(people talking in background) (upbeat drum and cymbal music) (rooster crowing) (motorbike engine roaring) (upbeat bluegrass music) ♪ Well, mama don't allow no bluegrass playin' around here ♪ ♪ Mama don't allow no bluegrass playin' around here ♪ ♪ Well, we don't care what mama don't allow ♪ ♪ We'll play our guitar anyhow ♪ ♪ Mama don't allow no guitar playin' around here ♪ (upbeat bluegrass music) ♪ Well, mama don't allow no guitar playin' around here ♪ ♪ Mama don't allow no guitar playin' around here ♪ ♪ Well, we don't care what mama don't allow ♪ ♪ We'll play our guitar anyhow ♪ ♪ Mama don't allow no guitar playin' around here ♪ - John Murphey in 1851, donated four blocks of land for the purpose of building a town, the original plot lay between Beaver Street, North Street, State and Walker.

The story on how Morocco got its name was passed down from generation to generation and at times has been changed somewhat.

(chuckles) There you go.

But the change is never far from the facts.

When a stranger appeared on horseback and being able to ride to the rubble to where the men were working, he got off his horse, he asked directions to Kankakee City, Illinois.

And after he had gone on his way, the workman talked about the leather boots topped with shining red Morocco leather the stranger was wearing and decided to call the town Morocco.

- I have people ask me, they say, well, do you run the museum full time?

(chuckles) I say, no, I try and still practice law.

We have a sign out here that says welcome to Morocco and there was a car there, they had a Ottawa Canadian license plate on.

I stopped and I said to 'em, I said, well, you're a long way from home.

And they said, yeah, we are, we're from Morocco, the country.

And so, they came and they had been at some kind of fancy seminar.

They both had PhDs, they told me in Canada and they came, they visited some friends of theirs in Cincinnati, Ohio and they were coming along and saw the Morocco sign.

Of course, being the local guy, I invited them and they came and we got their picture in the paper.

Oh, here, November 9th, 2016.

And they were very fine people and I've communicated with them since.

But that's our Moroccan connection to Morocco.

(dog barking) - It's okay, Cody.

Come on, quick.

Stay, stay.

Good boy.

Come on.

A person with a small farm, and right now we're considered a small farm, they don't really make much money but they get to live the way they want to live and you get to raise your family kind of on your own in the open and the kids have a lot of freedom.

I grew up in the town of Morocco and so, we played town kids games.

We rode bicycles all over town and out in the country and it was a good time to be growing up mainly after Second World War.

We had a small school, small high school where generally everybody knew everybody and it was kind of sad to see the consolidation and lose the high school in the town.

But we did not lose our elementary school, we worked to keep that in the town and I'm happy about that, but I'm very sad to see that there're all almost no businesses downtown.

I read where the Newton County Economic Development people are helping with that and hopefully it'll bring some new life to the downtown.

(upbeat music in background) - I never figured I'd ever be back in Morocco 'cause it was such, you know, a small town, nothing going on.

- Just kind of whoever wanders here, since it's so small.

What is there, like a thousand people?

- I don't know- - The population sign says?

- I don't even know if there's a thousand people.

- Probably not.

(laughs) Some guy's seen this guy's leather boots, they're a reddish leather color and he's like, hey, what are those?

And he told him it's Morocco leather and he said, hey, that's a really good name.

I guess he made a town.

- Yeah.

See, and that's how, I didn't know how true that was, that's one of the things I've heard over the years.

- That's what the town all told me.

- [Interviewer] If you were to guess, how would you say people in Morocco across the ocean grow up?

- [Client] It's in Africa somewhere.

- I know it's not, it is a very poor country.

I don't know a whole lot about it but I do know what, it is a poor country.

- Like our town says, it's the home of hospitality, right?

And it's true, these people in this town are so friendly.

They're so welcoming and they're excited for new people to come in.

That was the biggest change, is to have somebody approach you and be nice to you.

You know, we're gonna spend time with each other 'cause we're gonna see each other around town.

It's gonna be the person that, you know, you don't cut people off at the stop sign, you're not, you know, like you cannot go anywhere without seeing somebody that you are an acquaintance of or friends with.

