Off the Hook Archive
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2010 |
Off
the Hook - Archive 2010
by Melanie
Behrens
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8/27/10 |
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8/27/10
The tennis event
Tennis is a great sport and I have been playing for more
than 35 years. Unlike golf, when I step onto the court I am pretty sure
what is going to happen. You may remember I wrote about golf last week and
all its uncertainties. Tennis is a good workout in a short period of
time. I now have many more aches and pains, but I love it.
Last week, the
USTA event for men was at Kings Island and a group of my tennis friends
invited me to go along for a day trip. It actually ended well, but we had a
very rough start.
Because of the series of events, some of my friends only
wanted me to use their first names (just look at the picture for full
disclosure on the names).
We met at Janet’s house. Janet has some street
parking changes in front of her house involving tickets, so we decided to
park in her driveway. There were five of us including Janet and Lynn and
Nell who pulled into her driveway on one side. Then she realized we needed
to be on the other side, so all the cars were moved and my car was
squeezed in. It was a 10 minute event jockeying the cars and we were on
what we thought was a fairly tight schedule. There was lots of laughing at
the ridiculous situation.
We were waiting for Mary to pick us up. She hadn’t
stopped to get gas first because she didn’t want to hold up the trip, but
she needed gas to get to Kings Island. We’ll deal with that in a
moment.
Janet bought the tickets and they were on her credit card. To pick
them up she was going to need her driver’s license and credit card. As
we finally drove away, just about one mile from her house, Janet discovered
that she had neither of those items. So we went back to Janet’s house to
try and retrieve them from some pocket or purse or cooler where she may
have left them. It seems Janet doesn’t carry a purse. The group had a
suggestion for her at this point — you need to carry a purse, Janet.
She
searched all of those places, but couldn’t find them. Janet grabbed her
social security card and other credit cards, hoping they would work (it
did) and we were on our way about an half hour late!
We only made it to
Milford Center where we had to stop for gas. I wondered why we were on Rt.
4, because I always use Rt. 38 to go to Cincinnati. I decided to be quiet
because I was only a passenger.
Others in the car noticed it too and soon
we were looking for a cut over to Rt. 38. What do women do who don’t have a
GPS? They call husbands (they are good for some things). It took two of
them to get the info we needed and soon we were headed south on
I-71.
About 10 minutes from our destination, we came to a stop and traffic
was backed up for at least 10 miles. We crept along for 25 minutes (now
we are an hour late). Finally we passed this tiny area of construction
where, can you believe, nothing was going on, and made our way to the
tennis tournament at Kings Island.
We found our seats, which were under a
nice canopy, and were headed down the row when a woman in front of me said
“Stop, Stop.” I looked
down to see that the fanny pack I have on in front
of me has caught the girl’s hair in the zipper pull and it is about 5
minutes of wailing and turning to try and get her hair out of that zipper.
Everyone behind is saying, “Sit down, we can’t see.”
I said, “Can you
believe this?” Mary answered, “It fits with the day we’ve had
already!”It was hot, but we were able to watch number one seed Rafael Nadal
play and finally win after dropping the first set to his French
opponent.
As we started our trek home in the evening, we wondered what
was in store for us. The answer is — nothing out of the ordinary! And we were happy about that. It was a great day, one with many laughs and
lots of good memories.
–––
Interesting fact: The current month of
August has five Sundays, five Mondays and five Tuesdays. This only occurs
once every 823 years!
–––
If you missed last week’s golf column, just go
to marysvillejt.com click on Off the Hook, then on archives.
(Melanie
Behrens - melb@imetweb.net)
8/20/10
Thoughts on golf
Now that it’s late summer, I guess I have to consider the
golf season in its final days. There are some times in the fall when the
weather is very pleasant, but I know that the rainy season is coming and
that means no more golf for me this year. I’ve come to love this crazy sport over the 30 years I’ve been playing.
Believe me, it started out as
a hate relationship (and that feeling sometimes returns). The game was much
too hard and I thought there
were just way too many things to remember —
keep your head down, keep your arm straight, move your body at the right
time and don’t forget to follow through correctly.
Enough whining. I’ve
picked up on some of this sport and now can be considered a respectable
player. Mind you, that doesn’t mean good ... just respectable.
As I
watched the pros play last week at the final major tournament on the PGA
circuit, I was awed by their skill and it also reminded me how much your
mental health is involved in the play of the game. Oh, maybe that’s my
problem.
The best example of that is Tiger Woods. I no longer care what he does. For obvious reasons, he has lost my attention, but the sportscasters continue to hang on his every move.
Golf is tough, and very
unforgiving. I play as much for the social aspect as for the conquering of
the course, and consider it important
to have three other people with me
for those four hours to enjoy the day. Lunch or dinner following the event
is also a must.
The girls I play with have developed a few sayings just to
keep our sense of humor about this frustrating game. For instance — long
drive meanith not if you screw up the second shot. I may have cleaned that up a little bit for you.
Then there’s also the dreaded PPSU — post par
screw up. That would be a double bogey on the next hole.
If you don’t
play golf you might not have a feel for what I’m saying, but if you do, I
know you’re with me. Some of my friends have recently shared some thoughts
about the game and I want to pass them on to you.
Best comments by
caddies
Golfer: “I think I’m going to drown myself in the lake.”
Caddy:
“Think you can keep your head down that long?”
Golfer: “I’d move heaven and
earth to break 100 on this course.”
Caddy: “Try heaven, you’ve already moved
most of the earth.”
Golfer: “Do you think my game is improving?”
Caddy:
“Yes sir, you miss the ball much closer now.”
Golfer: “Do you think I can get
there with a 5 iron?”
Caddy: “Eventually.”
Golfer: “How do you like my
game?”
Caddy: “Very good, sir, but personally, I prefer golf.”
Only
golfers will understand the following:
Don’t buy a putter until you’ve had a
chance to throw it.
Never try to keep more than 300 separate thoughts in your
mind during your swing.
The less skilled the player, the more likely he
is to share his ideas about the golf swing.
No matter how bad you are
playing, it is always possible to play worse.
Everyone replaces his divot
after a perfect approach shot.
It is surprisingly easy to hole a 30 foot putt
for a 10.
Nonchalant putts count the same as chalant putts. It’s not a gimme
if you’re still away.
You can hit a two-acre fairway 10 percent of the
time and a two-inch branch 90 percent of the time.
Since bad shots come
in groups of three, a fourth bad shot is
actually the beginning of the next
group of three.
Every time a golfer makes a birdie, he must subsequently make
two double bogeys to restore the fundamental equilibrium of the universe. (That’s where that PPSU comes in!)
If there is a ball on the fringe and a
ball in the bunker, your ball is in the bunker. If both balls are in the
bunker, yours is in the footprint.
A good drive on the 18th hole has
stopped many a golfer from giving up the game.
If your opponent has
trouble remembering whether he shot a six or a seven, he probably shot an
eight (or worse).
(Melanie Behrens - melb@imetweb.net)
8/13/10
Zimmerman takes on “Emperor”
Jarrod Zimmerman (MHS class of ‘05) now lives in
Chicago since his
graduation from Northwestern University. He works as a
web designer
(his own company) to pay his major bills, and also as an
actor,
probably his first love.
Now he has a new role to fill, that of
the Emperor’s undersecretary
in The Chicago Shakespeare Theater production
of “The Emperor’s New
Clothes.” This is a musical family oriented version
of the Hans
Christian Andersen story. It is obviously a departure from
Shakespeare for this cast.
The theater is located on the Navy Pier along
Chicago’s waterfront
portion of Lake Michigan. It’s a lovely setting and
perfect for this
theater group. Performances run through Aug. 29,
2010.
With eight shows a week and a full time job, Jarrod has little time
for anything else. But that’s OK with him. He says a theatrical
career
is his main focus and he even has an agent to keep his name
out
there.
He has a TV series (”Boyfred”) in the works, which he and several
friends have pitched to a network, which, in turn, has assigned a
writer to work with them in order to get the pilot ready. All that’s
left then will be to get acceptance for 2011 season.
If you plan on being
in Chicago before the end of the month, tickets
for the play can be
obtained from the website at, www.chicagoshakes.com.
Richwood
business gets boost
It is a big boost to a Union County business under new
ownership.
Melisa Conley Robbins (North Union HS class of ‘86) recently
acquired
her father’s western hat business. Her dad, Lionel, called it
Conley
Hats, but she calls it C & R Leather and Hats. She has a new
very
important client in country singer, Cowboy Troy, formerly part of Big
and Rich. He has hired Melisa to produce his full line of signature
hats, which will eventually be for sale on his website.
She’s thrilled to
have this boost for her business, and it came
directly from Cowboy Troy.
You see, even though her business is in
Richwood, it does not have a
storefront. Sales are made through
country-western festivals. I had trouble
locating her for this story
because there is no listed phone number, but
since her father has
been in this business since the 1970s, her family is
well known to
country performers. They have her number, so to
speak.
Melisa previously worked for the Union County Sheriff’s office and
had to retire because of serious health problems. Now she says she is
feeling well and with extra support from her brother, Steve Conley
(Fairbanks Athletic Director and Marysville Parks and Recreation
Supt.), she’s ready to make this business grow big!
(Melanie Behrens - melb@imetweb.net)
8/6/10
Ken Denman — going across the pond
Last week I told you about the very
talented Ken Denman, who has had varied interests in his life including
computers, serving as a commander in the U.S. Navy and being a commercial
instructor pilot. If you missed it, go to marysvillejt.com, click on Off
the Hook, and then on archives.
Ken is a local guy who grew up in
northern Union County. He went off to the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War
and after that earned a college degree in computer science which he used at
O.M. Scott & Sons until he retired in 2005. One year later, after
nearly 40 years of service, he also retired from the Naval Reserves.
As
he said, “I always had a backup job.” During his time in Washington, D.C.
he fell in love with flying and learned to be a
pilot and now is an
instructor pilot.This brings us to Ken’s interest in the Union County
Airport, where he serves as president of the Airport Authority. It’s a
volunteer job and he does it for the love of flying. Ken has logged over
3,000 hours in the air and has served as an instructor.He recently
purchased a helicopter which he has to learn to fly, and that needs to be
done in Phoenix. When the weather cools that’s his destination, I
suspect.
At the airport in 1993, he met a British gentleman who just wanted
to learn to fly. Ken served as his instructor and the man actually
purchased a single engine, six passenger plane, which he wanted to fly
home to England. He asked Ken to join him and that would be a true test of
their flying ability. The plane was equipped with special gas tanks to fly
16 hours with just two people on board. They spent a total of 33 hours in
the air with several stops.
First, they flew from Maine to Labrador, then on
to Greenland, then Iceland, and finally Scotland, with their longest flying
time being to Scotland at about 6 1/2 hours.
I asked him if he was
afraid to be out over open water with a single engine plane. He said, “Once
you get out that far, you can’t return, so you just forgot about it.”
As
a precautionary measure, they did take survival suits for the cold water of
the North Atlantic, but fortunately that never came into play and seven
days after leaving they arrived in Scotland. That was 17 years ago and the
men were in their forties. They have maintained a wonderful friendship and
you can imagine the bond that you would have after that adventure.
Ken
is excited about the additions at the local airport and one is the new
grass runway which is 2,600 feet long by 80 feet wide. The dirt was donated
from the sewer plant project, and Scotts helped with special new seed and
fertilizer for the area. Ken told me that it’s much safer for a tail-wheel
airplane to land on a grass strip and pilots are grateful for it.
Since
it’s probably not possible to have a runway long enough for jets, he said
the Airport Authority has decided to just make ours the best small airport
in the area.Ken’s other passion these days is serving as task force leader
for the local “ride for kids,” which helps fund research and aid for
families who have children with brain tumors.
It was started by Honda,
and for each $300 raised as a pledge for their ride, each donor receives
one ticket for a drawing to win a motorcycle. Ken originally joined with
the hope of winnig a motorcycle, but he didn’t do that for several years.
Over the last 19 he has won two.He also has been taken with the wonderful
fund raising event for these children. This year his team (he and his wife,
Carol) was able to raise over $10,000. He has donated the motorcycles he
won back to the cause, selling raffle tickets for that also.As you can
see Ken Denman is an interested and interesting person. He has a lot to
give and shares his time and talents with Union County.
We thank him for
his efforts.
(Melanie Behrens - melb@imetweb.net)
7/30/10
Pilot, naval officer, fundraiser
There’s so much to say about this guy. He’s
a retired Navy commander, an instructor pilot and president of the Union
County Airport Authority, and he just finished the huge fundraising event
which was the “Ride for kids” in association with the recent Bike
Fest.
Ken Denman grew up in northern Union County and graduated from
Byhalia High School in 1964. His home was on a chicken farm and he
worked hard there describing himself as “dirty all the time.”
So at 20
years old he knew when he joined the U.S. Navy he was looking for a clean
desk job. The year was 1966 and after boot camp he began his training which
would lead him to many years working in Naval Intelligence.
These were
the Vietnam War years and Ken decided that the Navy was probably the safest
place to be with the same bed every night even though during his whole
career on active duty and reserves he only spent a short time on a ship. He
joined before he could be drafted.
His time on active duty with Naval
Intelligence involved interpreting movement of the enemy from aerial photos
and later providing intelligence and charts to aircraft carriers as they
set sail for the battle zone. All this was done in the Washington, D.C.
area where he also attended the University of Virginia night school in
computer training.
