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Off the Hook - Archive 2011
by Melanie Behrens

12/30/11
60 years ago in Marysville
They are Marysville natives, interesting ladies full of stories and I call them friends. Recently I sat down with Kae Zorman and Linda Trees to talk about how Marysville was when they were young.
They were born in 1940, just before the start of WWll. Let me remind you that age 71 isn’t what it used to be. There are no laced up old-lady shoes for these gals. They are still very active and involved in life.
All that both remember of the war years is the importance of the food ration stamps. Supplies for things like sugar and butter were low during those times and stamps were required at the market to be able to purchase this type of commodity. It was a time when moms wore dresses and high heels not tennis shoes and sweats.
The two were in the same class in school for all the early years. Kindergarten was not part of Marysville public schools in those days, but there was a private one run by Jean Graham, where many local children started school. Her kindergarten was located in the alley building behind the Marysville Fire Dept. The building is still there.
The girls moved on to the old East School building located at the site of the present newer structure at Chestnut and Sixth Streets. It had been three stories, but by the time they went there, the third floor had been removed. Later, the whole building was razed in the early 1970s to be replaced with the new one.
If students acted up in class they were put in the hall to sit. Kae was there a bit and didn’t mind at all! I also found this very surprising — both ladies remembered they had Christian religious education at East Elementary school. Sometimes the Catholic and occasional Jewish students were excused.
The girls lived on the east side of Main Street and that was the mythical dividing line of the city. The saying went like this, “East is the beast, West is the best.” Some of the East kids felt scared to meet the West kids when they moved on to junior high. Kae and Linda were worried, but made that move easily and fortunately fit in when the time came. Many lasting friendships were later made with those youngsters from the other side of town.
Everyone walked to school, rain or shine or snow. Only those who lived in the country were bused. Of course all the schools were downtown then, instead of the more spread out way they are now. Remember, the population was only about 4,000 in the 1940s and 50s instead of the 22,000 we have today. Children could play outside all day, just checking in at home occasionally and even walking around at night in the summer. They were never afraid. It was a simpler, more safe and comfortable time.
The local milkman would just open the front door, which was always unlocked and come in to place milk in the refrigerator. It was then and for many years afterwards a somewhat closed society in Marysville. There were few new people and residents were slow to accept newcomers.
Linda remembered they had a TV which had about a 9-inch screen. Her dad made it color by covering the screen with special colored foil in the 1950s. Television programming was only on certain hours of the day. At other times it showed just a test pattern.
Next week there will be more about Linda moving to the country and Kae in high school!
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12/23/11
Bruce Zorman - master of lights
Bruce and Kae Zorman live in Timberview just off Rt. 38. It is the first house on the left and you can’t miss it! The Christmas lights are plentiful, bright and beautiful! It is a huge undertaking to put up all these lights, but Bruce is retired so he has the time.
His efforts actually began many years ago in another neighborhood on Fairwood Drive. One day a little neighbor girl, Jenna Ruetty, stopped by to talk to Bruce. She was about 7 years old then and said, “Mr. Zorman, why doesn’t anyone decorate on our street at Christmas?” Kae believes that was the beginning of Bruce’s quest for light.
That year he decorated the full grown pine tree next to their garage using a stepladder. The tree kept getting bigger and a few years later he had to make a long wood extension to reach it. This was quite a change from just a wreath on the door.
Bruce had retired from O.M. Scott and Sons and was working at McAuliffe Hardware. That was the perfect job for his new decorating hobby. It seems people would return lights that didn’t work and Bruce could take them home and fix them, thus adding to his display volume.
He began adding them to trees, bushes and anything he could. Decorations expanded to front and back in that neighborhood, and now the same is happening in Timberview. His efforts began with Jenna, now 23, and have continued because of another young lady.
It seems Bruce’s huge display had almost become too much and he thought of cutting way back in his present home until he heard from a friend, Betty McVey. Her granddaughter, Katie Aslaner, is fascinated with the beauty of the lights and gets so excited when she sees them. Bruce came home and said that if Katie gets excited about the lights he would have to continue putting all of them up. So instead of another “retirement,” he still does his decorations.
The road to success has not been smooth. There have been requests from Kae that went to deaf ears. She told him, “Bruce, it is okay for you to put up more lights, but please no blinking ones.” A few nights later she pulled in the driveway and there on the tree by the street were new lights with one strand clearly blinking.
The lights also caused periodic darkness in their home. Kae explained: “One problem Bruce had the first year was that all those lights kept blowing fuses. No, he did not decrease the number of lights. Instead he rewired. Now he has devoted circuits to the outside.”
His motto has been, if it grows it has lights. That extends to the nine large pines that can be seen from Rt. 38. It is truly a traffic stopper.
My recent experience in their backyard was apparently not typical. I went over in the cold and dark to take a picture for this column. Thankfully, I had boots on because of the extreme mud. Anything for a story!
I was down by the lake behind Zorman’s house and fortunately had already taken several pictures when a large section of lights in back went out. Bruce says he just added another strand that day and it was too much! He said that the combination of the extra power needed and moisture in the area caused the outage. Weather has been a repeated problem this year. Now he says the situation is taken care of!
Last year, Gene Sellers, a noted artist who lives across the street, helped Bruce design a nativity scene. Since then they have started a new tradition. All the lights are turned on during December. On Christmas Eve all the lights will be off except the spotlight on Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus.
Please drive by and enjoy Bruce’s display produced by many long hours and inspired by two young girls over the years!
Merry Christmas!
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12/16/11
J-T carriers span generations
Our Journal-Tribune paper carriers come in all sizes, descriptions and ages. I recently met our senior carrier, Richard Boerger, age 89, who for the last several months has been delivering papers at The Inn at Halcyon, where he is a resident. His great-grandchildren, Kirsten Lilley and Jordan Thessin, are carriers on the west side of town and are more the normal description for that job at ages 11 and 15.
Many people don’t even live long enough to know great-grandchildren, but Richard is lucky. He even shares a job description with them! He is the third generation of his family to have a route. His grandchildren, Terri and Rob Winter, were also carriers.
Richard enjoys his job and he’s quite an outgoing person. Most of his life was spent as a dairy farmer, but he has been living at Halcyon (an assisted living facility) since last February. His wife of 22 years, Betty, still lives in their home, but of course he hopes she’ll join him there sometime in the future.
He takes his job very seriously and it gives him a way to have contact with many of the residents. I suspect he enjoys a good conversation! During the week, the papers come to him with a name on them and he just rolls them and wraps them so they can be hung on the door.
But the Saturday situation is quite different. The paper is much heavier because of the advertising inserts and apparently even requires Richard, who uses a walker, to haul with an extra delivery bag.
His work is all volunteer and we appreciate his efforts. He likes being busy. Although Richard is a married man, he does get an occasional peck on the cheek from a female subscriber as a thank you for his efforts.
He is enjoying Halcyon. He said the food is particularly good and he has put on a few pounds since moving in. Maybe the recent addition of the carrier job will help him trim down.
His great-grandchildren, Kirstin and Jordan, have been at their jobs on the west end of town for several years. The worst thing that ever happened to Kirsten was a dog bite. It was a great big sheep dog and kept barking at her while she was trying to do her job. Then the dog bit her, which resulted in five stitches in her leg. It was quite a while before she would go near another dog on her route.
Another hazard while delivering papers for these youngsters has been ice on the street. A bike on ice and carriers with heavy papers is not a good mix, and they have “wiped out,” so to speak, several times on the ice. Their grandfather, Larry Winter, Richard’s son-in-law who passed away last June, was a big help to them on their routes. Apparently he also had occasional trouble on ice.
The young carriers use their earned money mostly for electronics purchases and Kirstin in particular is saving for an iPad. Our J-T carriers work hard and they are grateful for any customer appreciation at Christmas time.
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12/9/11
Kylee Pfarr - cruising the world
Marysville grad Kylee Pfarr (class of ‘05) has been on board ship many months starring as the lead singer in a musical production aboard the Grandeur of the Seas, part of the Royal Caribbean Line.
She will be headed home in early January. Much has happened. She has been able to tour many of the grand ports of Europe and now her ship is headed to the southern Caribbean. The transatlantic cruise took 14 days and the home port for the ship is now Colon, Panama.
Kylee relates: “We all had to say good-bye to beautiful Europe and all that came with our four months there. I’m so grateful that I got to see what I did, though! Whether it was coming around the corner of a small trattoria and seeing the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Duomo for the first time, exploring Rome and its incredible beauty (it’s my favorite place that we’ve been thus far, hands down), eating Nutella crepes in Cannes, France, watching the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace in Monaco, or shopping and checking out La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, it was honestly an amazing time in Europe.”
“While our Spanish run was easier because we didn’t have to travel as far to see the “big” sites (we ported in places that let you walk straight into the heart of the Spanish cities), our Italian run was so memorable because it always felt like such an adventure! For example, my cast and I only had the opportunity to go to Rome once as it was always a show day and traveling into Rome from Civitavecchia took about an hour each way.
“However, we took the opportunity that day to travel as a big group and explore the city together. In a matter of eight hours, we managed to take the express train to Rome, which stopped right outside the walls of Vatican City, and saw the Vatican, outside of St. Peter’s Basilica and the Coliseum, and finally walked to the Trevi Fountain, where we ended up finding a wonderful restaurant on a quiet side street and eating the best lunch I ever had in Europe (spaghetti carbonara with homemade noodles and a side of fresh bruschetta). We were exhausted that day from all of the traveling, walking, and of course the heat! It was almost 90 degrees the day we went there, but it was one of the absolute best days of my life.”
Kylee’s boyfriend, Dustin Chapman (also of Marysville), was on the cruise with her on one of the Italian cruises. They went to Monaco and Monte Carlo, where they watched the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace in Monaco and enjoyed the Grand Casino. In Monaco, there is a unbelievable display of wealth everywhere you look, probably not made in that casino!
Food and its exploration have been a big part of Kylee’s adventure. She explains: “I have to admit that sadly, food was the absolute favorite part of my time in Europe! Depending on if you dined in a tourist-heavy area or not, we could typically have a pasta dish and bottle of water for about $15 Euros in less-trafficked areas, or upwards of $30-35 Euros in touristy ones.”
“Pizza was similar. When eating pizza at a cafe on Las Ramblas (the most famous shopping street in Barcelona), I spent $15 Euros for pizza alone, and then ended up paying $15 Euros for one large glass of sangria! That was an expensive day.”
“However, when getting pizza in Palermo, we found a favorite restaurant that was very reasonable, and usually got away with paying about $7 Euros for a pizza and $10 total with a drink. Gelato typically ran about 2-4 Euros, crepes were about $4.50 Euros and a glass of the house wine in Italy was typically about $3-4 Euros.”
“Overall, you could end up getting some amazing food and drink if you only took the time to explore the less-traveled areas and not just settle for the expensive tourist prices.”
Now, members of the ship’s crew have begun the second leg of their journey. They are traveling the southern Caribbean, which is another world. Their home port is in Panama, which Kylee says is dirty, rather run-down and even scary at times.
She added, “It’s a comfort to me that my three best friends on board are men. It makes me feel much safer when out and about traveling with them. However, I will say, I had the pleasure of experiencing Cartagena, Columbia yesterday, and was shocked at how much I liked it! This part of the world is completely different than Europe, not as clean and a poorer economic state, but it is beautiful in its own right.”
While still on the European leg of this cruise I asked Kylee about sea sickness, since that is always on my mind when I think of cruises. She said: “Let me just say that with the cooling of the weather and the pick-up of the wind, they can be extremely rough.
My worst sea day yet happened last week when my boyfriend was cruising. Dishes were crashing to the floor, water crashing on the promenade deck, meals sliding off of tables, and people sick everywhere you looked. It was insane, and one long day for sure.”
I have experienced some of that myself and that’s why cruises aren’t good for those of us with touchy stomachs. But it’s the only complaint I’ve heard from her in all the correspondence we’ve had.
More from Kylee later as she explores the southern Caribbean.
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12/2/11
From Marysville to Brownsville
They are retired and enjoying life in Brownsville, Texas, in the winter months. There, Marysville residents Joe Anna and Don Eirich have lots to keep them busy, including volunteering.
Recently they participated in a giant effort to feed 8,100 needy people. It was the 19th year for the Feast of Sharing in Brownsville. That included an estimated 2,500 pounds of turkey breast, 120 gallons of turkey gravy, 180 gallons of vegetable medley, 10,000 dinner rolls and 10,000 slices of pumpkin pie. The dinner is open to the public.
Joe Eirich said: “Our group of about 25 were responsible in the pie serving area only. We started about 9:30 a.m. and worked until 3 p.m., with a 15 minute break for lunch. As fast as they could work, there were volunteers clearing tables and laying down placemats and silverware, followed by the plate servers, followed by servers with cans of soft drinks, water or milk products, followed by pie servers. Guests could eat as much as they wanted so long as they stayed at the tables, but could take nothing outside. There was continuous entertainment of local singers and high school dance groups. It was a wonderful experience and we certainly plan to do it again next year.”
Don stated, however, that he could not look at another pumpkin pie. Joe chuckled that that threat lasted less than a week.
Many retired people volunteer like this and the Eirichs will do more down there at Christmas.
Where are the Gansheimers?
Rich and Gina (Blumenschein) Gansheimer (both Fairbanks High School class of ‘82) are making their new home in Georgetown, Texas. Rich works for Management and Training Corp. (MTC) and has been named regional vice president over the Texas region. It sounds like a mainstream business, but the company is an operator of private correctional institutions.
Rich has served in the criminal justice system for 26 years and was the former warden (11 years) at Lake Erie Correctional Institute. Now his job is to oversee operations at the 8 private prisons in Texas.
After high school Rich and Gina both went on to graduate from Bluffton College where Rich played football and was inducted into their Hall of Fame. Gina is a former English teacher at Marysville High School. They have three children.
A paraprosdokian
Writing and word use have become my job and things like paraprosdokians make it so interesting. That is a figure of speech in which the last part of the sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected and causes the reader to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently used for humor or drama sometimes producing an anticlimax. Here are some examples:
Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.
The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it’s still on the list.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
If I agreed with you we’d both be wrong.
We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.
Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Evening news is where they begin with ‘Good evening,’ and then proceed to tell you why it isn’t.
How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
I didn’t say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.
A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.
Hospitality: Making your guests feel like they’re at home, even if you wish they were.
Some cause happiness wherever they go. Others whenever they go.
I used to be indecisive. Now I’m not sure.
To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.
Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.
A bus is a vehicle that runs twice as fast when you are after it as when you are in it.
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11/25/11
The Poling cabin
To say it was a volunteer effort is putting it mildly. The Allen Township Trustees wanted to bring the Poling log cabin back to its original area, so when the Nestle Co. wanted the Ole Village property cleared of log cabins, the opportunity was there. All they had to do was move it and reassemble it.
Allen Township resident Andrew See was the instigator and helped oversee the project. It meant numbering each log for replacement at the cabin’s new home in the Allen Township Park. This is where Rick Kingham came in. He had already rebuilt several cabins and had the “know how” to make the project go smoothly.
The one-room cabin was built in 1840 by James Poling, ancestor of Marysville area resident Larry Poling. Larry’s grandfather, Virgil, was born there. It was situated just off St. Rt. 245 near Wilbur Rd. Many Poling children were raised in the cabin. One was Reuben Poling who served in the Civil War and passed away in 1888. His son Lawrence and wife Catherine were believed to have spent their lives there from marriage to death.
It was vacant from about 1938 to sometime in the 1960s, when Ellsworth Ohnsman purchased it and rebuilt the cabin at the Ole Village on Milford Ave. In 2009, Nestle wanted to expand and the cabins were scheduled for demolition. This is when Andrew See stepped in.
He, Rick Kingham and many other volunteers began their project by dismantling and storing the logs in a building near the Allen Township Hall. During the reassembling process, Andrew said unexpected things just multiplied. First, several logs had to be replaced because they warped while being stored.
Then the county required a foundation under the cabin and an architect, plus regular inspections. Also, the walls were required to be tied together with rebar for security.
Ron Chapman, Allen Township Trustee, noted that if a tornado is coming, he wants to run for the cabin since it is now the most secure place around.
There is no plumbing or heat in the small cabin, but it has been decorated as in its original days. While at the Ole Village, the cabin had a second room and loft, but in the rebuilding project, it was put back to its original layout of one room.
Chapman said it was 90 percent volunteer effort, the rest funded by the township trustees. See said the group would like to add more cabins to their collection when they become available. In fact, he can’t wait to do the next one. They both agreed it was an honor to preserve a piece of history.
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11/18/11
Lori Black and the Peace Corps
Lori Black is a 2003 graduate of Marysville High School and is currently beginning two years in the Peace Corps in Ecuador. She lived there previously and taught English as a second language and also worked with street children there using her college training in Spanish.
She began in Philadelphia on June 1, 2011, for a brief pre-departure training with 60 other aspiring volunteers. Lori said, “If the year-long application and the intense interview process had not given you a good idea of what you were going to be doing for the next 27 months, they let you know in Philly. Luckily, no one was scared off. The next thing we knew, we were on a midnight bus to New York City and then on an early morning flight to Quito, Ecuador.”
At the training center in Quito, they met language and culture facilitators, technical advisors, safety and security trainers, doctors, the country director and, of course, fellow trainees who would work in health, youth families development, and teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL). They had language tests, safety tests, and more questionnaires about their willingness to serve in the Peace Corps. Apparently they still had to prove themselves to the Peace Corps.
Lori related: “After the initial weekend of training, they let us free to go to our host families throughout town. When you think family in the United States, you probably think a mom, dad, and a kid or two. My family consisted of a grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, nephew, my host mother, her son, a dog, a rabbit, and some chickens. Luckily, my family was accustomed to having volunteers live in their home. They have been hosting foreigners for the last couple years, so they were not surprised that I do not eat a pound of rice and potatoes every day, and that I was not accustomed to eating cuy (roasted guinea pig), although I did give it a try. They taught me how to wash my laundry by hand and helped me improve my Spanish, while I taught them how to make my grandma’s homemade chicken noodle soup and mac n’ cheese.”
Lori continued: “In addition to learning from our families about the culture, as part of the Peace Corps training, we took technical and cultural trips throughout the country. My first trip was to a town about two hours north of Quito called Cotachachi. It is a small town made up mostly of Kichwa Indians. We visited a jewelry shop, cement brick factory, hammock shop and needle point shop.
“We were also able to participate in something called a ‘minga.’ That is when the community comes together to get a large amount of work done in a small amount of time. We picked up shovels and machetes and worked our way through the woods, creating paths to a sacred golden waterfall hidden inside a small cave in the Andes mountains. In the evening, trainees had the opportunity to have dinner and spend the night with a local Kichwa family.
The TEFL group also went on a technical trip to Santa Elena, about 14 hours southwest of Quito, and Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas, about three hours west of Quito. In one of the largest schools in the city, they got a taste of what it was going to be like to be a teacher in Ecuador. It was rough at the beginning. The schools are loud and enormous. Most classrooms have about 50 students each and are usually open to noisy hallways. Lori said these teachers still have incredible control over their students and their classroom management skills were impressive.
The group’s job was to work alongside the teachers and co-teach with them. The idea of co-teaching was a foreign one. She reports, “Most of the teachers and students responded well to us and the idea of co-teaching and we left feeling ready to take on our jobs as teachers.”
Lori said: “While in Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas, we also got to take an adventure into the humid jungle, through banana plantations and cacao farms. This is where most of your bananas, coffee, and chocolate come from. We were greeted by a man from the Tsachila tribe who was decorated with necklaces made of cacoa seeds, bright red hair painted with oil from achiote seeds, and a navy blue and white striped skirt. In the past, the Tsachilas covered their entire bodies with the red achiote oils to protect themselves from illnesses, particularly smallpox. When the Spaniards came, they called them “Los Colorados” because of the color they had on their skin. The city recently changed its name from Santo Domingo de los Colorados to its current name. He gave us a tour of his home and taught us about plants we had never seen or heard of and explained ancient traditions that they still practice. They say there are about 1,000 or 2.000 Tsachilas left in the world today.”