So you don't have people, you know, well for the most part, you don't have people who are just being rude all the time.

- [Interviewer] What do you know about the country Morocco?

- I know that- - [Child] It's amazing.

- That it's in Africa and that when I order things, they try to ship it to Morocco, Africa instead of Morocco, Indiana.

(laughs) (upbeat music) (singing in foreign language) (upbeat band music) (crowd applauding) (people talking in background) - We wanna welcome you to the home of Hoosier hospitality, Morocco and this is our homecoming weekend.

The last few years, we've called it Beaver Fest and what happens is, the Morocco High School used to be here, the alumni come home, we clean up the town, we have fireworks tomorrow night, you know, a lot of things uptown and you can see the bands and the beer gardens and just the customs and traditions and you know, as much as we know we're gonna grow, we're not that far from the Chicagoland area, we want it to be planned growth and we never wanna lose our roots and what's made us the town that we are.

Our town is filled with hidden gems and full of people with character, personality and really just those down home Hoosier values.

And so, it's why I'm extremely proud to call this place Morocco, my hometown.

(doctor speaking faintly) - I got to the point in my life where I felt that some of the reasons I went to medical school were not being achieved.

I had been doing what my dad told me, I was doing what my wife wanted me to do, I did what my kids wanted me to do.

I never had a chance to do the things I wanted to do, the reason I went to medical school and which was that I needed to level the playing field, give people an opportunity to live a better quality of life through healthcare.

So I said, okay, I'm just gonna go ahead, get a dart, put a map on the wall and throw the dart on the wall.

Whichever town it hit, I'm just gonna go to that town.

I turned around, got a dart, thew it at the wall, boom, it hit Newton County.

The epicenter of Newton County was Morocco, Indiana.

So the day I decided to go, I put in the GPS, so it took me to the front of the city hall.

So I parked my car and right outside where I parked my car was an open building for lease.

So I was looking through the glass and checking to see whether, you know, the interior was good and what was in there.

And so I turned around and here was the sheriff right behind me.

I'm like, okay, young Black male in rural America with a sheriff and I don't know anybody here.

What is this gonna come out to be?

(laughs) So he said, may I help you?

I said, yes, I am a physician and I'm trying to set up a practice in this town.

He's like, absolutely, how can I help you?

He was the nicest, most open and very supportive and helpful officer I've ever met.

- Not bad.

- Beat that.

- Oh wait, wait, wait, Angie's my friend.

- Oh.

- Yeah.

- I gotta go together 'cause she's, you know.

- Well, I told Dusty, right?

You know, Dusty too- (people talking in background) - No, when you're done with one picture, you can just take another picture over.

The box will stay together, hopefully, I don't know.

- Let's see, two days ago, yeah, I was at your lunch yesterday, I went to my younger daughter's lunch the day before and there was two students in the cafeteria and they're the only two.

Like, my oldest niece is mixed and she attends the high school with my son and there's only a handful of people that are either of color or mixed.

And you know, there are people who feel a certain type of way about people of color, but they keep it to themselves, they keep it to their circle and they're not, they're never, I've never had an issue where I've had to have a conversation with somebody about them being rude or disrespectful to my children.

- Like I said, you're, I'll tell you when I was a kid, it was real racist.

I won't lie to you about that.

If people come from Illinois to the grocery store and stuff, they weren't greeted very well.

You know, the Blacks weren't.

He's like, what the fuck's that son of a bitch doing in our town, you know?

And there has been some chased out of town.

They used to come to the Morocco pool and people would chase 'em out of the pool.

They did it longer than that, but that was in the 70s, you know.

- He doesn't, he has a collar, but he don't have a tag.

- And he's a boy?

- He's a girl.

- Okay, yeah, no, I don't know.

I was hoping it would be, well, no, I'm glad it's not Sally.

- Come here, lemme take a picture of you, so we can put you on Facebook.

Come here.

- [Miss Celeski] It's Celeski, do you have my Sasha?

- Oh, is that your dog?

- Oh, dang it.

Hello, Bart.

- Yes, I got it up at the police station.

You want me to just bring it by or you wanna come get him?