After four years in the Navy, he was released and
used his computer training at a bank in Norfolk, Va., as the systems
officer. During this time he also fell in love with flying and became a
pilot.
His family knew Ken would like to get back to central Ohio and when a computer related job opened up at O.M. Scott & Sons, his mother, who worked there, called and told him to apply. At that time, Scotts would
hire multiple members of families (Ken’s sister worked there, also). He
stayed there for 28 years until he took early retirement in 2004 because
Scotts outsourced his department of 30 people to India.
All this time Ken
remained in the active Naval Reserves still in the intelligence field, and
after 9/11, his unit was recalled to the Washington, D.C. area where he
worked for the office of Naval ntelligence. His job was to serve as a
go-between for NCIS and the CIA to share information vital to our country’s
safety.
His concern at that time was how the intelligence community was guarding our nation’s capital. They were worried about all the little planes breaking the circle they had created around Washington, D.C., but Ken saw the main problem as controlling airliners which could really do damage and were still using that concentrated area. He did go
home at night, however, feeling the U.S. had a handle on the world and the
scary terrorist situation of those days was being monitored. He said he
could leave all the barrage of “intel” at work.
Next week I will write about
Ken Denman, instructor pilot, who flew a single engine “across the
pond.”
(Melanie Behrens - melb@imetweb.net)
7/23/10
The wedding, the movie, the heat
The occasion for our recent trip to downtown
Chicago was a family
wedding. My niece, Kelly, and Brian are a very
attractive couple and
this was a most anticipated event. Downtown Chicago
in July can be
hot, but this was brutal. The tall buildings and concrete
hold the
heat and humidity to its highest level.
Kelly’s father asked
her to reconsider being married in July in the
large, downtown,
unairconditioned cathedral, but she won out. Her
thoughts were that it
could be cool that day — that’s Kelly.
On the wedding day, temperatures
reached the mid 90s (much hotter
inside the church) and we all had hand
fans moving quickly as we
watched the lovely ceremony. Soon Kelly and Brian
were married and we
all gratefully moved outside to some fresh air and a
slight breeze.
At the reception, the cocktail party before dinner at the
historic
Newberry Library brings me to a discussion of manners, which, at
these sorts of events, seem to go out the window for some people.
It
appeared that no one had eaten in days and a quest was on for
canapés being
passed around. They arrived at one end of the room and
were gone by the
time the server moved to the far area, so guests
gravitated to the entry to
get the best selection. That’s OK, but I
saw one person take three shrimp
off a tray, eat them quickly and put
the toothpicks right back on that tray
which was still holding food
to be served. Ugh! This is all from people who
looked like they
should’ve known better.
Still in the manners category,
I also observed a man at dinner who
announced he wasn’t interested in the
bride and groom and was just
there to eat and drink. Some people might
think that, but not say it.
During family toasts he left the room quickly,
saying he wasn’t going
to sit through that part. He was, after all, getting
a free dinner. I
was tempted to help him brush up on his manners! I suppose
he might
try to chalk up his actions to the heat, which was increasing as
we
danced in a room with 200 people.
Not only was this a special weekend
for the bride and groom, but also
for downtown Chicago. A reported $20
million was plugged into their
economy as Shia Le Beouf and Josh Duhamel
came to town to film
“Transformers 3.” At the time I didn’t even know there
was a
Transformers 1 and 2. The heart of the Magnificent Mile on Michigan
Ave. was shut down for four days — almost six blocks right in front
of
our hotel.
Filming went on virtually 24 hours a day. There were car wrecks,
explosions and men parachuting onto the raised drawbridge. Shia was
riding up and down Michigan Ave. on his bike during his free time
gladly signing autographs for fans. All this was pretty exciting for
us
since we rarely see a movie being filmed.
The searing heat continued as we
packed into the El like cattle in a
car to see the Cubs play the Phillies.
It was another long hot event
with the Cubs losing their lead and giving
the total game away in the
ninth inning. I thanked our ticket buyer many
times for the seats
which were under cover. At least the blazing sun was
not on us during
the game.
Chicago has a lot to offer for visitors and
we took advantage of only
a few things. Of course you may know there is
also major shopping
available.
It was a varied and interesting weekend,
and did I mention it was
really hot?
(Melanie Behrens - melb@imetweb.net)
7/16/10
Muskingum students visit China
He is a 2008 graduate of Marysville High
School and currently a political science major (administrative or
international politics) at Muskingum University, and now can call himself
an international traveler with his recent return from China.
Brandon
Creagan spent about 12 days in China with a group of other Muskingum
students this summer seeing the country and earning college credits. He
said that temperatures ranged in the mid seventies and some of the food
could be considered exotic. They dined on Peking duck, but breakfast
consisted of cooked vegetables, rice, cooked fruits and meat that Brandon
said didn’t taste like meat at all. I wonder what that really was?
There
was, however, some toast available. He said the saving grace was that, if
necessary, a McDonald’s was located about every five blocks in most cities
and there was even 24-hour delivery service.He also loved the night markets
where good food was plentiful and inexpensive. His favorite, meat on a
stick, cost the equivalent of 1 cent and chicken or fish was about 3 cents.
I have to say that if I were there, I might be wondering what the meat
source really was.
The students spent time in Shanghai, where they saw the
World’s Fair, and then went on to Qingdao, a city famous for beer, the only
beer that meets U.S. import standards. The brewery also owns part of the
Cleveland Cavaliers. Stops were also made in other cities including
Dalian and the capital city, Beijing.
In some places, Chinese people
spoke English, and in others they had no idea what was being said.
Thankfully, when ordering at McDonald’s, there was a menu to point to the
item you wanted. Brandon felt Chinese people were very pushy and always
seemed in a hurry.
He explained, “Whenever they were at an attraction or on
the street they would push and shove you so they could get where they were
going.” At first he thought it was rude to push them back, but after a
while he learned that it’s part of the culture and it was OK to do his own
pushing.
He also thinks they do not have our concept of personal space, and
literally get in your face when talking to you, which can make
Americans feel uncomfortable. In addition, Brandon noted that there are
really no traffic laws in China. There are traffic lights, but everybody
runs them no matter what direction they are coming from.
Maybe the lights
are at times difficult to see because of smog in all the cities which
Brandon said was so bad that you could hardly see the sun.
The group of
14 students and two professors traveled from city to city by train and
boat. Traveling first class was cheap and necessary by our standards
because trips were as long as 19 hours on a train. Berths had a bed, but in
second class you got a chair, much like an airplane. In third class one
could sit in a chair that was made of plastic and fourth class had a bench
with no back on it.
Now that Brandon is home, he has to turn in a little
writing and photography to receive his college credits. This is a really
busy summer for him because he also works as an intern directly for Gov.
Ted Strickland in his statehouse office.
You can see that Brandon is
already working on his exposure to politics. We might even see his name on
a ballot sometime in the future.
(Melanie Behrens - melb@imetweb.net)
7/9/10
The house that Frank built?
When I first came to Marysville more than 40
years ago I remember riding by the large, dark brown home located on about
2 1/2 acres on the northwest corner of Maple and Fourth streets. I was told
right away that it was the Scott House owned by O.M. Scott & Sons Co.,
used to house their visitors and hold special meetings. I was also told
that the home was designed by internationally known architect Frank
Lloyd Wright. I actually knew very little of the history of the house
at that time.
Recently I’ve had the chance to talk with Fred and Helen
Ahlborn, who are the present owners and also with Carl Coe whose relative
and arysville native, Almer Coe, contracted to build the house in 1910.
This past winter I did a three-part story about the Coes. (To read, go
to Marysvillejt.com, click on Off the Hook and then on archives.)
The design
of the house is typical of Frank Lloyd Wright and the Ahlborns have some
evidence that he was actually in Marysville supervising the finish work of
the house. Almer Coe had the home built in 1910 (it was completed in about
1911-1912) for his mother-in- law, Mrs. Alfred (Lydia) Scott, probably a
distant relative of O.M. Scott. It also served as a summer home for he and
his wife. They lived in Oak Park, Ill., where Frank Lloyd Wright had his
main headquarters.
Over the years, there has been some speculation as to
whether Charles White, business associate of Wright and the supervising
architect, was using Wright’s design or his own. That may have come about
because Wright had quite a colorful life and because of the timing of
it.
Here is a bit about the famous architect: In 1909 Wright became
involved with the wife of an acquaintance and actually the two went off
to Europe for a year. They continued their dalliance for several years,
even after construction of his famous home, Taliesin, in Spring Green, Wis.
In 1914, there was a fire at Taliesin, and Wright’s girlfriend was
murdered. Following that and after many years of requests, his wife finally
gave him a divorce. The question about timing involves when Wright and his
lady friend returned the first time from Europe, where he lectured and
consulted.
It was late 1910 and that’s about when the Coe house
construction began. So the question is, did Wright return in time to have
designed this home or could he have even done it through the mail as he
did others, while he was in Europe?
Whether he actually designed the
home or not, it stands to be a representative of his technique and is now
nearly 100 years old. When you see the house you would never guess the age
because Wright’s designs were so ultramodern and square.
The Ahlborns
have been there for 20 years and have maintained the integrity of the
design in every change or repair they have made. Currently they’re working
on the kitchen, which when finished will have earned a large celebration.
Fortunately Fred is handy and knowledgeable in construction, so he is able
to do some of the work himself. In a house of this age, repair seems to be
an ongoing project.
Many from this area have sent the Ahlborns accounts of
the history of the house. One was from Lorry Irey, daughter of Dr. and Mrs.
Fred
Callaway, who owned the house from 1926 to the 1950s when Scotts
bought it. Lorry says the Callaways had a clay tennis court in the
yard, a huge garden for her mother and an orchard between the two.
The
family also added horse stalls in the garage, which are still there today.
She and her sisters mowed the entire 2 1/2 acres with a push mower and
their parents paid them 50 cents for the job.
Scotts bought the sprawling
home to use for business purposes and sold it in 1987 to the Kaufman
family, and then 20 years ago the
Ahlborns took on the responsibility of
caring for the beautiful home.
Helen has enjoyed entertaining there,
hosting parties for every group she’s been involved with, and sharing the
charm of this home. They are always looking for more history and welcome
anything Marysville natives might have.
(Melanie Behrens - melb@imetweb.net)
7/2/10
The Marysville pool
It was just a little over 40 years ago that my husband
and I moved to Marysville. I was new to the area and had much to learn
about Marysville (it was still a village at that time). Soon we had our
first child and it was summertime. In those days, many moms took their
children to the Marysville swimming pool.
I assume that is still a favorite
pastime of many women although I think more of them work now and during the
week are not able to enjoy the beautiful swimming pool that we have. I was
very sad to think that it might not open this summer had the tax levy not
passed, since I remember how much fun we had with our children there.
In
1970, the pool was old, to say the least. It had been built in 1936 as a
project of the WPA, a Depression era agency created to get people working
again.
The first swimming pool was constructed at a cost of $27,000. It was
hailed as “Lake Erie at your front door.” Admission prices in those
days were 30 cents for adults and 15 cents for children and a season
ticket was $10 for a family.
The entrance to the pool was on north side
of the property instead of on the west as it is today and visitors entered
in two different directions, one for men, the other for women. At that
time, the entry was right through the separate locker and rest rooms, so
everyone split up and traveled through a very old and sometimes smelly
place which always had “suspect” water on the floor. We were never quite
sure what we were walking through.
Just inside the entrance you could see
the baby pool, where I spent many years with my children. As the kids grew
up and could swim, the group of moms were all free to play cards or talk to
each other and it was definitely a social event to be there. When we came
home, the kids frequently took a nice long nap. Oh, those were the
days.The old pool left us with many memories, but in 1970, it was in need
of repairs in many spots.
The present swimming pool (built at the same
location in 1982) was a “state of the art” facility that cost about
$750,000 and was managed by Dick Smith at the opening. Weather hampered the
construction thus the opening wasn’t until early July. The ribbon cutting
was done by Margaret Mackan, the most loyal and longtime pool patron. The
skies were gloomy and there was a little rain, but admission was free to
all that first day. I remember the excitement in town to have this
impressive new pool.
Our son Kevin worked at the new pool for several
years as a lifeguard. That’s when the swimming team really flourished and
has continued to be a great sport for youngsters.
The swimming pool has
been a large part of the lives of many families in this area and I am so
grateful we are all able to continue to enjoy it.
(Melanie Behrens - melb@imetweb.net)
6/25/10
Two tornadoes and counting
It’s been a few weeks now and I’ve had time to
think about what happened. In the last 39 years, I have been through and
have been personally affected by two tornados. My bet would be, most
people have never even been through one of them.Earlier this month our
home was moderately damaged by a low level tornado (type 0) tearing through
our neighborhood in the middle of the night. It was fierce, frightening and
fast.
We were lucky. We only lost one giant tree, which went sideways
instead of straight into our house, and had only small structural damage to
our home. Others lost much more including their roofs.It was just
beginning to get light at sometime after 5 a.m., so at first we couldn’t
see the devastation to our yard, but 39 years ago it was a different story,
because the tornado occurred at about 7 p.m. The date was June 25, 1971 and
my husband Dan and I had an 18- month-old child, Mike. It was a very hot,
summer Friday evening and we had just left the Fireman’s Ice Cream Social.
That was an event we always looked forward to and our little son was able
to get close to a real fire truck that night for the first time.