Lori concluded: “Finally, after three months of lectures, language classes, shots, illnesses, and adventures, I have passed the longest job interview of my life. I am officially a Peace Corps volunteer. I am now living in Riobamba, Ecuador along with three other TEFL volunteers and a number of other volunteers. I work in a local high school as an English co-teacher and trainer and am trying very hard to not only improve the English of my students, but also of my colleagues as well. I look forward to keeping all of you posted on my two-year adventure.”
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11/11/11
Seniors take in New Orleans
When you say senior citizen, you no longer think of an old person in a rocking chair. Now you envision people who are out and about enjoying life, and that is what 46 people from Marysville and 48 from Bellefontaine did recently. In fact, they just returned from a trip to New Orleans via two chartered buses.
It was two days on the road before arriving. They stayed in the Arts and Warehouse District, and visited the National WWII Museum first. They had a guide named Bert, who was a veteran of the war and gave some insight into what to expect.
The group toured the museum and saw the Higgins landing craft created by Andy Higgins of New Orleans. More than 20,000 of those boats were built in New Orleans and used for amphibious landings in WWII. Dwight Eisenhower reportedly once said that Higgins and his boat won the war for the Allies.
There were also Sherman tanks, jeeps and C-47 planes that dropped paratroopers into Normandy on D-day and were also used in the Battle of the Bulge and the Rhine Jump in 1945.
But the outstanding part of this venue was a documentary film called “Beyond All Boundaries” narrated by Tom Hanks. The film was shown in 4-D with an actual front of a plane dropping down from above. Then the chairs vibrated like you were flying in the plane. Later, it snowed above them while troops were marching in winter and a guard shack rose from the floor when concentration camps were shown.
At one point in the movie, people climbed steps in their civilian clothes, then took another step and changed into the uniforms of their respective branches of service. It must have been done with computers.
Another highlight of the trip was a visit to the Catholic cemetery. The seniors browsed around and saw beautiful marble crypts which housed family members, according to the names on the outside. Their guide described this routine — once a person has died, the body must remain in the crypt for one year and a day before another person can be buried there. Due to the heat inside the marble crypt and outside temperatures of over 100 degrees, bodies are naturally cremated. After one year and one day, if another family member dies, the tablet door is opened, casket removed, and ashes of the person wrapped neatly in burlap, taken back inside the crypt and dropped into a hole to be returned eventually to the earth. If another family member should die before the time limit, a space is rented, and the body is placed in the family crypt later.
There were also trips to Bourbon Street to see the action there, a river boat cruise plus some gambling.
Barb Wilson was on the trip and told me she spoke with Dr. Mary and Steve Coleman, formerly of Marysville. Dr. Mary now works at Louisiana State University in the medical school and Steve, who was a practicing attorney in Marysville, is now trading stock daily.
Barb said it was a great trip and looks forward to the next senior citizen activity. Members of the Marysville contingent were all part of the CASC (Community and Seasoned Citizens) of which Marge James is president.
College grad ventures out
Nathan Laslow (MHS class of ‘07) has just graduated from the College of Wooster with a degree in political science. He played football while there. What do you do after that? You go into business with your mother.
Nathan’s mother and father, Laura and Dave Laslow, have some experience in the franchise business (Donatos and Burger King) and this is the latest venture for them. Nathan invested his money in the Oilerie, a business which sells olive oil in many ways and is located in the Columbus suburb of Grandview. In fact, the store has 18 flavors of olive oil which can be sampled along with six types of balsamic vinegar, one which is 25 years old. Nathan says that makes it very sweet. There are 21 varieties of stuffed olives and spices for dipping, plus beauty products.
Laura and Nathan are partners in the venture and attended two weeks of training at Olive Oil University in Fish Creek, Wis. There are only seven Oilerie locations in the country.
The Laslows pride themselves in dispensing fresh olive oil, poured the day you buy it from stainless steel containers called Fusti. The oil is dated and good for one year. They are also proud of the fact that the oil comes from a source near Rome and a man named Adriano. Gift packages in many varieties are also available. You can find the Oilerie at 1409 Grandview Ave.
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11/4/11
David Allen Esq. - Part 2
Last week I told you about local attorney Dave Allen growing up in Richwood on a farm and now celebrating 50 years of practicing law. After some deliberating at The Ohio State University, he decided on law school and graduated in 1961. He married Ann Evans Allen and joined the JAG of the U.S. Army. While stationed at Ft. Riley, Kan., he practiced criminal law and it proved to be good training for his future in Marysville.
Marysville was not, however, his planned destination after the Army. He wanted to go to a big city with his wife and son, David.
While looking for a job, Dave was asked to come back to Marysville and work with attorney Joe Grigsby, because he was swamped with work. The intention was to be here for just a short time, but he got so busy with Joe that he couldn’t look for another job. He said Joe was a wonderful mentor since most of one’s learning about the practice of the law is done after graduation.
Not too long after moving back to Marysville, Dave and Ann had a second child, Cathy, born at Memorial Hospital. The cost was just $130. That was good because they didn’t have medical insurance. Dr. Rod Hurl delivered her saying his charge would be $90 if it was a girl and $105 if it was a boy (extra charge for circumcision).
Dave was well prepared for criminal work and was often assigned to defend women of the Ohio Reformatory. When he went to interview these women, he always took his secretary, Gladys Thrush, because the women were usually in solitary for doing something bad. They were not allowed to have any clothing but a robe. That included undergarments. There was no belt for that robe either, so Dave felt he needed Gladys to protect him.
One of his clients named Shirley set fire to her cell and was charged with arson. After convicted, she got a hearing in federal court using another attorney. She sent Federal Judge Duncan a letter with a squashed bug saying that if he didn’t take care of her, that would be him because she had friends on the outside. The judge sent the FBI to the ORW and eventually Shirley was sent off to federal incarceration in California — just what she wanted, Dave said.
Dave’s relationship with judges has been good. He called the late Gwynn Sanders the perfect judge. He was Union County Common Pleas Judge in the 1960s and ‘70s, even tempered, and much respected. Dave feels that many of the old attorneys were so much more interesting and colorful characters than the new ones we have today.
Also today, legal research is done on a computer, but since he’s just a little bit old school Dave always wants to print it out to have the page in front of him. He hasn’t done a divorce in about 25 years. He said, “Divorce and family law weighs on you and sometimes there’s just no easy solution.”
Being honored by his fellow attorneys is the best. He was made a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel in 1991. There are only about 80 lawyers so honored in Ohio, and most are from big city firms. Separately, he served as chairman of the Ohio State Bar Association Estate Planning Trust and Probate Section from 2001 to 2003. That group numbers about 2,800 members.
Dave’s wife Ann died in 2006 and he said they had a wonderful marriage and he always knew they were on the same page.
He continued: “I enjoy practicing law. It’s a problem solving business with personalities mixed in and there’s no absolute. We have to make allowances for people’s feelings and personalities.”
So now, Dave is practicing part time, doing what he wants to and celebrating 50 years of doing it right. He concluded, “Life has been good!”
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10/28/11
David Allen Esq.
His life began in 1937 on the family farm on Boundary Road near Richwood. Now 74 years later, Dave Allen is celebrating 50 years in the practice of law. He has certainly been one of the most knowledgeable and sought-after attorneys in town, but he started his life with work on the farm.
The farm has been in his family since 1900 and the 136 acres are still owned by Dave and farmed by his cousin, Jeff Swartz. In his early years, he had lots of farm duties, which included milking cows twice a day (the cows were sold when Dave went to college — too much work for just his dad). One of his least favorite jobs was ringing (the nose) and castrating hogs. His part in this procedure was to catch and hold them down while his father took care of the duties.
Boys in Richwood were ornery in those days (1940s and 1950s), just as some are today. Dave remembers it was fun to tip over outhouses and also to leave a stack of corn stalks in the middle of the street. Their favorite prank was when they knew people were inside their homes at night, they would then turn off the electricity from the large handle on the outside of their house. Of course, they ran like the devil and hid close by to see the reactions.
While at Richwood High School (class of ‘55), he played football and basketball. He said the football team was pretty good, but could never beat Marysville. Sadly the basketball team had the worst record in the history of the school his senior year. It lost all but one game.
While in high school, he met Ann Evans, who would later become his wife. They began dating seriously in college.
His college career took an interesting turn after he spent a year at The Ohio State University in the engineering school. He had also applied to West Point and was admitted for his second year, but after just three months of the summer training at the Academy, Dave was out of there. He went back to Ohio State and changed to the college of arts. His new goal was to be an attorney.
Maybe that desire came from his grandfather, J. H. Lehman, who graduated in 1895 from Ohio Normal University at Ada (now Ohio Northern University) with a law degree. However, he never practiced law, but worked in a Franklin County government office.
Dave also remembers his grandfather was not exactly kid friendly, except when he had a drink or two. It seems that his grandmother was a member of the WCTU (Women’s Christian Temperance Union) which abhorred drinking. So his grandfather had the doctor write him a prescription for one shot of whiskey a day. He remembers his grandfather cherishing that moment and filling the jigger glass to the brim, then very carefully sipping each drop. Dave says after that, grandpa was very kid friendly.
The study of law went well for Dave. He was admitted to the OSU law school after three years as an undergraduate student there. Immediately after passing the bar (a two-day essay exam), he had a commission in the United States Army as part of the JAG (Judge Advocate General). After some training, he was sent to Ft. Riley, Kan., where he practiced criminal law with the Army from 1961 to 1964 as both a prosecutor and a defense attorney. It was a great training ground for his future in Marysville.
 Next week: Dave wants a law practice in a big city, but ends up in Marysville. What happened?
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10/21/11
Barb Wilson’s memories - Part 2
This is part two of Barb Scheiderer Wilson’s memories of Marysville 50 years ago which began last week. Barb was a graduate of the class of 1961.
During the summer, Barb had two jobs, one as a lifeguard at the Marysville Swimming Pool and the other as a carhop at Parkview Restaurant.
The old pool was located in Legion Park on the same site as the current one, and had one entrance for men and another for women. Barb remembers the dressing rooms as damp and smelly. Having been built in the mid-1930s, it was an old place even in the 1960s. She recalls that in the late 1950s, Frank Galloway, who also owned the local shoe store, ran the pool.
Female lifeguards wore red plaid one-piece swimsuits. During the summer there were city parties at the pool, one being the Summer Fest. Everyone was invited and it included swimming and diving contests open to all. Barb won a diving contest.
In the grass area around the pool, there were lots of old trees with wooden circular seats around them. It was a popular hangout spot for girl watching.
The swimming pool job was great, but it didn’t come easily. When Barb took her lifesaving test to qualify as a lifeguard, she had to rescue Nathan Howard. He was much bigger than her, he was older and he wasn’t going to make this easy. She said he fought her like a crazy man as she tried to pull him out of the pool, and at one point she thought that she might just go under herself. Finally she got him out of the water and earned a wonderful job for several summers.
Her other job was in the same neck of the woods, Parkview Restaurant. It was a white wood building located where The Vineyard Church is today on West Fifth Street near Park Avenue which is the street on which the pool is located. Barb said it was a home-cooking kind of restaurant run by the Huffmans, and Betty Huffman was a wonderful cook and pie baker.
Inside were booths and tables, tile on the floor and knotty pine on the walls. She describes it as a very cozy place. Her mother, Betty Scheiderer, and aunt, Jo Sabins, worked as waitresses inside.
On the outside was where Barb and her carhop friends worked, which included her sister, Rhonda Scheiderer Groves. They sat on a bench waiting for customers to drive in, and were not permitted inside while they were working. Customers would pull up and order from their cars. There was room for about six cars to park in front of the restaurant.
The girls would go to the car, take the order and step up to the screened window to place it. When it was ready, the food came out and the carhop attached a tray to the window of the car. No, Barb never dropped a tray.
To get ready for her high school senior picture, a big event then but not so much today, Barb went to Belva Ewing’s beauty shop, located where the Union County Chamber of Commerce office is today. Her goal was to look good for the picture (which was in the yearbook), as if there would be no more pictures ever taken of her. Permanent treatments for hair were different in those days and she remembers Belva attaching long rods with clamps used for curling. They extended down on cords from a hood high above. There was some heat involved. The result was not exactly what Barb was looking for. There was an overabundance of curl plus frizz and she has the senior picture to prove it.
Gratefully she lived through it all, graduated and went to work at O.M. Scotts for a few years. Later she worked for several attorneys and the Marysville Municipal Court. Barb has three children, six grandchildren and is a great-grandmother. Except for a few years in Florida, she has lived all 68 years in Marysville.
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10/14/11
Barb Wilson reminisces about Marysville
It was a little more than 50 years ago that members of the Marysville High School class of 1961 went their separate ways. There were 93 in the class and population of the town of Marysville was just under 5,000.
Now, MHS graduating classes number in the 300s and Marysville’s population is over 20,000. It’s a different world, one much more complicated with computers, cell phones and availability of drugs.
I recently sat down with Barb Scheiderer Wilson, a member of the class of 1961. She shared some of her memories of growing up in Marysville. Her family lived on Chestnut Street, just down from the old East Elementary, on the corner of Sixth and Chestnut streets, where she attended. It was quite old at the time, and was torn down in the 1970s. A new building was built on the same site, but is no longer used as a school. Curtis Bell was the school janitor and Barb remembered because he let students ring the recess bell by pushing the special button.
The old school had a large meeting room/gym located upstairs. That’s where plays and Christmas programs were held. Barb remembers hardwood floors everywhere, creaking as you walked. She went there through the sixth grade.
The junior high was then located in the Seventh Street building, which has also been torn down and is now a parking lot for the Union County Sheriff’s Dept. The high school was a 30-year-old building right across the parking lot facing on Sixth Street. Today it is the Union County Office Building.
By the time Barb reached high school, her situation had changed in regard to getting to school. There was no busing for town students and her family had moved to Connolly Street on the east side of town. She had to walk to school every day, rain (or snow) or shine. Her parents said it wasn’t far, after all!
Students in the 1950s and ‘60s dressed quite differently. Girls didn’t even think about wearing pants to school. It was saddle shoes and anklets with wool skirts and sweaters. Many times they wore pearls around the neck or a small Peter Pan detachable collar over the neck of the sweater.
Barb played basketball and according to the yearbook, the team competed against Jonathan Alder, Hilliard and London, with the team being league champs in 1961. Oh how different the rules for girl’s basketball were! Part of the team stayed on one side of the center line and the rest on the opposite end. They never crossed the centerline. When a person had the ball, she took two dribbles and then stopped and dribbled twice again and stopped until she got to her destination.
Marysville’s uniforms were one-piece white cotton shorts and top combined, like a jump suit, that snapped up the front. It was lovely!
In the late 1950s, downtown Marysville, especially the square at the corner of Fifth and Main streets, was a very busy place. At that location was the old Oakland Hotel, now the site of the Bicentennial Building. Barb said, as a child, she remembers a person could go onto the porch of the old hotel and sit down in one of the multiple rocking chairs there, and watch people go by. No one cared whether or not you were a guest of the hotel. It was a busy downtown, sadly nothing like it is today.
After school, many high school students would walk two blocks to downtown to sit on a stool at Wolgamot’s drugstore on Main Street (where Sherwin Williams is today) and have “elephants dandruff” on chocolate ice cream. That was a malt mixture which became crunchy when put on ice cream. It was usually followed by a cherry coke. It was an innocent time compared to 2011.
 Next week I will have more with Barb and Marysville in the early 1960s.
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10/7/11
Women and rage
It seems women display more rage than I realized and I have been the recipient of it twice in the last two weeks. I feel compelled to share at least the first experience with you.
Recently I was in a local market. I ran in quickly just to get four things, which turned into six. I had my arms full because I didn’t take time to get a cart. I was in a hurry (as usual).
One of the items was a very heavy gallon of milk, which I gladly plopped down on the checkout belt behind two people, who I hoped would have quick transactions. Well that didn’t happen. You know how you always choose the wrong line! The man at the checkout had some ID problems for a check, which went on and on.
I said to myself, I need to find another line, so I quickly moved to the rapid checkout line. I saw there were only two people standing next to each other talking and I thought this would go very quickly.
That heavy gallon of milk had to come with me. There was no good place to put it down. As I watched the two casually talking to each other, it seemed they were also just casually talking to the checkout clerk. When no progress was made in about five minutes, I set the milk down right next to them. It was so heavy. There seemed to be another check ID problem here and I waited and waited. This was supposed to be a quick stop for me.
Finally the man with the check left and the woman remained. It appeared they were not together. Then without explanation, the young clerk walked away from the checkout. I turned to him and asked, “Are you done working here?” He just shrugged his shoulders.
The large woman in front of me looked down and asked, “What’s the matter with you Lady?” I replied that I was in a hurry and just trying to buy a few items quickly. She said very loudly, “You have to get your priorities straight. You need to chill out. Just stand here and enjoy the view and again, what’s the matter with you?” I thought I was OK up to that point, just in a hurry.
I was starting to wonder, was something wrong with her? In fact she was really yelling at me (I said nothing), and when the young man finally returned to the cash register, he said his debit machine was down. I replied, “But I have cash!”
“Oh no,” said the woman in front of me. “You’ll wait while I get my business done with this card (remember, the machine was not working). Miraculously, as is common with computers, it came back on and she completed her transaction. I thought I would soon be rid of her, but no, she had more parting words. (I continued to remain silent.) There were at least 20 people in lines behind us.
She continued to harrang about my inability to enjoy the world. How could she hope to know anything about me? This person, whom I didn’t know, continued to yell at me all the way out the door. Oh my gosh, get me out of here, was all I could think.
Now my blood pressure was rushing and I only wanted to get these six items (which were supposed to be four) and go to the car. I was happy she was not waiting for me in the parking lot, and I made it safely to my car. I promised myself never to go in there again. It was my day to be told off by a complete stranger! I wondered if she felt my discomfort and whether it even raised her blood pressure at all?
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9/30/11
From Marysville to Africa
When a teacher asks at the beginning of the school year, “What did you do this summer?” few students have what 12-year-old Bunsold Middle School student Cassidy Page, daughter of Courtney and Brenda Page, had to relate. She spent two weeks in South Africa.
She took the trip with her friend and neighbor 24-year-old Laura Kastein (Ben Logan class of ‘05). They stayed at a mission and helped feed local children. Laura had already been to the town of George (about 200,000 people) several times to help at this mission. She is a graduate student (Ph.D. program in school psychology) at The Ohio State University.
Cassidy told me that before the trip, she was scared to go to Africa because she thought there would be wild animals running everywhere. That was not the case. The girls did see wild animals, however, when they took a daytime safari into the mountains to be up close and personal with animals like zebras. They also went to an elephant park, where they could actually touch the elephants and appreciate their gigantic size.
The trip from Columbus to George, South Africa took more than 24 hours. It included three stops before the two-hour flight from Johannesburg to the city of George. It was a long and grueling trip, but all went well.
The mission was established by Maryna De Vries and Sally Vselfeld, who are Christians seeking to spread the word of God and improve the lives of local children. Cassidy was amazed to see where the children from the outlying areas lived. The houses were nothing more than pieces of metal held together with a tarp over the top. Slabs of wood were placed on the tarp to keep it from blowing away. In this one room, six people were sleeping on mattresses on a dirt floor.
Since there is no heat, some try to keep warm with fires in trash cans as the temperatures were in the 40s at night. In fact, even large homes in the region do not have heat.
Many of the children do not eat regularly at home. In fact, they may not even eat at all at home. But three times a week (or five if they attend church) they come to the mission for soup or rice. Cassidy says the soup usually consists of anything that is donated and is thrown together in a pot, not exactly her favorite idea of a meal. Laura told me the mission serves 35,000 meals a month. Many of the children only have the clothing on their back and wear it every day.
There is a modern culture going on in the town of George and surrounding areas. There are shopping malls, but people do not wear shoes there. It is the custom to leave them in the car and walk around the mall bare-footed. Many of the stores are food-related and some others are quite expensive.
For Cassidy it may have been a life-altering experience. She told me it made her feel very spoiled to live here, where we have so much, compared to the children she observed who live near the city of George.
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9/23/11
Our country surgeon
Dr. James Sampsel is 90 years old this year. How could that be? I remember him 40 years ago as the kind and knowledgeable physician and surgeon, and I was his patient. I met him when I was about 25 years old and needed a surgical procedure. He and I would go through several more over the years.
I had just moved to Marysville with my husband. Since I grew up in Columbus, I was familiar with big city hospitals and here I was in little Marysville admitted to Memorial Hospital of Union County with only 75 beds.
When I met Dr. Sampsel, I didn’t realize what was coming. He was a handsome and charming man (still is today), who entered my examining room in a three-piece vested suit, showing me warmth and kindness immediately. Those characteristics would be felt by the thousands of his patients over the many years he practiced as the only surgeon in Marysville. As he put it, he had to be prepared to do everything.
