When Alexandria Dugan rang up the purchases of a male and female customer at her Old Northside stationery store recently, she thought the guy’s face and voice were familiar.

“As they were checking out I was like, ‘Oh, he kind of looks like Tom Hanks. He kind of sounds like Tom Hanks.” And then they left and I was like, ‘I think that was Tom Hanks,” said Dugan, owner of Semantics Paper Goods, 111 E. 16th St.

It wasn’t until more than a week later when her neighbor Dream Palace Books & Coffee posted to social media a photo of Hanks outside of the shop that she realized it really was the multi-Oscar-winning actor and filmmaker.

Hanks had hit up the Northside Indianapolis businesses on Sept. 28.

Dream Palace owner Taylor Lewandowski didn’t post the photo until last week. He said Hanks asked him not to post the photo for a while.

“He wanted us to wait a week. That was his request,” he said.

Both the shops are in the same building on the ground level.

Tom Hanks’ visit to Northside Indy shops

Hanks and his daughter, E.A. Hanks, had stopped in the bookstore and cafe after the stationery store; and Lewandowski said he nearly missed the visit while working in the back office.

His barista went to the office to report the sighting of Hollywood royalty.

“She came back and was just like, ‘I’m like 90% sure Tom Hanks came in here,” Lewandoski said.

He went out front to investigate and saw that two Dream Palace customers were outside talking with Hanks. That’s where Lewandowski met the actor, who asked about how the year-old shop started.

Hanks posed for photos with the Dream Palace barista and some students from nearby Herron High School across the street.

The encounter was brief, and Lewandowski said he suspects the Hanks didn’t stay long at the bookstore because folks started to recognize him.

He said Hanks told him another Indianapolis bookseller suggested they make a trip to Dream Palace. Dream Palace, in turn, directed Hanks to The Whispering Shelf, 414 N. College, but the actor never made it to that store.

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While Hanks didn’t make a purchase at Dream Palace, he did buy a lot of stuff from the stationery store.

Hanks and daughter — E.A. Hanks is a writer — entered the shop in the afternoon.

“They didn’t really announce themselves or anything. They just came in and started shopping,” Dugan said.

The Hanks were in Semantics for about five minutes, picking out notebooks, letter writing paper, envelopes, pens and postcards, she said.

“They were pretty efficient shoppers. They kind of knew what they had in mind.”

What did Tom Hanks buy from indie Indianapolis stationery store Semantics?

Among the items Hanks took a liking to at the stationery store:

• Shorthand Task Pad Notebooks. Hanks bought several lined rule notebooks with checkboxes. Dugan said he wiped out her stock of forest green pads.

• Letter writing paper and matching envelopes from MD Paper Products, a Japanese brand.

Why was Tom Hanks in Indianapolis?

No word on what brought the actor and his daughter to Indy. The shop owners said they didn’t ask.

EA Hanks might make another trip to the Indy bookstore

Lewandowski said he hopes E.A. Hanks will return to Dream Palace to promote her book “The 10,” due out in 2025.

“She took my email down and said she’d like to do some kind of book signing or event here,” he said. “I hope she reaches out. That’d be great to have her come back and do something.”

Contact IndyStar reporter Cheryl V. Jackson at cheryl.jackson@indystar.com or 317-444-6264. Follow her on X.com: @cherylvjackson.

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Starting 9 p.m. Tuesday, all I-65 southbound traffic will have find an alternate route while the highway is closed.

INDOT says all traffic must exit at or before the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street/West Street exit. I-65 southbound between West Street and Alabama Street will be closed for 16 days for bridge deck patching and joint repairs.

All downtown exits south of West Street will be closed, including the exits to Meridian, Michigan, and Ohio streets, Fletcher Avenue, and the I-70 east and westbound exit.

Entrance ramps along this section of I-65 southbound will also be closed.

Ginger Curry is a training manager at the Circle K on 21st Street and Capitol Avenue. The gas station is right next to an I-65 entrance ramp that will be closed during construction, which leaves Curry with many concerns.

“I think it’s going to effect business in the downtown area,” Curry said. “A lot of exits closed and people are not going to be able to get off the exits to get fuel, use the rest rooms at the local service stations – I think a lot of business be lost.”

INDOT initially scheduled the project to start Oct. 18, but moved up the date because of inclement weather and Taylor Swift’s upcoming Eras Tour stop in the city.

“We know that Taylor Swift is coming to Indianapolis, and we’re trying to get out of the way of those folks driving to Indianapolis for the Swift Concert November,” said INDOT spokesperson Kyleigh Cramer.

“Some of these projects drag out for a very, very long time,” Curry said. “So, they need to get it done quickly so that we can resume business.”

INDOT suggest alternative routes like taking I-70 to get downtown and I-465 to go around the closures.

In the first home game of the NBA preseason for the Indiana Pacers, the Memphis Grizzlies won 120-116.

The Pacer could not seem to get the cogs churning, allowing the Grizzlies to score the first the game’s first eleven points. Ultimately, this run set the tone for the rest of the contest.

Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle noted the subpar performance in the first quarter.

“We made some progress in the second, third and fourth quarter,” Carlisle said. “The first quarter was very poor.”

The usual starters for the Pacers —  Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam and Aaron Nesmith — did not enter the game.

Grizzlies shooting guard Desmond Bane, a native of Richmond, IN., was off to a great start. Bane knocked down tough shots from midrange and beyond the arc.

Zach Edey, a product of Purdue University drafted earlier this year, asserted his game early. The Grizzlies forward led his team in the first half, tallying 13 points and three rebounds.

Carlisle spoke highly of Edey following the contest.

“He’s [Edey] is going to have impact,” Carlisle said. “Two-time National Player of the Year is a big deal. I have great respect for what he accomplished at Purdue. I have a lot of respect for what he did tonight. He put a will and [level of] physicality on the game that we did not match.”

Pacers veteran forward Myles Turner countered with own version of imposing play. Turner notched 12 points and eight rebounds in the first half. He did not play in the second half.

Obi Toppin and Andrew Nembhard contributed buckets of their own in the first half. The Pacers duo put forth eight and ten points respectively.

The Pacers came into the second half trailing 60-49. Despite a quiet first half, Pacers forward Bennedict Mathurin turned on the heat. Mathurin knocked down two crucial three-pointers in the third quarter. He scored ten points in the frame.

Edey continued where he left off in the first half. He stormed the lane throwing down thunderous dunks, ending the quarter with a team-high 23 points.

Bane matched Edey with 23 points of his own to end the contest.

Grizzlies forward Jake LaRavia, who attended Lawrence Central here in Indianapolis, also contributed to the stat sheet. LaRavia ended the game with seven points, eight rebounds and six assists.

The Pacers showed signs of life in the fourth quarter, shredding a 20-point deficit to as little as four. The heroics were led by Jerace Walker, who ended the contest with a team-high 15 points.

Walker spoke about his play following the contest.

“Once we got our fight, our legs into it, switched our mindset … we began to play more like ‘the Pacers,’” Walker said.

Pacers draft picks Cole Swider and Enrique Freeman were integral in a 16-2 run. Swider knocked down two catch-and-shoot three-pointers while Freeman lived up to his two-moniker, playing staunch defense.

The Pacers return to Gainbridge Fieldhouse Oct. 17 to face LaMelo Ball and the Charlotte Hornets.  They open the regular season against the Pistons, in Detroit, on Oct. 23.

Contact multi-media & senior sports reporter Noral Parham III at 317-762-7846 or via email at noralp@indyrecorder.com. Follow him on X @3Noral. For more sports from the Indianapolis Recorder, visit our archives.