Off the Hook Archive Home
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Off
the
Hook - Archive 2010
by
Melanie Behrens
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12/31/10 |
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12/24/10 |
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12/17/10 |
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12/10/10 |
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11/26/10 |
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12/31/10
Gabe Andrews meets kiwis
His family is well known in Marysville since his mother, Kim, is a nurse
with the Marysville School System and his father, Lenard, is a retired
teacher and wrestling coach. Gabe Andrews is the youngest of five boys,
all wrestlers, and now he has had the experience of a lifetime.
Gabe just returned from six months in New Zealand (population four
million) as part of his college study. He’s a senior at Ohio University,
but from last June to last week he studied in New Zealand as part of his
major of biological science. His interest is in environmental
conservation. Gabe is a soft spoken young man who thoroughly enjoyed
every minute in New Zealand. In the city of Dunedin, he attended the
University of Otago, a school of about 20,000 students. He said the
citizens of the country were very welcoming, but that was not so much
the case with the local college students.
He had the chance to kayak, swim with sharks and tropical fish of every
color imaginable, repel down a waterfall and explore the cave below, and
meet blue penguins. After school was over, he went to Golden Bay where
he volunteered at an organic farm for 10 days. He worked half days and
explored the beaches the rest of the time.
Halfway through his semester, in September, there was a two-week break
and that’s when the visit came. His father and Kevin Sampsel flew 13
hours from California to spend two weeks with Gabe on his break.
They started in the north of the country and worked their way down to
the south were Gabe went to school. At Lake Taupo, they began their
trip, and while staying at a hostile in Wellington, the capital, an
earthquake measuring 7.2 struck the city of Christchurch. At their
location, they only noticed a rumbling in their beds but there was
extensive damage in the area close to the earthquake.
While staying in the hostile, there were several people in one room in
bunk beds and it was coed. Lenard was sleeping in the bottom bunk and
Gabe was across the room to avoid his dad’s snoring. Kevin Sampsel
smartly got his own room to avoid that. Apparently it is legendary.
A young woman from Belgium was sleeping on the top bunk over Lenard and
couldn’t stand it anymore. The story goes, after much stomping around,
she woke everyone pointing her finger at Lenard and yelling colorful
words in his face. He quickly agreed to try to stay awake the rest of
the night!
In New Zealand, driving is on the left side of the road as in Britain.
Gabe drove his guests around, but then Lenard and Kevin went off on
their own and found themselves quickly on the wrong side of the road
with no way to get back to the right side for some distance. Luckily it
didn’t turn into a situation.
Gabe’s trip was 99 percent wonderful. The exchange rate is $100 U.S. to
$135 New Zealand money. The only negatives were $6 a gallon gas and
expensive food. Hitchhiking is safe and easy so Gabe did that for at
least 500 miles. His last month there was spent traveling with friends
around southern New Zealand and to the island of Fiji (actually composed
of several islands).
The weather was finally warm after extreme cold last summer (winter for
them). Heating was expensive in his apartment, so it was rarely turned
on. Gabe felt he could never quite get warm.
He plans to graduate in June and wants to join the Peace Corps, where
some of his many federal loans for this trip could be paid off with his
hard work. Wherever he goes, his goal is to help the world’s
environment.
12/24/10
Feliz Navidad
If you read my column regularly you will know that I have been taking
Spanish classes, and so have an interest in the culture and traditions
of Spain and Spanish speaking countries.
In Spain, Christmas is a very festive time .On Christmas Eve, tiny oil
lamps are lit in every house, and streets fill with dancers and
onlookers. There is a special Christmas dance called the Jota. The music
and words have been handed down for hundreds of years. Dancing is to the
sound of guitars and castanets. The Spanish especially honor the cow at
Christmas because it is thought that when Mary gave birth to Jesus the
cow in the stable breathed on the Baby Jesus to keep him warm.
Christmas is a deeply religious holiday in Spain. The country's patron
saint is the Virgin Mary and the Christmas season officially begins
December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. It is celebrated
each year in front of the great Gothic cathedral in Seville with a
ceremony called los Seises or the "dance of six." Oddly, the ritual
dance is now performed by not six but 10 elaborately costumed
participants.
Christmas Eve is known as Nochebuena or "the Good Night." It is a time
for family members to gather together to rejoice and feast around the
Nativity scenes that are present in nearly every home. A traditional
Christmas treat is turron, a kind of almond candy.
The children of Spain receive gifts on the feast of the Epiphany. The
Magi are particularly revered in Spain. It is believed that they travel
through the countryside re-enacting their journey to Bethlehem every
year at this time. Children leave their shoes on the windowsills and
fill them with straw, carrots, and barley for the horses of the Wise
Men. Their favorite is Balthazar who rides a donkey and is the one
believed to leave the gifts.
___
Now I move on to a cute Christmas story Don Degood sent me.
A man in Scotland calls his son in London the day before Christmas Eve
and says, "I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your
mother and I are divorcing; 45 years of misery is enough."
"Dad, what are you talking about?" the son asks.
"We can't stand the sight of each other any longer," the father says.
"We're sick of each other and I'm sick of talking about this, so you
call your sister in Leeds and tell her."
Frantically, the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone. "No
way they're getting divorced," she shouts. "I'll take care of this."
She calls Scotland immediately and says to her father, "You are not
getting divorced. Don't do a single thing until I get there. I'm calling
my brother back and we'll both be there tomorrow. Until then, don't do a
thing, do you hear me?” She then hangs up.
The old man hangs up his phone and turns to his wife and says, "Done!
They're coming for Christmas - and they're paying their own way!"
I wish you all the love and joy which is Christmas.
12/17/10
The Cotters of Switzerland!
Lisa and Sean Cotter (MHS class of ‘84) and their daughters, Anna
and Erin, are living in Switzerland, where Sean is employed by
Nestle. They will be there for a few years.
Lisa said, “Living as an expat (expatriate) is a wonderful experience
with a unique set of challenges. Switzerland is a beautiful country and
the culture is very different than what we are accustomed to in the
states.”
The government has an interesting makeup. Switzerland does not have a
president as we know it, but a board of seven individuals called the
Federal Council that acts as the executive branch. Each year, one of the
seven is elected by the United Federal Assembly as President of the
Confederation. The assembly also elects a vice president. By convention,
the positions of president and vice president rotate annually, each
member of the Federal Council thus becoming vice president and then
president every seven years while in office.