As we
returned home the sky became increasingly black. In those days, weather
coverage on TV was not nearly as up to the minute as now and the community
warning signals were not in use as they are today. We thought it looked
very bad in the west as the lightning started to
flash and sent us into the
house.Then the wind came followed by heavy rain. In fact, the rain driven
by strong wind (the reason our insurance didn't pay) was pouring
through our windows and running down the walls. I started to be concerned that the front of the house might even be gone.
As we looked
out in what was still daylight, we saw that a huge 100- year-old tree across
the street had fallen on the road. This storm was serious and we didn’t
have a basement to hide in. Twigs and hail hit the house, and my son clung
to me tightly like a little monkey as
we looked for a safe place to
hide.
The storm lasted longer than the recent one and later we would learn
the tornado it created had sucked out the huge glass window of the
temporary headquarters of the Journal-Tribune on N. Main St. The J-T
was in the process of building the current newspaper plant at Fourth
and Main and was temporarily housed in a separate location.All of the
items in the front office of the building including
newspapers were all
over Main street. My husband, Dan, made his way through the storm, and with
help was able to patch up the building
and retrieve as much paperwork as
possible.
Eventually the National Guard arrived and closed off our town to
potential looters. Some guardsmen were stationed in front our house
on
Collins Ave. As I remember, they were there for several days in a very hot
and humid atmosphere.
There was no power for more than 24 hours, and in some
cases a few days. But remember that was 39 years ago. I also remember
phone
service was intermittent for awhile.
That storm destroyed
beautiful trees all over our town and it will take another 50 years to
replace the atmosphere that existed then.So, even though it was so long ago
it’s amazing that I can remember many details of that night which
devastated our town. Two tornadoes
in one lifetime is a lot and they say
things come in threes so that makes me think there may be another one in
our future. Let’s hope not.
(Melanie Behrens - melb@imetweb.net)
6/18/10
A bird on the head is ...
She has experienced and survived a lot even
before she came to this country in 1949. Janine Goertz who is 86 years old,
arrived as a war bride and settled into the Cleveland area because there were
jobs there. She had been born in France and spoke no English when she immigrated
to this country. Her children, Harvey and Viviane, are also both fluent in
French since it’s their mother's native language.
During World War II, Janine
lived under Nazi occupation for five years until the Americans, including her
husband, Vernon Goertz, liberated France. Janine became an American citizen
shortly after her arrival in the U.S.
The Goetz family has been in the
Marysville area since 1985, about the same time Harvey took a job at the Scotts
Co.
Vernon passed away in 1991 and since then, birds have been a tremendous
amount of company to Janine. She currently has two cockatiels, Carrie and Lulu.
Her recent bird adventure began like this.
Janine was cleaning Carrie’s cage
outdoors when the latch came open and out she went. Of course, Janine was quite
upset. She could see the bird sitting up in a tree and so she called for her.
But Carrie appeared to be glad to be free in the outdoors — for the time being.
She flew all over the property and even Janine’s son-in-law, Denny, came to
help. But there was no getting the bird to fly back down to them at that
time.
When darkness came, Janine was even more concerned when Carrie had not
returned. The weather was stormy, like what we’ve had recently, and it lasted
for a couple of days. Still there was no Carrie.
Janine’s daughter, Viviane,
came to help and called for Carrie. By now everyone was worried that the bird
couldn’t survive the rain and chilly air, since she lived the soft life of an
indoor bird.
Two days later while Denny was outside, hoping to spot the
cockatiel and try to coax it home, he heard her familiar sound and saw her high
in a pine tree in the neighbor’s front yard near the road. Viviane and her
mother arrived on the scene in the car with Carrie’s cage and her cockatiel
friend, Lulu, which was in another cage. They held the cages up and could hear
Carrie chirping. So was Lulu. Obviously, they were talking to each other about
the situation. Lulu might have been saying, “You better get right down here,
now!”
Suddenly Carrie swooped down from the top of the tree and circled their
heads. After one pass, she turned and landed on top of Janine’s head ... very
softly. Janine reached up and the bird jumped onto her finger. You can imagine
how relieved and excited Janine was to see her friend back.
When the cage was
opened, in Carrie went, just like she knew where she was going. The family
wondered how the bird could survive all the storms, cats and hawks, and find her
way back to the top of Janine’s head? I think no matter how much you love that
bird, you would want her off the top of your head pretty quickly!
Now both
birds are home and safe inside their cages whistling to each other. Mostly they
do just whistle. Viviane tells me they speak a little, but not like parrots
do.
All is well in the Goertz household and I assume there is no more
cleaning bird cages outdoors!
6/11/10
Editor’s note: The Rev. James Baldwin, Pastor Emeritus of First English
Lutheran Church, died last week. He was a former member of the Marysville
Newspapers, Inc. Board of Directors. He was a friend of “Off The Hook”
columnist Melanie Behrens and as a final tribute to him we are reprinting
the column she wrote about his life a few years ago.
___
Life with
the pastor
He is a retired Lutheran minister currently celebrating his 65th
year of ordination. He has been retired since 1985 with his last charge being First English Lutheran Church in Marysville.
Now, Pastor Jim
Baldwin lives at Carriage Court and he shared some of his lifetime memories
with me.
He is the grandson of immigrants. One set of grandparents came from Bavaria and the other from Dorset, England, both in the late 1800s.
His
grandfather from Bavaria was initially a school principal, who as a young
man traveled to the U.S. via London. Being quite musically talented, he
soon landed a one-year stint in Queen Victoria’s orchestra playing the
violin.
He finally arrived in Waterville, Ohio (near Toledo) to begin his
new life. He married and was the father of six daughters, one of whom would be Pastor Jim’s mother.
Jim’s parents met on the streetcar on the
way to work and were married in 1912. Her father built them a honeymoon
house to spend their first year in. Later, each of the remaining five
daughters would live in that house.
Jim was born in 1915 and grew up in
Waterville. After high school, Wittenburg College was his choice as a good
Lutheran with German ancestry. It was perfect. There was also a seminary
located there, which Jim planned to attend after college. In fact he
announced that intention when he was in the fifth grade!
While at
Wittenburg, he distinguished himself on the track team running the long
distance events of one and two miles.
It was his fraternity, Phi Gamma Delta,
that tapped him to be their choral leader for school competitions. The only
problem was about one third of them couldn’t sing. He decided those tone
deaf singers should just hum.
No matter what the song, he told them,
just hum. That really paid off as the Phi Gams won the competition and the
comment of the judges was, “We loved the humming sound in the background.
That distinguished you from everyone else.”
Music was always a large
part of Jim’s life. His love of it began when he was just six and learned
to play the piano. Now arthritis will not allow him to play.
Jim met his
future wife Carolyn when she was a sophomore and he a junior. Both taught
Sunday School at the Masonic Home in Springfield and to do so they rode the
streetcar together.
They would date for six more years before marriage. That
proposal was also in true Baldwin form. Back in 1938 he asked Carolyn if
she would marry him on June 15, 1940. She answered, “Yes, but why that
date?
His reply was that it would be the first payday after the first Sunday in his first parish. So they did marry that day.
He had just
graduated from the Hamma Divinity School on the Wittenburg Campus. Their
first church was in Franklin, Ohio, near Dayton. They lived in the upstairs
of a big farmhouse near the church. Four years later they moved to a church
in Toledo and had added two sons to their family.
By 1949 they were
ready to take on Oxford, Ohio and Miami University. Jim would be pastor to
Lutheran students. It was a perfect assignment for him. He loved the
college kids. I can imagine his quick wit served him well. He also jumped
right in to the city scene, becoming a city councilman and founding Faith
Lutheran Church.
Then in 1955 his father died and Jim left the ministry for
the family business back in Toledo. During the 10 years he spent there, he traveled extensively, working in public relations for the family company. That meant he gave 600 speeches in 300 cities.
Eventually the
family moved to the Toledo suburb of Ottawa Hills. Jim and Carolyn bought a
home that had been vacant for more than 30 years, and spent a year
rebuilding it.
These 10 years saw the family business prosper and so did the Baldwins. The company his family owned produced and sold household disinfectant and was eventually sold to Lysol who now has their name on
those products.
In 1965, the ministry called him back and the Baldwin family
moved to Worthington to a church with big troubles. The leaders of the
synod thought Jim was perfect to straighten the church out since he had just come from the business world.
Six years later that problem solved,
he was sent to another church that needed him, Marysville First English
Lutheran. He served there from 1971 to 1985 when he retired at age
70.
There have been many good years in Marysville. Pastor Jim became very active in the community serving on several boards and certainly was appreciated for his quick wit and ability.
There were some sad times,
too. In 1976 Carolyn died. She was his love, his wife, his partner in life.
Everything was different then and he felt life was not worth living, but he
had a church to take care of. Eventually his smile returned and today he
still loves to tell a good story.
Pastor Jim, now 89 years old, spends
his days at Carriage Court reading voraciously everything he can get his
hands on. That includes papers and books, religious and not. Many of the
books he later donates to the Marysville Library. His memory is fantastic
and may be fueled by his journal which he has written in daily most of his
life.
Thank you pastor Jim for contributing so fully to our
lives!
6/4/10
Dedication and maturity
He’s a young man who knows where he’s going. He’s
dedicated to his sport of gymnastics, and his goal of possibly being on an
Olympics team is fueled by his amazing maturity which sends him to the gym
to practice five days a week for at least four hours. Most weekdays he eats a snack after school, does a few minutes of homework, and then heads off to the gym. He has only one 15-minute break in his four-hour
practice and returns home about 9 p.m. Then there’s more homework before
bed.
Alex Johnson was first introduced to gymnastics at about the age of 4 and 12 years later at 16, he’s a champion many times over. The son of Jill Johnson and Richie Johnson, he is a sophomore at Marysville High School.
Recently he won “all around” honors (meaning highest combined
scores for all events) at the Arnold Classic. This took him on to the Ohio
State meet in Lancaster, where he took first again in “all around.” That led him to the regionals in Indianapolis, where for the third time
he took first “all around.”
By winning the last honor at regionals he was
able to represent his team at the Junior Olympic Nationals in Knoxville,
Tenn. He took 11th place there among 238 in his age group and now continues
on to the Visa National Championship in Connecticut in August. This
competition will name people to the Junior Olympic National team, where he
must score in the top seven. Those winners will be able to go on to the Olympic Training Center and Colorado Springs, Colo. and be part of USA
gymnastics.
This tremendously physical sport demands incredible muscle power
to compete in the six different events which include rings, parallel bars, high bar (which is Alex’s favorite), floor exercise, pommel horse
and vault. I was so surprised when he said the high bar was his favorite
event, which looks the most scary to me. They stretch out completely
straight above the bar and sometimes turn around and grab the bar facing
the opposite direction. I can hardly watch it.
So, I asked Alex if he was
afraid and he said, “I’m scared all the time, but you can’t let fear
control you because you won’t know you can do it until you try it.”
He
says you can learn a new skill in a week but it takes much more time to
perfect it — to make it automatic. That’s where trusting the coach comes
in. Alex has been with the same coach for the last three years at Integrity
Gymnastics in Dublin.
There are days when he’s so tired, he has to dig deep
to find the motivation to go 100 percent. He thinks the dedication makes
him better. I think it very unusual for a young man of 16 to be able to do that.
Also, most days some muscle, somewhere, hurts, but his only
major injury so far has been a stress fracture in his back two years ago, which sidelined him for about two months.
Not only is dedication required
from the athlete at this advanced position, but also from his family. The
gym is about 20 minutes away and he didn’t drive until this year, so
someone had to take him there and back every day. It’s also an expensive
sport, not only for gym time, but also for equipment and “meet” entries.
You can see conditions have to be just right for all the training to be at
most benefit.
Long-term goals for him include the quest for a college
scholarship and, oh yes, Alex said every day he thinks about being in the
Olympics.
More on the barber shop
Last week I told you about my visit to
Larry Poling’s barber shop and the world of men there. (To read that go to
marysvillejt.com, click on Off the Hook and then on archives.) Then I
received this note from Don DeGood:
“I read your story of the barber
shop in tonight's paper. When I got to the part that said Larry had been
there 40 years, my thoughts were — that can't be (how time flies). The shop
was DeGoods Barber Shop. My father and brother were both known as Baldy
DeGood, both barbers. They had a chair for me, but it wasn't my career
choice.”
“My mother died in 1964 and brother in 1965. These two deaths devastated my father who was 80 years old at the time. It was not long
after my brother died that dad was taken to a rest home. I was the shop
manager for a few years and I sold it to Harold Green who shortly sold it
to Larry. In the 40 years since I have had my hair cut there once. Just too
many memories there.”
“When I was in second grade I used to walk into Hazens
Book Store, that was between the corner and Galloway's Shoes, the shop
that burned recently. The book store used the room that the barber shop now occupies and I used it as a short cut.”
“Dad and my Uncle Kenny
DeGood bought the barber shop from Pickle Bartholomew in 1921. It was
located in Hoys Pool Room. Dad moved to the Liggett Building, the room now
used for the Mexican restaurant. Tony Butler had his restaurant in the shop
next to the alley. I remember going into Tony's with a penny for a
lollipop. Tony's business grew and dad didn't need all the room so Tony
took over the back half with a wall dividing the room. It didn't work,
Tony Butler's was the place to be with everybody walking to school just around the corner. Just too much noise and Jitterbug dancing etc. Eventually, Dad rented the room the barber shop is in now.
