A former Marysville resident left his hometown with an appreciation for the small things the city had to offer.
Jim Goche’ spent the first part of his life in Marysville. He graduated from Marysville High School in 1969 and left to go to college in England. He remembers when residents would get their groceries from Stockdale’s or Kroger’s, and people would go to Hoy’s Pool Hall and Kreakbaum’s Bar for entertainment.
“Nobody was particularly rich, nobody was terribly poor and we all sort of got along and lived our lives by getting along,” Goche’ said. “You respected each other, at least up to a point.”
However, Goche’ said felt he needed to leave Marysville for his own personal growth, “and that was impossible by staying in Marysville.” After college, he worked in historical preservation in New York and later as a deputy prosecutor in Washington. Now, he owns a farm in Olympia, Washington, that donates food to a local food bank.
On a trip to Marysville in the summer of 2018, he visited Edgewood Elementary School to scale the school’s longstanding jungle gym. Goche’ was part of the first class to attend the school back then.
Working in historical preservation, Goche’ said it reminded him of nostalgia and a piece of old Marysville still being preserved.
“Something as humble as a jungle gym brings back not only good memories, but literally when I was sitting on top of it, I was thinking, in 61 years, how many kids have played on this thing,” Goche’ said. “There are a lot of places in town that have people remember how important they are to them.”
In a time when his mother and grandmother worked at the Ohio Reformatory for Women and his father was a local dentist, he remembered Marysville as being a “coherent village and community,” and “downtown was still a vibrant place.” He said it was small enough to “get to any place walking or on your bike within 15 to 20 minutes.”
“There weren’t many places to go, so we had to make our own entertainment because we were surrounded by corn and soybean fields,” Goche’ said. “Unless you had a car and were willing to drive down to Columbus, there wasn’t much of any place to go.”
In his recent trip, as well as when he visited in 1991, Goche’ said he’s noticed significant changes in Marysville. He said Marysville has greatly expanded development, with old houses being torn down and more fast food restaurants built.
However, with how much the city is growing, he said he worries about Marysville becoming a bedroom community to Columbus. He said he wonders if city officials want to “retain some sense of that village that existed up until the 1970s.”
“City council and planning commission, from what little I’m privy to what they’ve been doing, seems to be chasing money, accommodating developers who want to put in bedroom communities and want to put in developments,” Goche’ said. “They don’t seem to be paying attention to their heritage. How can you know where you’re going when you’ve lost sight of where you’ve been?”
Goche’ said his mother wrote about how “Marysville was destined to change,” but he wonders if the increased access to Columbus and burgeoning population will still allow the city to keep its identity.
“People still identify with where they live, and home is such a powerful word,” Goche’ said. “The question for people in Marysville is: how would you like to define your home? Is it just a place where you crash or sleep before you drive to Columbus next day? Or is it a place you value and understand as a cultural resource and it’s a good place to live?”
For him, Edgewood jungle gym was a sign that Marysville could keep its heritage in some facet.