Switzerland has 26 cantons (kind of like states in the U.S.) and their
rights are very strong. They govern strongly within each canton and
things like holidays, school dates, times, language, and benefits can
differ greatly between them. Switzerland has four official languages -
French (the Geneva region, next to France), German (the Berne/Zurich
region, largest one, boarders Germany) Italian (the Ticino region,
boarders Italy) and Romanisch. It is as if we would travel from
Marysville to Dublin and feel like you are in an entirely different
country with a different language.
The Swiss franc is the currency of Switzerland. It is one of the world's
most stable currencies thanks to the neutrality, fiercely conservative
monetary policy and ample gold reserves of the Swiss national bank.
Swiss francs are also called by the official banking name CHF (from the
Latin name of the country -Confederation Helvetica). One U.S. dollar is
worth about one CHF.
Lisa said: “Here in our region you will not normally hear German even
though we are in the German region. You will hear the local
dialect, which is formally called Swiss German (or BernDeutch). German
is the written language, but Swiss German is the spoken language and can
vary from Berne to Zurich. So, with that being said, language is the
biggest obstacle. I do take German three times week. While my reading is
coming along, I cannot really speak it because I do not hear it. And
Swiss German - never in a million years. (It’s not a written language).”
Even though this is a wonderful experience for the Cotter family, I can
tell there is some home sickness and inconvenience. When I asked about
their food choices Lisa told me this: “Swiss food does not have a real
character. We think it is bland. They do not use a lot of spices (except
maybe curry). We tend to eat a lot of chicken, pork and pasta due to the
cost of beef. There is not a lot of convenience food, so I have become
an imaginative cook. The Swiss grow great vegetables, many root
vegetables. Some I don’t even know what they are."
Things they can’t get there are Bisquik, syrup, baking mixes (brownies,
cakes, etc.) soup in a can, or cheddar, jack or colby cheese. Yes,
they have Swiss cheese, actually made right in their region. There are
hundreds of varieties from different regions in Switzerland.
Lisa said: “Who knew buying Swiss cheese was like searching for a wine
you like. And they do taste differently. We know this because we have
been to several cheese festivals (a popular fall event in each town)
when they bring their cows out of the mountains for the winter. And yes,
the cows all do wear cow bells. These cheeses are called ALPKÄSE or Alp
cheese and each one tastes different according to what the cows from
that region graze on."
Unfortunately, there is no beef steak or other American cuts and no
pepperoni pizza (pepperoni is actually a pepper there - the Cotters
discovered this after ordering their first pizza.
Lisa continued: "We rarely go out for dinner because the prices are so
high. We went for Chinese dinner for four one night and it was 180
CHF (1 CHF=about 1$). Needless to say, this is a significant lifestyle
change for us. Also, the restaurants are all Swiss food when what we
really crave is Family Pizzeria and Chipotle. All restaurants are mom
and pop Swiss-style and all serve the same things - chicken, pork and
pasta. The wine is fabulous and there is no take-away or doggie bags,
and also no delivery.”
Restaurants are only open at certain hours. They serve during Swiss
eating hours, lunch at 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m., so you can’t get lunch at 11
a.m. or 3 p.m., and no dinner before 5:30 p.m.
You can see there is much to adjust to for this family from central
Ohio, but there are many positive experiences, too. I will share more
from them in a few weeks.
12/10/10
65 years and still having fun
It’s amazing, refreshing and heartening to meet a couple who has
spent 65 years together in marriage. Today, marriage is too often
considered more of a throw-a-way thing. Many couples don’t make an
effort to stay together.
Pearl and Betty Drumm are the exception. They said they made a
commitment and that was it!
Betty was born in 1926 in New Jersey, spent her early years in
Manhattan, and finally moved back to New Jersey graduating from
high school in 1944. Her father was a German immigrant (her mother
was from Norway) who worked for the railroad, so the family moved
often, mostly living in apartment buildings because that’s the way
it was done in the east.
Pearl was born in 1921 in Union County. He was one of 14 children.
He has spent his life in farming all over southern Union County.
Today he and Betty live on their 300-acre farm, which fronts on
Industrial Parkway in a modernized brick home built in 1868. It
had been George Coleman’s land several generations ago.
These two people from very opposite backgrounds met and married at
the end of World War II. Here’s how that happened.
Betty had finished her first year of college at the women’s
division of Rutgers University, known as the New Jersey College
for Women. She entered a five-year program to become a registered
nurse with a bachelor’s degree. There was only enough money for
the first year of college. After that she went to live in
Flushing, N.Y. with her aunt to work and earn money for the rest
of college.
Her sister was going to the shipyard one day to meet her boyfriend
and Betty went along. That day changed her life. There she met the
man she would marry in just three months. His name was Pearl Drumm
and he was a quartermaster third class in the U.S. Navy.
When I asked him what he did aboard his ship, the USS Phenakite,
he said he was at the helm and actually steered the boat. His
charge was a PYC (private yacht converted) number 25. In other
words, the federal government took over the yacht and used it for
its purposes during World War II.
Pearl and Betty got to know each other by rowing around the harbor
that day in a row boat. Betty said from that time on they saw each
other daily and at the end of three months she knew him well
enough.
He was a gentleman and very soft spoken. They married in New York
in a small ceremony with just a few family members around. Most
of Pearl’s family members were far away in Ohio and could not
attend.
That was Sept. 28, 1945. The war had just ended. The Drumms had
actually been at Times Square in New York City during the famous
celebration. Betty said it was solid people everywhere - no room
for cars on the street.
In 1946 Pearl was discharged from the Navy and the Drumms moved
home to Union County to farm with his family. Betty couldn’t
believe the difference in her new life. In New Jersey she had
never helped castrate a 200-lb. boar. She was six months pregnant
and sat on it while Pearl did the job.
Then there was the time she walked in on the butchering of beef.
That made her sick because she was two months pregnant. But she
held up well to most of the chores of farm life. She even baled
wheat. but then there was milking cows. She tried it once and it
didn’t work so she never went back. Pearl said she was just too
slow.