He had none of that condescending, king-like attitude which was common among surgeons in those years. Instead, he had an almost “aw shucks” attitude about himself and yet it was obvious he was confident and knew what he was doing. In his later years, he was joined by several different general surgeons. He retired as a surgeon about 13 years ago, but continued his cancer research until eight years ago, a task he put 50 years into.
Dr. Sampsel has written a book about his life including his years of medical training and work at Memorial Hospital. It is titled, “The Life and Time of a Country Surgeon, the Good and the Bad.”
He came from Shenandoah, Pa., and graduated from Penn St. where he played catcher on the baseball team. Tuition there in 1939 was $40 a semester. He trained at Western Reserve Medical School in Cleveland and also did his residency there.
He told me his biography was written to tell about his time in Union County and medical experiences. All this is now part of our history. He uses many names when discussing cases but changes them a little from the original to protect his patients. There is also a chapter honoring all the nurses he worked with, naming each one. There are some stories about a few of them. He told me he remembers the face of each and a specific incident where they affected his life.
The book was not written to make money. In fact, he plans to share the proceeds with the hospital auxiliary.
Dr. Sampsel was never in the practice of medicine for the money. He told me it never mattered if his patients could pay, either with cash or through insurance. One day his office money manager came to him and said, “These people haven’t paid anything in the last 10 years!” So, he told her to forget about it. Suing was never of interest to him. If someone came in through the emergency room, there was no asking if they could afford his services. (He did, however, report that buying Scotts stock in 1955 was a smart thing.)
Dr. Sampsel and his wife, Dolly, have been an important part of our community for well more than 50 years. They had five children. One, a daughter Mary (Mo), is deceased.
This is a wonderful account of Marysville from the country surgeon’s view, showing the changes through the years. I couldn’t put it down! You will want to read it, too. It is available at Amazon.com and in the future will be in the Memorial Hospital gift shop.
It was a strange turn of events that brought Dr. Sampsel to Marysville, which you can read about in his book. Currently, he plans to write a second book about the way random events affect our lives. He’s still a very deep thinker!
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9/16/11
Squirrels, tomatoes and my flowers
If you are a gardener of any experience at all you will know that this was a terrible summer for growing things. At least, in a home garden setting. First, there was the rain, which made everything too wet. Then there was the heat and everything was too dry, now we have had heat and wet and I find myself totally frustrated.
We live in an area with many trees and thus we have squirrels everywhere. Mostly, we just tolerate them. My husband, Dan, really dislikes them because they knock down branches in the yard and leave nutshells everywhere that he has to pick up before mowing.
I am really growing to dislike them because they eat my flowers. This year I bought a spray to prevent that. It worked for awhile until the weather got so hot and dry, that they have no food and little water. So they went after my flowers even in a mature state, which is unusual.
The worst may be the squirrel’s attack on our tomato plants.  They don’t care if it’s red or green, they eat anything, but only half of them. They leave the tomatoes in the yard as evidence, after taking them from my plants, which I have fertilized watered and babied for the whole summer. They leave the other half in the yard as if we might want to eat it later.
Now we have decided to harvest these tomatoes even if they are just barely pink on the bottom. That means, any sign of redness and we take them off the plant so we might have them instead of the squirrels.
Recently an arborist came to our yard to talk about taking down a very tall tree. I was whining to him, as we were standing next to the tomato plants, about the squirrels eating more than we have. He said he was up in a very tall tree recently and there was a giant squirrel nest right next to him.  In it he saw quite a stash of tomatoes. I rest my case.
I don’t know how many tomatoes have been taken home to the nests in our area. The score may be squirrels -36, Behrens -35. I’ve only seen the half eaten ones in our yard! This is the worst of the squirrel tomato-eating, ever.
Anyway, I don’t care what the reason. I don’t want them to eat my flowers or tomatoes or corn growing in my yard, as they did to a friend of mine.
This year we’ve had it! Next year we may have large metal cages covering the entire tomato plant, protecting the precious crop!
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9/9/11
Meet the other Mac
You know him as a talented reporter at the Marysville Journal-Tribune for the last four years. He covers court news and commissioners meetings, and also is not afraid of any controversial subject. Mac Cordell enjoys newspaper work and gets really energized about breaking news and the stress that comes every morning between 10:30 and 11 a.m. as articles are finished for the front page.
This comes from a man who grew up in Pennsylvania and graduated from Shippensburg University in 1998. His father was a full-time pastor but Mac chose the newspaper business, at first. During college, he interned at the city newspaper in Shippensburg and worked his way up to sports editor. By the time he was a senior he had the same position at the college newspaper.
With a degree in journalism and communications, two public relations jobs followed his graduation. One job was in Findlay, Ohio, with the Churches of God General Conference as director of communications. While working for that organization, Mac was able to attend its seminary in Findlay in his free time. Three years later he found himself ready to graduate except for being shy hours in Greek and Hebrew.
During those years he met his wife, Melissa, (now a teacher in Groveport) and today they have a five-year-old son, Jonah. In 2001, the Cordells moved to Mt. Sterling and Mac later became managing editor of the Madison Press. He came to the Journal-Tribune in 2007, but still lives in Mt. Sterling, one hour away.
That’s an important fact when you consider that Mac not only has a day job, but a day, night and early morning job. He’s known as Pastor Mac Cordell of the Sterling Grace (Grace Brethren) Church in his home town.
With the training he had received at the Findlay seminary he was able to eventually become pastor of this new church started by the Southwest Grace Brethren Church in Grove City. He had attended the Grove City church and learned it wanted to start a “plant” or new church in Mt. Sterling. Soon the Cordells moved over to the new church. There were only seven parishioners.
They needed a full-time pastor so Mac felt called to the job and stepped up after the urging of other parishioners. Now he preaches every Sunday morning and Wednesday evening at the church, and many Friday nights at the local senior citizens home. Family counseling is sometimes done at 5 a.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. on Saturdays. Hospital visits are done at night.
He’s finishing the licensing process and will be ordained next September. His congregation has grown from 7 to 40 people. If you know Mac, you know why. He’s warm and kind and likes people. There’s real enthusiasm when he talks about his church, God and his responsibility for his congregation. There have been three baptisms and thankfully no funerals, and there should be some weddings in the future.
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9/2/11
Meeting Darth Vader
At the recent balloon fest in Marysville, I was able to meet Darth Vader (as did about 12,000 other people). The Darth Vader balloon came to town from Belgium, and was one of only three stops in the United States during the year. It is probably the most sought after balloon in the world.
I also met its owner, Michele Lambert, also from Belgium, who speaks French fluently plus a little English. He’s an experienced balloonist with 1,000 hours to his credit and has been a truck driver and bank employee in Brussels. Now, retired from those ordinary jobs, he flies Darth Vader about seven times a year and has logged 100 hours of the expected 400 hours of the balloon life.
The idea to make this balloon came from his son, who was a Star Wars fan as a young child. Even now as a grownup in his thirties, he is still fascinated by the George Lucas films. So they approached the Lucas Co. of Belgium to gain the rights to build the balloon. Once they got the OK, it was off to the factory in England where it would be built, taking about one year to create. This was done just in time to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Star Wars movies.
Christine Serra is his American co-pilot. She lives in New Jersey and also flew in to help man the balloon. She is a competitive pilot and has her own balloon, but loves the challenge of this one, which is twice the size of the other balloons which entertain at the Balloon Fest. It is so heavy there can only be two people in the basket.
Along with the Darth Vader balloon came the 501 Society. Its members are Star Wars groupies who dress up in costumes related to the movies and follow the movies and the balloon at no charge. They serve as extra entertainment at festivals.
Negotiations are underway for Michele and his balloon to return again next year.
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Thoughts  of school children
School has just started and I thought these quotes attributed to elementary school children were very timely. It seems the teacher gave them the first part of the quote and they finished it in their own way.
“Strike while the” - bug is close.
“Don’t bite the hand that” - looks dirty.
“Happy is the bride who” - gets all the presents.
“A penny saved is” - not much.
“Children should be seen and not” - spanked or grounded.
“If at first you don’t succeed” - get new batteries.
“A bird in the hand” - is going to poop on you.
And finally, “If you lie down with dogs you’ll” - stink in the morning.
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8/26/11
MHS grad to teach in Russia
He graduated from Marysville High School in 2007 and from the Ohio State University in 2011. Those four years at OSU must have been very tough for Gary Bearden since he graduated with three degrees - a B.A. in each of international studies, French, and Russian (these were not majors). There were separate requirements meaning he accumulated many extra hours in those four years.
Speaking French and Russian plus being fluent in Spanish makes him somewhat of a linguist and will help him greatly when he teaches English in Russia beginning this September.
But he’s been busy this summer. He just finished his internship in Washington, D.C. with the office of Susan Rice, our United Nations ambassador. Her main office is in New York, but the office in Washington is a liaison to the state department. This is a volunteer position for Gary, but he has gained much knowledge about the world of international politics and has a basic security clearance designated as secret.
He did several other internships (two were for Sherrod Brown as a Spanish translator and Homeland Security) during his college years. Only one was a paid position, and that was for an intelligence gathering facility based in Hilliard. However, each one led him toward his goal in the international world.
It’s expensive to live in Washington, D.C. and Gary lucked out with two roommates he found on Craig’s list. He took the metro to work every day and was in awe of the people he was able to work with. He calls them the cream of the crop at the state department. They’re the researchers and policy makers who brief the ambassador before she votes.
Last Tuesday Gary was set to leave town, since he was finishing his internship, to drive home to Marysville. His last day in the nation’s capital proved to be quite exciting. It was the day that the earthquake measuring 5.9 hit, and Gary said it was felt a little in the state department building.
He worked on the sixth floor and noticed things moving around. It seemed like someone was jumping behind him, but when he turned around no one was there. Someone observed that it must be an earthquake and everyone then gathered in the doorways for protection. The precautions turned out to be unnecessary.
Later in the day, when he headed for the metro to go to his residence and pack up his belongings to leave, it was another story. I spoke with him as he was riding the Metro, which was traveling only 15 miles per hour. He said it would be a long, crowded, hot trip, but certainly something to remember on his last day as an intern in DC.
Gary has been the recipient of many academic scholarships and even spent the summer after his sophomore year in college studying in Siberia, Russia. He is one of just 30 people who have been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship and the only one going to Kaliningrad, Russia.
Obviously Gary is comfortable with languages. His mother, Bertha, who is a clerk in Marysville Municipal Court, is a native of Mexico and he lived there from age 5 to 9. She acts as the Spanish interpreter in the court.
Now he heads to Kaliningrad which is actually not in mainland Russia. If you want to locate it on the map you will find it between Lithuania and Poland and is a Baltic Sea port. The territory is in the northern part of the former East Prussia.
Originally named Königsberg (German), the city was founded in 1255 and was part of Prussia and then of Germany until 1945. It was largely destroyed during World War II. Its ruins were occupied by the Soviet Army in 1945 and the German population forced out. It was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946. The population numbers about 430,000.
Gary has been offered housing in the student dorm at Baltic Federal University, where he will be teaching English and U.S. society and culture. There will also be a research project involving how his students view their nationality, being Russian, but not part of the mainland.
This is a 10-month adventure for Gary and after that he’s considering graduate school or the military. We hope to have more from him as he tells us about life in Kaliningrad.
Compliments Marysville youngsters
It's great to hear a compliment and when I do I like to pass it on to the appropriate people. So, parents of Marysville, this is for you.
Last weekend at the Balloon Fest, I was pleased to hear from one of the vendors who sold light sabers, flashy tee shirts and other products, all of them having an appeal to children. He was happy. He sold out and then he started talking about kids who came to his booth.
It was nothing but compliments from the beginning. He remarked how polite they were, and how everybody did exactly what he asked as he got so busy. No one was yelling for this and that, but politely waited in line for him to help them. He went on and on about his impression of Marysville and particularly the way the children acted comparing them to those at other events he attends throughout the year. This man is from Detroit, but he also sells these children’s items all over the country and can't wait to come back here because these were the best children he'd seen all year.
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8/19/11
Stephen Beil — Batman extra!
When you are a fan of Batman movies, this is the ultimate experience, as it was for Stephen Beil (MHS class of ‘09) and nine other friends. They were able to serve as extras for the filming of the third Batman movie titled “The Dark Knight Rises,” by sitting in the stands of the Pittsburgh Steelers stadium. It will be released in July of 2012.
The adventure began when Stephen and some of his friends went to see the latest Harry Potter movie. Before it started, they saw a trailer or a promotion, so to speak, for the new Batman movie. Some of it had already been filmed in India and London, and it was being finished up in Pittsburgh.
Stephen couldn’t wait to see more about the movie, so he went to the web site. There was the offer. If you want to be an extra, sign up here - get tickets and show up for an all-day filming on a Saturday.
So the group made the trek to Pittsburgh in two carloads. Filming began at 7 a.m. and ended at 7 p.m. They were seated in the upper deck behind the end zone. Their job was to cheer on cue, waving yellow towels, and the team they were rooting for was the Gotham City Rogues. On that fictitious team was real-life Pittsburgh Steeler Hines Ward. Also present was former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher.
The extras in the movie all worked as volunteers. Besides the excitement, there was a reward of two meal tickets and lots of entertainment. Stephen said there were explosions and times when they had to act panicky. Some were told to run out of the stadium taking cover, and some were hiding when the villain Bane, played by actor Tom Hardy, walked out. Everyone was told to look terrified. The movie also stars Christian Bale and Anne Hathaway.
It was a good day for this group of young extras, who were part of a crowd of about 20,000 people. Now Stephen is back to normal and in the real world. He is a student at The Ohio State University at the Marion campus and is majoring in criminology.
Since his mother, Cindy, is one of the owners of the Ribbon Box cake and goodie store in downtown Marysville, Stephen has a great part time job - doing dishes, etc. That will bring him back to reality quickly, but the budding movie star is anticipating July 2012 and the release of “The Dark Knight Rises.”
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8/12/11
Cruising the world!
The headline could read,“Marysville grad makes it big!” That’s a sure way to describe Kylee Pfarr (MHS class of ‘05) who is now starring as the lead singer in the musical production aboard the ship, Grandeur of the Seas, part of the Royal Caribbean Line.
Kylee graduated cum laude from Oklahoma City University with studies in musical theater. She just boarded the ship two weeks ago and will be with the production until next January. She also serves as vocal captain of the cast of 12, which means additional responsibilities.
She describes her days like this: “Rehearsals began in Hollywood, Fla. at Royal Caribbean’s home base for entertainment and continued for five weeks. Then we came to the ship to begin our actual contract. While in Florida, we rehearsed six days a week, and typically had very long days. We started around 8 a.m. and didn’t get off until about 5 p.m., but keep in mind that this is singing and dancing for eight hours straight. An eight-hour shift seems twice as long as the same amount of time at a socalled
normal job. We currently do two shows, but will be adding a third during the transatlantic crossing.”
The cast performs six shows a week working about four days.
Kylee continued: “We sail the Mediterranean on sevenday cruises. We alternate every other week between Spain and Italy, so for instance, one week we do Barcelona, Ibiza, Malaga and Gibraltar. The next week we do Cannes, France, La Spezzia (Florence/Pisa),
Civitaveccia (Rome) and Palermo, Sicily. We leave the last day in October and do a 14-day Transatlantic over to Columbia, Panama, Jamaica, Aruba, Honduras, etc. for the last two months of my contract. These will be seven-day itineraries as well, alternating home ports between Cartagena, Columbia and Colon, Panama. I leave Jan. 8 to come back home.”
“Our privileges onboard are not as extensive as on other cruise lines, but as entertainers, we still have more than most of the crew. For instance, we are allowed to eat in the guest areas if we sign up beforehand and pay a small fee. We are also allowed in pools and hot tubs if not occupied by any guests, and are allowed to work out in the guest gym provided it is not too busy with paying customers.”
Kylee estimates there are as many as 20 different nationalities represented by the crew and some only speak broken English. They can gather in the crew bar at night where Internet is also available.
I asked about seasickness and Kylee said: “We had two shows last night and the ship was extremely rocky. Some in the cast felt ill the entire time and almost had to leave the stage during songs because of it! I’m very fortunate in that respect. I struggled to keep my balance and have a solid support system beneath me to sing with, but I don’t really get seasick.”
During their time off, performers are encouraged to get off the ship and see the ports. Last week they were able to explore Spain.
Kylee said: “Barcelona in particular is a gorgeous city rich with history, art, culture and color. I’m excited to go back. This week will be my first week I am able to visit Italy, and I have signed up for several guest tours as a guide so that I may be able to ensure my safety while still seeing the most famous sights.”
“Ship life is most definitely a unique one,” Kylee said. “However, it has its ups and downs, and the restrictions can definitely get to you after awhile. She said that the crew cafeteria is probably the most disheartening as the food is typically far from what most would deem as acceptable.
“But I also get to travel the world, see amazing things, try food from incredible restaurants, and do what I love — perform — at the same time,” she added. “So all in all, no complaints here.”
We’ll have more from Kylee during the next few months.
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8/5/11
Looking back to remedies
A friend recently handed me a copy of “Looking Back Magazine.” It deals with stories from the 1930s to 1960s, basically telling how life was in those days. I ran across an article about major relief for minor maladies, which included home remedies and it made me think of those administered in my own family.
At our house when I was growing up in the 1950s, if you had a cold or sore throat my mom came to the rescue. Her favorite night-time treatment was Vicks VapoRub on our necks and chest. Then out came the big sock. It had to be one of my father’s old army socks because it was army drab in color and wide and long so it could go all the way around my neck. Then it was secured with a large safety pin.
The treatment made my brother and I feel “cared for” and cozy in our beds at night. The next morning, off came the sock, our neck was washed and off to school we went. I don’t know how well it worked, but we trusted that mom was doing her best for us.
Then there’s my husband’s family treatment for an earache. My husband had many of those as a young child in the 1950s, so his father would light up a cigar and blow warm smoke into his ear. He says it always gave great relief.
The magazine shared some of the home remedies of its contributors. I do not recommend any of these, but I am throwing them out here in case it’s something you want to try.
The first is a nosebleed remedy. The magazine says to make short work of a nosebleed, give your nose a good blow. This will clear out any material that might interfere with the clotting process. Then pinch your nostrils shut for five minutes while leaning forward, and don’t blow your nose again for at least 15 minutes. Then it says, “This method definitely works better than the one recommended by an uncle, who swore that the best way to stop a nosebleed was to snuff red pepper up your nose!”
Another remedy is for burns on the roof of your mouth. Who hasn’t had one of those from hot food! The first recommendation is to hold water or an ice cube over the burn to limit damage. Then put a spoonful of sugar on your tongue and hold the sugar against the burn until it dissolves. The sugar stimulates endorphins for a “feel good” effect. This is temporary, but really helps. The article says, “You can speed healing by rinsing your mouth with milk, which will help form a cover over the burn, or swish with salt water.”
The magazine also says it makes no guarantees, it is just sharing some folk medicine!
Just in time for this column, Kae Zorman sent me a list of remedies, some from unusual sources. No guarantees here either (apparently no one wants to be responsible for the outcome), but they may be good to try!
Kill fleas instantly — Dawn dish washing liquid does the trick. Add a few drops to your dog's bath and shampoo the animal thoroughly. Rinse well to avoid skin irritations. Good-bye fleas.
Rainy day cure for dog odor — Next time your dog comes in from the rain, simply wipe down the animal with Bounce or any dryer sheet, instantly making your dog smell springtime fresh.
Did You Know that drinking two glasses of Gatorade can relieve headache pain almost immediately without the unpleasant side effects caused by traditional pain relievers.
Before you head to the drugstore for a high-priced inhaler filled with mysterious chemicals, try chewing on a couple of curiously strong peppermint Altoids. They'll clear up your stuffed nose. Also, your breath will be wonderful!
Achy muscles from a bout of the flu? Mix one tablespoon of horseradish in one cup of olive oil. Let the mixture sit for 30 minutes, then apply it as a massage oil for instant relief for aching muscles. Don’t know about the smell.
Sore throat? Just mix 1/4 cup of vinegar with 1/4 cup of honey and take one tablespoon six times a day. The vinegar kills the bacteria.
Listerine therapy for toenail fungus — get rid of unsightly toenail fungus by soaking your toes in Listerine mouthwash. The powerful antiseptic leaves your toenails looking healthy again.
Easy eyeglass protection — to prevent the screws in eyeglasses from loosening, apply a small drop of clear nail polish to the threads of the screws before tightening them.
Good Luck!
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7/29/11
The mural artist
By this time you should be familiar with the beautiful mural at the southeast corner of Fourth and Main streets on the Hatfield building facing the post office. It was painted last year by Curtis Goldstein.