Or her?

- Her.

- Okay.

Are you- - I'm attempting to go somewhere, so can you drop her off?

- Yeah, yeah, I'll just bring her by, I'll be there in a minute.

- Thank you so much.

- Yep, no problem.

- Bye.

- Bye.

That makes sense, it's Celeski's dog.

Now that I think of it, I've seen their kids walking around with that dog before, so.

And one of my goals is to convince people that we aren't bad guys.

I don't go, I don't leave my door any day of my life and think or want to hurt somebody or harm somebody or shoot somebody.

Never do I want to.

I wanna go home to my family but my job is to help people, to protect our rights and defend our constitution and you know, that's what we're here for, so, you know, that's the ultimate goal I think of all policemen, I would like to think.

I know there's bad in everybody, but for the most part, the guys that I work with and the guys that I know even that don't work around here, they wanna help people.

That's why they took the job.

- See, it doesn't matter what you wear, it doesn't matter what you look like.

Doesn't matter how much money you make, what kind of car you drive, what kind of things you have at your house.

Doesn't matter your job title.

When it comes down to judgment, it's all the same.

So Jesus says, remove the plank, the plank from your eye, so that you can help remove the speck from your brother's eye.

♪ Jesus, Jesus, Jesus ♪ ♪ There's just something about that name ♪ ♪ Master, Savior, Jesus ♪ (people talking in background) - [Crowd] 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

- Merry Christmas!

(crowd cheering) (crowd applauding) (crowd cheering) (gong resounding) - Good morning, this is Pastor Wayne and today is March 29th, 2020.

If anyone is like our household, we are having problem keeping track of the days.

So I wanna make sure you understand that today is Sunday and it is March 29th.

We are coming to you live from the parsonage and we wanna welcome you to Morocco First United Methodist Church and Mount Ayr United Methodist Church for worship this morning.

It's been a very uncomfortable time, especially for people here in Morocco and Mount Ayr because we're all very social.

We like to be together and do things together.

So when our local restaurant closed and only did deliveries and takeout, it was kind of a hit because we like to get together, we like to do things.

So people are eager to get back together to do things.

- If we didn't have national news, I don't even know that most people in Morocco would be practicing social distancing or think anything about it.

And so, you'll go to the store like here and maybe you'll see a mask or something and you'll, you know, just because you're a decent human being, you know, you'll respect the distance and all that stuff.

But when we go across the state line, to Farm & Fleet, or you know, to some of the bigger stores or whatever, you can't even go into store without it.

And then like, reality hits you again, you're like, well, yeah, I mean, the world's really experiencing this, but in our little part of the world, you know, it's really not.

(singing in foreign language) (teacher and children speaking in foreign language) - We live in Morocco but there's also another place in the world that's also by the name of Morocco.

All the way across the ocean on the continent of Africa is a country named Morocco.

So, I wanna know what you think that Morocco looks like.

We're very familiar with this Morocco but what do you think it looks like there?

- [Child] Imagine for the schoolhouses not to be as big.

- [Teacher] Okay.

- [Child] Because they live, like far from us, so.

- [Teacher] Okay.

So you suppose, like you have iPads, every one of you has an iPad, do you think students in Morocco have iPads?

- And I also saw a thing where they have to like share desks with other people.

- Oh.

(child speaks in foreign language) - What I drew is two kids playing and my parents, they also describe it as a kingdom most of the time.

So like, but they describe it like kind of how it is out here, so there's houses still and then I drew a little a pond and it's kind of like a desert too, so I drew some like sand, and yeah.

(children speak in foreign language) - I've seen this TV show on Disney+ where this guy goes to places and cooks their meals.

And he went to Morocco once and I saw that.

So, I noticed that it's some kind of desert-y look.

So I made this.

- [Teacher] Very nice.

(child speaks in foreign language) - Here, they're giving out food and like, over here, they're cooking them food.

- [Teacher] Oh.

Is there a beach too?

- Yeah.

- [Teacher] They're building sandcastles, I see.

I like how you drew the architecture as far as their roofs are different shapes than what we typically see.

Interesting.

(people talking in background) (upbeat music) (singing in foreign language)