The Drumms have three children, Peg, David and Stephen. After
Stephen was born, Betty finally got a driver’s license and when
she was 48 years old she went back to school and became a licensed
practical nurse. She worked several places in the area including
The Ohio Reformatory for Women and the office of Dr. Rodney Hurl.
Their life together has been a good one. Pearl said he used to be
the boss, but somehow she got control and he doesn’t know when
that happened. Betty said that's just how it works. He says she’s
a nice woman and a good cook. She says he’s good man and lets her
do her own thing when she needs to.
They have nine grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and two more
on the way.
The Drumms agreed they don’t live high on a farm income but live
well, and life has been good to them.
___
Messiah to be performed
Did you know that Handel’s Messiah was written 268 years ago
(1741) and premiered the following April in Dublin, Ireland?
And, did you know that it is one of the most popular works in
Western choral literature?
We are privileged to once again experience this musical event at
First Presbyterian Church. The singers come from all over Union
County. As in the past they will be accompanied by an ensemble
from the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. Performances will be
Friday, Dec. 17, 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 18, 3 p.m.
12/3/10
Aqui se habla espanol
Her PhD is in microbiology, but she grew up in northwest Mexico
and now to celebrate her heritage, teaches Spanish one night a
week to those who want to learn a second or even third language.
Dr. Maria Quinonez lives just outside Marysville and works in
research in Dublin.
I met her through the International Family Center (IFC) Spanish
class. Soy su alumna (I am her student). When she first came to
Marysville the IFC was a lifesaver for her, since she thought
there wouldn’t be Spanish speaking people in the area. She was
proven wrong. How she got to Ohio is an even better story.
Maria was born in the part of Mexico near the Baja Peninsula. Her
state is called Sinaloa and she lived in its capital city of
Culiacan, which has about one million people. She was a good
student and after high school (which is only three years there)
she went off to the local college where five years later (the
least possible time
to graduate) she earned her degree in chemistry.
College was free for her and the country of Mexico also offers
scholarships outside of that country for selected special graduate
students. Maria was chosen to be one of them and was sent to the
University of Arizona in Tucson. She was 23 years old and did not
speak English, so she was provided with a six-month, intensive, all-
day, English class so she could pass the test of English as a
Foreign Language, which in her field required the highest score.
This, along with the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), would get
her ready to go
to graduate school.This was a tough time for her. Learning English was
hard, but with the intensity of the class it came quickly. Soon
she was in graduate school sitting in the front row with all the
other foreign nationals to record the professor’s every word -
back then she thought her
professors spoke too fast.There were times when she thought - I just
can’t do this. My English isn’t good enough. But five years later
she received her PhD in microbiology.
Maria was required to go back to Mexico to give them two years of
service. That’s where her life gets really complicated. She was
working in Mexico and also busy online meeting David Shaw from
near Marysville. They corresponded back and forth on the internet
and made phone calls. After about a year, they eventually met face
to face.
It quickly became a long-term relationship, so she started to look
for a job in the U.S. and got a scientist position in the state of
Washington. Now that wasn’t very close to Ohio where David lived,
but at least she was in the same country and it was easier to see
each other more often. Three years later they married in the
First Presbyterian Church in Marysville. It was winter time, so
they went down to Mexico for a warmer honeymoon on the Pacifc
Ocean.
Maria’s job was still in Washington and she liked it, so she
stayed there and worked even after they were married. David worked
at Honda near Marysville. She said that it wasn’t until she was
seven months pregnant when she came to the conclusion that with
the baby coming, she would have to move to Ohio and be with her
husband all the time.
Maria has followed her country’s tradition of keeping her maiden
name. Actually, in Mexico children often have two last names. The
first is the father’s last name and the second is the last name of
the mother. Her husband David is fine with that since he said he
might learn to speak Spanish some day. So far that hasn’t
happened.
Their son, Diego, is fluent in both Spanish and English.
Fortunately, Maria contributes much to the Marysville area. She
has taught classes in Mexican cooking at IFC and Spanish I and II
for the last three years. The class is one night a week for 10
weeks at a time.
Maria es mi maestra (my teacher). Hablo un poco de espanol. Muchas
gracias, Maria. Surely this will be worth some sort of extra credit!IFC
offers much to the community. Spanish classes are just some of the
opportunities. This winter, IFC will offer Spanish I or II and
more in the spring. To check on availability, those interested can
call Lorli Patterson, director, at (937) 644-4646.
11/26/10
50 years of mothers, grandmothers and more
Some days are better than others and
this was one of the good ones, which makes me think that I’m so
glad I have this job. There are some definite perks at times and this
invitation was one of them.
It all began when Avonelle Oberlin invited me to be the guest of
her mother’s study club. This isn’t just any group. It’s one which has
been together for 50 years.
The Modern Mothers Study Club began in 1960 with 11 members. It
has now grown to 13 and there are still four of the original members -
Jan Bright, Nancy Pfarr, Bonnie Hall and Libbie Johnson. Being together
for 50 years in this environment is amazing.
In the early years, the group met in homes at 8 p.m. and Nancy
Pfarr remembers that the children had to be tucked into bed so the
husbands would not have to worry about them. Then the women were off to
have their meeting and importantly, a night out. That’s how it was in
the 1960s.
Programs were informative and geared toward things that would
interest young mothers. They have also always done philanthropic
projects.
Now, the group meets during the day and members enjoy taking day
tours and eating out. Oh, how things have changed.
The celebration of the club’s 50th year took place at the Houston
House, home of the Marysville Art League. Joy Boyer, a native of the
United Kingdom, lead the group in a traditional English tea. Even though
Joy has been in the U.S. for almost 40 years, she travels back to
England frequently and has tried to keep her traditions alive, including
the tea.
Traditional English tea began in the 1700s and the Duchess of
Bedford is credited with its inception. It seems during those years a
hearty breakfast was served and then the men of the times were off to
hunting and fishing while the women were left back at home. They became
pretty hungry between 3:30 and 4 p.m., so they started drinking tea
and added tiny sandwiches and sweets to their ritual.
