Detail on the Ridge

It seems people have always been drawn to Jim Mahoney - to his barber's chair, to seats on buses he's driven, to attendees at his fish fries, to the trapping and conservation workshops he and his wife, Nancy, have presented, or those he's met on his various sojourns. People feel welcome in his presence.

It's one of the reasons a tradition that became known as Detail on the Ridge lasted some fifteen years. The term was code among Indiana conservation officers for taking a Thanksgiving dinner break at the Mahoney home on the Ohio Ridge in western Bartholomew County.

The tradition began in 1961, shortly after Jim and Nancy got married. Camp Atterbury hosted an annual deer shoot to cull the population. COs would come in from all over the state. One of them approached Nancy shortly before the holiday and asked if she'd cook a twenty-pound turkey if he provided it. And thus did an Ohio Ridge institution get underway.

But much more than code word for a holiday meal, Detail on the Ridge has come to mean something deeper. To Jim Mahoney, Detail on the Ridge is a serious mission, a charge to increase the joy and connection that are the human birthright. The training for it consists of distinguishing between the fleeting and the permanent in those we're serving.

If you have ever had your unique spark of humanity recognized, if you've ever been made to feel like you belong, or if you've given these gifts to anyone else, you've been on detail.