Now he has just completed his latest effort on the Fourth Street wall of the Marysville Journal-Tribune. We are very proud to have this beautiful work of art depicting scenes from Marysville and the All Ohio Balloon Fest. It features scenes of Marysville from above, Honda and Ohio Caverns balloons, and even some faces you may all know from past and present.
Curtis is an obviously talented and much accomplished artist who grew up in Columbus and graduated from Walnut Ridge High School in 1984. By 1990, he had earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from the Ohio State University and next month will be continuing his studies at the University of Cincinnati working on his master’s degree. In the future he hopes to teach art.
He worked his way through Ohio State as a chef at the restaurant K2U which was a bistro in the Short North area of Columbus. In fact, later, his first mural was commissioned by people from the Short North and painted on one wall of the K2U restaurant building. He learned much during that project about getting grants for the murals. Word of mouth about his work has kept him busy. So he says he’s an accomplished cook as well as an artist.
He has worked hard this summer in the blazing heat painting the mural at the J-T. This is his 12th such project.
During the winter, he paints scenes of Columbus and Chicago, and is available for commissions of any kind. His work is displayed at Art Access Gallery in Bexley, with prices ranging from $1,200 to $6,000.
The first mural he did in Marysville, which features mostly the theme of covered bridges in the area, was a little more loose in the design than the one at the Journal-Tribune. He said that the first one could be painted a little more freely, but the one at the newspaper has so much detail he worked in about one square foot at a time from a master sketch.
Curtis explained that the paint should last for many years with just a possible touch up here and there, and that no overall coating on it is necessary. Be sure to check out his work. We love it!
You can contact Curtis online at curtisgoldstein@hotmail.com or see his murals at art4folks.blogspot.com.
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7/22/11
Kraus is music teacher
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 Column note: The following column is about Dirk Kraus, son of Ken and Alice Kraus. Sadly, Dirk’s father, Ken, died Tuesday. I had been corresponding with Ken about the column and had told him it would appear today. So to keep my word, here it is.
 Dirk Kraus (MHS class of ‘87) has been making music on the piano since he was about 10 years old. Neither of his parents play, but his grandmother was a music teacher. Now he owns a music school of his own in Ft. Collins, Colo.
 After leaving Marysville, Dirk attended Ohio Northern University and earned two degrees, one in music and the other in business administration. He did graduate work at both the University of Cincinnati and Louisiana State University. Then he had to make the decision, what to do with his life.
 Of course, the answer was that it would involve music. While teaching in Worthington he did market research to find the best place for his school and that ended up being Ft. Collins.
 In 2001, he and his wife, Jennifer, packed their things and went west. She worked as a teacher in the local school system and he opened the doors of the Piano Institute in November of 2001.
 At first he needed several pianos. He had a borrowed one from home. His goal was to teach all ages, 3 to 93, He had 14 full-time students the first year. His business has grown to several teachers and a second school in Windsor, Colo., where guitar is also taught.
Today’s enrollment for both schools is about 300 including adult students.
 Dirk is the son of the late Ken Kraus and Alice Kraus. He and his wife have three children.
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Adelsberger is his own master at gardening!
 A green thumb is a wonderful attribute and saved for a select few. John Adelsberger has it. He is a soft spoken man who quietly goes about his volunteering at various locations in the area.
 One is at First English Lutheran Church where his efforts help beautify the church area. As soon as flowers are available to him (many local garden centers donate at the end of their season), he begins to plant in the islands of the parking lot and out front by their sign. First, many weeds have to be dealt with and that means lots of time in the hot sun. He knows what he's doing and members of the church are very grateful for what he does.
 When he's done there he heads to Greenwood Colony and plants and cares for their flowers at the entrance off of Route 38 where watering by hand is necessary. John is not looking for publicity and I may be pushing it by saying this little bit about him. Be sure to check  out his work at these locations!
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7/15/11
Making music again
He’s retired after 25 years at the Scotts Co. and now works part-time in his consulting firm. Bill Hoopes (MHS class of ‘58) owns Grass Roots Training and consults about lawn care and landscaping. Just recently he became a musician again, at least for the weekend!
He was reunited with brothers John (MHS class of ‘59) and David Bumgarner (MHS class of ‘56) originally from Marysville, and they made music as they had done in the early 1960s as the Cannon Brothers. Robbie Robinson was their sound man and Bill said the one who really held the group together. Back in the ‘60s, the group toured the country from New York to California singing folk music in clubs, much like the Kingston Trio.
Bill said that the three singers teamed up to perform for “The High Fever Follies,” a fundraiser for Memorial Hospital using local talent. When it was over, a three-man trio, eventually known as the Cannon Brothers, was born. During the next two plus years (1962 and ‘63), the group performed nationally and eventually released two successful recordings.
With folk music at its popularity peak and on the heels of the follies success, the trio found themselves in immediate demand and were soon dishing out their commercial folk music for a variety of local events and at the Maramor in Columbus. Within months they were asked to perform for the national Jaycee convention in Las Vegas, and the boys were on their way.
David Bumgarner described the next few months: “It was nothing short of a whirlwind. We didn’t go to New York, we were taken! We got breaks and we got them fast, too fast. While recording auditions were successful, we needed material and seasoning. The decision was simple — we had to hit the road.”
By the summer of ‘63, Hoopes realized that a life on the road was not his calling and left the group to return to school at Ohio Wesleyan, where he graduated in 1965. He went on to a career in training and development.
As John Bumgarner put it, “We had a whirlwind experience. We went places and did things that just isn’t normal for kids from Marysville.”
Today, John and David live in South Florida and operate a property management and pest control business. They continue to sing in their church praise group every week.
When the guys reunited recently, they sang at Indian Lake at the home of Bill’s sister, Louise Gordon, who arranged a party in their honor. Of course, the group performed after a day of rehearsal and Robbie was still there as sound man.
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7/8/11
Meeting her sisters ... 50 years later
Local resident Carol Raymond has recently had a life changing experience. She met two of her three half-sisters, who she didn’t even know existed until recently. They bonded like they’d known each other for 50 years.
It all started when she was born back in 1953. Her mother, Diana, was married to a man named Charles and they divorced when Carol was very young. Throughout his life she never met him. Her mother later married Steve Duncan and until Carol was 12 years old she thought he was her natural father. That was the year they told her he wanted to formally adopt her. That was fine since she had always known him as her “daddy.” She describes Steve as the most wonderful man a girl could have for a father.
Carol never felt the need to contact her birth father, but sometime after Steve died in 2009, she became aware of an aunt who lived in the St. Paris, Ohio, area. Eventually she found her on the Internet and e-mailed her. They stayed in touch via e-mail, but didn’t meet until just recently.
Her aunt, Barbara, surprised Carol by telling her there were three half-sisters from her father’s later marriage. One was named Cathy and lived in Powell. Cathy and Carol talked and Cathy told her she had a twin named Chris who lived in New Jersey and another sister, Karen, in Arizona.
With that, the trip was planned. Cathy and Carol flew to New Jersey and met Chris, and the three of them went to New York City for a three-day vacation together. Cissy Born recognized Carol on the “Today Show,” where they had a big sign about meeting after 50 years. So I contacted Carol for this story.
She said it was a wonderful trip, one she will never forget. The twins said they bonded with her immediately partly because she looks so much like their aunt Barbara. Carol will meet the third sister, Karen, in the future. It’s all been a very good experience and one unusual event.
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Joyce Case now a novelist
Writing is an art. Some of us do it more than others and Joyce Case has now entered that world. She has planned her writing career since she was eight years old and now, after 18 years, she has retired from Scotts/Miracle-Gro Co. as marketing manager and can say she is self-published. It took two years, one to write the novel and one to get it published, which included doing all typing of the manuscript and the marketing.
She used iUniverse, which supplied her with support teams for the cover and editing plus some marketing help. She also hired a separate editor to polish what she had written. This person also taught her the ropes of commercial writing.
Her first historical novel is called “Runaway,” and will be one of three featuring the same family beginning with the French and Indian War in 1754. It is a love story and the heroine, Sashsa, becomes a friend of George Washington and even meets Benjamin Franklin at one point. She is rich by birthright, but also accomplished at shooting and hand–to-hand combat. There are Indian raids and some intrigue with interesting twists.
Some of the characters are based on Joyce’s family including her five grandsons who are all characters in the book. Now she is at work on the second novel titled “Stay the Course,” which will be out sometime next year. “Runaway” is available on Amazon and at Barnes and Noble.
Joyce is a wife, mother and grandmother and lives in North Lewisburg.
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7/1/11
The modern guard
I recently attended a reunion of Marysville men who were part of the Ohio Army National Guard unit and who were inducted at the old Marysville Armory on East Fourth Street. It was then the 166th infantry and was a tank unit. They all joined in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Last week I told you some of their stories of service. Also at that reunion were representatives of the modern Ohio Army National Guard. They were Command Sgt. Maj. (CSM) Rodger Jones (MHS class of ‘81), who is stationed at the DSC in East Columbus with the 37th Infantry Combat Brigade, and Spc. Sarah Behney, representing the 585th MP Company operating out of the new Marysville Armory at Coleman Crossing.
Jones was the featured speaker at the reunion and he represented his position and our military quite well. He was interesting, knowledgeable and engaging, answering all questions about the modern national guard.
I was amazed to hear from him that the Ohio Army National Guard is more than full, that is to say, it has all the people it needs at this time. He also added that the current group of men and women is the smartest and best educated generation to have ever served in our military. He pointed out that the U.S. has been fighting continually for the past 10 years and all members of the military have enlisted and re-enlisted knowing the country is at war and that they could be directly involved at any time.
As the command sergeant major of his brigade, numbering about 3,500, Jones is responsible for sending all information coming down from command to all sergeants. The brigade is comprised of soldiers not just from central Ohio but also from surrounding states.
He recently returned from three weeks in Afghanistan where he made preparations for his brigade’s arrival next October. His job was to check out the area where they will begin their tour of duty (all 3,500 will go) and that will be Mazar-i-Sharif. It’s located in northern Afghanistan with a population of 375,000. This would be a modern city, but there are 6.7 million people in diverse regions of Afghanistan which have no electricity and no telephone. How could they know anything about the life that we lead?
Rod said their missions will be spread out with 150 soldiers here and there in the outlying areas, which are so remote to the rest of the world. They will provide security for medics and partner with the Afghan police and army. They will live, sleep and train with them in an effort to teach.
Rod speaks a form of German and that could be handy because they’ll be part of a NATO force which is run by Germans, Norwegians and Fins are there also. His impression is that they’re good people and fighters, plus all speak passable English.
Spc. Sarah Behney of the 585th MP Company of Marysville (about 197 people) also shared some of the activities of her unit. She is a full-time “armor,” which means she’s a supply person in charge of weapons and maintenance. A person in her position makes about $36,000 a year. There are four full-time people with our local guard unit. At age 22, she hasn’t been overseas yet, but she’s married and has a one-year-old son. She knows it is always a possibility.
She said her unit served in Iraq and returned home last year from their support of the Iraqi military police. Currently they are readying to be a first responder to disaster or any incident where they may be needed here at home.
I was quite impressed with these two representatives of the full-time Ohio Army National Guard and am also grateful they are willing to do the job of protecting our country.
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6/24/11
The grand old guard?
One of the best parts of my job is that I get some nice invitations to events. This was no exception. I recently had lunch with 15 men, which made it great from the start, who were having a reunion of Company E of the 166th tank unit of the Ohio Army National Guard.
These men were all inducted into military service in the times when the old armory on East Fourth Street was active. It was the mid 1950s to 1960. Built in 1911, the armory is no longer used for the guard. Its replacement is near the YMCA off Delaware Ave.
The old building is the same one that was the guard home of Marysville native Maj. Gen. Robert Sprague Beightler. He was born in 1892, graduated from Marysville High School in 1909, attended OSU, and enlisted in the guard in 1911 at our Fourth Street Armory as an E-1 (private) in Company E. He became a first sergeant in 1913 and an officer in 1914, and over the years rose through the ranks to become a two-star general.
Beightler served under Gen. Douglas MacArthur in WW II. He was the only World War II national guard general to command his division for the length of the war. The Beightler Armory on Route 161 in Columbus is named after him. He died in 1978 and is buried at Oakdale Cemetery.
Those at the reunion had lunch, told stories and toured the old armory. Bob Clegg and Robbie Robinson were organizers. Also invited were some modern day full-time Army National Guard personnel - Command Sgt. Maj. Rodger Jones (Rod - MHS class of ‘81) and Spc. Sarah Behney of the Marysville unit - who talked about life in the guard in these times.
Then the stories began.
Robbie was emcee and pointed out, "In the past, the motto was, ‘Join the Ohio National Guard and see Kentucky and Indiana.'" He added, "Now the men and women see the world." The military draft was also in force then instead of the all-volunteer army we have today.
Bob Clegg remembered his tank training like this: "We took the train to Indian Town Gap, Pa. in July of 1954. It was my first experience with tanks, and believe me, when they fired, if you were outside, standing, observing, or waiting for your turn to train in one, it was frightening. The air concussion was super loud and there was no ear protection in those days. So, my turn came. I climbed onto the tank, dropped into the turret, and the sergeant said, hey, stop quivering!"
Bob continued: "My MOS (what he was trained to do) was a loader, which is what I first did during this exercise. We received a 90 mm round, and it was passed to me with nose down, not the firing cap down, in case I dropped it. So I was taught how to slam a round into the breach without losing my fingers. Later I trained as a gunner - I enjoyed that most - and finally as a tank commander. But, alas, they never let me drive. It was also really scary, especially for an 18-year-old kid."
On the even lighter side, Gerald Graves shared this story. It seems that one Sunday he and three other guard members decided to skip the Sunday all-day drill which was required as part of the monthly national guard experience. When they were reported missing, the local sheriff (in 1960), called their homes to try and find them and notified their families that they were supposed to be arrested. Fortunately he didn't go through with it, but four soldiers appeared with weapons to round them up and they were held on the porch of the old jail for the afternoon.
The guard members said at the time, they felt it could have been handled in a more dignified manner since they hadn't actually committed crimes against mankind! Charges against them were dropped after a talk with the battery commander. I wonder how that would have been handled today.
Others attending the event were Gail Bump, Fred Woerlein, Jim Evans, Don Teets, John Retterer, Ford Evans, Bob Borden, Dale Dasher, Ed Griffith, Jim Barnhart, Art Rausch and Williard Daum.
If you were a member of this old guard unit and would like to attend a future reunion, a local contact is Mike Witzky at the Union County Mental Health Board. His e-mail is witzky@bhg.org.
Next week I will write about Marysville native Command Sgt. Maj. Rod Jones who is stationed at the DSC in east Columbus and Spc. Sarah Behney of the Marysville guard unit, both great representatives of the modern Ohio Army National Guard.
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6/17/11
From South Korea to Ecuador
Lori Black is a world traveler. A 2003 graduate of Marysville High School, she is currently beginning two years in the Peace Corps in Ecuador. Last week I told you about her early adventures teaching English as a second language and also working with street children in Ecuador as a student. Her college studies in Spanish were necessary for that trip. If you missed part one, you can read it at marysvillejt.com — click on Off the Hook and then on archives.
After college, Lori went to South Korea to teach for the Hagwon (sounds like something from Harry Potter) schools, which are specialty after-school experiences running until about midnight, even for young children. Here she taught English as a second language.
She said the food in South Korea is fantastic and so are the people. It is a beautiful country which is not used to foreigners, and she would often feel many staring at her because of that. She learned to speak a little Korean on her own.
As evidence of the friendliness of the people, she told me this story: She and a friend wanted to go to the beach one day so they took the bus to an island area and were dropped off. It turns out the beach was still about six miles away and so they began walking. After some time a man drove up and offered a ride. He looked safe so they got in! He drove them all the way to the beach and then said, “Here’s my phone number, please call me when you’re ready to leave.”
They had no other way to get back so they called and he invited them home to his house for dinner. There they had a wonderful array of food and it was getting late, so the hosts called around to their neighbors looking for an empty bedroom where she and her friend could stay.
All went well and the next day they got on the bus to return home. Wouldn’t we be afraid to do all that in this country?
Lori returned to the U.S. after a year in Korea and went to work at the University of New Haven in Connecticut. There she was connected with the Berlitz Company, which had a rigorous English as a Second Language program. Lori taught foreign students how to speak English quickly, so they could begin studying in the U.S. at New Haven University.
Most were Saudis there on grants from their government studying engineering and public health. She learned quickly not to tell Saudi students that she liked something, perhaps a purse in a local store. She simply mentioned it one day. The next day it appeared on her desk as a gift which was impolite to refuse. Apparently, the Saudis love to give gifts and have the money to do it. Once you say three times you admire something, they are compelled to give it to you.
After waiting three years, her Peace Corps assignment was Ecuador. It was unbelievable that she got a country that is not only Spanish-speaking, but also one where she had lived before. Eighty other young Americans joining the Peace Corps have also gone to Quito, Ecuador, for three months of training, which will include health, safety, culture and customs. Lori had many books to read ahead and says she’ll also need to use common sense and respect their culture. She’s living with a host family at this time and will have her assignment for teaching English as a second language after training.
In the Peace Corps, you earn about $300 a month, but prices are very low in Ecuador. You can get a five-course meal for $1.50 and bargaining is a way of life. After serving two years and three months, Lori will be given $7,000 more and 30 percent of her college loans will be paid off. She plans graduate work in the future.
At 26 years old she has already seen other cultures and she said, “The timing is just right for this trip and Ecuador is a great fit.”
 I will have an update from Lori from time to time about life and teaching in the Peace Corps in Ecuador.
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6/10/11
World traveler at 26
She’s a 2003 graduate of Marysville High School, has already lived in two foreign countries and has just started her work with the Peace Corps in Ecuador. At the young age of 26, Lori Black has seen a lot of the world and has become wise in the ways of blending into other societies.
She has learned that you do not dress provocatively in foreign countries, basically to keep a low profile. That can be important because other societies are often insulted by something done or said in a manner we would consider acceptable. Words sometimes mean that which is not the obvious. For example, in Spanish the word embarazada means pregnant, but others might think it is used to say embarrassed. So know your language!
Lori graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in Spanish and since then has mostly taught English as a second language. While in college she was sent to Ecuador on a co-op program. That was in June of 2005, and she was there until September, receiving college credit for teaching “street children” ages infant to 15 years. In this situation she used her Spanish daily as the program attempted to get the children off the street for just a few hours. Teachers taught colors, shapes and the alphabet, and played games with them.
Now going back to Ecuador with the Peace Corps is a welcome surprise. When you sign up you have to be ready to go wherever they send you.
The first time in Ecuador Lori lived in what many cab drivers called a “terrifying section” of town. Some would not go into it. Of course, she didn’t realize that at first, but there were no bad experiences. She even got to know all the neighborhood store owners. All really went well there.
When college was done, Lori decided to apply for the Peace Corps, a process which takes about three years. In the meantime, she needed to make some money. A friend was teaching in South Korea so that seemed to be the next place to go. I would say this makes her very adventuresome and brave.
She was hired by the specialty school called Hagwon. They also paid her way to Suwon, South Korea (near Seoul), where she taught in their late-day schools. Lori explains that there is unbelievable academic competition in South Korea. Children attend school from 7 a.m. until about 3 p.m. and later go to these private schools. In many cases, teachers are just reinforcing class work to help students be ready for huge exams which are two times a year and used for placement.
Competition to enter the best middle schools and high schools is tough. Some Hagwon schools last until midnight. Then the children have to go home and prepare for the next day at the regular school. Lori taught English.
Those classes gave students a chance to actually speak the language they have been learning. Korean teachers often cannot really speak English, but they know the grammar and teach it well. However, students rarely have a conversation experience.
Lori had no idea how to teach since she had no education courses in college. She was thrown into the classroom with absolutely no training. She decided to quickly get on top of the situation with the Internet plus a few books which helped her get started.
She had much to say about the culture of South Korea. It seems most Americans picture the people as backward, wearing native dress. That is not the case. High tech is everywhere and Seoul is a booming metropolis. People are very interested in western dress and high fashion is everything along with fancy high-heeled shoes and the latest in clothing designs.
More about South Korean hospitality next week.
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6/3/11
Know your congressman