Joy says the most important thing about it is boiling water. She
does not approve of the microwave. Boiling water is placed in a
teapot with the tea and steeped until it is just the perfect time to be
served. You must add egg and cucumber sandwiches and scones to make it
truly traditional, but Joy’s husband also makes a mean little sandwich
of ground ham, cranberry sauce and cream cheese. That was my favorite
served on very thin bread.
For Christmas tea, mince tarts and lemon curd plus tea bread and
cake are added. How could you go wrong with that?
It was a lovely afternoon and I was honored to be asked to attend.
This group of women has stayed together a long time. They began with a
total of 25 children among them. Now there are 47 children, 69
grandchildren and at least 13 great-grandchildren. I think they’re lucky
to have the friendship of each other for so many years.
11/19/10
Back in Bangladesh
His humanitarian experience began last year
when he took on an assignment to help the people of Bangladesh.
Brad Gibson, vice president of communications and marketing at
Union Rural Electric in Marysville, is back in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
This is his fourth trip this year in an effort to aid that country
in establishing electric
power.
Last winter after his first two trips, he shared his thoughts
and experiences with me. You can read those stories by going
to Marysvillejt.com and click on Off the Hook, then on archives.
His position as a consultant in Bangladesh 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 power to over 49 million people.
Bangladesh is 88 percent Muslim and was carved out of an area
of Pakistan and India. The threat of malaria is real. His
living conditions in Dhaka are OK, but when traveling outside the
region he has stayed in “one star” hotels with holes (open to the
outside) in the wall and slept under a mosquito net.
It’s a country of extreme poverty. He reports that 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, Bangladesh has approximately 160 million people. Crowds
are almost constant and rickshaws line the streets of not only the
city streets, but also the country roads.
Brad found a way to help. Before returning this time he realized
he didn’t need any luggage for himself since he left his
possessions there. That freed up about 170 lbs. of goods which he
could take to Bangladesh at no cost, and so organized a children's
clothing drive through his friends and on Facebook. He had so much
he couldn’t take it all, so the rest went to the local Goodwill
Store.
Some of the clothing was distributed at the Maer Achol Home
for Street Children in Dhaka. Brad explained that this
organization provides a home and schooling to approximately 70
orphans found living on the streets. Prior to being taken in,
street children have a life expectancy of only 25. The orphans are
ages 5 to 18 and any of
the clothes that fit them were given to them first. The
facility operates on a very small budget and provides not only
education, but also food, shelter, and clothing.
The remainder of the clothing items were distributed in one of
the slums in Dhaka. Brad said: “There was absolute mayhem as
people swarmed to be given the free clothes. Word spread quickly
and soon there were hundreds and hundreds of people waiting and
pushing in line to receive clothing. A change of plans for
distribution had to take place quickly so that people didn't
trample one another.”
Brad is an example of Americans doing good deeds, something we
don’t hear about enough!
11/12/10
Gosia and her new country
This is part two of my story about Marysville resident Gosia
Cymbal. She is a native of Poland, now an American citizen, and is
married to
American, Chris Cymbal.
She came to central Ohio 11 years ago as an au-pair. In that
program the young woman comes for just one year to work for a
family by caring for their children and in exchange their college
tuition is paid. Gosia went to The Ohio State University and
studied Italian.
She also wanted to see the country. Her goal was to see as much of
the U.S. as she could in one year, but she met Chris and fell in
love. She returned to Poland, but they were married two years later.
After their marriage, Gosia went back to school to finish her
master’s degree. This time she was at Capital University in her
last month of working on her MBA. She had an instructor for a
class which she needed to finish her master’s degree, who said no
one could miss more than two classes, and if they did, they would
not pass.
Gosia had only one problem. She was now pregnant with their first
child and was about to deliver the child shortly before the end of
the class. Her mother came to this country to be with her for the
birth, which was imminent. But there was no way Gosia was going to
miss finishing her MBA.
Little Natalia was born on a Thursday. Gosia missed that day and
she was going to miss the next Tuesday, so she dragged herself
into the class one week after giving birth (the following
Thursday), because she couldn’t miss one more day.
Every one in the class wondered what she was doing there and
she reported, “I need this class to finish my degree and my mother
is with my child.” The instructor seemed quite surprised and
finally announced she would have given her a pass for childbirth.
But no
problem. Gosia had determination. I can report that she received
her MBA right on time.
As you can imagine, anyone who has English as a second language
will have an occasional problem with it. We have problems with it!
First
let me say, Gosia’s English is excellent, but sometimes one can
get words mixed up.
One afternoon Gosia decided to let her husband know what she
was having for dinner that night so he wouldn’t have the same thing
for lunch. She was going to e-mail him the menu. In the past she
had made brownies, which her husband loves and she had also made
hash brown
potatoes. They shred them and make a potato pancake.
In the middle of the menu she got confused and said that she
was fixing hash brownies for dinner. When reading this at work on
his e-mail, Chris fired back, "Dont say such a thing on my
office computer. You have mixed up some words. That could be
totally misunderstood!" She had no idea what he was talking about,
but he explained to her later that hash brownies could mean that
the brownies had drugs in them.
Gosia was horrified and now knows the difference between brownies
and hash browns, for sure.
Even though her family is far away in Poland and holidays
are difficult, she has her children Natalia, Tomek and Kalina along
with
husband, Chris, to start new traditions in her life in the U.S.
To read part one of Gosia’s story, go to Marysvillejt.com. Click
on Off the Hook and then on archives.
Molly Deere wins
Marysville resident Molly Deere won the $5,000 Betty Crocker
cookie contest! Two weeks ago I mentioned it in my column and asked
you to vote for her. She appreciates all who did that. To see her
recipe and many others, just go to Google and then Betty Crocker
mix it up
cookie contest.
(Melanie Behrens - melb@imetweb.net)
11/5/10
From Poland to Marysville
I met her in my Spanish class (more about the class in future
weeks) and she has several languages at her command. She speaks
English very well, knows a little Italian and of course is fluent
in her native Polish. Her name is Malgorzata, Gosia for short, and
she is a bright, charming young woman married to an American,
Chris Cymbal, and they live in Green Pastures.
She grew up in Klobuck, Poland, a town slightly larger than
Marysville. Her brother and parents still live in the same area.
She and her family get back to Poland about once a year.
Gosia said most of Polish high schools are specialized and she
attended one with foreign language emphasis. There are also others
for students who want to go into accounting or engineering.