5/27/10
A man’s world
As I bravely entered the men’s inner-sanctum, as expected, I
was the only woman among several men. Some I knew, some I didn’t. You see
I had gone to Larry Poling’s barber shop, and I hadn’t been in that type of establishment since my sons were young. Nothing has really changed, though.
Now for the reason I was there. Larry Poling has been
cutting hair in the same location on West Fifth St. for 40 years (some of
his customers have also been with him that long). He’s an example of someone who enjoys his job and has stuck it out through the long and the short of men’s hair and the ups and downs of downtown
Marysville.
Larry grew up in Raymond just down the street from the barbershop
of his grandfather, Virgil Poling, who worked in his own shop until he was 92 years old and died at 94 in 1991. When Virgil started, he was self trained, that is to say, there was no licensing of barbers. Finely
in 1943, when licensing came about, they grandfathered him in. Virgil was
also fire chief in Raymond, and when the fire alarm rang, he left the guy
in the chair even if he wasn’t finished.
Larry watched his grandfather’s hard
work and decided that was the job for him. So when he graduated from
Marysville High School in 1966, he went immediately to barber school, which
lasted for about one year.
His first job was in Kenton, but the drive
became too much and he soon returned to Marysville to work for Clark
McKitrick at the corner of South Court and West Fourth Sts. Haircuts were
$1.40 then. In February of 1970 he moved into the shop where he is now and
worked with Jim Goodwin.
Not only did he eventually buy the barbershop,
but in 2000 he also bought the entire block - the old Union Block building,
which includes businesses from the alley on West Fifth around the corner
to right next to the former pool hall on Main St.
There was a disastrous
fire in part of the building a few months ago and Larry’s in the process of
renovating that building, which will be ready to open in another month. At
that time he hopes to fill the space with a retail business.
His
barbershop is what I might call “typical” (but remember my experience is
limited here). By that I mean there are two chairs for haircutting — Rick
Brake has worked for more than 20 years with Larry. People come streaming
in the door and some may have a favorite barber or others will just take
the first available barber.
There is also a tiny barber chair located between
the two of them, which they use for small children. It is the chair that
Larry sat in for his first haircut in his grandfather’s shop in
Raymond.
While there, I observed that men are much easier than the typical woman. Men just sit down in the chair with their backs to the mirror and say, “trim it” or “cut it” or “I like it short.” Then Larry or Rick
proceed to do the job and the customer can’t even see what is being done.
Few women would go that route.
Dan Ludwig is a perfect example of the typical
client that Larry has. He has been coming there for 10 years. Larry knows
just what he wants and about 15 minutes and $12 later the job is done.
That’s quite a jump in price from the 25 cents his grandfather charged in
his shop so many years ago.
Larry has seen many changes. First of all
he’s glad to see that people want their hair cut again. During the 1970s,
times were tough. Men were not getting their hair cut. In fact, they were
letting it grow to their shoulders. Barbers really suffered then, but now
all has returned to normal as Larry puts it.
He has also seen tremendous
changes in downtown Marysville. Forty years ago when he opened his shop the
town was still bustling. There were two shoe stores, a children’s store,
two dress shops, and two places for men to buy clothing. He said people
were always walking up and down the street.
He works nearly every day of
the week and long hours. In his spare time he and his wife, Cindy, like to
ride their Honda Gold Wing motorcycle, They went all the way to Missouri
last year. He has also served as a girl’s softball coach at Dublin Scioto
High School for the last five years. Add to that a lawn care, landscaping
and snow removal business and you've got a busy guy.
Her serves on the
board directors of the UCJRD (Union County Joint Recreation District),
which maintains the athletic fields on County Home Rd. For his contribution
to this effort he was honored with the Salute to Leaders award last fall
from the Union County Chamber of Commerce.
When I asked Larry why he
stayed in the barber business so long and what it was he liked about it, he
simply said, “Everybody has to do something and I like this.” He’s a man of
few words and I guess that makes him a good listener.
While I was there,
a political discussion ensued about the city of Marysville. I guess this
would be typical for a barber shop.
It’s still a man’s world in there and it
was nice of them to let me spend some time with the guys.
5/21/10
Skip Mullaney - part 2
This column is a follow up to the story I began last
week about Fahy (pronounced Fay) “Skip” Mullaney, a 1957 graduate of
Northwestern High School in Raymond. He was a basketball and baseball star
and went on to Capital University in Columbus receiving a scholarship to play both those sports. After graduation he became a Methodist minister
and eventually a business consultant.
His first church call was in North
Hampton (near Springfield), a small congregation of about 200. Along the
way, Skip was also involved in political activism. His first congregation
tried to remedy a deplorable situation in the Clark County jail.
Church
members attempted to help with donations of books and even held church
services at the jail, which were only allowed in the hallways. The
congregation saw that much needed to be done to make living conditions,
where toilets didn’t even flush, more tolerable for inmates. There seemed
to be little response for improvements from the county government.
Skip
thought it might even be desirable to be arrested himself, but that didn’t
happen when the group demonstrated on Easter in front of the jail. He
thought it might be a way to get inside and see how they could help fix the
situation.
Later, he almost got his wish and here’s how that went. One
evening the local police came to his front door attempting to collect an outstanding traffic ticket, which Skip says he didn’t even know existed. It was for $15 and he looked at his wife Mary Ann and said, “Here’s my chance.” She looked at her three little daughters and said,
“Absolutely not!” But he went for it anyway.
After Skip refused to pay the
ticket, the policeman called for backup and took him away in the cruiser,
but not directly to jail. He soon found himself at the local police
station, about a half mile from his home. Skip was placed in a room by
himself and eventually a policeman came in and asked him, “Why are you
doing this? Just pay it. We don’t want to take you to jail.”
But, of
course, Skip had an ulterior motive. Eventually they said they were letting
him go and he had to walk home.
Finally, because of all Skip’s efforts and
those of his congregation, the jail was razed and a new one built.
After
five years, he left his congregation and the Methodist Church reassigned
him to work in a specialized Metro Ministry position concentrating on poor
housing, poverty and social issues.
By 1976 he had apparently been noticed
for his efforts and was hired away from the church to head the Offender Aid
and Restoration in Charlottesville, Va., where he managed programs in eight
states as the national director. The Mullaneys still live there today. The Charlottesville newspaper recently honored Skip as one of the “Distinguished Dozen” in their town, for his service to the community.
In
1984 he went on to the National Institute of Corrections, where his focus
was to better train people in criminal justice. He worked with departments
of corrections to improve training of probation officers, parole officers
and workers in halfway houses, and taught them how to hire the best person
for the job.
Skip eventually became an organizational development consultant helping businesses plan what their vision was for the future and how to
get there. That’s what he’s been doing for the last 25 years. He deals with
the facts, but the compassion of a minister has always been in the back of
his mind. He is still an ordained minister and has come out of retirement
only occasionally to help with small churches in his area on a temporary
basis.
Now, Skip, who is semi retired, and his wife Mary Ann, an award-winning retired teacher, are enjoying the good life, which includes several months in South Florida during the winter. He still works as a
consultant several times a year for companies looking for a better way to
get to their desired goals.
He said: “At age 38 when the ‘jump’ in my jump
shot was fading, I began running and soon gave up the city basketball
league for road races. So for 32 years I have been running competitively,
running races all across the country.”
At 45 he ran the Boston Marathon
(2 hrs. 56 min). In recent years he only runs races of 10 miles or shorter.
This past winter he was the Senior Olympics champion in Florida for both 5K
and 10K events and holds several age group records in Virginia for
distances from 400 meters to 10 miles. You can see the athlete is still
alive and well in Skip Mullaney.
5/14/10
Sports star, pastor,
consultant
He was a basketball and baseball standout
at Northwestern High School, class of ‘57, (located in Raymond), and is an
ordained Methodist minister and political activist turned business
consultant.
These are just a few of the ways one could describe Fahy “Skip” Mullaney (Fahy is Irish for Fay). Then there’s the fact that he is a veteran of the Boston Marathon and at age 45 ran it in two hours and 56
minutes, and once scored 42 points in a county basketball tournament game
against Richwood High School.
But his story begins in Union County on a dairy
farm where he intended to spend his life. His parents, Jay and Laura
Mullaney, purchased the farm on Johnson Road in Union County in 1927.
Before his father was married he had been a race car driver. He raced in Indiana and took one car to the Indianapolis 500.
His mother had been a
teacher and had served as a staff person in an orphanage. The farm was
mainly a dairy farm, with registered Jersey cows. About 300 acres was
devoted to grain farming.
The state of Ohio purchased most of the farm using
the power of eminent domain in the early 1970s. The land and that of
several neighbors was used to form the 5,500-acre Transportation Research Center.
Two of his sisters, Jean Grooms Detwiler and Leslie Singley,
live within 25 miles of Marysville and his third sister, Mary Alice Winter, is recently deceased. He also had a twin brother, Jay Jr., who
died at 18 months.
Fahy (now know to many as Skip) had outstanding athletic
ability and after graduating from Northwestern in 1957, he was lured away
from the farm by Capital University where he continued to play sports. There he also met his future wife Mary Ann Forry, whom he married in 1962. They felt they might have been nearly the only Methodists in the
Lutheran College. Skip says he hoped to “act as a missionary” to the
Lutherans, but just couldn’t convert them to the Methodist theology.
Instead,
he went on to the Methodist Theological School in nearby Delaware, and
received his first call after graduation in 1964 to a small church in North
Hampton near Springfield.
That’s where it all began, the political activism
that is. His church was quite interested in the sad conditions at the Clark
County jail in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Reportedly, many toilets
were inoperable.
An entire library was donated by his church and members
discovered the inmates didn’t get any use of it and found the books stashed
away in the basement. The feeling of the jail administration seemed to be that these people didn’t deserve any help.
Basically, conditions were
described as deplorable. Pastor Mullaney held church services there, but
they had to be in hallways. So, one Easter many of the congregation led by
Pastor Mullaney joined in a protest at the jail to draw attention to the
conditions. He describes it as a typical 1970s - style protest. They also
hired a filmmaker to record a documentary about jail conditions.
The
film was shown 65 times during the next year to every group available in
Clark County. All this eventually forced the county commissioners to begin
the process of replacing the county jail.
Skip thought it would be great to
be arrested and see the jail first hand, but that didn’t happen during the
protests. However, an opportunity arose later. More about that next
week.
5/7/10
Mothers celebrated
Most women of a certain age are mothers and even
grandmothers (that might be the best time of all). Motherhood is a time of
stress, pride, sleepless nights (because of infants and teenagers), laundry,
cooking, hugs and love.
A mother is often the biggest influence on one's
life and maybe even one's personality. It seems no matter how old you are,
when you are sick
it would be nice to have your mother to take care of you.
No one can do it like her, especially if you are married to a man who is in
no way a
nurse!
So, for all those mothers, grandmothers and those who are
soon-to-be, I share some recent mail on this subject from my
friends.
Mothers
Real mothers don't eat quiche; they don't have time to
make it.
Real mothers know that their kitchen utensils are probably in the
sandbox.
Real mothers often have sticky floors, filthy ovens and happy
kids.
Real mothers know that dried play dough doesn't come out of
carpets.
Real mothers don't want to know what the vacuum just sucked up
...
Real mothers know that a child's growth is not measured by height or
years or grade.
It is marked by the progression of Mommy to Mom to
Mother.
---
The images of mother
4 years of age - My Mommy can do
anything!
8 years of age - My Mom knows a lot! A whole lot!
12 years of
age - My Mother doesn't know everything!
14 years of age - My Mother? She
wouldn't have a clue.
16 years of age - Mother? She's so five minutes
ago.
18 years of age - That old woman? She's way out of date!
25 years of
age - Well, she might know a little bit about it!
35 years of age - Before we
decide, let's get Mom's opinion.
45 years of age - Wonder what Mom would have
thought about it?
65 years of age - Wish I could talk it over with
Mom.
---
Somebody said
Somebody said it takes six weeks to get back to
normal after having a baby, but that somebody should note that once you are a
mother, "normal" is history.
Somebody said that being a mother is boring,
but that somebody never rode in a car being driven by a teenager with a
driver's permit.
Somebody said that good mothers never raise their voices,
but that somebody never came out the back door just in time to see their
child hit
a golf ball through the neighbor's kitchen window.
Somebody said
that the hardest part about being a mother is labor and delivery, but that
somebody never watched their baby get on the bus for
kindergarten for the
first time or on a plane headed for military boot camp.
Somebody said
mothers can stop worrying when their child marries, but that somebody didn't
know that marriage adds a new son or daughter-in-law to a mother's heart
strings.
Somebody said that a mother's job is done when the last child leaves
home, but that somebody never had grandchildren.
Somebody said your mother
knows you love her, and so you don't need to tell her, but that somebody is
wrong - call her today!
4/30/10
Timing is everything
How many times have you said, “If only I’d been there
earlier” ... or “Thank God I was late and missed it?” That usually means
some sort of disaster, big or small, was averted. Lately, I’ve been
thinking about the events of my life that fall into this category.
This
is what started it. I was sitting in an outside dining area of a restaurant
enjoying lunch with my friend. It was a beautiful day and lunch was great.
Here’s where the timing comes into it. I got up out of my chair and stood
there for a short time when I noticed a black bird coming near. Then it
struck suddenly in exactly the same place where I had been sitting — a big
pile of runny bird stuff. Oh my gosh, I was thankful to have missed that
event. It would have been all over me. That’s what I mean by timing is
everything.
