie Lange.
Sorry, I didn't see that. You know Union is a shit town when one of it's most famous citizens is an obese junky. I Love Artie though, he is hilarious.
Posted using Partiko iOS
Wow! very interesting and nice little backstories. You've got a better memory than me. Kinda blew my quasi-celebs out of the water there. Nobody is more Jersey than Ray Liotta. I used to watch Arliss back in the day, I remember that show. I think Robert Wuhl's career has died off in recent years. I haven't heard much about him for a long time.
Yeah pretty much. Talented dude but it happens to. Tons of celebs. One day ontop of the world...the next...
Yeah I remember tons of worthless crap...now birthdays on the other hand...
Artie Langue, you can't forget about him!
Posted using Partiko Android
Yup. That’s another one. I also just found out not too long ago that a kid on the Orlando Magic is from Union. I forget his name though.
Posted using Partiko iOS
Congratulations, Your Post Has Been Added To The Steemit Worldmap!
Author link: http://steemitworldmap.com?author=justinparke
Post link: http://steemitworldmap.com?post=who-is-a-famous-person-from-your-hometown
Want to have your post on the map too?
Thank you @steemitworldmap!
Hello!
This post has been manually curated, resteemed
and gifted with some virtually delicious cake
from the @helpiecake curation team!
Much love to you from all of us at @helpie!
Keep up the great work!
Manually curated by @blewitt.
@helpie is a Community Witness.
For more information about our project,
please visit this month’s UPDATE post.
Oh, okay, I see @blewitt, you're with the @helpiecake curation team. Thanks again for your work curating!
Orville and Dave!!! What are the chances two food giants would be from the same place?!!
Ok...
I am from Seattle, WA USA
People born here like me:
Musicians:
Maybe I’ll just stop with these ones. ☺️
Okay well Seattle is huge, so that’s fair enough. Any of these people near your home or ever have an encounter with them? I’m assuming you’re too young for a Hendrix encounter, and I’ll have to educate myself on who Duff McKagan is.
Posted using Partiko iOS
Duff is Guns N Roses bass player. He, Macklemore and Sir Mix a lot all went to my high school but not when I was there. ☺️
Interesting! Dave Thomas actually worked in a restaurant in Knoxville I worked at called Regas's a Greek family name when he was a boy.. He began working at age 12 and was fired over some dispute.. Eventually went to Fort Wayne Indiana which might be around the time his legacy got attached to your small town.
Posted using Partiko Android
Very interesting, it's a small world isn't it. I know lots of people from Knoxville, spent a little time there. My closest friends in the USA all live in the Ducktown/Turtletown and Johnson City area of Tennessee, Murphy in NC and Blue Ridge, GA. Also, funny you mentioned a Greek restaurant too, because he supposedly stole some ideas to make Wendy's from a Greek Candy & Burger Store in my hometown. Maybe Dave built his square burger empire on stolen Greek technology and know-how from various states. It's likely he didn't learn anything passing through Kentucky though.
Lol, small world indeed man! Yes what's Kentucky done? Haha
Awww Ducktown on the Ocoee I played many fun gigs at duffs tavern...
When were you in and around Knoxville?
I left in 2011 never to return, went to NorCal to do that hill life thing.. You remind me so much of my great friend kactus back in Knoxville.. What a long strange trip it's been.. Really inspired by your story and perseverance when down to 500 greenbacks, I know how that feels and it's not something most westerners are up for.. 🙏
Posted using Partiko Android
Probably from around 2008 I started spending alot of time that area, Ocoee too. I have some friends in a reggae band called the Natti Love Joys, and they live in Turtletown, but play all over that tri-state area. Funny enough too when Sreypov first had signs of immigration problems, I went to Southern Oregon and worked on the hill for 5 months to save up Suriname money. It was hell, we were surrounded by fires on one farm, and the whole Paradise thing happened not far from us. We were around Selma in Oregon. Small small world. Give thanks.
wow just got super small.. I know Yaddi n Chad n Robert and the cast of characters in the lovejoys very well!!
Give thanks indeed!! We might have been in the same space around 2008
Posted using Partiko Android
This is the last pic that I took in the USA before heading out to make a new life in Cambodia, in 2010 I believe. I used to always pick up Marla's sister Chris, when she would fly in from New York for Camp Reggae way back when. I've managed to meet up with them a handful of times since living abroad. We still stay in touch. Super small world.
Camp reggae brings back memories for sure...
Nucking Futs man! Not just a small world but how wild that Dave Thomas would be the stone to turn over to discover this chance commonality..
I've had some pretty out there synchronicity is everywhere moments but this one is ranking quite high due to utterly impossible to recreate intangibles.. Two atypical Americans set off for something out there and wind up having this conversation of converging paths on a quirky experimental blockchain social media thingy.. Too cool
Posted using Partiko Android
Give thanks to the square-burger gods I guess.
Johnny Knoxville and Quentin Tarantino from Knoxville, quite a lot of famous people from there.. Mosy from back in the day though
Posted using Partiko Android
Saw him at a mall in Texas once when I was twelve or thirteen.
Posted using Partiko iOS
Who?