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. ––– I think it’s pretty common for a 12-year-old boy to have an older boy he looks up to, you know, someone he admires and tries to emulate … maybe a lifeguard at the swimming pool, or a pitcher on the high school baseball team. I had a boy I looked up to that way, when I was 12 years old. His name was…
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. ––– It was sometime in the fall of 1940, when I was eight years old, that my teenage sister, Maryann, took me to a movie at the Avalon Theater. She and a lot of her high school girlfriends had been waiting for a movie to come to Marysville for weeks. The movie featured a new male singer named Frank Sinatra. It was his first…
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. ––– It was sometime in the early 1960s when I first met Bob Wright. A lot of people reading this probably knew Bob since he lived in Marysville for quite some time. He passed away a few years ago, only a day or so before his 101st birthday. Bob worked in Scotts Research Department in California. He and I, along with a salesman named…
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. ––– Sometime in 1938, I had a tooth that was kind of “touchy.” So my mother took me to see a long-time Marysville dentist, Dr. Nicol. His office was on the second floor of what is known today as the “Liggett Building” at 117 West Fifth Street. He had operated in that location since 1920. Before that, he practiced for years in an office…
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. ––– During the early 1940s, if you asked most kids what their favorite thing was at the Union County Fair, they would probably say, “the rides,” you know, the Ferris wheel, the Tilt-A-Whirl and things like that. I liked those rides and I rode on them all, but my favorite thing at the fair wasn’t the rides. It was the “Arcade.” It was a…
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. Editor’s note: Last week’s column is being republished this week because the above photo was inadvertently omitted. ––– During the 1950s, the minimum voting age was 21 years old. So the first year I was eligible to vote in a presidential election was 1956. That was the year President Dwight Eisenhower ran for re-election. I was really looking foreword to voting for the first…
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. ––– When we moved from Marysville to Columbus in 2010, we purchased a new American flag. We bought it at the “Flag Lady” store on North High Street. We fly it on special days, like Memorial Day and the 4th of July. We also occasionally fly it at other times, maybe for a week or two. It’s just nice to see it there mounted…
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. ––– It seems like every time I turn on the news nowadays, it is filled with reports about two of our U.S. Presidents who have mishandled classified documents; you know, things that could affect our national security. I think it all started when the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago, the Florida resort home owned by former president Donald Trump. According to the news reports, they found…
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. ––– When I was about five years old, I started going to Sunday school in the Methodist Church. I enjoyed those sessions – the singing, coloring, Bible stories and playing in the sandbox. Then, maybe a year later, I decided I would like to go to the church services in the sanctuary following my Sunday school class. So the following Sunday, my sister, Betty,…
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. ––– A few years ago, someone gave me the email address of one of my boyhood friends, Bert Sawyer. He was living in California, and we corresponded for some time. I told him how much I enjoyed his dad, Elwood, when I was a kid. He was always doing funny things that made me laugh. Bert said that, as a kid, sometimes his dad’s…
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. ––– It was some time in 1942, or maybe it was 1943, and I was tossing a ball around with a couple of my friends in our front yard. The ball went into the yard next door where the Hoopes family lived, and I went there to get it. That’s when I first noticed a sign in their front window. There was a blue…
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. ––– Both of my parents came from small families. My dad was an only child, and my mother had only one sister. That sister and her family lived in Columbus, and they came to Marysville frequently for family get-togethers. Those were the only relatives I knew about. Then one day, some old guy showed up at our house, and everyone called him “Uncle Jake.”…
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. ––– When I was a kid, my dad’s favorite pastime was fly fishing. Whenever he had some free time, Spring, Summer or Fall, he went fly fishing. In winter, however, he switched to tying flies, and I think he enjoyed that just as much as fly fishing itself. He did his fly tying at our kitchen table. He had a small vise that he…
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. ––– 1937 was a big year for our family. For starters, we got a new car, a Ford V-8. It took the place of our old Model-A Ford, which was a real basket case. It didn’t like to go up steep hills in any forward gear. So when we came to a really steep hill, my dad would stop the car and turned it…
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. ––– It was a big day for me when the Marysville swimming pool opened in 1937. I was five years old and we had been following its construction for months. Every now and then we drove past the site after dinner. My dad bought a season ticket for us, and we were all thrilled about that. My mother bought me a swimming suit. It…