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Beyond the Town
Throughout my childhood there were the occasional trips beyond the borders of Carroll. And once I got my driver’s license these became a bigger part of my life. Here are a few memories linked to some occurrences outside of Carroll.
Melon Patch – We boys would occasionally raid some poor victim’s melon patch. One year Roger Davis had spotted a patch out toward Lockville. So a group of us loaded into Roger’s car. I distinctly remember Roger Davis, Brownie Benson and me but I don’t recall who the other boys were. Next to the melon patch was a cornfield. Roger parked the car at the opposite end of the cornfield in a grassy area. We all got out and proceeded to walk the length of the cornfield where we came to a fence. Just as we were starting to climb over the fence there is the blast of a shotgun. With a lot of adrenaline flowing (a shotgun blast will do that) we all high tail it out of there. We race through the field laughing and holding our arms up to shield our faces from the corn leaves. As we emerge from the other end of the cornfield we stop laughing because here is another man standing next to the car holding a shotgun. He tells us to get into the car. He tells Roger to turn on the headlights. He is soon joined by another man with a shotgun who presumably was the one who fired the warning shot. They talk as they keep us under armed guard and we wait. Roger would shut off the headlights but after a few threatening motions by one of our shotgun toting guards he would turn them back on. Then Roger would start the engine but again after one of the men with his shotgun steps in front of the car Roger would shut the engine off. Then he would turn the lights back off and this routine continued for about a half an hour. Finally a Sheriff’s Deputy arrives. He orders us out of the car and stands us in the headlights of his car and Roger’s car. He proceeds to take down all of our names, ages and addresses. We all give him this information until he gets to Brownie Benson. Much to our surprise Brownie gives him a totally fictitious name and address. I’m thinking that Brownie is making a big mistake by lying to the law. It is one thing to steal melons but an entirely different thing to lie to a law enforcement officer. The first gunman was the melon patch owner but could not press any charges because we had never entered onto his property. The second gunman owned the cornfield and the ground where the car was parked but he refused to press trespassing charges. So we were warned and set free. Then I changed my mind about Brownie’s action. All of our names were on the police record except for Brownie Benson.
Stoutsville – We went to a basketball game in Stoutsville when my brother Dick was a senior and playing on the varsity team. We were sitting in about the seventh or eighth row back. Mom was sitting to Dad’s left and I was sitting on his right. To my right was a young man who did a lot of yelling. Dick was playing well and making a few baskets and the neighbor to my right kept getting more vocal and obnoxious with his yelling. When he yelled “Stop the SOB”, my dad swung his arm right in front of my nose and hit the guy in the chest. I had no idea what was going to happen next as the guy was bigger and younger than my dad. But he just sat down and never uttered another word the entire night.
New Route 33 - Joe Blow (not his real name) had recently gotten his driver’s license and he had his own car. Right after school one day Joe and I are riding on new Route 33 just north of Carroll when a young man we recognized as one of the guys who hung out in Hordy’s, zooms past us. Joe takes off in hot pursuit and after a couple of miles catches up to the other driver. And then Joe does the stupidest thing I ever witnessed. He proceeded to pass the other driver, cut back in front of him very quickly and stomp on his breaks. The guy swerved to the right to miss us, hit the berm, lost control and rolled over at least two revolutions. We proceeded on down the road not knowing if the other driver was injured or even alive. We discussed the likelihood of Joe getting into trouble. He never did as far as I know. But a curious thing happened later that evening. I walked into Hordy’s and here was this other guy sitting there, obviously unhurt, playing rum as though nothing unusual had happened that day.
Flat Rocks – After Roger Davis graduated from high school he enlisted in the Navy. A few of us boys decided to have a going away party for him. I borrowed my dad’s car and we went to a bar named Flat Rocks which was north of Rising Park in Lancaster. We could all get served there even though most of us were under age. Later that night some of us were headed for Columbus to somewhere I don’t remember. Shortly after we passed Carroll on new Route 33 we came upon a parked car on the highway. Two men had stopped and walked off to the side of the road to inspect something. Now just how stupid was that? However, the ensuing accident was still my fault for not realizing soon enough that their car was stopped. I hit the brakes and crashed into the car. The police came and arranged to get my dad’s car towed back into Carroll and took us all home except Puss Boyer. Puss was in the back seat and appeared to be injured. He was taken to a hospital but soon released with nothing seriously wrong. I did not want to drive after that and spent my evenings working on bookkeeping. After about three weeks my dad asked if I wanted to go for a drive. I said “not really” but he persisted and we went. He made me drive. He recognized that my confidence was shaken and this was his way of helping me get it back. One good side effect of this sad story was that my grades in bookkeeping improved and I have a certificate in hand that says I placed Third in Fairfield County in the Preliminary District-State Scholarship Test that year.
Rock Mill – About my junior year in school we discovered that Rock Mill was a good swimming hole. This was before Rock Mill was recognized as being of historical interest and a possible tourist attraction. One time I kicked a broken glass there and cut my foot right between my little toe and the next one. It was still bleeding when I arrived home so my dad asked Doc Simiele to come. He came and had to tie off an artery while I continued to pass in and out of consciousness due to the pain.
