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Off the Hook - Archive 2010
by Melanie Behrens

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.”
(Melanie Behrens - melb@imetweb.net)

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.
(Melanie Behrens - melb@imetweb.net)

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.
(Melanie Behrens - melb@imetweb.net)

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.”
(Melanie Behrens - melb@imetweb.net)

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.
(Melanie Behrens - melb@imetweb.net)

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.
(Melanie Behrens - melb@imetweb.net )

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.
(Melanie Behrens - melb@imetweb.net)

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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