Engineering requires an extra year, extending high school to five years.
After graduating from high school in 1995, she went on to college
and earned her bachelor’s degree in international business. Then
her goal was to travel a bitmore. She had already seen Africa and
most of Europe so the U.S. was next on her list and the best way
to get there was to work as an au-pair.
Au-pair service provides a young woman with pay for college study
and in return she works 45 hours a week in the home of the host
family caring for their children. The service lasts for only one
year. Gosia lived with a family in Bexley on the east side of
Columbus and studied Italian at The Ohio State University. She
would finish her MBA at Capital University as a newlywed.
She wanted to see the U.S. as much as she could while living here
for that one year. She didn’t necessarily want to meet someone and
fall in love, but that’s what happened. Just a few months after
coming to Columbus, Gosia met Chris, who had just moved to the
Marysville area and worked at Honda. She immediately laughed at
his name because in her native Polish language, Cymbal means
“goofy,” but she says only in a nice way.
At the end of her year working as an au-pair, she returned to
Poland and then Chris visited her twice. It soon became clear they
couldn’t live in different countries and were married two times,
once in Poland and then in the U.S.
Her life has been good here in our country, where she has been for
11 years. She and her husband have three children.
Some things are very different though, one of which is Christmas
traditions. In Poland, their Santa Claus actually comes on Dec. 6
and brings presents. OnChristmas Eve, Dec. 24, the family gathers
for a large feast. It features no meat. Fish (carp) is served
because that is the fish for poor people and Jesus was poor. Also
noodles and many poppy seed dishes are favorites. Poland is
primarily a Roman Catholic country.
On Christmas Eve, an angel brings gifts to the family since Santa
had already done his job earlier in the month. The Christmas
celebration continues through Dec. 26 when family members usually
travel to each other’s homes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Gosia has had interesting experiences both while working on her
degree and with the language. Next week we will talk about that.
(Melanie Behrens - melb@imetweb,net)
10/29/10
The Nicols of MHS class of
‘93
Tony and Tiffany (Hall) Nicol both 1993 Marysville High School
grads are living in Medina. They have two little girls, 8 and 5,
but their story began many years ago.
Back at MHS, Tiffany was a cheerleader and her boyfriend, Tony,
played football and basketball. They both went on to Bowling Green
State University andalso went separate ways. As they were about to
graduate, the romance returned and they married one year after
graduation.
They lived in Houston where she taught English and he worked for
the PGA Tour. The tour championship was held at Champions Golf
Club near Houston that year. A year later they were back in Ohio
where Tony had several positions with Wells Fargo and Tiffany
continued to teach and also serve as cheerleading advisor.
Now they live in Medina and Tony has his own recruiter company
called Alliance Search Solutions which works with companies all
over the country placingengineers and operations and supply
chain professionals. He has placed some in the Marysville area.
While they live a couple of hours away, the Nicols still return to
the area frequently, where their families still live.
___
Molly Deere needs your vote ... tonight!
Molly Deere of Marysville needs your help. She is one of five
finalists in the Betty Crocker cookie recipe baking contest. It
started with thousands of entriesand now the $5,000 prize will be
decided today.
Molly is a graduate of The Ohio State University and works in
Plain City. She loves to bake and her friends have always been
saying she should enter acontest, so here it is.
The participant has to submit an original recipe using a Betty
Crocker cookie mix. She has reached the finals with four others,
and is the only one with a cookie recipe which she calls the maple
walnut white chocolate chip cookie. The other four have different
kinds of desserts. At the website you can see a photo and it tells
you how to vote.
The public has the vote and controls who wins. You can vote many
times, but it ends today, so hurry to the website,
www.bettycrocker.com/community/recipecontests/cookie-contest
and help
her out. In addition you can pick up many new recipes.
___
An eerie thing
It was just after lunch with my girlfriends as I was heading for
my car when I saw the upside down penny in the parking lot. I
asked the friend next to me, "Are you only supposed to pick these
up if the penny is heads up?" She replied that it's OK either way,
but some also say that when you pick up the penny, it will have a
date on it relating to someone in your life whom you have lost.
I said OK, whatever, and picked up the penny. We turned it around
and it was difficult to see the date, but we finally determined it
to be 1983. I looked at myfriend and told her that was the year
both my parents died. She said, “What did I tell you!”
I got in the car and drove away and thought how interesting this
was. About two hours later in a different parking lot on my way
into a store, I saw another penny on the ground. This time it was
heads up.
It was easy to read, clearly 1967. That’s the year I was married,
but no one died. Hmm, it would, however rank also as a big year in
my life.
This theory is not something I had heard of, but now every time I
pick up a penny, there will be a quick look at the date to see how
it might relate to my life!
___
Interesting fact: This October has five Fridays, five Saturdays
and
five Sundays, all in one month. It happens once every 823 years!
(Melanie Behrens - melb@imetweb.net)
10/22/10
Honor flight for two veterans
They have been through the experience of a lifetime. Two men in
their eighties, Homer Viers and Bob DeGroot, recently went on the
Honor Flight, which takes veterans of World War II on a day trip
at no cost to them to see the World War II Memorial in Washington,
D.C.
Several others from Union County have gone on the Honor Flight.
Those we know about include Le Herron and Dana Scheiderer.
It was the brainchild of Earl Morse of Enon, Ohio. He is a private
pilot who owns a plane and became aware that each day about 1,000
WWII veterans die. Most have never seen the relatively new WWII
memorial.
Earl and other friends who own planes began flying veterans at no
charge to see the site. The movement has grown into the Honor
Flight. Commercial aircraft is now used to fly veterans to the
nation’s capital on Saturdays.
Homer and Bob beamed as they told me about their fantastic trip,
which included 85 veterans and 50 volunteer guides, some as young
as 17 and all paying their own way, to watch over the vets for the
day.
Some were in wheelchairs and others needed oxygen, but special
arrangements were made for all of them in an effort to make sure
their day was perfect.
The two Marysville residents went on two separate weekends, but
had almost identical experiences. Their day began Saturday at 5:30
a.m.
The airplane departed from Port Columbus at 7:30 a.m. It was just
a little over an hour flight to Baltimore and then a bus ride
to Washington D.C.