When someone is elected to public office, especially on the national scene, their life is open to scrutiny. That means everything in their private and public life is deemed fair game. If they serve in the nation’s capital, they must also move, at least part time, to Washington D.C., leaving the security of their hometown.

A member of congress must make sure he or she is representing the views of their constituents. And yet, sometimes unpopular decisions have to be made. At an annual salary of $174,000 (for senate and house of representatives) no one is becoming independently wealthy in these jobs.

All that said, many times I wonder how we get good people to run for public office? The freshman congressman who represents our 15th district, Steve Stivers, at 46 years old, is embracing all of it. During his first year he immediately decided to return 5 percent of his salary every month to go toward paying off the national debt.

Each congressman receives money to run their offices, one in their district and one in Washington. The amount of money they receive depends on whether they represent an urban or rural area and the distance from their home to Washington, D.C.

Stivers receives $1.2 million to run his two offices. Each one has eight employees. Some of that money can also be used for transportation back and forth to the capital. He also voted to return 5 percent of that money back to the government. Almost all members of his staff have ties to central Ohio and years of Washington experience. He plans to also have a part-time office in Marysville soon.

In his younger days, he was an Eagle Scout, and then later graduated from the Ohio State University with a bachelor’s degree. He also earned an MBA. He worked in the private sector and also served six years in the Ohio Senate.

In addition, he has served over 26 years in the Ohio Army National Guard and currently holds the rank of lieutenant colonel. Some of that time was spent overseas during Operation Iraqi Freedom in Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar and Djibouti.

When I asked Steve about finding a place to live in Washington, he replied that he currently is sleeping on an air mattress in his office when there. He then added: “I live in the district (with wife, Karen, and daughter, Sarah) and am only in D.C. when the House is in session and we have votes. I usually take a 3 p.m. flight to D.C. right before first votes for the week on Monday or Tuesday evening. When there, the day usually starts around 7:30 a.m. and will often end around 10 p.m. Usually it begins with a breakfast or other event, and then I have committee hearings, floor votes and meetings with constituents throughout the day. At night there are more events and receptions to attend. I come back to the district every week as soon as we have our last votes, which usually falls on either Thursday or Friday. We also have district work periods for one or two weeks every month where I get to spend all my time in the district meeting with constituents, touring local businesses, holding office hours and attending events around the district.”

Since the term of a congressman is only two years, they are always “running” for re-election. He says that fact keeps him close to the people and in touch with their wishes. One of the major concerns of Congress is the debt, and Steve had this to say: “Astronomical government spending over the past years has pushed our national debt to more than $14 trillion and counting, and we have now surpassed our debt limit. Across Ohio and the nation, families prioritize their own budgets to make ends meet and they should expect no less of Congress. We did not land in this spending crisis overnight and we will not turn it around overnight; however vote-byvote, Congress can reduce the out-of-control spending and debt.”

He reported: “During this session of Congress, the House has passed numerous bills to lower our nation’s spending problem. I recently voted to cut $6.2 trillion in government spending and reduce deficits by $4.2 trillion over the next decade, compared to the administration’s budget. I also voted to end the bailouts by preventing $29.9 billion of TARP funding from being spent.”

