I maintain that whenever my hometown of South Bend, Indiana, shows up in the national news, it’s because something extremely weird happened.
Whether it’s a marauding pack of dogs eating most of the wallabies in Potawatomi Zoo, a man stabbing his brother over a Hot Pocket, a small airplane landing on US-31 (possibly the busiest stretch of road in town), someone murdering homeless people and stuffing them into manholes downtown, or an elderly man tackling a naked crack addict who was in the process of chasing middle-school girls at their bus stop (oh, how I wish I still had a link for that last one), some seriously weird stuff goes on there.
But I’d be remiss if I didn’t also reference South Bend’s lively spirit, epitomized by the Chicago Sun-Times (via the AP) in their story, “83-year-old gets lost dancing at inauguration.”
To quote the article, it doesn’t sound like he got lost at all:
Mussa Muhammad says his “spirit jumped sky-high” when President Barack Obama took the oath of office Tuesday. He became separated from his group and, he says, “just danced and danced” with a couple of young women he met along the way.
Muhammad’s tour group waited five hours for him, but left Washington after tour leaders spoke with his wife. Rev. Lefate Owens of Elkhart Community Missionary Baptist Church says she assured them that Muhammad would be all right.
…
He arrived in South Bend Wednesday, still wearing the black-and-white suit with red dots that he wore to the inauguration.
The South Bend Tribune article has more details (and a photo of the suit, which the AP description does not give justice). It’s a must read, even if you didn’t grow up there.
Update: The story made all of the local news channels as well. Some highlights:
Quote: “If there’s rhythm, it makes me move. This is how I missed the people. Girls coming from everywhere wanted to dance with me,” Muhammad explains.
How did he explain that to his wife?
“She knew. She’s the only lady in my life.”
There is also video of him dancing (but not in his suit).
WSBT 22 just have “Update: Missing South Bend Man Found in D.C.”, although they do add “Stay with WSBT.com for the latest on this developing story, and read more about it in Thursday’s South Bend Tribune.”
Finally, FOX 28 has a nice interview with the man and his wife, complete with footage of him wearing the suit, but there’s no footage of him dancing in it!
COME ON LOCAL NEWS, GIVE US WHAT WE WANT! Mussa Muhammad dancing in his suit! I don’t think that’s too much to ask.