There must be something about me and birds. I’m sure pelicans certainly fall into that category. They are of the largest variety. My
next short story didn’t turn out so well. Here’s the sad tale.
I was in
Florida sitting in the sun in a comfortable lounge chair. All seemed right
with the world! I didn’t hear him (or her) overhead, but I guess I’m glad I
wasn’t looking straight up at the time. I felt it hit on my chest and on
the arms of the lounge chair. When I opened my eyes, there it was — gray
runny stuff that smelled like fish.
I was horrified. I looked up and there
was the culprit, a huge pelican flying away after the nasty deed. Quickly I
jumped up and ran to the nearest source of water to wash off what I was
afraid could be a source of breathable histoplasmosis (a disease carried by
birds).
There wasn’t another soul around to share my disgust, so I just sat back down and decided the chance of a second strike in the same place was slim to none and that was correct. Timing is everything! This time
my timing and maybe karma were all a little off.
These two events, while
certainly in the icky category, were, of course, not life threatening, but
my next story could have been.
I was spending some time in Florida and making
the half-hour trip to Everglades City with my friends Tim and Helen Norris.
We were going there to have fresh grouper right out of the Gulf of Mexico,
in this tiny fishing village. The highways of South Florida are extremely overloaded and thus treacherous at the height of the season. Defensive
driving is crucial.
We reached our lunch destination and all was good except
the service was slow and so was arrival of the food. This was actually
doing us a favor, we learned later. Tim even wanted to go inside the fish
market where we ate, to see what the fresh catch was for the day. That delayed us a bit, too, thankfully.
We began our 30-minute ride back on
route 41, a desolate two-lane road going from Naples to Miami, but very
heavily traveled. About 15 minutes into our journey we spotted black smoke
ahead about 30 feet in the air. As we got closer to the flames, we saw a
large dump truck on its side.
This happened just three cars in front of
us. I immediately called 911 on my cell phone and the operator had all
kinds of questions I couldn’t answer. It seems someone had just reported
the accident before me, but they wanted more details, like did the truck
driver get out and how many people were involved, etc.
Luckily, we
stayed back about 100 yards expecting another explosion that never
occurred.
It was a remote location and help didn’t arrive for a very long 15 minutes. With the black smoke in the air, the road was blocked. Finally
the squad and fire trucks arrived down the wrong side of the road, plus
Lifeflight appeared.
We watched the helicopter with much trepidation. What if
the vehicles exploded as the craft hovered overhead? It took the helicopter
about 15 minutes to find a relatively safe place to set down in the heavy black smoke being emitted at the crash scene.
Finally, we were able to
turn around and take the very long way back to Naples, but we had seen what
we were sure was a very sad accident. Later we learned the giant dump truck
had been approaching from the opposite direction, then crossed the two lane
road hitting head on a car with four young people inside, just three
vehicles in front of us. Of the five people involved, four died and one
teenage girl was still alive in the hospital. What a sad event.
It was
also one where we said things like, there, but for the grace of God goes
us. We were safe in our car and I was sure glad the service in the
restaurant had been slow.
This incident sticks out in my mind as an important
example of, timing is everything!
No doubt, we are not in charge of the
timing, but I’m still grateful for every time I’ve dodged a
bullet!
4/23/10
Cookies, Brownies and Girl Scouts
Everybody has tasted them. You might even
have some in your pantry, as I do. There’s nothing like the flavor of a
Girl Scout cookie.
My granddaughter, Margie Behrens, lives in Cincinnati.
She’s eight years old and a Brownie and she recently sold us some of those cookies. As I looked at the boxes it jogged my memories of when I was eight years old.
It all began for me in 1952 when I was in the second
grade. That is, I became a Brownie and would eventually be a Girl Scout by
1956. We learned to sew, cook and camp (I wasn’t much into the last one),
all skills good little, well-rounded girls needed to know at that
time.
Our uniform was a knee-length, medium brown dress with a little brown felt beanie that we wore on our heads. Later, that dress would be traded for the green Girl Scout one, which included a sash worn across
your chest with evidence of all the badges earned. Mothers served as troop
leaders and badges to be sewn on uniforms were earned with each new task
accomplished.
The major fundraising effort for Girl Scouts of America was
and still is the cookie sale. I remember the day we would gather at a kickoff spot and would say how many cartons we thought we could sell. I
usually took two, which had at least 24 boxes in each. It was a large brown
cardboard container that had a handle on it and we were asked to go door to
door to sell the cookies, which came in about three varieties at that
time.
I would hit the neighborhood early the first day in my uniform with carton of cookies in hand ready to sell. The neighborhood was always very generous with me. Today, of course, girls sell hundreds of boxes by taking orders and then delivering them.
The Girl Scout organization
began selling cookies in about 1917. Then, cookies were made in select
homes by the girls, with mothers helping. It began five years after founder
Juliette Gordon Low started Girl Scouting in Muskogee, Okla. At that time,
the cookies were sold in the high school cafeteria there.
By 1933, the
cookie sale had gone nationwide selling for 59 cents — that was for 12
rookies from somebody’s kitchen. The next year the Girl Scouts from the
Greater Philadelphia Area Council began selling commercially baked cookies.
By 1958, the price had risen to $1.25 and Thin Mints and Samoas — still
made today — were introduced.
In 2010, there are just two commercial bakers
making all the cookies — ABC/Interbake Foods and Little Brownie Bakers. The
cookies sell from between $2.50 to $4 a box.
And if you were a Brownie
or Girl Scout or your daughter was, this should bring back memories for
you.
In July 1922, the “American Girl” magazine, published by the Girl Scouts, featured the following cookie recipe:
1 cup butter
1 cup
sugar, plus additional amount for topping
2 eggs
2 tablespoons
milk
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2
teaspoons baking powder
Cream butter and a cup of sugar, add well beaten
eggs, then milk, vanilla, flour, salt and baking powder. Refrigerate for at
least 1 hour. Roll dough, cut each into trefoil shapes and sprinkle sugar
on top, if desired. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 8 to 10 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Makes 6 to 7 dozen cookies.
That
year the cookies were packaged in waxed paper bags, sealed with a sticker
and sold door-to-door for 25 to 35 cents a dozen.
Why not try this recipe and
see if it still makes a good sugar cookie.
Thank you to “Reminisce” magazine
for the history of Girl Scouts.
4/16/10
Navy corpsman excels
He was a member of the 1991 graduating class of
Marysville High School and is now serving in the U.S. Navy.
HM1
(Hospital Medical) Kevin Caldwell has had extensive medical training as a
corpsman and currently serves as the only medical provider for about 150
men on board the submarine USS Montpelier.
He and his family, which includes
wife Misha Cotterill (MHS class of ’92) and their son Nathan, 15, live in
Virginia. That is to say Misha and Nathan live in Virginia Beach and Kevin
in Norfolk, where his ship is docked. This arrangement came out of a desire
to let Nathan attend just one high school and not have to move again.
As
is often the case, Navy families move around a lot and sometimes those
sailors are even out to sea when their wives are pregnant. So, it was not
unusual that Nathan was actually born while Kevin was at sea.
Since joining
the Navy in 1993, Kevin has seen the world. The Caldwells lived in Iceland
for three years and were assigned to a station in New Orleans when Katrina
hit. They had to evacuate to Arlington, Texas, and that was only one of
three evacuations which were weather-related.
His parents, Doug and
Peggy Bailey, have followed Kevin around to visit most of his home bases
over the years. Peggy said of Iceland, “It’s beautiful! In the summer it is
light for 24 hours and in November the sun is up only three to four hours a
day.”
The lack of sun is a bit depressing. I wouldn’t last long there in the winter.
Kevin’s advanced medical training in the U.S. Navy includes
his recent graduation from the Naval Undersea Medical Institute as an IDC (submarine independent duty corpsman). His training consisted of 58 weeks of intensive, fast-paced study with rotations in anesthesia, trauma and critical care medicine, emergency medicine and other real world aspects of operational medicine.
They started with a class of nine
men and three made it to graduation at the Naval Submarine Base, New London
Groton, Conn. Kevin also received the leadership award, which goes to the
independent duty hospital corpsman who personifies the highest standards of
personal example, fairness, leadership, moral responsibility and military bearing.
Obviously, Kevin is having a great career in the Navy. We wish
him well!
Inner peace
A friend sent this to me and I laughed out loud.
Hope you do, too!
If you can start the day without caffeine,
If you can
always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
If you can resist complaining
and boring people with your troubles,
If you can eat the same food every day
and be grateful for it,
If you can understand when your loved ones are too
busy to give you any time,
If you can take criticism and blame without
resentment,
If you can conquer tension without medical help,
If you can
relax without liquor,
If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,
Then you
must be the family dog!
4/9/10
McCarthy returns
He has an impressive resume which includes an
internship with the Today Show, several Emmy nominations and three years of
experience as a general assignment reporter for WVLT-TV, the CBS affiliate in
Knoxville, Tenn. Now Mike McCarthy, a 2002 graduate of Marysville High School
(salutatorian) and a 2007 grad of the Ohio University Scripps School of
Journalism, can be seen locally on WSYX (WTTE Fox affiliate, too) as a general
news reporter.
He started in March and is glad to be back in central Ohio
near his family and fiancé, Ashrae Scott. They plan to marry in the summer of
2011.
Mike is a talented young man who works as a “one man band.” This skill
of doing it all has made him a valuable commodity in a very competitive
business. At times there are as many as 100 people vying for one job. The pay is
modest, but the experience invaluable.
A “one man band” operation means Mike
unloads his 40 pounds of camera equipment, sets it up to shoot, interviews his
subject and reports. Later, he cuts the material to be shown on TV. Really doing
the job of three people, Mike saves the station money. The only disadvantage of
working this way is that there is no one to bounce alternate ideas off of in the
field.
The station has taken advantage of the fact that Mike is from Union
County by sending him to Marysville recently to report on “cool schools.” That
included stories about the MHS Band, the Show Choir (of which he was a member)
and FFA. During this visit he discovered also that one third of MHS teachers are
alumni.
The pace at WSYX is fast, concentrating on breaking news more so than
his station in Knoxville. This contributes to a high burnout rate for reporters,
but makes each day different with no worries about being chained to a
desk!
Typically his day begins early at a staff meeting where reporters pitch
ideas for stories. Once the assignments are made, it’s off to work.
Mike does
two stories a day not including his live on-TV time. That often means a last
minute rush to complete the task and be ready for the on-air deadline. There are
never enough hours in his day.
The life of a reporter can be crazy with
terrible hours, which is why many work toward the coveted anchor jobs, of which
there are few. That is where the money is and where you may see Mike one
day!
He is the son of Tom and Amy McCarthy.
Marilyn Amrine Hardacre
Avenue
Not many can boast that the street in front of their home has been
named after them, But Marilyn Amrine Hardacre (MHS class of ‘53) has that honor.
The festivities for renaming her street Hardacre Avenue were held recently in
Marshfield, Wis., where Marilyn served as mayor for eight years in the
1980s.
The city of about 19,000 is located 100 miles from Madison. Marilyn
was honored for her community involvement which includes being instrumental in
rehabilitating the downtown area, construction of the YMCA and construction of a
“parkway” leading into and around the city. It’s a nice honor for a woman who
has done so much for her town.
Her husband, Jerry, is a surgeon in the area
and was in the same Ohio State University medical class as Dr. John Evans.
4/2/10
The Coe family of Union County
Marysville resident Carl Coe has been sharing
some of his family research with me for the last few weeks. Two weeks ago
he detailed the story of his relative in Chicago, who helped convict the murderers in the Leopold and Loeb case in 1924 by identifying eyeglasses he made.
Last week he told us about that same relative, Almer
Coe, who built the home at the corner of Fourth and Maple streets, which
most of us know as the Scott House. It is now owned by the Ahlborn
family.
Coe said the mother-in-law of his distant Chicago relative was named Lydia Scott (Mrs. Alfred Scott) and she was the first full-time resident of that house. I wondered about her relationship to the O.M. Scott family.
Carl Coe related: “There is some disagreement on Alfred
Scott’s relationship to Orlando McLean “O.M.” Scott, founder of The Scotts Company. It is nearly certain that they were related. Both families moved to Union County from Washington County, Pa., as did the Coes (Almer Coe’s grandfather Daniel Coe, 1801-1851, arrived in Union County
in 1833 and three years later built a mill on the present Darby Coe Road,
near Milford Center). Both Scott families immigrated to Pennsylvania from
Ireland. Alfred Scott had a first cousin Orlando Scott of Marysville, and
the same age as Orlando McLean Scott, but a different Orlando Scott. Alfred
Scott’s parents were Francis and Nancy (Gadd) Scott. Orlando McLean Scott’s
parents were James and Mary (Josselyn) Scott, all of
Marysville.”
“Nearly all Coes of the world trace their ancestry to the border
area of Suffolk/Essex, England. Almer’s 16th generation grandfather was Sir John Coe (1340-1415) of Gestingthorpe, Essex. John Coe was knighted
in 1365 by King Edward III for extraordinary valor as a principal captain
of The White Company at the Battle of San Gallo, Italy, May 1, 1364. The
White Company, led by Sir John Hawkwood, was made famous by Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes) in his novel of the same name. Sir John Coe
established the Hawkwood Chantries at Hedingham Castle in 1412 in honor of
his former general.”
