Editor’s note: This is another column in Bill Boyd’s new series, “The Way It Was,” about growing up in Marysville. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories. With Marysville and Union County celebrating Bicentennial anniversaries in 2019 and 2020, respectively, these articles help depict what life was like in those early years. ––– We have had quite a few newspaper carriers over the years. Some were very good, others were so-so, and one or two were pretty lousy. None of them, however, were as good as the young lady who has…
Author: Bill Boyd
Editor’s note: This is another column in Bill Boyd’s new series, “The Way It Was,” about growing up in Marysville. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories. With Marysville and Union County celebrating Bicentennial anniversaries in 2019 and 2020, respectively, these articles help depict what life was like in those early years. ––– When I was five or six years old, my oldest sister, Betty, was in high school, and she loved to dance. There were often two or three of her girlfriends at our house, and they practiced new dance…
Editor’s note: This is another column in Bill Boyd’s new series, “The Way It Was,” about growing up in Marysville. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories. With Marysville and Union County celebrating Bicentennial anniversaries in 2019 and 2020, respectively, these articles help depict what life was like in those early years. ––– In the fall of 1941 when I was in the fourth grade, our teacher, Ms. Sweeney, announced a new program for our class to raise money for the school. We were going to sell magazine subscriptions. She gave…
Editor’s note: In this week’s column, Bill Boyd writes about his memories of Forrest “Shade” Watkins. Shade worked for the Union County Journal and Marysville Journal-Tribune for 42 years. He was a 1946 graduate of Marysville High School. He served as Marysville Mayor for several years. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories. With Marysville and Union County celebrating Bicentennial anniversaries in 2019 and 2020, respectively, these articles help depict what life was like in those early years. ––– Pictured above is Forrest “Shade” Watkins, right, working at the Journal-Tribune as…
Editor’s note: This is another column in Bill Boyd’s new series, “The Way It Was,” about growing up in Marysville. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories. With Marysville and Union County celebrating Bicentennial anniversaries in 2019 and 2020, respectively, these articles help depict what life was like in those early years.––– Pictured above is Jean Graham’s kindergarten building which still stands today in the alley off West Sixth Street behind Conrad, Leibold and Woerner CPA office. I think every public school in Ohio nowadays is required to include kindergarten in…
Editor’s note: This is another column in Bill Boyd’s new series, “The Way It Was,” about growing up in Marysville. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories. With Marysville and Union County celebrating Bicentennial anniversaries in 2019 and 2020, respectively, these articles help depict what life was like in those early years. ––– Someone recently asked me about the photograph that is used in the header of these columns, the one in which I am holding a toy gun. He asked if there is anything special about that photo. There really…
Editor’s note: This is another column in Bill Boyd’s new series, “The Way It Was,” about growing up in Marysville. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories. With Marysville and Union County celebrating Bicentennial anniversaries in 2019 and 2020, respectively, these articles help depict what life was like in those early years. ––– In the late 1930s and early ‘40s, Ohio had a 3 percent sales tax. When shoppers paid that tax, they received tax stamps as a receipt from the merchant. The revenue was used to finance schools. Individual schools…
Editor’s note: This is another column in Bill Boyd’s new series, “The Way It Was,” about growing up in Marysville. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories. With Marysville and Union County celebrating Bicentennial anniversaries in 2019 and 2020, respectively, these articles help depict what life was like in those early years. ––– I have written several times about the Marysville swimming pool and what a big part it played in the lives of kids who grew up in the1930s and 1940s. When I was about 10 years old, I was…
Editor’s note: This is another column in Bill Boyd’s new series, “The Way It Was,” about growing up in Marysville. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories. With Marysville and Union County celebrating Bicentennial anniversaries in 2019 and 2020, respectively, these articles help depict what life was like in those early years. ––– I lost a good friend recently, and I would like to tell you a bit about him. His name was Buddy, and he was somewhere around 100 years old. Those are “dog years,” of course, for he was…
Editor’s note: This is another column in Bill Boyd’s new series, “The Way It Was,” about growing up in Marysville. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories. With Marysville and Union County celebrating Bicentennial anniversaries in 2019 and 2020, respectively, these articles help depict what life was like in those early years. ––– During the late 1930s, when I was in the third or fourth grade, our teacher would occasionally march our whole class over to the high school building. We would go to the auditorium for special programs, maybe for…
Editor’s note: This is another column in Bill Boyd’s new series, “The Way It Was,” about growing up in Marysville. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories. With Marysville and Union County celebrating Bicentennial anniversaries in 2019 and 2020, respectively, these articles help depict what life was like in those early years. ––– When I was about 11 or 12 years old, I had several household chores that I performed regularly. Some of those chores took me to our basement. For example, I made sure the coal bucket at the top…
Editor’s note: This is another column in Bill Boyd’s new series, “The Way It Was,” about growing up in Marysville. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories. With Marysville and Union County celebrating Bicentennial anniversaries in 2019 and 2020, respectively, these articles help depict what life was like in those early years. ––– In 1938, when I entered the first grade in Marysville’s West Elementary School, my favorite time of day was 3:30 p.m. That’s when classes ended, and I often walked home with three boys in my class. One was…
Editor’s note: This is another column in Bill Boyd’s new series, “The Way It Was,” about growing up in Marysville. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories. With Marysville and Union County celebrating Bicentennial anniversaries in 2019 and 2020, respectively, these articles help depict what life was like in those early years. ––– During the 1930s, there were pilots who took airplanes to county fairs and other events like that. They took people up for a short airplane ride. When I was about eight or nine years old, my parents took…
Editor’s note: This is another column in Bill Boyd’s new series, “The Way It Was,” about growing up in Marysville. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories. With Marysville and Union County celebrating Bicentennial anniversaries in 2019 and 2020, respectively, these articles help depict what life was like in those early years. ––– Some time around 1990, our son, Dave, came back to Marysville to play in some kind of “old timers” touch football game on Lewis Field at the corner of Grove and Collins. I went to see that game,…
Editor’s note: This is another column in Bill Boyd’s new series, “The Way It Was,” about growing up in Marysville. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories. With Marysville and Union County celebrating Bicentennial anniversaries in 2019 and 2020, respectively, these articles help depict what life was like in those early years. ––– In the early to mid 1940s, Marysville High School had a football and basketball coach named John Ehlen. In his third year of coaching, he decided to add baseball as another sport. Several high school boys had urged…