I know serving in Congress in these times is a challenging and probably frustrating job, one I don’t want. And I am still amazed there are some good people who want to do it!
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5/27/11
Is it discrimination?
If you’re not a woman and you don’t play golf you may have no idea what I’m talking about. Hopefully, however, you’ll still be interested in the plight of female golfers and their problem with men who run golf courses.
I enjoy being around men, so this not about that. I’m not exactly a women’s libber either. But those of us who play golf are very conscious of the fact that at some courses women seem to be unwelcome. Some private courses do not even allow women to play on certain days.
Recently, I’ve had several experiences which prompted me to share this with you. Just last week at a local course, I arrived with the other three ladies in my foursome. All of us play golf regularly, know the rules and know to keep moving on the course. Women are sometimes accused of playing too slowly and holding others up.
My group is not afraid to play any hour of the day and be surrounded by male players. When I first started to play many years ago, I would never have gone out on the course on a busy day.
When we arrived, the man who runs the course felt it necessary to lecture us about keeping up the pace of play. He reminded us to not hold up the men behind us. We told him he was talking to the wrong group. We play a lot — maybe not all that well — but we play very quickly.
We started off that round of golf with “little chips” on our shoulders and I so told the girls this story from my play in Florida during the winter. My group there also plays quickly and we all play at about the same level. We’re not ready for the tour, but let’s just say we are very respectable.
That day we were behind three men who played so slowly we waited every shot for nine holes. During that “stand around” time we told every funny joke we knew. There were only three men, and we were four women!
The first nine holes took two and half hours instead of the usual two. We could see that it was going to turn into a more than five-hour round. So, after nine holes we took a little extra time at the turn (in the clubhouse) to give those slow men a chance to get ahead of us. It looked like we solved our problem. When we arrived at the 10th tee, the men were already on the green. Remember, there were only three of them.
Now they were an entire hole ahead of us and we had a chance to actually play golf like it’s supposed to be, which keeps players in a rhythm. Then a ranger arrived. This is the man who’s in charge of keeping play moving, only we had not seen him the entire front nine. He came over to our cart and said, “Ladies, you are going to have to pick up the pace. Those men are already in the middle of the next fairway. You’re falling behind.”
It was all I could do to keep from raising my voice and telling him what I thought because of the frustration from the front nine. But I tried to speak calmly and tell him we had waited on those men every shot on the front nine. Then he turned to me and said, “I told you to pick up the pace!”
Quickly and quietly I got into the cart before I had a chance for more conversation. We wanted to finish the round. In just 10 minutes we had caught up to those fellows and started waiting all over again. The ranger was no where to be found!
It turned out to be a long hot day of golf and gave me more evidence for my case of discrimination. What do you think?
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5/20/11
The Cotters and the Swiss - Part two
Kathy and Bob Cotter recently went to Switzerland to visit their son, Kevin, and his family. Kevin is working there for the Nestle Co. for about three years. Last week was part one of their adventure and if you missed it, you can read it online at marysvillejt.com. Click on Off the Hook and then on archives.
After spending several days in Konolfingen, Switzerland with Kevin and his family, Bob and Kathy took a side trip to Rome. Since they had only a short time there, they hired a personal tour guide who used to work at the Vatican. He whisked them in and out of the many tourist places avoiding all the lines. He also shared knowledge of Roman history and customs.
According to him, the Pope actually lives in a retreat on a hill near the Vatican and only helicopters in on Wednesday and Sunday.
I remember Rome as somewhat trashy — litter was everywhere. Bob said not so on this visit. It seems there were three factors at work there — the Easter holiday, the beatification of Pope John Paul II and the 150th celebration of the Italian unification. The city was cleaned up and ready for all the visitors for the celebrations. Kathy said Italian students arrived in swarms.
Crazy driving is the norm in Rome, so Kathy and Bob said they deemed it necessary to do routine, actual praying while in cabs. This crazy driving caused Kathy to be hit by a car in Rome. It was a minor graze of her arm as she walked along the edge of a narrow, ancient street, but it qualified as a “hit.” The driver didn’t even stop. He just yelled “mi scusi” (I'm sorry) and went on.
Ready to leave all the craziness behind, they returned to Konolfingen for a few more days. It’s a much slower pace there and a healthy lifestyle for the Swiss. On weekends, many camp and hike. Bicycles are a daily mode of transportation. Kevin’s boss rides 45 minutes to work every day. Also, in that small town people walk everywhere.
Beef, which is from local cattle, is quite lean because cows are grass fed and the grass is located on the top of a hill. Cattle have to climb the hill and back down several times a day because there is little flat land in that area. Bob, a connoisseur of beef, reported it was also lacking in flavor.
Swiss toilets were also unique. Apparently, when the user sits down on the seat, a vigorous exhaust fan, which is attached, turns on and operates while the person is sitting, making it an interesting invention.
The train runs right through the middle of Konolfingen and it’s just a 20-minute ride to Berne, where their grandchildren, Emma and Sydney, attend a Montessori type school and much shopping is available!
All in all life is different for Kevin, Andrea, Emma and Sydney. It’s an adventure where there is much to be learned.
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5/13/11
The Cotters meet the Swiss
Here’s the scenario — you live next door to your son and his family so you see your granddaughters anytime, and then they move to Switzerland. That was the situation for Bob and Kathy Cotter.
Their son, Kevin, and his wife, Andrea, plus daughter Emma, 6, and Sydney, 3, are enjoying a chance to live in Konolfingen, Switzerland (population about 4,600) for three years. Kevin has been sent there to work for the Nestle Co. Their apartment is just across the street from the plant.
So, Bob and Kathy went to visit. The trip didn’t begin well. Bad weather in Philadelphia delayed their plane. They missed their connection so the plane that was to go directly to Zurich left without them. Four hours later, they boarded a flight to London, then to Zurich. It was a long day.
They thought they might have time to see a little of London, but no, the four hours there were eaten up with a 20-minute walk to customs, more time spent there, and a 20-minute walk back to the gate. Many hours later they arrived in Konolfingen for a 10-day visit with Kevin and his family.
The Cotters described the town as looking like 1960. There are many little shops which all close promptly at 5 p.m. and none of them are open on Sunday.
One Sunday they had forgotten to buy potatoes for dinner, so the family drove out to a farm in the country which had a sign leading them to a barn. Inside were homegrown vegetables and another sign with prices. They weighed the produce and since there was no clerk, they left the required amount in a bucket. It was apparently the honor system.
A form of the German language (low) is spoken there and Kevin is currently taking German. The local people are friendly, but don’t speak much English.
Prices are high there. Hamburger is $10 a pound and a small lunch for the six of them was $160. Of course, since we’re interested in fuel prices, gas is about $7 a gallon in Switzerland!
Kevin and Andrea live in a three-bedroom, two-bath apartment on the third floor, which is serviced by an elevator — a luxury in that country. It has a patio and views of the Alps.
Kathy had much to say about the tiny refrigerator in the kitchen. Inside its main door was a very tiny freezer (about 15x10 inches). The ice cube trays were also small, making a few tiny cubes. Ice is also not available to buy in stores. It’s safe to say, ice is obviously not important to the Swiss.
Sean and Lisa Cotter, Kevin’s cousin and wife, also live in Konolfingen (he works for Nestle, too) along with their two daughters. Late last year I did a series of stories about their adventures there and you can read that at marysvillejt.com., then click on Off the Hook and on archives.
Kevin and Andrea’s children, Emma and Sydney, attend the International School in Berne, just a 20-minute train ride away.
More next week when Kathy and Bob take a side trip to Rome and Kathy has a mishap with a car.
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5/6/11
Mother’s Day
Here comes Mother’s Day again. It’s a time when all mothers hope to be remembered with at least a phone call. I’ve been fortunate to have two thoughtful sons who always remember the day in some way. I have to say, I appreciate it (and have probably earned it).
Raising boys (I do have one granddaughter along with two grandsons) is all I know and it is the toughest job I’ve ever had! They test you in many ways, particularly in the teenage years. Thankfully that’s long over and they’re grown up.
The chances are very good that they will read this, so I had better say, their adult years have been mostly a joy. I realize that by disclosing my parenting history, I may be putting this Mother’s Day in jeopardy, but remember the outcome has been good.
A friend recently shared these thoughts about being a mother that only a mother can understand:
Before I was a Mom, I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby. I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous. I never thought about immunizations.
Before I was a Mom, I had never been thrown-up on, pooped on, chewed on or wet on. I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts. I slept all night.
Before I was a Mom, I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests or give shots. I never looked into teary eyes and cried. I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin. I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.
Before I was a Mom, I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put him/her down. I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt. I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much. I never knew that I could love someone so much. I never knew I would love being a Mom.
Before I was a Mom, I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby. I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child. I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.
Before I was a Mom, I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was OK. I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom. I didn’t know I was capable of feeling so much.
Don't forget to call your mother!
Happy Mother’s Day!
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4/29/11
No scam for this senior
Fortunately he was too smart to be scammed. He falls into the category of a senior citizen who some scoundrels think are a perfect target for stealing their money. I know Jim  Mullane well. He is my neighbor while I’m in Florida, a Notre Dame grad, plus an all-around good guy.
Recently he shared a story with me and it’s one that might help many others some day.
When Jim answered the phone one Thursday, he was surprised to hear someone who claimed to be his 20-year-old grandson, Sean, who is a student at the University of Buffalo in New York State. While Jim loves him and feels he’s a great kid, he rarely calls, so this was a surprise. It was hard to understand him on the phone (Jim’s hearing is very good) and he thought maybe Sean’s voice seemed a little different.
Sean began his conversation with, “Hi Grandpa, how are you?” Jim said, “Its good to hear from you.”
There were a few more pleasantries exchanged. And then Jim asked, “Sean is something wrong, do you need money?” Sean replied, “Yes, Grandpa I do. I’m in trouble in Canada.” Jim was in Florida at the time.
Immediately Jim went into the very concerned mode of a grandfather. Sean told the story of being in a car with several friends from college and they were stopped by the police. Narcotics were found, he was arrested, and he needed money for his bail. Jim immediately asked if there was someone else there that he could talk to and wondered what kind of money they were talking about?
Quickly a Sgt. Kobe Senta was on the phone explaining that the good news was Sean’s fingerprints were not found on the narcotics, but that he was being held and it would be $5,900 for bail. That amount would increase to $6,300 once he paid the costs for wiring the money.
Jim, still quite concerned, said to the officer, “How do I know this is legitimate?” The man offered to give him the phone number of the police station and a case number. Jim could call back and that would be his proof. So he did that and was connected to what he thought was a police department in Timmons , Ontario, with the case number. The sergeant came on the phone again. Then Jim asked to speak again to his grandson, but the sergeant reported that he was unavailable since he had been taken to another holding cell and that he’d already had his one phone call. The policeman explained that Sean did not want to call his father because he would be out of jail soon and could go home and explain the whole thing.
Jim was now starting to ask more and more questions as the police officer told him to go to a Wal-Mart or Kmart and wire the money to Dallas, Texas, to a Shawnee Cortez. Of course, Jim asked why he should send the money to Texas, when his grandson was in jail in Canada. The officer explained it had to do with an international bail bond system.
Things started to become confusing, and when the officer sensed Jim’s hesitation he told Jim to hang up, think about it and then call back. So he hung up. This was not something his grandson would be involved in. Jim’s next call was not back to the officer, but to his own son, Sean’s father. He asked, “Do you know where Sean is?” His son was sure Sean was at school and once he explained the whole scenario, his son was on the phone to Sean at school in Buffalo, not in Canada. Jim’s son verified that Sean had not been arrested and was OK, and called Jim to tell him that. After some discussion, Sean’s father said his next move was to call the FBI. As of this date nothing new has been discovered.
Since I have heard this story, I have been made aware of websites involving scams of grandparents on the Internet. You can go there and read many stories of fake scenarios of grandchildren calling grandparents for money. It is incredible but sad how ingenious these criminals are in developing schemes to bilk good people out of their money.
I had many questions when I heard Jim Mullane’s story. The first one was how did the scammers get his name and phone number and connect him to his grandson, Sean, nearly 2,000 miles away? Was it from a receipt that was left somewhere? Was it a college prank or an experienced scammer looking to make a quick to $6,000? I think it was the latter.
Oh by the way, shortly afterward, Jim got a phone call from his real grandson Sean apologizing for the whole thing, which of course he had nothing to do with, but felt guilty for his grandfather’s inconvenience and extreme concern.
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4/22/11
On the road with Taco
She’s on the last leg of a year-long journey across the United States (in her Honda) with her dog, a pet Chihuahua named Taco. Stacia Bingman (MHS class of ‘94) is seeking to reconnect with family and friends and is happy to make new ones on this trip, which began Aug. 8.
My first question to her was to ask how she was funding a year away from any kind of work. She said that she saved for the trip, planning well in advance, and most of the time is able to stay with someone she knows as she attempts to see every state in the continental United States. She also has a website that provides a small amount of income when people click on her blog to read about her daily adventures. That is at www.tacoadventures.blogspot.com.
At about six weeks into the trip, she missed the security of home and wasn’t sure she would be able to stay out on the road for the entire year. (There was only a short trip home to Marysville at Christmas.) The road became a little lonely, but Stacia redirected her thinking. After all, she had Taco for company. Suddenly things turned around and the whole adventure became a lot more fun. There have been times when she wasn’t able to see a few sites like the Empire State Building, where they check everything you take in. Taco was in a tote bag and couldn’t go in.
She carries him everywhere. He is the “author” of her blog. It is written from his point of view. In it, he refers to her as Mia for security purposes. He can go in restaurants where she keeps him gently covered and he sits quietly inside her purse. Fortunately, barking is a rare event for this eight-year-old pooch.
In the car, he rides in a special little dog seat. She reports that he does not get carsick, but she did on the twisty roads in West Virginia.
The scariest times have been the episodes of random car trouble. Her vehicle currently has 162,000 miles on it. More than 30,000 miles have been added on this trip.
Almost daily, a small event turns into meeting many new people. For instance, in Branson, Missouri, Stacia was irritated that she had to go inside a gas station to get the receipt for her gas. But when she went in, several people noticed all the stickers on her car showing the places she’d been. She ended up spending one hour learning about the lives of the five people sitting at the counter, who wanted to talk to her.
Stacia explained: “I took this trip primarily for emotional health reasons. I felt like I was lost and disconnected from those I loved. I wanted to spend some time rediscovering who I am, because of the people I love. I have discovered many things about “who I am” while traveling. Though I am a very social person I don’t mind time alone.”
She continued: “This trip has been a fun social experiment of sorts. And I also know it would not be as easy without the Internet and Facebook. I do feel this is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of trip, mainly because if I ever want to do it again, I already know I can. I really had no idea when I left if I’d even make it three months. And now I’m out eight!”
One of the things she has purposely done out on the road is to drive off the main roads and take in the scenery. Stacia has learned to appreciate the life she has every day and the people with whom she has to share it.
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4/15/11
MHS senior an author
Most young ladies who are about to graduate from high school are simply thinking of getting a job or going on to higher education. Many aren’t sure what they want to do with their life.
Allison Bell is a senior at Marysville High School and will graduate in June, but she already knows where her path is headed. In fact she’s already a published author. Allie writes under the name of Nebula Aonai, and her first novel is called, “Timeless.”
She has been writing for a long time and her grandmother, Clymena Wagner, told me that sometimes Allie will be at work all night long on her latest novel. Her grandmother, who gave me the tip for this story and who is understandably proud of her granddaughter, also says she is not the typical teenager.
The young author has several more books in the works and said that “Timeless” is just the first in a trilogy that she will write.
I wondered how someone so young gets a story published, and she replied that all you need to do is be a typist and editor, and provide the picture for the cover. Then Lulu.com takes care of everything else.
So, Allie typed and typed until she finished her book, which is done in very small print. Then she let her friends read it. All of them edited the work together. She then provided the artwork for the cover and the book was produced with no cost to Allie.
Lulu.com apparently makes its money on the sale of the book and this one is priced at $13 plus shipping. Several copies have been sold.
I found it to be a dark story that was told from a young man’s point of view. It’s packed with action and deals with sexuality, drugs and demi-gods.
After graduation and a year of work, Allie would like to attend a creative writing school in Savannah.
An update from Tokyo
Lloyd Arnold, who lives in Tokyo, sent this update a few days ago about the earthquake situation in Japan:
Last night (Tuesday), Mother Nature decided to celebrate the one-month anniversary of the Miyagi earthquake by giving us six more, all north of Tokyo, all with their own epicenters and all within one hour. Then, today (Wednesday), she gave us another one at about 2 p.m. All of them were kind of strong in Tokyo, too. I don't think I've experienced as many earthquakes during all the years I've been here as I have in the past month.
You may want to buy some shares in Nike, Inc. or Adidas Corp. A lot of people working in downtown Tokyo are making preparations in case the trains are stopped again and they have to walk miles to get home. Sneakers and walking shoes have been selling like hotcakes. Both brands are popular in Japan.
Linda (Smith) Trees sent me a message and she included a very good point. She wondered that with drinking water in the bathtub how could we take a bath. I’ve been here so long that I forgot that Japanese baths are different. The commode is in a little room by itself. My bathroom is a prefabbed plastic unit with a built-in tub, a drain in the floor and a hose with a showerhead. A lever directs water to the faucet or the shower. We have a tight cover for the tub to prevent shower water from going into the tub. So, we don't have to worry about the smell!
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4/8/11
More from Lloyd Arnold in Tokyo
Marysville High School graduate Lloyd Arnold (MHS class of '61) has lived in Japan for many years. He teaches English and is now in Tokyo. Two weeks ago he shared his experiences after the earthquake and tsunami. Here's an update. (To read the first segment, go to marysvillejt.com and click on Off the Hook, then on archives.)
Here is how it was for him on that disastrous day: "On March 11, I was riding my bicycle on a narrow side street when it seemed that I was hitting bumps in the street but I knew there were no bumps. I looked up at the overhead power and telephone lines and saw that they were violently jangling up and down, telling me that there was an earthquake and that it was strong. I had never seen them move that much. I didn't want to be under the lines, but the only open space was next to a brick wall that surrounded a house. During earthquakes, these brick walls are known to collapse so I stayed under the utility lines figuring I could outrun them if they fell."
That was the beginning, and now nearly a month later the country is recovering and yet still dealing with the deaths of perhaps 25,000 people and nuclear reactor problems. Lloyd lives 150 miles from the plants in question and 300 miles from the epicenter of the quake. I saw on the news many were buying Geiger counters in Tokyo, but Lloyd doesn't have one nor does he know anyone who bought one.
Bottled water is still scarce. He said: "I am not concerned about water myself because right after the earthquake I scrubbed my bathtub and filled it with water and I also have a three-gallon jug that I filled. Although that results in some inconvenience, I am not experiencing any dire hardship. There is some shortage of grocery items and that is due to the rolling power outage which continues to be in effect. My neighborhood hasn't been subject to the outage. Many stores and supermarkets only turn on half their interior lights, even those that are not subject to the outage. Many households are doing what they can to reduce energy usage. TV programs focus most of their attention on the power plant problems."
The situation in Tokyo is settling down gradually and the aftershocks from the big quake are not reaching Tokyo so much. However, Tokyo is feeling a few other small shocks. The stricken areas provided some of the foodstuffs that are marketed in the city. These include dairy products and eggs. Japan is not self-sufficient when it comes to food, and imports quite a lot from other countries, such as squash from Mexico, grapefruit, oranges and broccoli from the U.S., fish products from Thailand and a large variety of food from China."
"Many Tokyoites including myself, have an underlying concern that is greater than that caused by radiation, although it is lessening with the passage of time. On Sept. 1, 1923, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck Tokyo just before noon when housewives were preparing noontime meals. These cooking fires went out of control, resulting in a devastating firestorm that swept the city. Estimated fatalities were from 100,000 to 140,000. The 40,000 were those missing and assumed dead. The concern is that the Miyagi earthquake will trigger another big Tokyo quake. There have been a number of others in neighboring prefectures that were temblors themselves and not aftershocks. These have measured up to a magnitude of 6.5 and I believe were triggered by the Miyagi one. I haven't seen many references to this concern and the experts have various opinions but I have never experienced so many good-sized temblors over such a short period of time. I guess time will tell.
"Tokyo is well prepared for earthquakes since the height of buildings has been limited. Until 1968, the government forbid construction of buildings over 30 stories in order to protect the cityscape and as a countermeasure against earthquakes. There are now 237 structures over 30 stories, all of which employ the latest designs and materials proven to be strong enough to withstand earthquakes. Of course rigid building codes are in effect, too. Other measures to prevent fatal fires caused by an earthquake include sensors in gas meters that turn off the gas at a certain level of shock."