In addition, the mother of President George W. Bush (and
wife of President George H.W. Bush), Barbara Bush, is related to the Coe family of Union County. She was a second cousin of the late Marjorie Coe Ohnsman. Her grandson, Dave, works at the Journal-Tribune and is our computer/Internet expert.
Barbara’s mother was Pauline Robinson
Pierce (MHS class of ‘14) who met her husband, Marvin Pierce, at Miami
University. They later lived in Rye, New York, where he became publisher of
Redbook and McCall’s magazines. Mrs. Bush’s grandfather was Judge James E.
Robinson (MHS class of 1885), who was Union County Common Pleas Court and
Ohio Supreme Court Judge.
Now you have, as they say, the rest of the
story.
If you missed the previous stories about the Coe family, just go to marysvillejt.com. Click on Off the Hook and then on archives.
3/26/10
Almer Coe — part two
Last week you may have read in this column about
Marysville native Almer Coe and the way he helped convict Leopold and Loeb
in the famous trial in Chicago in 1924. After growing up in Marysville he had moved to Chicago and was the owner of Almer Coe and Co., jewelers and opticians. He made the unique set of eye glasses that were owned by
Nathan Leopold and dropped at the scene of the murder. Coe’s testimony was
crucial to conviction of the two young men.
Almer Coe’s distant relative is
Marysville resident Carl Coe, and he has shared more of his family research
with me. He said: “In 1910, Almer Coe contracted with fellow Oak Park
(Illinois) resident Frank Lloyd Wright to build a summer residence in his
hometown of Marysville (on the northwest corner of North Maple and West
Fourth streets). Wright assistant, Charles White, traveled to Marysville
to oversee construction.”
“Many of Frank Lloyd Wright’s firsts were used
in the Coe home. The distinctive corner windows, large low fireplace, flat
roof, ceiling beams, sun porch with thin vertical windows, summerhouse and
pool, flagpole and fence — were all part of the original design. Construction was completed on Feb. 9, 1911.”
“The distinctive burnt umber
home was first occupied by Coe’s mother-in-law, Mrs. Alfred (Lydia) Scott.
Later, Marysville based O.M. Scott & Sons Co. — world’s largest
producer of lawn care products — purchased the home in 1960. It was
appropriately renamed “Scott House.”
Coe has also researched the home. “Almer
Coe died in Chicago on Dec. 3, 1956, at the age of 96, but he and Elizabeth
Coe did live at Scott House when in Marysville. Mrs. Coe’s mother, Lydia
Elizabeth (Mrs. Alfred) Scott — the full-time resident — moved in on
completion in 1911. She died a short time afterward. Then the Coes put the
home up for sale. Marysville merchant A.G. Kirby (great-uncle of Dan
Behrens) bought the property. The Kirbys thought it was too hard to heat,
and put it back up for sale.”
“The next owner was John Laughrey, a
Marysville attorney. The Laughreys lived in the home just five years and
then sold to Dr. and Mrs. Fred Callaway in 1926. They made the first
additions to the house, a bedroom wing and a greenhouse on the west side.
They fell in love with the property and made several trips to Chicago to
visit with the Coes.”
For the last 20 years, the home has been owned by
Fred and Helen Ahlborn, who will have more to tell us about the house in
the future.
Almer Coe also donated the lot across the street on the east side
of Maple and Fourth streets to the Presbyterian Church to use as their manse. The home was completed in 1916 at a cost of $5,000 and its first
occupant (according to Wilma Miller) was the Rev. Hugh Evans. The last
pastor to live there was the Rev. John Groat in 1967. The house was then
sold to the Disbennett family.
I was curious that Mrs. Coe’s mother’s name
was Scott and asked about the relationship to the O.M. Scott family. More
about Carl Coe’s reply to that next week.
3/19/10
Marysville man involved in “Trial of the Century”
Carl Coe (MHS class of ‘69)
grew up on a dairy farm where Honda of America is located today. Ironically
he has worked for Honda for the last 26 years in new model
research/associate relations. Currently he manages the supplier warranty
program as well as serving as chairman of the board of Honda Federal Credit
Union. Carl has been very active in our community serving several years on
Marysville City Council, part of his tenure as president.
He has
recently shared a story with me, which is part of our past in Union County.
He admits he is fond of history and the process of research. This time his
efforts include a distant relative of his, Almer DeWitt Coe, a Marysville
native with an interesting connection to a famous trial.
Carl writes:
“Eighty-six years after the Chicago media circus, it is still known as the
‘Trial of the Century.’ Defended by Clarence Darrow, 19-year old Nathan
Leopold and 18-year-old Richard Loeb murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks of
Chicago’s exclusive Oak Park just to prove that people of their genius
could get away with murder.”
“Leopold and Loeb, wealthy child prodigies and
friends who had met at the University of Chicago, spent two months planning
the killing. On Wednesday, May 21, 1924, they lured Franks, a neighbor and
cousin of Loeb, into a rented car and struck him with a chisel. Franks
died.”
“The killers covered the body and drove to a remote area near Wolf Lake in Hammond, Ind. After dumping the body along a road, they spent the rest of the evening playing cards. All was going their way until a
pair of eyeglasses was found at the crime scene. The glasses were unremarkable except for a unique hinge feature. In Chicago, only three
people had purchased glasses with such a mechanism. One of them was Nathan
Leopold.”
“The unique eyewear had been made by Marysville native, Almer
DeWitt Coe. Born in Union County Jan. 2, 1860, his father, Moses Coe,
served as Allen Township Assessor in 1861 and 1865 and township trustee, 1867-68. His mother was Martha Boal of Marysville. Both are buried in Oakdale Cemetery.”
“Almer Coe moved to Chicago where he was founder and
owner of Almer Coe & Company, jewelers and opticians. As such, he had
personally crafted the glasses that had inadvertently fallen from the
pocket of Nathan Leopold in a field near Hammond on the day of the murder.
At the Leopold and Loeb trial in Chicago in 1924, Coe’s testimony sealed their fate. The self-annointed genius murderers were sentenced to life
in prison. Loeb was murdered in Joliet Penitentiary in 1936. Leopold earned
early release in 1958 after being incarcerated for 33 years. He died of
natural causes in 1971.”
Carl’s relative, Almer Coe, is also known as the man
who contracted for construction of the most prestigious home at the time
in Marysville (and for many years to come). It was known as the Scott House (one of the later owners was O.M. Scott & Sons) and was located on the corner of W. Fourth and N. Maple streets. The company used it as
a guest house and for entertaining. It is now owned privately. We’ll have
more about that next week.
3/12/10
Underwood and the Baltimore kids
A few weeks ago I told you the story of
Grant Underwood (valedictorian of MHS class of 2005). After graduation from
the Ohio State University he made a two-year commitment to teach in the Baltimore, Maryland school system as part of Teach for America, and worked on his master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University at the same
time.
He has taken his world of Marysville, Ohio, a semi-rural community of about 17,000 people mostly Caucasian, to the inner city school system of Baltimore, where his students are all black. Grant says they are very interested in our life here as it is so different from theirs. They know the school they are assigned to is offering them only the basics. He is teaching English to seniors who have few textbooks, whose
attendance is sparse at times and many of whom are members of gangs.
Now, more news from Grant and his “failing” high school. He
reports, “Since the last time we’ve talked, Baltimore City Public Schools
made a rather significant announcement, recently declaring that my high school, Doris M. Johnson, would close next year due to its poor performance. We are the only high school in Baltimore city closing its
doors next year. Although we’ve done all we can to keep the students’
spirits high, I suspect that many have internalized the “failing” stigma
that is no fault of their own. The way I see it, the students are not the
reason the school is failing and closing; the failures are indicative of
the educational inequity surrounding our underfunded and under supported
school.”
Grant is the perfect supporter of his students and he says, “The
kids are still going strong, though. One of my students and her friends tried
to stop the decision, forming a Facebook group called ‘Fight!!! for DMJ.’ Others are reflecting on the closure in my class: When the announcement was made we were just starting a persuasive writing unit.
As a result of the decision, many students decided to write about ‘what
makes a good school,’ citing the Baltimore City news articles, their
experiences in the school, and literature we have read about
education/imperialism as evidence.”
If you know Grant, who grew up in
Marysville, you respect him as a kind and knowledgeable person who is
undoubtedly doing all he can with the resources available in this
situation.
40 years ago letters
I have had much response to the stories I
have written about “40 years ago in Marysville.” Here are two that deal
with the early days of the Journal-Tribune and the hot metal process of
producing the newspaper. The first is from Shirley Hadley from Pittboro,
Ind.
She said, “Enjoyed reading today’s Off the Hook. I worked at the Journal-Tribune in 1957-58 in the old building. Shoveled snow off the sidewalks in Dec. 57-Jan. 58. Guess I was bored.”
“I ran the perforator
machine in the back. It was a tape with perforations in it and was used to
print type from, I believe. Can’t remember the process, has been too long.
Win Behrens was publisher, Clara Miller, Helen Wilson and others were
reporters. Don Streng and Shade Watkins also worked in the back.”
This
one is from Brenda Hill Cronin who now lives in Jamestown, N.C. “I read
your article about moving to Marysville. My grandfather, LeRoy Andrews, was
the one who was in the basement melting the lead that was used for the hot
metal system. There was no AC in those days and it would be stifling hot.
He would come home with metal shards all in his clothes. They lived right
up the alley on Court Street. He worked there probably until his death in
1964. His son Roy Andrews still lives in Marysville on North Lewisburg
Road.
If you missed these stories just go to Marysvillejt.com. Click on Off The Hook and then on archives. Scroll down until you see them.
3/5/10
Thailand — Joe’s way
It all began when he agreed to see Thailand with a
college roommate. The trip had its anxious moments but would change his
life. Joe Chapman, general manager/partner of Bob Chapman Ford in
Marysville, has seen a completely different world — 30 hours away by
plane.
He says the people of Thailand are all about love, respect and kindness. In the airport a sign even says, “Welcome to the land of smiles,” and that’s how he feels when he remembers the two-week journey. When I talked to him, I could feel the warmth and excitement in his story, which is amazing when you hear the next part.
Joe’s friend
had been to Thailand before so he could serve as tour guide, but they also
traveled separately for awhile. Joe spent some time in Bangkok and took a
plane to Phuket, then a ferry to the Phi Phi Islands and Maya Bay. Even
though all were beautiful places, there was danger.
While on Phi Phi
(pronounced pee pee), Joe purchased a white guitar in an area where there
were many shops and sat down on a bench to try it out. Other musicians
gathered around (some from Australia), then a crowd gathered to listen. It
went on for seven hours.
Later that evening Joe awakened with pain in his
ankle — it was the size of a cantaloupe! He knew he needed help so at 4
a.m. he began a search, which lasted about 3 hours, for a hospital.
Remember, this is on a tiny island in another part of the world. He asked
the “night people” for directions and was told to take a path through the
jungle to the other side of the island. He said it was the scariest night
of his life. His trek through the jungle included bats and mosquitoes flying at him, plus wild dogs. When he finally found the hospital, the
doors were unlocked, but there seemed to be no one there.
He walked through
what appeared to be an empty hospital and finally found a young man asleep
on a mat. He actually had to awaken him and found out he was an assistant.
He got a female doctor to look at Joe. She told him, in broken English,
that he had been bitten by a scorpion, pointing to the bite on his foot. In
just five minutes she had given him a shot of penicillin, which you can beg
for in the U.S., but hardly ever get, and issued him an assortment of pills
to take.
Those who treated him wanted cash for their medical services
and so, after paying them, his money was nearly gone. In order to get
money wired to him he took his computer in search of wifi service. He then got onto Facebook, contacted his friends on that service and asked them
to contact Bob Chapman Ford to wire him some money immediately. Time was of
the essence. Sometimes technology can be great and even with a 12-hour
difference between Phi Phi and Marysville, all this worked out and Joe was
able to get some cash to continue his trip.
He can’t seem to say enough kind
words about the Thai people. He says they make everyone feel welcome and
comfortable. “You feel like you’re in God’s hands there,” Joe said. “When
asked for directions, people don’t just tell you where to go, they take
you.”
Their theory of life, according to Joe, is giving and forgiving. It makes you happy and the world a better place. He says the people feel that it gives a person bad mental energy to carry around negative feelings and it’s very important to forgive.
He also observed that there
seemed to be few rules in their society. For instance, there are no posted
speed limits. He rarely saw a policeman and drugs were available to those
who wanted them, but no one seemed to abuse them or discuss what was going
on. He was approached several times and he said “ no Kap,” meaning no thank
you, and made the motion of putting his hands together as if he were praying and nodding his head to his hands. This is apparently an important gesture which means, I respect you, but no thank you. One must make these gestures or people are insulted and could
overreact.
While traveling, Joe also saw a massive Buddha of white marble
under construction on top of a mountain. The project cost was $18 million. People could make donations of marble tiles and write a note on the inside of it to be placed on the outside of the Buddha. He also ran
into a man on the street with seven wild elephants just being held by their ears. No chains were involved. Joe was able to touch the elephants and sit on them. He noticed they were not trained but well cared for and not smelly either.
Joe’s impressions are, one can buy
anything in the world in Thailand for apparently very little money. It’s a
beautiful country everywhere you look and he can’t wait to return to the
“land of smiles.”