The buses took them to see several monuments including the one of
Marines raising the American Flag atop Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima.
Finally they reached the giant World War II Memorial, which both
men agreed was about the size of a football field in a circular
pattern.
Bob noted that it was recessed into the ground so that it would
not block the view of both the Washington Monument and Lincoln
Memorial on either end of it.
Both Bob and Homer served in the South Pacific at the very end of
the war and neither had to see combat. Bob said he was angry about
that, but his mother was happy.
Bob was a yeoman second class in the U.S. Navy, enlisting in 1945
and serving on board the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Sicily. Later
his service took him to the island of Guam where even though the
war was over, about 150 Japanese were hiding in caves on the
island. They somehow obtained civilian clothes and tried to hide
in the U.S. military chow lines in the morning. Usually a Shore
Patrol jeep would speed up and capture them.
Homer was a corporal in the Marine Corps. He said he was drafted
into the Navy, but didn’t want to wear bell bottoms, so he
volunteered for the Marines. He was a radio operator. His service
took him to Guam, China and, with the occupation forces, Japan.
The two men experienced warmth, kindness and many thanks for their
service at every stop. When they returned home to Columbus at about
9 p.m. Saturday night, there was a giant crowd of nearly a
thousand people at the airport, including Boy Scouts, waiting to
say “Thank You” again.
A group from Knox County sponsored the trip for Bob and the city
of Westerville was Homer’s sponsor.
Their day was one of extreme pride and patriotism.
(Melanie Behrens - melb@imetweb.net)
10/15/10
Moving down the field
For her, it has been the experience of a lifetime and one
she describes as awesome. Jill Sements (MHS class of ’79) is a
member of the chain gang, that is, the one on the football field.
She’s one of the few women in the area doing a very important job
at home Marysville High School football games.
She’s had experience with football in several capacities over
the years. Her brother, Jay Groat, (MHS class of ’76), played
football and she was always at his games. Then there was her own
high school time when she was a cheerleader and on the homecoming
court in the football season of 1978. Tonight, her daughter,
Heather, will also serve on the Homecoming Court.
Jill has been with the Marysville School System for 27 years
and serves as secretary at Bunsold Middle School. Now, on Friday
nights you can see her on the field as she volunteers to serve her
school in another capacity.
This all began because her husband, Bob Sements, has coached
the eighth grade team for more than 20 years and she worked the
chain gang for his team. Then she also volunteered at the ninth
grade and JV levels, so when the athletic director offered her the
position this fall, she couldn’t have been happier.
Jill says that as she moves up and down the field with the ball,
the best part is being totally involved in the game and seeing all
the action up close.
Voice of the Monarchs
He’s been known as the “Voice of the Monarchs” since 1972 (or 1973
- he’s not sure), and Ken Kraus is retiring his position this
year. He’ll be 70 years old and has decided that’s just long
enough. Ken has climbed those stairs at Monarch stadium and then
stood for the entire home football game for about 38 years and he
feels that it’s now time for a replacement.
It all began for Ken when he replaced the Rev. Jack Groat many
years ago. Ken, who has never missed a home football game in all
these years, worked with Bob Baldridge as a spotter and more
recently, Dave Irish. Now Jim Wimmers has taken that spot and
will replace Ken as the “Voice” next season.
Ken worked at O.M. Scotts and later served as a substitute teacher
in the Marysville School system. At the end of this home
football season, he can say he is now totally retired!
10/8/10
From Hoot’n Annie’s to Benny’s
I met her at Benny’s Restaurant and discovered she had an interesting
story to tell. Annie Schinke has been a server at Benny’s since about
2004 and really knows what she’s doing, especially remembering
everyone’s favorite item. You see, she’s had a lot of experience in the
restaurant business.
Even while in high school she owned her own pizza business (with her
parents’ help) where she began working after school at 15 years old. The
business was located where Iacono’s is now in the Shawnee Hills area.
After graduating in 1978 from Olentangy High School, she went
immediately to work at the Bogey Inn in Dublin. A few years later she
met Fred Neumeier. When he came to the Bogey, she taught him how to make
chili and club sandwiches since she had already been a cook there.
Eventually he became the general manager there and now owns Benny’s here
in Marysville.
But back in 1994, Annie learned from a friend that there was a bar for
sale in this area. Shortly after that she purchased the Balcony Bar in
Milford Center on State Street. She renamed it Hoot’n Annie’s and
started remodeling it and putting all her experience to work. There was
no kitchen when she bought the bar, but that was going to be an
important part of her plan.
Annie’s place was open from 7 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. six days a week. Along
with the bar came employees, a pair of elderly sisters, one of whom
lived across the street. She opened up for Annie every morning, helping
with the crazy hours. Many times Annie did not get back to her Radnor
home until 5 a.m.
She had a camera security system, but one Monday night she didn’t turn
it on and was robbed. There wasn’t much money inside, but she had a gun
for security and that was taken - a concern for everyone! Not too long
after, a man was robbing someone else and he had the gun. That tied him
to the other local robberies and she got the gun back.
Not only did the bar serve everything from steak to burgers, but also
bands played on the weekends. Annie is proud to have introduced Milford
Center to the “blues” on those many weekends. She also said that on
Saturday nights after a wedding it had become tradition for brides and
grooms in the area, to dance on the bar afterward. Also the bar was host
to its own wedding in the '90s. The newlyweds were regulars and Mayor
Bob Mitchell performed the ceremony.
Annie was the perfect bar owner. She didn’t drink. If someone had too
much, she didn’t hesitate to cut them off and drive them home. She did
so several times over her 10 years at Hoot’n Annie’s.
She sold the bar in 2004 and doubled her money plus had a good paycheck
all those years. Now she’s happy to be out from under all that
responsibility. She works daily at Benny’s in Marysville and loves
running into former customers from her Milford Center days.
Our conversation started when she showed me the picture her sister, Pam
Parana, took of an eagle that lives in a tree near her home. It comes
back in October and stays until spring. In fact, it has just arrived
again. The babies are born in the spring and then the eagles leave for
the summer. She believes they go to Canada. Her eagles stand about two
feet tall with a wingspan of about 5 feet. After the babies are born,
the male takes over caring for them.