Lloyd heats his apartment with a kerosene fan heater and it has a sensor to it turn off. He has bumped into it a few times and it turned off.
As an update, Lloyd sent me an e-mail about the 7.4 magnitude aftershock which occurred yesterday in Miyagi, site of the original earthquake. He said it was felt all the way down to Tokyo at a lesser magnitude. He added that it was rather long in duration, lasting nearly a minute.
We feel certain that the Japanese government will get it all under control eventually, and the world is also there to help!
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4/1/11
A small town — are we still?
When the following story happened many years ago, Marysville was a town of about 5,000. It was recently reported that we have grown to just over 22,000 people. Here’s one of the best small town stories.
His name was Dick Bullerman and he was manager of Stocksdale’s Supermarket, which is now Community Market. I remember his name from nearly 40 years ago, when I first came to Marysville, because I always think of him as demonstrating the epitome of what a small town is.
It was a busy day for me as usual. I had two small children in tow and I was making a quick run through Stocksdales. That trip turned into a long one and, as I came to the checkout counter, I had a lot of groceries and two children who wanted to go home. I usually paid for my groceries by check and as the large total came up I noticed I didn’t have my checkbook and there wasn’t enough money in my wallet to pay for all of it. That was, of course, before the days of credit card use in the grocery.
I panicked as I wondered what I was going to do in this situation — no checkbook, not enough money and only a smile on my face. I said to the checkout person, “I’m sorry I’ll have to leave my purchases and come back and pay for them later.” They were all bagged up and sitting there ready to go.
 Dick heard me from the office and came out and said, “Don’t worry, you can come back and pay later. Go ahead and take your groceries.” I recall that I argued with him for a short time because it was an embarrassing situation, but he insisted. I quickly hauled the groceries home and turned around and came right back with a check to pay. He seemed quite surprised saying, “I told you that you could pay for these later.”
It’s a kindness I always remembered and knew that it would never have happened in Columbus where I grew up.
When I moved here in 1969, Marysville was a town of about 5,000 people and now our city is more than four times that number. We still have much kindness and friendliness in our town, even though we’ve grown. The remnants of the village are still here.
A friend sent me the following note about small towns and it jogged my memory of that story.
Memories of growing up in a small town.
 You can name everyone you graduated with. You know what 4-H means. You went to parties at a pasture, barn, gravel pit, or in the middle of a dirt road. You used to ‘drag’ on Main St. You scheduled parties around the schedules of different police officers, because you knew which ones would bust you and which ones wouldn’t. You could never buy cigarettes because all the store clerks knew how old you were.
It was cool to date somebody from the neighboring town. The whole school went to the same party after graduation. You didn’t give directions by street names but rather by references — turn by Nelson’s house, go two blocks to Anderson’s, and its four houses left of the track field. The golf course had only nine holes.
The town next to you was considered ‘trashy’ or ‘snooty,’ but was actually just like your town. You referred to anyone with a house newer then 1955 as the ‘rich’ people. The people in the ‘big city’ dressed funny, and then you picked up the trend two years later.
Anyone you wanted could be found at the local gas station. Directions were given using THE stop light as a reference. When you decided to walk somewhere for exercise, five people would pull over and ask if you wanted a ride.
Your teachers called you by your older siblings’ names. Your teachers remembered when they taught your parents. You could charge at any local store or write checks without any ID. The closest mall was over an hour away. And finally, most people went by a nickname.
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3/25/11
 Eileen’s family tribute II
Two weeks ago I told you about a wonderful cookbook which had been compiled by Marilyn Goggans for her mother, Mildred Eileen Born Helm Barlow (known as Eileen), a cousin of Marysville resident Jerry Born. If you missed it, you can read it at marysvillejt.com, then click on “Off the Hook,” and archives. In the first part, I included details of her early life which began on Sept. 27, 1918, in Illinois. The cookbook has stories about her and hundreds of her home-tested recipes.
In addition, the family added some tidbits from “Our Heritage in Food” from the Piatt County Homemakers Extension Bicentennial Cookbook from Piatt County, Illinois. It dealt with how life was in the early 1900s for the average homemaker and how relatively hard things were for women in those days.
A wife and mother was a guardian of the chickens, milker of the cows, butcher, baker, as well as doctor, nurse and druggist. Many of those jobs still apply. No matter what happens or how things change over the years, a woman who runs the household still controls the economy and well being of her home.
Some rules for the housewife in the early 1900s were: “Never sit down to the table with an anxious or disturbed mind; never sit down to a meal after any intense mental effort or mental injury; and never go to a full table during bodily exhaustion.”
How does anyone manage that?
Over 100 years ago, the woman of the house was also told: “Make it a cheerful and happy home. That is the greatest safeguard against  temptations for the young. Parents should spare no pains to make the home a cheerful spot and there should be finer sensibilities like dominos, checkers and other games, entertaining books and instructive newspapers.”
Oh, how things have changed, except for, we hope, the desire for a newspaper at home.
In the cookbook, there were instructions for how to kill and prepare a chicken. I’m a city girl and I’ve never done this, so it all sounded like an event in which I would not like to participate. However, I realize that to many farmers this was commonplace.
The instructions began: “Catch a chicken, with a long piece of bailing wire, which has been bent into a hook shape. Snag the chicken’s foot with the hook and have a broom ready. Holding the chicken’s feet, lay its head on the ground, place broom stick on top of the neck; stand on the broomstick and pull feet. The result is the chicken’s head will come off and the chicken will flop around a bit.”
Oh my, hope that wasn’t too graphic. The story continues with how to pluck and clean it for dinner. Sounds like a lot of grizzly work!
As the cookbook continues with many hundreds of recipes from Eileen, one that sounds interesting is  for, cottage cheese:
Put milk in large pan, cover with a cloth and let it stand at room temperature until it curds. Heat the curded milk until hot. Put in colander and drain until dried. Then work with fingers to break up curds to crumbs. Add cream, salt and pepper to crumbs. Refrigerate.
It all sounds easy, so if you’re interested you can try it. But we buy it at the grocery!
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3/18/11
A report from Japan
Everyone in the world is watching Japan and the horrible disasters that continue to plague the country. Every day there seems to be a new emergency to deal with.
Marysville High School graduate Lloyd Arnold (class of ‘61) has lived and worked in Japan for many years. He lives in Tokyo (about 150 miles southwest of the center of the earthquake) and teaches English. I have had an ongoing conversation with him, asking about conditions and, most of all, about safety in that country. He has shared some of his early impressions in the days immediately following the earthquake and up to yesterday. As you read his comments you will see a change in perspective and seriousness of the situation.
Lloyd begins his description about two days after the disasters first hit: “Just a little update. We (Lloyd and his wife) live four or five miles from Shinjuku, one of the busiest train and subway stations in the world and our apartment is about 30 yards from one of the main arteries leading out of Tokyo. After the earthquake, all of the rail transportation was halted so the tracks could be checked. That left a lot of people with no way home except with their feet. Since about 6 p.m., hoards of people have been walking on the sidewalks going past our apartment. It’s almost 11 p.m. and there are still numbers of people passing.”
On Wednesday he wrote this: “Before the quake, it took me maybe 15 or 20 minutes to go shopping (grocery items) but over the last five days it has taken two, sometimes three hours to find and buy the items I needed. Then the power outage occurred. My English teaching classes were not canceled so that took some time. And lastly, there are the nerve-wracking, ongoing aftershocks and earthquakes.”
Yesterday Lloyd answered some of my questions about life at this moment in Tokyo: “Gasoline is available but the lines are long which may be affecting the distribution system when it comes to food. I mentioned the scarcity of some food items. Some stores are closed or have instituted abbreviated hours. Some are closed due to the power situation. Also the commuter trains were running between 20 percent and 80 percent and that is still the situation. I only have a few classes and they haven’t been canceled.”
Then Lloyd added: “I was feeling more confident in my safety because the number and strength of the earthquakes were decreasing and the radiation levels in Tokyo weren’t in the harmful range. Then a man from the embassy called tonight and said that they were arranging some chartered evacuation flights and asked if I would like to sign up. He said that quite a number of people had already signed up. Now my confidence is down again. I wonder if they know something that I don’t know. Anyway, I can’t pick up and go. If or when I decide to move back to the States, it would probably take a month to organize and make the move.”
He said that he had a doctor’s appointment yesterday morning and the doctor told him he didn’t have to worry about radiation ... at least not unless the situation changes.
It is hard to even fathom what it is like to be in Japan with the continuing radiation scares. I hope to have more from Lloyd in the future.
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3/11/11
Grandma Barlow’s cooking
She’s a cousin to Marysville resident Jerry Born and he shared the family’s recent tribute to her. Mildred Eileen Born Helm Barlow, known as Eileen, was born in 1918 and later became a wonderful cook. Her daughter, Marilyn Goggans, has sought to honor her with a large and beautifully done cookbook, which includes her recipes and notes about cooking from almost 100 years ago.
It was done solely for their family, but I found it so interesting I wanted to share some of it with you.
Inside are incidents of Eileen’s early life, too. Her elementary school in Illinois was a mile and a half away and she walked there and back every day. School days were longer then, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and her lunch usually consisted of a packed jelly sandwich. Also, girls always wore dresses to school.
When Eileen was asked what she thought was the greatest invention in modern technology, instead of computers, TV or microwave, she said the automatic wringer washer. She explained that she and her brother had to hand crank the wringer on the washer every Monday morning before school. It was a tough job, one she didn’t like so the automatic version made a big difference in her life.
While in high school in the early 1930s, Eileen became sick with scarlet fever. The whole house was quarantined and she had to stay in the living room, cut off from the rest of the house, for three weeks. Her mother would put meals just inside the door and remove them when done. Of course, in those days there were no video games or TV, but she played records on a victrola to entertain herself.
Shortly after Eileen's illness, her mother also became sick with scarlet fever, and her brother had it and diphtheria at the same time. His condition was critical with the doctor coming to the house two times a day to care for him.
When Eileen married in 1937, she had no running water in her home, only a pump at the kitchen sink. The bathroom was an outhouse and there was a “chamber pot” inside for nighttime use, to be emptied every morning.
Monday morning was, and still is, wash day for Eileen. On Monday afternoon, clothes were sprinkled with water to dampen for ironing and Tuesday was the day to iron. She also made her own lye soap (cold soap). Her recipe consisted of three quarts water, four and one half lbs. grease and one 1 can of lye.
The directions said: Stir water into cool grease as best you can; add a can of lye slowly, stirring as you add it and continue to stir for 20 minutes or until thick; set aside to harden.
A woman’s life was physically tough in those days. Even though many women did not work outside the home, they made soap, canned food and didn’t have our appliances to make housecleaning easier. It is my impression that household jobs were much harder then.
Now, women are busy working outside the home and caring for their children and the house. They are also busy, just in a different way than the women of the 1930s.
Next week I’ll have more about Eileen’s recipes and a glimpse into the day of a housewife of the 1930s.
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3/4/11
Ohnsman may be future politician
It was an experience that may have changed his life. Jared Ohnsman is only a junior at Marysville High School, but he may have just found his life’s work. By scoring well on a PSAT test, he was invited recently to attend the National Youth Leadership Forum on National Security in Washington, D.C. It was quite a thrill for a young man who is interested in politics and public service of some kind. There is also a forum for those interested in law and medicine.
This program introduces high school students to careers in government service. Through a busy six-day adventure, Jared spent long hours from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. listening to speakers and participating in discussions all centered around national security. He reports that one speaker was a former deputy director of the CIA and another a retired general, both of whom were very impressive.
During his visit, there were 300 students from all over the country (staying at the National 4-H Youth Center) who were divided into small groups of 25 for discussion purposes. Some of the activities involved actual role playing when the small group was given a national security situation and a chance to solve the problem as if they were running the government.
Just before leaving on his trip, Jared’s family read the column of U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers in the Journal-Tribune. (Stivers represents the Congressional district which includes Union County.) Stivers talked about how he likes to greet Ohioans when they come to the Capitol. All one has to do is contact him for special behind-the-scenes tours. Jared did that and when he went to meet with Stivers, he found that the congressman was in a meeting with famous Ohioan Jack Hanna.
That was OK, because while waiting he got to pet a baby kangaroo and cheetahs that Hanna had brought along.
In order to see Stivers, Jared was taken through the underground tunnels of the Capitol and up to the chamber where he met Stivers, who was ready to vote. He felt he got a little extra on that trip.
Those selected can earn one college credit after completing the session and now Jared has one credit at George Mason University. That’s a good beginning for a young man who wants to continue on with college and probably major in political science.
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Winter hints
I can’t promise these will work, but wanted to share the ideas.
Keep your headlights clear with car wax! Just wipe ordinary car wax on your headlights. It contains special water repellents that will prevent that messy mixture from accumulating on your lights — it lasts 6 weeks.
Squeak-proof your wipers with rubbing alcohol! Wipe the wipers with a cloth saturated with rubbing alcohol or ammonia. This one trick can make badly streaking and squeaking wipers change to near perfect silence.
Ice-proof your windows with vinegar! Just fill a spray bottle with three parts vinegar to one part water and spritz it on all your windows at night. In the morning, they’ll be clear of icy mess. Vinegar contains acetic acid, which raises the melting point of water, preventing water from freezing!
 Prevent car doors from freezing shut with cooking spray. Spritz cooking oil on the rubber seals around car doors and rub it in with a paper towel. The cooking spray prevents water from melting into the rubber.
 Fog-proof your windshield with shaving cream. Spray some shaving cream on the inside of your windshield and wipe it off with paper towels. Shaving cream has many of the same ingredients found in commercial defoggers.
 De-ice your lock in seconds with hand sanitizer. (This one sounds really useful.) Just put some hand sanitizer gel on the key and the lock and the problem is solved. Good Luck!
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2/25/11
Prize winning artist — again!
She’s been painting since she was in her 50s and actually got a good start from son, Jim, who was already a budding artist in high school.
Barbara Fitzgerald has won more than 56 awards for her artwork. Many have been earned while participating in  the Ohio State Fair and several others from entries made in the Naples, Fla., area, where she often spends the winter.
This year at the Members Exhibition of the Bonita Springs Center for the Arts, her work took second place in a very competitive, juried show.  The painting titled “She’s Our Mother” involved an alligator with babies on its back and the idea came from something she saw one morning near her home.
Barbara’s family is particularly glad to see her get back to painting, which she has done little of since her husband, Larry, died last summer.
They had been married for almost 61 years and met at a fraternity party at Ohio State University in the 1940s. She was a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority and he, Beta Theta Pi fraternity. They had each gone to the Beta party, but with other dates. Shortly after that, Larry asked her out and that began their long life together.
She often paints her family members and now has branched out to animals and works on gifts for friends.
The scenery in Florida provides many beautiful chances for interesting artwork, including the beautiful sunsets, which is her next project.
The almost lost art of the Vollraths
Every winter at a small hog farm on Route 38, the family of Eileen and Ronald Vollrath perpetuates a long standing German tradition of slaughtering hogs. Their son Kevin (FHS class of ‘86) is married to Missy Johnson Vollrath (MHS class of ‘88). She contacted me because she wanted the family to share their experience. Kevin is an accountant by day and a loyal son who still helps his parents and other family members by butchering three to five hogs (300 pounds each) for family use. The men do the butchering and the women the packaging. Each family makes homemade wine to share.
Kevin has been told that in the old days, farmers used every single bit of a hog (everything but the squeal). The older farmers at St. John’s Church often question him when they see activities at the farm about making various products from the butchering. Kevin says in addition to the usual cuts of meat and sausage, they make a liver pudding and head cheese and there is another product called blood pudding.  Some of that sounds a little unappetizing to me. Perhaps you had to grow up eating it.
Kevin has been involved in this process since he was in the first grade and now his young son, Ethan, 10 is joining in with the other cousins to keep this tradition going. Fewer families still do this hard work than they did 50 years ago.
When I asked if the children were bothered by the killing of an animal, Kevin explained that their children learn from a young age animals are a gift from God, treated humanely, but are here to serve as food.
So, after a long weekend of tiring work, the Vollrath family has pork in the freezer in many forms to be enjoyed for many months to come and have enjoyed an enduring family event.
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2/18/11
Computer nightmares
When computers entered my life about 12 years ago I never imagined how they would take over my very existence. I was forced into learning how to use it, not only for my job, but also because my husband was really not interested in one at home and one of us had to know something about it. He does use a computer in his work, but believe me, that’s where it ends for him.
I enjoy my computer and my blackberry phone and don’t know how I would get along without them. (I can’t believe I said that!) When things go right, everything is smooth in my life, but when things go wrong, as they do frequently, I get way too wacko about it.
I have been fortunate to spend some time in south Florida during the winter for the last few years and so I work from my computer. Every year something goes wrong with my service when I try to startup in Florida. And there have been a variety of other problems — all bad.
This year was some of the worst. I signed up for yet another service trying to find one that would be compatible with me and my service in Marysville. A week went by before things were running smoothly. I started sending e-mails then thinking all was well. I was even wondering why I hadn’t tried this service before.
Then I discovered that 95 percent of all those I was sending e-mails to, including material for my column, were not receiving anything and I got no notice of it. I had no idea this was going on.
I contacted the local server I was using and after a short time they gave up, turning me over to my server which handles the Journal-Tribune. First, it was three hours on the phone with a technician, then another hour with my local server. That’s where it became weird.
The technician used something called “teamviewer” and he said, “This might freak you out!” I watched as he entered my computer from thousands of miles away and started moving cursors and adding programs to check for viruses to see what could be causing my communication problem. I watched for over 10 minutes while he installed and removed programs. This was truly the world of “big brother.”
He then left me to run virus programs and said I should get in touch with him the next day. No viruses were found and neither was the technician the next day. No one would call me back from that service. My e-mail problem still existed.
Frustrated to the end of my tolerance, I could feel my blood pressure rising, so I contacted the local company in Florida for the fourth time. Finally I got someone who knew what to do and through changing a few more settings (which took only 15 minutes) the problem was solved. After days of dealing with incompetent techs, it appeared most did not really care about little me in Florida.
If you have a computer, perhaps you’ve had a similar experience. It can make you want to swear off use of it forever!
Unfortunately, it’s a big part of my life because of my column and will be as long as I’m tied to this job.
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2/11/11
Holly and the Golf Channel
She was a golf superstar at Marysville High School graduating in 2005. She went on to Michigan State University and was a member of its golf team which won a Big Ten Championship in 2007. Now, after serving as a news reporter in Little Rock, Ark., she has found her dream job.
Holly Niederkohr moved to Orlando in late December and started work for the Golf Channel. There, she is known as Holly Sonders. Her show, “Morning Drive,” is in just its sixth week and airs weekdays from 7-9 a.m. That fact means very early rising for Holly. Her day begins at 1:30 a.m. She leaves the house an hour and a half later, at 3 a.m. I can’t even imagine doing that.
According to Holly, here is how her day starts: “My producer and I write my scripts from 3-4 a.m. The call for the entire crew is at 4 a.m. I go into makeup from 4:45-5:30 and head into the studio for pre-taping, or whatever needs to be done. The show starts at 7 a.m.”
She continued: “My two co-hosts, Erik Kuselias and Gary Williams, are veterans in the business. Erik worked at ESPN and Gary was with Sirius XM. They moved down from New Jersey and Connecticut, so they came a long way for the job as well. They are two of my best friends and help me out tremendously. The opportunity to work with them is incredible and I learn something every single day.”
Holly also has several friends in the area of Winter Park who played collegiate golf at the same time as her, and are in Florida working on their games to turn pro.
This show is the first of its kind at the Golf Channel. The network has never before had a morning show.
Holly says: “Of course the job is stressful, and we all want the show to succeed, but I couldn’t ask to have any more fun at my job. Working for a network is something that literally one in a million people have the chance to do, and to have this opportunity at such a young age is truly unbelievable. My golf background makes this job a perfect fit for me and while my role is small on the show, it will expand as I grow and improve.”
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Just a pinch
Marysville resident Karen Worstell is featured sharing her Pumpkin Fluff recipe with thousands of other hometown cooks at Just A Pinch Recipe Club, the new online community created for and by cooks in hometown America at www.justapinch.com.
Karen is one of several area residents participating in the club, billed as “America’s Greatest Recipe Swap.” Members can post family recipes and search, print, chat about and try recipes submitted by other members.
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Winter poem
A friend sent this to me and I thought it seemed quite appropriate for the current winter season:
It’s winter in Ohio
and the gentle breezes blow
seventy miles an hour
at thirty-five below.