2/26/10
Gibson helps Bangladesh
Brad Gibson, vice president of communications and
marketing at Union Rural Electric in Marysville, is currently stationed in
Dhaka, Bangladesh, in an effort to aid that country in establishment of electric power. A few weeks ago Brad detailed how hard life is in this
part of the world. This is an update on his experiences there.
His job, as a
consultant, is to help improve communications for the 70 distribution
electric cooperatives (locally called PBSs) throughout the country. Dhaka,
the capital, is ranked the second worst city in the world in an annual
global survey of livability that assesses living conditions in 140 cities.
According to a survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a
business information arm of The Economist Group, publisher of the
respected magazine bearing its name, the Bangladeshi capital is just ahead
of Harare, Zimbabwe.
The survey found the city of 13 million people
scoring below average marks in five broad categories that citizens most
care about: Stability, healthcare, culture/environment, education and infrastructure.
This is the atmosphere Brad is trying to work in.
He
has made friends and one owns the home he describes here:
“I have visited a
private home and it consists of a single room that is approximately 12 feet
by 12 feet. There are a few rooms in the complex that share cooking and
bathroom facilities. This room was the living quarters for a family of four
and they seemed perfectly pleased with their accommodations here in Dhaka.
As a matter of fact, the father, whom I see daily, is one of the happiest
people I have ever met in my life; a truly incredible man. They also
informed me that they had a three-room home in their village, but that
their work took them to Dhaka where they could earn increased
wages.”
“They told me that they paid approximately 3,500 Taka per month to rent the room, which is equivalent to approximately $50 U.S. dollars. They told me it was quite expensive because they chose to live in a very safe and nice part of town (which was accurate).”
I asked Brad about
the treatment of women in this area of the world near India and Pakistan.
He reported: “The country is predominantly Muslim, but unlike many
perceptions the people are very open and accepting of other religions.
Muslim women live a traditional lifestyle and many cover their faces. With
that said, women are making great strides and there is a strong focus among
many businesses and in banking to empower women as employees and borrowers of money to help build their incomes. It appears this has been quite successful and is gaining momentum based on what I’ve seen and understood.”
Brad continued: “The weather is beginning to warm up here
and yesterday was their first official day of spring. Once the heat arrives, the electric load shedding will increase dramatically and I’ve
been told that there will be significantly more power interruptions and for
an extended period of time.” He explained that load shedding is a result of
having greater demand for electricity than can be produced. He said, “The
capacity of electric generation in the country is approximately 5,500
Megawatts, but the actual generation (because of plants that are
inefficient or out of commission) is approximately 3,500 to 4,000
Megawatts. On a daily basis the demand is much greater so there are rolling
outages where they shut off your power.”
“This time of year there are
many rural accounts that are temporarily activated to run pumps which
irrigate rice fields and some other crops. Irrigation is different than
what we do in the U.S. They literally turn on a deep well pump and flood
the rice field and then turn the path for the water channel to another
field and flood that as well. As this demand increases for the pump load
and as the weather gets warmer, the length of load shedding increases. In
rural areas this can equate to not having power 50 percent of the time
they would like to use it. During peak months we anticipate two to four outages a day at our office, lasting about an hour, sometimes more. Fortunately we have a generator that can handle the critical load and keep us up and running.”
Brad is returning home for a month or so and
will go back to Bangladesh several more times this year. I asked if he was
glad he took on this project. He answered, “Absolutely. It is tremendously difficult to be away from my family, but it has enriched my life in ways I never imagined. I hope I am giving as much as I’m receiving. Sharing this experience with my family and my two-year-old son will hopefully help make him a stronger person and provide a foundation, which will give him a well-rounded global perspective. Our generation and certainly our children’s generation will inherit wonderful opportunities presented in difficult situations around the globe.”
More
from Brad later on his trip back to Dhaka.
2/19/20
How our lives have changed
In the last decade much has changed in our world.
That includes the effects of technology and environment, and more
importantly and closer to home, Marysville has changed its appearance in
the last 10 years. This column is devoted to local and worldwide changes
and how it might have affected our lives.
Local shopping
In this
category, Marysville has come a long way in the past decade. We now have
several home improvement stores, new sports equipment outlets, a grocery
superstore and it seems we have a bank on almost every corner. All of this
makes it much easier for the residents of Union County to enjoy the
convenience of doing business locally, something the Journal-Tribune always
promotes.
New restaurants
Restaurant openings have been booming with the
addition of chain restaurants and locally-owned full service dining
establishments, and new ownership of several old restaurants featuring new
menus. Plus, there are two new bakeries, one also offering sandwiches and
the other mostly devoted to cakes and cookies.
Indoor swimming
The
addition of the swimming pool at the local YMCA has been a huge benefit to
local swim teams and also to those who enjoy water aerobics early in the
morning. There are also people who just like to swim laps in the
wintertime, such as former NCAA champ Jack Foster.
Journal-Tribune
In the
last 10 years, the local newspaper has undergone many changes and one most
obvious is the appearance of the newspaper. The front page (along with
overall size) has changed several times over these 10 years. Also, as you
probably noticed, advertising, especially for national companies, has
evolved into color inserts which include coupons.
Instead of operating
with a printing press in our own building, the J-T is now printed at the
printing plant on the east side of town. All the pages are sent via a
computer to the facility.
No movie
Sadly I have to say that a recent
change is that we do not have a movie theater in town for the first time in
many, many years. This is too bad and I hope that situation will be
remedied sometime in the near future.
Worldwide temperature
changes
It has been widely reported that global warming is ruining our world and causing melting ice in the tundra regions. I am here to say this is
the coldest, most miserable winter I ever remember. Snowfalls are setting
records in the Midwest and the east coast, and the time I spent in Florida
this winter has evidenced record breaking cold there, too. Florida has had
few days even in the 70s and had the longest extension of cold weather in
more than 35 years. So much for the theory of global
warming.
Airports
It’s not much fun to fly anymore. Remember when you
didn’t have to take off your shoes or your jacket, and could take a bottle
of water on the plane? Terrorists changed all that for us.
Alternative
medicine
Not only acupuncture, but also herbal supplements and alternative ways of treating cancer have become much more accepted in mainstream medicine. Personally, I tried acupuncture this year for migraine headaches and have had welcome positive results.
Cell phones
It is
reported that more than 85 percent of the population have cell phones. Many
people have replaced land lines in their home. I find my cell phone to be
the most handy gadget in the world, yet I would never replace my land line
with it because many times it just doesn’t ring. People will say they
called me and after checking, I will see there was a missed call, but no
sound from my phone. It’s good, but not 100 percent
effective.
Facebook
I admit I’m part of the social networking offered
here, but only because I was pressured by my children to get on it and get
into this interesting world. I rarely check it and am almost daily added
on someone’s friend list. I usually agree to do that, but have to admit it’s not really part of my life.
Tattoos
If you’re between 20 and 40
you’re likely to have one of these things. It’s ink inserted under the skin
— not always in an attractive manner. I don’t have one, but I know people
really well who do and were pretty upset when they got them. I was informed
by my dermatologist brother not to worry. He said, “When they’re tired of them they can now be taken off with a laser.” Maybe that makes them tolerable.
You will no doubt see some things listed here that have
changed your life in the last 10 years. It will be interesting to see what
the next 10 years brings.
2/12/10
Remembering a Valentine’s Day
When people say it’s a small world, everyone
seems to understand the meaning. It’s a strange expression, but of course,
what it means to most is that we’re all connected much more closely than we
think. Recently I heard a story that brought all this to mind.
My
friend, Helen Norris, is in Florida for the winter and she had to make a
trip to a Laundromat because her washer was broken. This is in the area
where they are staying and there are many washers and lots of people using
the facilities. She was probably just a little unhappy for the
inconvenience at the time, but she had a great experience because of the
time spent doing her laundry in multiple loads.
Of course, if you’ve
ever been to a Laundromat you know that it takes a little while and you
have to sit there waiting for the clothes to be done in the washer then
move them to the dryer. While you’re waiting, you need something to do, so
Helen picked up a copy of “Women’s Day” magazine and noticed it was from
February of 2000, unbelievably, 10 years ago.
There were many stories
about the upcoming Valentine’s Day and she started reading them. Soon she
came to one that really made her think. Here is what the story said:
“On
June 6, 1999, we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary and I’ll never
forget it. The marquee on the theater said it all — Congrats to Henk and
Marianne for our 25-year love story. As a surprise and after a six-month
search, my husband had located a copy of the movie, ‘Love Story.’ Henk had
reserved the entire theater for us and our two children, so we could all
see the same movie that the two of us saw on our first date 28 years
earlier (in the Netherlands).”
The story was signed Marianne and Henk Berbee,
Marysville, Ohio.
Helen burst out laughing. How could this be? She is a good
friend of Marianne Berbee’s, yet had no idea this happened 11 years ago. Marianne apparently entered her story in some sort of a contest that “Women’s Day” sponsored that year. Helen couldn’t wait to call Marianne, telling the story of this 10 year-old magazine that had been
sitting somewhere all this time.
Helen considered this to be quite an unusual
find, a strange experience and one that shows it really is a small
world.
Hearts of the times
I consider this not only a sign of the times
but also the idea, what is this world coming to? In these days close to
Valentine’s Day, many people have a bowl of those tiny little candy hearts
in their home. You remember them. They say things like “you’re cute,” “I
love you” and “be mine.” But this time I had seen it all.
I expected to
read all the cute sayings I mentioned, but now the world has really
changed. I picked up one that said, “text me!” I knew that these were
recently produced candies. This certainly isn’t an old bag of candy. Be
sure and read the ones sitting around your house to see that love has
really changed.
Randall’s Bakery revisited
Here’s a note from Tami Randall
Wallace: “I received a phone call from my aunt who still lives in
Marysville. She said that my grandfather’s bakery had been mentioned in
your column entitled ‘40 years ago in Marysville.’ I looked up your column
and found mention of some goodies that were my favorites as well. My
grandmother lived in an apartment above the bakery and the smells were
wonderful!
“Unfortunately, I never got to meet my grandfather, but Floyd
Randall started Randall’s bakery and worked there until his death. The
bakery was sold, but retained the Randall name. My father, Phil Randall, worked there as a baker, although thanks to World War II, he was not a
consistent feature. My father would open his own Randall’s Bakery in
Bellefontaine, Ohio. I grew up watching him bake and learning to appreciate
good pastries.”
“Most of my father’s formulas (he did not call them recipes)
died with him in 1983. I have a few that he had worked down to small enough quantities that my mother could make them at home. Please let your reader Joanne Rausch know that if she finds that recipe for sugar
cookies I would like it as well. Thank you for reminder.”
2/5/10
Forty years ago in Marysville
This week is a continuation of my memories of
coming to Marysville 40 years ago. I was a young bride living in
Marysville, which was very different from my native Columbus.
I
remember that in our first year of living in Marysville (my husband Dan and
I), the Journal-Tribune was located at the corner of Fourth and Main Sts.
as it is now, but on a different corner. It was on the other side of Fourth
St. and the building is still there. It is a square brick building with the
words Marysville Tribune carved into the stone above the front door.
That building was owned not by my husband’s family, but by the Hubers, who
had owned the Marysville Tribune. My husband’s grandfather, Bruce Gaumer,
was owner of the twice-weekly Union County Journal and he eventually bought
the Tribune, a daily paper, merging the two into the Marysville
Journal-Tribune. It operated out of the Tribune building on the southwest
corner of Fourth and Main streets.
It was an old building even then and in
fact the Journal-Tribune leased it from the Huber family. The front part
was cut up into tiny offices with a small advertising office to the right
and with my father-in-law’s (Publisher Winfield Behrens) tiny office on the
same side. The news room was on the left side with four large desks somehow jammed inside. A large counter ran nearly the entire width of the building. Everything was cut up in nature, quite different from the
large open building that is used today where communication is so much
easier.
The back three-fourths of the building was where the printing actually took place, both for the newspaper and commercial printing. It
was called a hot metal system and involved melting lead from things called
pigs, which were 20-25 pounds, into thin strips which were called slugs I
guess animal names were appropriate. Slugs with type were produced by a
machine called a linotype. There were six linotypes and operators sat there
typing out the actual words on a line of type (hence the name linotype).
These hot metal strips of words and sentences were put together in a page
format and transferred to the press, an ancient looking flatbed press
which could print no more than eight pages at one time. It took about two hours to print the paper in those days and now it’s simply a matter of
minutes with high-speed computer-run presses.
The hot metal system had been
used for many decades and was a very dirty operation. Just as we came to
town in 1969, newspapers were starting to change to what was called the
offset method. It involved no hot metal or mess. Soon it became clear that
this new system was the wave of the future and so the new building was
built and opened in 1972 right across Fourth St. facing on Main (at the
site of the old Sinclair gas station and Dr. Fred Calloway’s office). It
is located across the street from the post office and still houses the newspaper operation today.
There we had our own very fancy and modern
press utilizing the offset process which used chemicals instead of hot
lead. Now we print at a separate printing facility on the east side of
town.
Just down the street from the newspaper office, I believe where Union Electronics is located today, was a store called Haffners. My memories
of that place with its old fashioned creaky hardwood floors, open space and
employees stationed around the room, brings me to what I thought was a
funny story. All the ladies who worked there seemed to be at least the age
of my grandmother. My recollection is that several would be in front
standing and others would be in the back standing around the room
presumably to help customers. I remember entering the store one day. I was
in a hurry because it was the holiday season and I needed a bow maker. In
those days — the early ‘70s — that would be a triangular plastic thing that
you would wrap ribbon around and push a plug of plastic through the middle.