Their nest is about six feet in diameter. It has been in the tree for
eight years and even survived the high winds from hurricane Ike.
Annie’s a hard worker and a great server, but why not? She’s been doing
it all her life.
10/01/10
Milford Center - 1930
The village of Milford Center just south of Marysville was founded
by George Reed in 1816, three years before Marysville. It’s a
little known fact, but in 1930, Milford Center had a newspaper.
That was 80 years ago. The town still survives with a population
of around 700 people, but that newspaper is no longer there. It
was called the Milford Center Ohioan and was published by W.
Edward Agner every Thursday, with a subscription price for a whole
year of $1.25 — always paid in advance, it said.
Nancy Pfarr recently loaned me a copy printed on Dec. 25, 1930.
She found it in the collection of her late husband, Dick Pfarr. He
was a local auctioneer for many years. She thinks he kept it
because there is an ad for an auction being conducted by his
father, John.This was a Christmas edition, in fact, since it came out on
Christmas day, but unfortunately there are a lot of ads for
Christmas decorations and Christmas cards, plus ideas for
Christmas gifts. Mr. Agner does apologize on the front page for
being a little late with this Christmas edition.
There were more than a dozen ads on the front page of the paper
(something which two decades ago was a no-no, but which today is
coming back in some newspapers). It was a four-page paper that was
a good 24 inches in width, and many of the stories were about
the illness of the day.
One story said that every third girl who dies from any cause
between the ages of 15 and 19, dies from tuberculosis. Of the 64
students who were examined in the school district, nine were
positive, 18 were suspicious, and 37 were negative. Then there was
a write-up on the death of Alfred Hinton (also tuberculosis) in
Columbus. This was obviously a large health problem in those days.
There were announcements about residents’ lives including one
saying that little Mildred Clegg of Marysville was operated on
Saturday by Dr. Snyder for removal of tonsils and adenoids. It
announced that she was getting along nicely from the operation.
Also, there was an article stating that John Taylor from Columbus
purchased half interest in the Clegg hardware store and that Mr.
Taylor comes highly recommended as a businessman.
There was mention of some births, short vacations and visits to
other people’s homes and then something that really interested me.
That story said, “Mrs. Julia Adams left Saturday for Toledo, where
she expects to spend the winter at the home of her son-in-law
and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. F. Herbert Young.” All I could think of
was that it’s colder during the winter in Toledo than here and
she must’ve been desperate for a place to go for the winter.
Of course, prices for everything were quite different 80 years
ago.
Remember, this was the beginning of the “Great Depression.” There
was an ad for the Hotel Columbus (in Columbus, Ohio), no address,
which said rooms with a bath ranged in price from $1 to $2.50 a
night.
There were two grocery stores in Milford Center at that time. At
the Kroger store, a dozen tangerines were 19 cents, sweet
potatoes, 6 pounds for 25 cents and three heads of lettuce were 25
cents. The other store was Kaufman’s Red and White store where
Christmas wrapped cigars, 25 in a box, were $1.09 (better sell
those quickly since it’s already Christmas), and a pound of coffee
was 29 cents.
Local residents tell me that Milford Center had a busy downtown
then.
Now, sadly, some of it stands empty as is the case in many tiny
villages.
9/24/10
Joe Grigsby - Marysville native, lawyer, jurist
I am proud to say that I knew the late Judge Joe Grigsby who
passed way last week. He was a kind and very charming man.
We collaborated on several columns. He told me how things were in
Marysville when he was a young man. I also interviewed him about
his personal life and
growing up in Marysville. Here is what he told me for my column of
April 6, 2001:
___
Grigsby’s life has been the law
I have just had the privilege of visiting with Joe Grigsby,
retired Union County Common Pleas Court judge. For more than 50
years the law has been his life’s work and is still to this day.
Born in 1919 in Columbus, he moved to Marysville as a small child.
His mother, Anastasia, was a Marysville native and her husband
died when Joe was only five months old. So she brought her family
back to Marysville (Joe had an older brother, Glenn, who is
deceased) and they lived with her sister. The ladies were part of
the Cody family of Marysville.
Joe’s mother later took in “roomers” to support her family. She
eventually worked in the courthouse and for the city of Marysville.
The two boys grew up at 215 N. Court St. in what sounds like an
active neighborhood at the time. The kids swam at the local
swimming hole behind what is now the city water plant. They
roller-skated on the only asphalt street at the time, Fourth
Street. Joe and Glenn both carried newspapers on Fourth and Fifth
Streets for many years.
Joe was a well rounded young man during his school years. He was a
good student and athlete. That included being a track star, a
sport in which he took honors in hurdle relays and participated in
the state finals in high hurdles. In football he was a running
back (they
called it left halfback in those days).
He was quite a history student and placed first in the state in
the annual history test. In the 1930s, these tests were given in
each subject on the local level and then the two best students
were sent to the state competition. Joe won it all.
His debate team also won the state competition. You can see he was
meant to be an attorney.
His graduating class in 1937 had 66 students of which 26 are still
living. After graduation, Joe wanted to go to college but money was
a problem. This was the time of the Great Depression so most
students had to work to go to college.
Joe’s experience was a little different. He was enrolled at Ohio
State University, but there were no jobs in Columbus. So each
Friday, he hitchhiked back to Marysville to work all weekend at
the Nestle plant or Isaly’s Ice Cream store.
Since he was paid $8 a week and rent at his boarding house on
Tenth Avenue at OSU was only $6, he had $2 left for
entertainment.
Actually, he said he became quite wealthy during his junior and
senior years. That’s when he joined Army ROTC and for that
experience was paid $25 a quarter for uniforms. This worked well
because once he purchased his uniform, the next three $25 payments
paid for college. And he remembers it was about $22 a quarter at
that time, so he had $3 left for fun.
During his college years, he continued his debate prowess on the
OSU Debate Team. In 1941, the team won the undisputed Big Ten
title at Northwestern. This was the first time in OSU history that
the debate team had won the title indisputably.
Upon graduation in 1942, Joe went directly into the U.S. Army. We
were in the middle of World War II. At beautiful Fort Sill,
Oklahoma,
his life really changed. There, he learned to fire large artillery
pieces and met his future wife, Rachel. She was an Army nurse and
later, after moving to Fort Bliss, they were married there. Then
both were shipped to the South Pacific in different units.
