Let's Go to Kokomo

I've been bouncing around Indiana all my life, but I've never been to Kokomo.  Never had a reason to.  Didn't even know much about it except for that Beach Boys song, which is actually about a mythical atoll in the Florida Keys

Then I saw this photo.  Gulp.

In front of God and everybody?


Whoa.

But anything of interest above the belt in Kokomo?













Well, there's the Kokomo High School wrestlers posing with biceps.
















And the annual Kokomo Strongman Competition.

Ok, so off we go to Kokomo.

It's on the Wildcat River about 60 miles north of Indianapolis, a town of 45,000 known for auto manufacturing.  Somewhat grim:

Violent crime rate 722 per 100,000 (more than double the national average)
20% of the population under the poverty level
Median household income 30% below the national average

Former hotbed of Ku Klux Klan activity, the home of Ryan White, the teenager who contracted AIDS in the 1980s and had to leave town with his family after facing discrimination and death threats. 

Still a lot of hate in town.  In October 2017, Solid Rock Ministries featured an Islamophobic conference.

This is heavy Trump country, and heavily fundamentalist (5 fundamentalist schools in town). And there are Christian schools in town (5 fundamentalist, 1 Catholic, 1 Lutheran).

But there are some amenities.  The Howard County Museum is housed in the Seiberling Mansion.

The home of the guy who invented stainless steel is also a Kokomo museum.

In addition to joints named Hawg Heaven and Jamies Soda Fountain (no apostrophe), there's at least one Thai restaurant.

And Kokomo is slowly moving into the 21st century.  There's a Kokomo Pride group (founded in 2013) , a gay-straight alliance at Indiana University Kokomo (found 2015), and a gay youth group (founded in 2016).