That would then push into the box to decorate the Christmas present. Mine was lost or broken, so I was on a quest to find a new one as I entered
Haffners that day.
I looked around quickly and did not see any, so I
approached the nearest lady for help. I described what I was looking for
and explained what it did. She looked directly at me and said, “Yes, yes, I believe I know what you’re talking about. We even had a lot of call for those last year.” Then she again turned to me and said, “But, we don’t have any.” So much for stocking things people ask for. I thought,
OK, I am in a different world.
As I have said every time I’ve written one of
these stories of the past, there was no better place than Marysville for
children to grow up and for us to have great lives with great friends. I’m
so glad that we made the decision to live in Marysville all these
years.
More of my memories of Marysville will follow in the
future.
1/29/10
Brad Gibson in Bangladesh
Brad Gibson, vice president of communications and
marketing at Union Rural Electric in Marysville, is currently stationed in
Dhaka, Bangladesh, in an effort to aid that country in establishment of electric power. He will make several trips there through this next year
and has agreed to share some of his experiences from that country.
His
position as a consultant is to help improve communications for the 70
distribution electric cooperatives (locally called PBSs) throughout the
country. Collectively, they supply electricity to over 7 million accounts,
and deliver the gift of power to over 49 million people.
Just to give
you a little history, Bangladesh is 88 percent Muslim and was carved out of
an area of Pakistan and India. This part of the world has been an area of
turmoil for centuries. In 1971, riots and strikes broke out in East
Pakistan as that area tried to establish the independent state of
Bangladesh. Pakistan sent troops to quell the rebellion. The ensuing war
was one of the shortest and bloodiest of modern times, with the Pakistan
army occupying all major towns, using napalm against villages, and
slaughtering and raping villagers. In 11 days it was all over and
Bangladesh, the world’s 139th country, officially came into
existence.
The new country experienced famine in 1973-74, followed by
martial law, successive military coups and political assassinations.
Finally a democracy was established and has operated since 1996.
When I
asked Brad about the climate, I expected to hear that it was hot and humid.
Instead he informed me that there is a severe cold spell with temperatures
in the low 40s, which is quite unusual (so much for global warming). He
said there is no heat in buildings and many people do not have hard-walled
homes and live without access to even a blanket. It is causing deaths among
the feeble and elderly.
Then he talked about his living conditions : “In
Dhaka (where I’m based out of and the capital of Bangladesh), they are
quite westernized and I have a warm bed, air conditioning if necessary, warm water shower, and a comfortable living room and dining room. I stay in a guest house rather than a hotel. I am traveling outside of the capital this week and am staying in what has been described as the
best accommodations available in Rangpur. Suffice it to say it would not
qualify as a one star hotel in the United States. In the “deluxe” room they
assigned me, I do have warm water, but the shower is only a head coming out
of the wall and sprays over everything if used. There is a hole in the wall
(apparently a window), but there is no glass or a screen covering it. That
is unfortunate as the mosquitoes are plentiful and malaria is a very
serious threat. Fortunately the bathroom door securely closes and I sleep
under a net alongside my malaria prescription.”
“Having been in Rangpur
for four days now, I have yet to see another Caucasian person. Some have
said that makes me a celebrity, but I’d argue it might be more of a freak.
The locals love to have their picture taken. Some are even brave enough to
ask for a picture with me, but most just politely stare.”
Brad’s job has
many hurdles to overcome. He said, “Millions of users are still in line to
even be connected to the grid and live without power. Their wait continues
as the demand for electricity in the country is over twice as much as what
the power supply companies can currently deliver, which causes rolling
outages throughout the day. This makes it very difficult for farmers
running pumps and small business trying to increase capacity and count on
equipment, and frustrates the end users. Additionally, theft of material
(lines and transformers) is prevalent and causes additional unnecessary
outages and costs which are hard to recover. Communications efforts will focus on explaining the cooperative business model and power supply issues. Thus far I have been submerging myself in the culture to better
understand how they communicate and what methods of communication will
potentially serve our purpose.”
“The average household income is somewhere
around $1,200 per year and good jobs deliver incomes of around $2,400 per
year. There are many millions of people in the country living in severe
poverty with incomes considerably lower than the average. A country nearly
the size of Iowa has approximately 160 million people — the crowds are almost constant and rickshaws line the streets of not only the city streets, but also the country roads.
More from Brad later as he shares
his knowledge with the people of Bangladesh.
1/22/10
40 years ago in Marysville
A few weeks ago I started this series dealing with
my first few years of living in Marysville. I came here in 1969 as a young
bride of less than two years. Things were really different here than in
Columbus where I grew up.
At that time I would say there were less than
10 doctors in Marysville and the general practitioners often covered the
emergency room and assisted in surgery. There were no pediatricians, obstetricians or gynecologists.
Not long after we moved here, I was
pretty sure I was pregnant. Instead of returning to my 0B-GYN doctor in
Columbus, we decided our child should be born in the Marysville hospital
and I needed a local doctor. It seemed to be widely held that Dr. Harold
Stricker was great for baby deliveries, so that’s where my husband, Dan —
who grew up in Marysville — thought I should go.
Oh my, it was an
experience back in time just entering his office. I called for an
appointment and I was told to come in at 1 p.m. So I did. His office was
located in an old house about where the Richwood Bank is now on West Fifth
St. I walked in and saw a large square room where metal chairs lined the
outside walls and a small metal desk was at the end of the room. There was
old, green tile on the floor. I stepped up to the lady (Madeline Robinson I
would find out later) who was wearing nurse’s attire and said that I was a
new patient. She said, “Have a seat,“ so I did.
I waited there while
other people continued to fill the room and sit down in chairs. This went
on and soon there were about seven prospective patients sitting in the
chairs and no one seemed to have reported to the nurse.
Finally a nice
looking older man came in from the side door and said to the nurse, “Who’s
first?” She pointed to me and that was my first meeting with Dr.
Stricker.
He was a little gruff at first and very businesslike. Later I
would learn he was a kind, gentle person and became my friend. The examining table was quite high up in the air and the patient needed a large desk chair to climb onto the table. I thought, what am I doing here? It was a sparse office that looked like something from 1920s.
He
soon told me I was going to have a baby and he would see me once a month
until our baby was born. I left by another door with a prescription for
prenatal vitamins.
As I returned each month, we went through the same
procedure. Apparently no one really had an appointment at his office. They
just came in, sat down and were seen in order. The patient would then leave through that other door.
All went well with this doctor and our
son, Mike, was born in Marysville. Only natural childbirth was offered in
those days and shortly after 1969 the Lamaze technique became more popular.
Of course, we did not have the epidurals of today to relieve the pain of giving birth.
Since there was no pediatrician, Dr. Stricker took care of
our son as did most of the family doctors in Marysville. They delivered
them and cared for them until they were grown. This seemed to work well
for the most part.
Marysville was a small town of about 5,000 people 40
years ago and even though close to Columbus it was quite self-sufficient.
This was a wonderful place for our children to be educated and grow up and
I’m so glad to have spent most of my life here.
The first of these
columns a few weeks ago brought much comment from those living in
Marysville a long time and also from some who had moved away and are
subscribing to the newspaper by mail or reading it online.
One question
came to mind from one of my readers, Joanne Rausch. Here’s what she had to
say: “After reading your article it got me thinking and reminiscing. I
remember Randall’s Bakery and fond memories of sugar cookies and the fried
cinnamon rolls. Many times I have wondered if any recipes for these were
available from anyone in town. They also had a wonderful cookie with nuts
and a very distinctive taste. If any of your readers have these recipes to
share I would appreciate it.”
I hope to have more of these memories of
Marysville in the near future.
1/15/10
More with Grant in Baltimore
Last week I told you about Grant Underwood’s new
job. He is a 2005 graduate of Marysville High School and last June
graduated from the Ohio State University with a degree in English and a
minor in music.
He joined a very select group of college grads in the Teach
for America program. He received a cram course in six weeks this summer to learn to teach, and now is in the dysfunctional, failing school system of Baltimore, Maryland. There, he teaches English to seniors, many of whom read on a sixth grade level. Everyone there is black and he is now in the minority.
His job has been a challenge in every way and
I can see he is up to it. Students do not have their own textbooks and
attendance is a problem. It’s a world unlike any Grant has been used to and
he has an opportunity to really affect the lives of these struggling
students.
Now more about his school.
If there’s a behavior problem, there
is no detention, actually no punishment of any kind in his school. Grant is
responsible for handling problems in his class, but fortunately he seems to
have been able to win students over. If you know Grant, you can appreciate
his kind, honest nature and see that he would be a breath of fresh air to these kids.
Their grades are not A through F, but appear as a percentage.
Grant is not allowed to give them less than 50 percent on the report card. It seems the students just move on each year and are finally passed on
to graduation.
Grant had a lot of trouble understanding their names. For
instance, he had three girls named Destiny all spelled in a different way. Students tend to mumble, so it was difficult to understand what they had to say and to know what their name was. Plus, students would make fun of him if he didn’t get their name right. So in the beginning, he decided to try a little white lie. He told them that he had a hearing loss in one ear and that they had to speak up and enunciate clearly for
him to understand them. Obviously all resources have to come into play
here.
Now if he gets the name wrong, half the students laugh and the other half are all over them saying, “Leave Mr. Underwood alone, he has a hearing loss — don’t make fun of him.” Grant considers this a minor victory.
In the beginning, this name recognition problem was complicated
by the fact that everyone goes by a nickname in his class — often associated with their appearance. So they wanted to use those nicknames
on their school papers and this became an impossible situation. Not only
did he have trouble with their given names, but also they wanted him to
learn nicknames, too! He put his foot down and now nothing but the proper
name goes on the paper.
To help the new teachers in this difficult first
year, mentors are available to meet with them during teachers planning
time, which is actually set aside for them to get ready for the next day.
They sit in on Grant’s class and offer suggestions. He says any help is
welcome.
The school does not offer much in the way of extracurricular activities. There are the basic sports of football, basketball, track,
and volleyball, but there is no band or a club of any kind. Grant actually
discovered the old band room one day with the help of some of his students.
That was used in better times. When inside, he saw that the ceilings were
falling down, tables turned over, and the place generally needed a good
cleaning. But there was an old piano there. Grant had told his students
that he played and of course now they’re trying to coax him into piano
lessons, which he’s considering in the future.
It’s a job that Grant
seems to embrace and I can see he’s going to provide these young people
with a view into another world — the one that Grant experienced as a
student in Marysville High School.
1/8/10
Two worlds meet in Baltimore
He is a 2005 graduate of Marysville High School
and valedictorian of his class. Last June he also graduated from the Ohio
State University with a degree in English and a minor in music. That didn’t
really prepare him for a teaching job, but that’s where Grant Underwood is at the moment. He was selected to teach through the Teach for America program and sent to the Baltimore, Maryland school system. As part of this program he also attends Johns Hopkins University in the evenings and some weekends working on his master’s degree in teaching (yes that’s what it’s called).
He has taken his world of Marysville, a semi
rural community of about 17,000 people who are mostly Caucasian, to the
inner city school system of Baltimore, where his students and much of the
staff are black and where he is now in the minority. Grant says they are
very interested in our life here as it is so different from theirs. They know the school they are assigned to is offering them only the
basics.
This summer, the Teach for America teachers had a six week course
on how to teach. Most do not have education degrees. This is a program to help these failing schools and is very selective about those chosen.
Grant is teaching seniors — about 80 of them a day. That’s if they come to
school. Sometimes there are as few as five in class. Most have jobs after
school.
This is a totally different world than where Grant grew up. It’s tough and the kids are tough. Many of his students are in gangs and some, even though they’re seniors, only read on a sixth grade level. Grant’s job is to bring some of his world and education to theirs and to affect their lives in a positive way.
His job is hard because the
school is in sad condition. In his English class, students don’t have their
own textbooks to take home. They share, reading during class. Students
prefer to read out loud because that’s what they’re used to. Grant insists
they learn to read silently, but the lack of textbooks is a big problem. He
has been able to get together enough copies of Hamlet for everyone through donations from an outside group. Also the quota of office copying is already used up for the year, so teachers often pay for copies of material at outside sources — all on a first year teacher’s salary.
It
gets worse. In his high school, there’s currently no math teacher. Two quit
their jobs and the third one is on maternity leave, so the math classes are
being monitored by substitutes who have little math training. It often
turns into more of the study hall situation or the students come and spend
an extra hour in Grant’s class or in the Spanish teacher’s class.
At the
end of last year, all the teachers were fired in his school because there
has been no progress for several years and it is known as a dysfunctional
and failing school. The classes are now manned by many of these new
teachers from Teach for America plus a few who were able to be
rehired.
Grant said he has never felt more fortunate to be a graduate of Marysville High School. There he had books. Then there were the teachers who have been there so long that his father had them for class. In Baltimore, students are in a constant state of change.
Next
week more with Grant Underwood and the Baltimore kids!
My wish for you in
2010
May peace break into your home and may thieves come to steal your debts. May the pockets of your jeans become a magnet for $50 bills.
May
love stick to your face like Vaseline and may laughter assault your lips!
May happiness slap you across the face and may your tears be that of
joy.
May the problems you had forget your home address! In simple words — may 2010 be the best year of your life.
Marysville Journal Tribune
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