They hopscotched all over the South Pacific from Australia to
Luzon and the Philippines. Joe ended his tour in Japan.
Fortunately, Rachel and Joe were often sent to the same area at
the same time. She was working at an evacuation hospital and he
was a artillery forward observer. As the war ended, Joe was sent
to Japan just days before the formal surrender to prepare areas
for our occupation forces to camp.
Always having the study of law in his mind, Joe was accepted at
the University of Michigan after the war, helped by
well-appreciated G.I. Bill. He and Rachel lived in converted
government housing and two of their four children were born there,
Mary Catherine and Mike. Tom and
Teresa arrived later.
Gwynn Sanders was practicing law alone in Marysville, so when Joe
graduated he returned home to work with him. Their office was
located at 116 S. Court St. just a couple of blocks from his
boyhood home, where Bob Hamilton practices law now.
After 30 years in the practice of law Joe was elected Union County
Common Pleas Judge. He retired from the bench in 1991, but was
able to continue hearing cases around the state until 1999.
Now at 82, he said he has only taken two, two-week vacations and is
a self-described workaholic. For recreation he reads articles on
the law and watches the nightly news.
Currently he is still working with his son, Mike, who serves as
Marysville Municipal Court judge. Joe’s biggest claim to fame
would have to be his eight grandchildren and recently his newest
one great- grandchild.
9/17/10
Ruth meets Deloris ... again
You know the expression, it’s a small world. Now, almost every
day you hear another story about our connections to each other.
Here’s the latest story to add to the volumes.
Ruth Renz Hersherger spent much of her life as a teacher (28
years) and has lived in Marysville for the last 30 years. She came
here with her husband, retired pastor Ralph Hershberger, now
deceased, who served as visitation pastor at Trinity Lutheran
Church for 12 years.
They came to the Marysville area because their daughter, Ruth, was
a teacher in the Fairbanks School District and they wanted to get
back to central Ohio to be near her and events at Capital
University. Ruth went back to teaching and taught kindergarten at
Trinity Lutheran School for 10 years.
Her "small world" story began in 1944 as a new teacher and
single lady right out of Kent State University, where her
graduating class had only 100 in it. Many men were away because of
World War II.
She went to the Lakewood, Ohio school system near Cleveland
and greeted her first class of 29 six-year-old first graders. In
her class was one little girl she would never forget. Her name
was Deloris Delabarca and she was quite unhappy about first grade.
She would say, “I can't come into the class Miss Renz, I’m going
to vomit.” It seems she had loved her kindergarten teacher so much
and wasn’t sure about Ruth and the first grade. That problem
was eventually solved with persistence on the part of Ruth, and
both went on to live long lives.
In fact, recently a reunion occurred after 66 years. Little
Deloris is the younger sister of Marysville resident Lois Conrad.
Recently Lois’ husband, Tobe, passed away and Deloris came to be
with her sister at the funeral. That’s where teacher and student
met again.
As they entered the room they saw each other, remembering those
many years ago (Ruth is now 89 and Deloris, 72) when Ruth helped
little Deloris get a good start in life. They each still had the 66
year-old picture of Miss Renz and her class of first graders in
Lakewood.
It was a nice reunion and one the extended families enjoyed. Guess
we still have to believe it’s a small world!
–––
Thought for the day - How is it one careless match can start
a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
9/3/10
His intentions were good
His goal was to raise money and along with his team, which included his
wife Dr. Mary Applegate, Julie Sabo, Kelly Daum, Dr. Pete Mustillo and
John Applegate, he raised $10,000 for cancer research. His intentions
were good and Dr. Dave Applegate actually created a course of his own in
the Pelotonia bike riding adventure held recently.
This was not a race. The idea is to ride your bike and get pledges for
distances ranging from 25 to 180 miles. He planned to ride 43 miles, but
circumstances shortened his course to less than one mile. I’ll explain
that later. Actually that meant he raised more per mile than anyone
else!
He got his pledges. Specific amounts are required depending on
distances. If the goal is not raised it’s billed to the biker’s credit
card, in this case, Dr. Dave. But their goal was reached. He promised to
do well on the trip, feeling he was more physically fit than he had been
in some time and even had his bike tuned up the week before the
Pelotonia fundraiser.
Dave was going to ride 43 miles with a group of more than 4,000
cyclists. The take-off point was Chemical Abstracts on Olentangy River
Road near the OSU campus. Volunteers checked out the bikes beforehand
and noticed a problem. He had a flat tire and was quite surprised since
he had just ridden his bike down there the night before. The tube was
replaced and all seemed fine.
He had a special padded seat, padding in his bike shorts, riding gloves
and a helmet. He was ready.
Team photos were taken. There was time to warm up. He was part of the
casual riders group.
They took off — four across — and while still on the OSU campus, his
tube blew again but was quickly repaired. As he was wondering how this
could be happening, just a little farther down the road Dave heard a
loud pop, which he thought sounded like a gunshot. But no, it was his
bike tire again! Not only did the inner tube blow again, but also it
made a large hole in his tire. Oh no, was all he could think.
No reason was ever discovered for the calamity. Some new tires were
brought to him by an emergency crew after a half hour wait, but none of
them fit his bike so he just walked his bike back to the beginning.
One thing, he was not nearly as tired as the other people, but he felt
like he had failed his contributors. Then everyone heard of the sad
death of one of the cyclists who was struck and killed by a vehicle on
the road. That brought everything into perspective for him. (Last
weekend Julie Sabo and Kelly Daum along with Dr. Tom McConnell rode in
the funeral of that cyclist.)
Dr. Mary and Dr. Mustillo rode on, all the way to Athens and back. Dr.
Mary experienced flat tires, too. Even though she had trained
extensively for this trip, she admitted it was very tough to get back on
the bike the second day. But she made it home OK.
Dr. Dave and his group are still accepting donations through Oct. 13,
for which 100 percent will go to the effort to end cancer through
research at the OSU facility. Tax deductible donations can be sent to
his office — 1044 Columbus Ave., Marysville OH 43040. Also, it can be
done online at pelotonia.org.
He’s already geared up for next year and vows to go again.
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!
–––
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).
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!
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.
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.”
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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