Oh, how I love Ohio
when the snow’s up to your butt.
You take a breath of winter
and your nose gets frozen shut.

Yes, the weather here is wonderful.
so I guess I’ll hang around.
I could never leave Ohio
cuz I’m frozen to the ground.
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2/4/11
Don Degood remembers
Don Degood is a true “Marysville boy.” He grew up here, went to Marysville High School and has spent most of his life in this town. Recently he shared some of his memories with me of post-WWII in the “ville.”
Don related: “I graduated from MHS with the class of 1947. Next I was hired by a store that was located in the spot where Tom McCarthy’s financial office is today. The store was Cussins and Fearn. It had an old straight body, five-speed delivery truck. One day the manager, Dale Brown, asked if I would like to be the   store truck driver. I said I would, but told him that I didn’t know how to drive. So, he had somebody teach me. Then I had to take a test. I learned to double clutch before I singled clutched.”
“I bought my first car, an old Pontiac, for $125 from Fred Zell, who sold cars at H.I. Huffman’s. It had belonged to my brother-in-law. As I recall, it was in 1949 and I made $27.50 a week. Only five people in my class had access to a car. Most of us started driving soon after graduation.”
Don also reminded me of a name from the past. It was King Car Sutton who was an automobile dealer in Columbus. I remember that he was a very colorful character and Don told me he had the distinction of having a Tucker car agency. It was a new innovation, very fancy for its time. There were only 51 made at a price of $2,450 — a lot of money for those times. The company went out of business a year later.
Don continued: “King Car even had a branch agency in Marysville in 1948 or 1949 (and perhaps later). His local manager was Cliff Blue. Their car lot was at the corner of Elwood and N. Maple. The building no longer stands. It had been a grocery/gas station owned by John Merritt. Cliff borrowed King Car’s Tucker car and had it at the Union County Fair. I forget how many orders Cliff said he had for future delivery. I remember seeing the Tucker up close at the fair. I would have loved to buy one. The problem was money.”
“John Merit had an ice cream machine in his store, which he used to make the greatest banana ice cream. It was sold in half pint cartons. More than once I bought a half pint after football practice at the fairgrounds (inside the race track). We walked home.”
Don’s memories then moved to the Korean War years. “Sixty years ago, Jan. 30, 1951, 18 of us young men had passed our physicals for induction into the armed forces, which mostly meant the Army. I can now remember 12 of the 18. John W. Keirns, Dean Schiederer, Doug Beaseacker, Claude Scharf and myself were all from the MHS class of 1947. Richard Pfarr was class of 1948. The others were Fred Gregg, Joe Mosely, Maynard McCloud, Howard Fickle, Francis Hall and Bob Comer. I can’t remember the other six — sorry about that.”
“We all returned from our service. Fred Gregg earned 10 medals including our country’s third highest, a Silver Star. Several have Purple Hearts, and Combat Infantry badges. Some historians have said we draftees did not want to serve, and that is why we were drafted. Not true. None of us went to Canada, none of us burned our draft cards and none of us were involved in protests. My reason for waiting to be drafted was simple — I thought it more mannerly to be invited to the party instead of crashing it by enlisting. The real reason was timing. To enlist required a full four-year commitment for the Navy and Air Force. The Army wanted a three-year enlistment. The draft was for 21 months, later extended to 24. So you could go for two years and be done.”
“On the day we left for boot camp, the bus met us at the corner of Fifth and Court Streets. That morning I walked to town with my dad. I kissed and hugged mom at home and told her to stay there because I didn’t want a bunch of bawling. At my father’s barber shop, I met G.L. Kingsmore who was the head of the draft board. I had known him since I was a little kid. He said he would walk me to the bus. This is what young men were thinking 60 years ago. It was a different world.”
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1/28/11
Kylie Daniel,  future traveling nurse
She’s a senior at Otterbein College in Westerville and her major is nursing. Kylie Daniel (Fairbanks High School class of ‘07) just returned from a trip to England and France with 16 other Otterbein College nursing students as part of a senior year experience. She obviously likes to stay busy in college as a cheerleader, vice president of her sorority and softball player. In her spare time, she works at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in the neonatal ICU unit as a patient care assistant.
Her recent trip to Europe involved not only enjoying the culture and usual tourist spots, but also learning how health care works there. While staying in Stratford, England, the future nurses were able to accompany a community nurse to see how their day goes. They work out of a local hospital and go to homes to care for individuals who have recently left the hospital. Some need dressing changes or wound care and others need their insulin shots or daily health checks.
Kylie said: “There aren’t really ‘nursing homes’ as we think of them. They are similar, but minus the full time nursing staff. In the UK they do have universal health care (National Health Services or NHS) and with that they try to get you in and out of the hospital as soon as possible to avoid infection and crowding as I was told from the patients and nurses I met.”
The group also visited a monument to Florence Nightingale — the Lady with the Lamp, as she became known. About her, Kylie reported: “Nursing wasn’t held to a high standard in England in her day (1820-1910). She eventually became a nurse during the Crimean War and got the name, the Lady with the Lamp, because at night she would walk the ward and tend to the patients while carrying a lamp. She also was one who changed the hospital conditions to be more sanitary during the war. When she came back to England she was the one who really changed how nursing was done, taught, and received. We were able to visit her home, as well as her museum in London and her gravesite.”
Kylie continued: “Compared to our idea of a nurse, it is very different over there. In the U.S., the profession is held to a higher standard. We are paid double what they get there, and we wear scrubs and they wear what looks like kind of an oxford shirt. The unit we visited was the Cardiac ICU and the patients were side by side, no private rooms, and one nurse would care for four to six patients a shift.”
During the last part of the trip, the students took the EuroStar under the English Channel and visited Paris for a day.
Kylie is back at school and will be a fifth-year senior. When she graduates, job hunting could be tough. She tells me that for every job there are 250 applicants, but her current job at Children’s Hospital may give her an “in” when she is ready.
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1/21/11
The Cotters of Switzerland III
Lisa and Sean Cotter (MHS class of ’84) are having a good time. They have been sharing their experiences in Switzerland with me. This is part three. You can read one and two at Marysvillejt.com. Click on Off the Hook and then on archives.
Sean has been sent to Switzerland (the size of Vermont and New Hampshire combined) to work for the Nestle Co. He and his wife have two daughters, Anna and Erin, who are with them. It has been an adjustment for them in many ways. The grocery stores offer food in smaller packages than in the U.S. at much higher prices. Eating out is extremely expensive, so many changes to their lifestyle have been made.
All in all, the tradeoffs have been worth it since the country is so beautiful and this is a life changing experience. They live in a small apartment (1,000 sq.ft.), and it is one of the larger ones. About 80 percent of the Swiss are apartment dwellers, too.
They said, “Everything is small — refrigerators, ovens (it was hard to get the turkey in at Thanksgiving), cars, parking places, food packages, personal space ... and it all costs twice as much. There is no such thing as free parking or free refills of drinks. There is no free water (you buy it by the bottle at $3.40 each), even with your dinner, and no drinking
fountains.”
Everything is environmentally friendly. Trash must be in prepaid trash bags or paid for separately at the city building (they give you a sticker for your large items) or you will be fined. There is also a fine for talking on your cell phone while in the car. It is 1,000 CHF — the Swiss dollar which exchanges almost evenly with the U.S. dollar.
The Cotters feel that the Swiss people are not what we, as Americans, would call friendly. Lisa noted: “They are not inviting us over for dinner, but they are very polite and have impeccable manners. I am always spoken to on the street with the traditional Swiss “greutsa.” The Swiss will always speak English to me if they know it. Most people in our small town do not speak English, but in Berne (the largest city close to them), many do.”
The Cotters don’t drive their car often. The preferred methods of transportation are walking, by bicycle or motorcycle, or the train. Anna and Erin ride the train every day to school just 12 minutes and four stops. They attend the International School of Berne, which has over 40 nationalities.
Travel on the train alone is considered very safe. Lisa feels Berne is probably the safest city in the world she has ever been in, and it is a really great growth experience for her daughters. They can be independent yet in a safe environment.
It’s a time of adjustment and great travel experiences in Europe and Africa for the Cotter family. I hope to have more from them in the future.
Merriman is a partner
Mark Merriman (MHS Class of '88) moved to New York City shortly after graduating from college. In high school, he was a performer and in many areas including acting, singing and dancing. In NYC, he worked in the theater industry and then earned his law degree. Now he has been made a partner of the law firm of Frankfurt, Kernit, Klein and Selz. Mark practices in all aspects of entertainment law by representing playwrights, composers and lyricists. This allows him to keep his hand in the industry he loves.
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1/14/11
The Cotters of Switzerland II
Lisa and Sean Cotter (MHS class of ’84) and their daughters, Anna and Erin, are in the midst of a big adventure. This is part II. You can read the first installment at Marysvillejt.com. Click on Off the Hook and then on archives.
Sean is working for Nestle and they live in a small town outside of Berne, Switzerland, in the German sector. They described the town as a small farm town, similar to Marysville, but smaller. There is one of everything — restaurant, bar, grocery (actually two of them), train station, clothing store, hardware store, bakery and bank.
The Swiss people are family oriented and very physical. They enjoy hiking, bike riding, skiing and walking. Consequently, they are very thin. Outdoor activities are important to them. Every weekend, you will see whole families enjoying a picnic on a mountainside (yes, they walk all the way) or riding bikes together. A nine-mile walk or a 20-mile bike ride with the family is common.
The Cotters said as far as food is concerned, the biggest aisles in the grocery store are the ones stocked with dairy and bread products. All bread is fresh and baked daily. Folks come to the store often with their baskets buying bread and fruit. Every little town has a bakery with breads and pastries.
Lisa said: “It is so embarrassing when I do the weekly shopping and I am the only one in the store with a full cart. It’s like having a post-it note on my forehead that says ‘American.’ We have to bring our own bags and do our own bagging. It took me months to remember mine. Consequently I had to purchase 4-5 bags every week for .80 rappen each (cents). I have plenty now.”
In the grocery, the huge amount of dairy products are all labeled in German. Lisa said that cheese and yogurt based products that she can’t read or recognize fill the longest aisle in the market. There are hundreds of varieties from different regions in Switzerland. Grocery stores close at 6 p.m. and all day Sunday.
Most women stay home. Swiss children come home for lunch every day, and so women stay home to cook for them. Switzerland is apparently not very progressive when it comes to women’s rights. In fact, they just got the right to vote in 1971!
The Cotters can’t say enough about how beautiful the country is, but the cost of living is high. A dinner out for a family of four is about $180. Many prices in the grocery are double or triple ours and the sizes are smaller. A rotisserie chicken is $18 and one stick of butter is $3.15, for example.
Next week we'll have more from the Cotters including their daughter's school experiences.
Quality doctors in Marysville
 Marysville has always been blessed with many great physicians to care for us and now four have been honored by “Best Doctors,” a group which seeks to do peer review. They ask the question “If you or a family member needed a physician, who would you choose?” In answer to this question four of the doctors practicing full time in Marysville were  chosen for the list, which includes Central Ohio doctors.
Dr. Mary Applegate, Dr. Justin Krueger, Dr. Charlotte Agnone and Dr. Dave Applegate have been honored with the designation as some of the best doctors in Central Ohio in their respective specialties. Sometimes local residents feel they have to go out of the area to get excellent care and yet conveniently it is right here in  many specialties. We are pleased to pass on this information, which once more reinforces the excellence of the physicians who care for us in Union County.
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1/7/11
Three guys and a shop
 The three men who work in one local barbershop have a warm camaraderie built over more than 30 years together. It is Roger Schilling’s place and he’s been there since 1970. His fellow barbers include Rusty Arnold (MHS class of ’79) and Bill Coughenour (FHS class of ’63).
 Roger graduated from Marysville High School in 1966 and went to work for Gene Phipps in the shop at Stocksdale Plaza in 1970. Bill joined him in 1973 and Rusty was added in 1981. Even as a high school student, Rusty would hang out at the shop just to talk with the guys.
 That was the beginning of this business, which offers its clients a good haircut, plus lots of laughter and general conversation. Roger says that includes sports, politics and even religion. If the conversation becomes hostile the three barbers are all set to change the subject.
 There have also been what they call, incidents. One notable event involved Bill, who Roger says is probably the oldest barber in Union County. It seems the barbers were watching ladies go by the shop and one young lady was followed by an older one. As they passed the door, Bill whistled at the young one. The younger lady kept going and the older one stopped. She thought he meant her.
 After that, this lady was very anxious to spend more time with Bill. He eventually had a very interesting date with her and actually things didn’t go so well, apparently. The next day the door to the barbershop opened and she hurled a sack full of things he had left at her place the night before. As the package came toward him through the air and across the floor, everyone ducked. This got the attention of both customers and barbers. It was the talk of the shop for some time to come.
 Roger says they’ve been through a lot together, including four divorces, which he quickly adds were not his. He’s been married to Roberta for 42 years and he likes it that way.
 Bill points out that he does very well with women as long as he’s not married to them. He has other credits to his name including that all three customers who have passed out in the shop, did so in his chair.
 Both Roger and Bill have had important roles in local veterans organizations. Roger is past commander of both Raymond VFW 9909 and Marysville’s American Legion Post No.  79, and Bill is past commander of legion post 79. Roger was also a Marysville volunteer fireman several years ago.
 Although Rusty was rather quiet during the interview, I understand he isn’t that way when he’s cutting someone’s hair.
 The three barbers grew up and have lived their lives in Union County. Thus, knowing everyone who walks in the door is just what they expect. In fact, some of their customers have been coming into the shop for 40 years.
 Lately things have changed. Now strangers have begun coming through the door, which is one more sign of our growing community.
 In the 1980s, they gave perms and also colored hair, but those days are over. Also, barbers are now asked to refrain from shaving anyone, so that service is gone, too.
 Some problems have arisen with extreme haircuts like a Mohawk. You can imagine a son leaving home with hair and returning with just a big bunch down the middle of his head. There have been complaints from mothers over that.
 Roger has no intention of retiring. He has been at his occupation for 40 years and has even recently added a train that runs all around the room near the ceiling. He said he can count on one hand the number of times he didn’t want to come to work. They always have a good time.
 Bill usually has a good story to tell a customer, so they call him the fabricator. Each time the story is told it changes a little depending on who is in the shop and how much he wants to embellish it.
 This is a happy place and one where Roger says that sometimes he’s laughed so hard he cried and couldn’t work for a few moments. How nice to have a fun place to go every day.

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