Another more pleasant memory was of the day when Gary Swick, Russel Weaver and I dove from the ledge above the falls. After Gary and Russel dove I thought of how I wanted to do this. Don’t push off too hard so that I don’t over rotate. Lock hands together tightly. Make sure head is between my arms. Brace arms for hitting the sandy bottom for the water was only about eight feet deep. I dove and because I had to start pulling out of the dive the instant I entered the water it caused the calves of my legs to slap the surface. My legs stung but the dive was exhilarating enough that I dove two more times that day. Later I returned to Rock Mill by myself and dropped a rope over the ledge to determine how high it was. It measured thirty-eight feet.
Lake Hope – One summer Sunday Buck Eveland and I double dated for a picnic and swim at Lake Hope. Buck’s girl, Lu, had fixed me up with Joy Mills. Joy was a very attractive girl especially in a swimsuit. Hope was not only the name of the lake. I wanted to make a great impression. As soon as we have our swimsuits on and have picked a spot near the water for our picnic I proceed directly to the high diving board and execute an excellent jack knife. As soon as I enter the water I feel something pull down across my face and realize that I had forgotten to remove my glasses. I climb out on to the diving float and consider my options. I decide to dive to the bottom and try to find them. I do this in twenty-two feet of water and fish around in the mud unsuccessfully. I return to the surface with both ears hurting terribly. I return to our blanket picnic spot and tell the others what I have done, trying to make a joke out of it. Having lost almost all interest in this picnic swim party I stay there on the blanket while the others swim and I proceed to get badly sunburned. I don’t talk much on the ride home since I am lost without my glasses, my ears are killing me and my sunburn is occasionally making me forget my ears. Joy never went out with me after that date. I guess she had no appreciation for a suave guy who could do a great jack knife.
Other Diversions – In addition to swimming at Miller’s Park in Lancaster, skating at the skating rinks in both Amanda and Lancaster and attending a movie nearly every week at the Palace, Lyric, Broad or Skyview Theater, there were other sources of entertainment. There were basket dinners at Rising Park with the obligatory climbing of the Indian Footsteps on the side of Mount Pleasant. Some annual festivals were the Circleville Pumpkin Show, Millersport Sweet Corn Festival, the Canal Winchester Labor Day Street Fair and of course, the Fairfield County Fair. School would close for a week and everyday would be spent at the fair. There was always a lot to see and do with the exhibition halls, the livestock barns, games, rides, and concessions. Our senior class sold cider and donuts at one of the concession tents in 1952 to help finance our senior trip. I don’t recall ever paying admission to the county fair. It was too easy to climb over the fence at the northwest corner of the grounds.
And then there were the occasional events such as picnic trips to the Columbus Zoo, the Ohio Caverns and the State Parks in the Hocking Hills. There also were special shows such as the Cole Brothers Circus in Lancaster and Barnum Bailey Ringling Brothers Circus in Columbus. My dad once took us to see Eddie Cantor on stage at the Palace Theater in Columbus. We attended a Cleveland Browns Football game once and a Cleveland Indians baseball game once. We even attended a wrestling match during the early popularity of wrestling on television. But just possibly the best of these occasional events would be a trip to Buckeye Lake. I was too young to attend any of the big band shows at the Crystal or Pier Ball Rooms but just knowing they were there and had famous people playing in them was exciting. There is a family myth about a distant cousin who was playing Santa Claus and was to make his entrance to Buckeye Lake Amusement Park by parachute. He jumped out of the plane, opened his chute, missed the amusement park and landed in the lake and drowned.
Then there were the two absolutely once in a lifetime events that occurred in Lancaster. In 1947 Hollywood came to town to film the movie The Green Grass of Wyoming at the Lancaster Fairgrounds. The movie stars were Charles Coburn, Burl Ives, Lloyd Nolan and Peggy Cummins. I’ve always wondered if I was in any of the crowd shots in this picture. In doing a little research on this picture I found an interesting item. Marilyn Monroe was an extra in this movie. I read in Paul Miller’s book Lancaster, Ohio, What a Town, What a Time! that it was rumored that Marilyn Monroe had climbed Mount Pleasant. It sure seems possible. The other unique event was the celebration of Lancaster’s one hundred fiftieth birthday. This sesquicentennial celebration occurred in 1950 and was kind of like Carroll’s Old Timer’s Celebration multiplied by a factor of fifty. I remember all the men with beards and the stockade by the courthouse. By the way, my mom and dad were the King and Queen of the Carroll Old Timers Celebration in 1975.
Senior Class Trip – The Senior Class trip was the first step into the time when ‘Place’ was growing beyond the borders of the state. Before this trip I think I had been out of Ohio on only one occasion when we visited my uncle in Indiana. This was my first ride on a train. We visited the campus of the University of Virginia, Jefferson’s Monticello, and various Washington DC points of interest. There were twenty kids in my graduating class. Nine of us had shared the same classroom for twelve years. That is longer than a lot of marriages last. The nine were Norma Amspaugh, Richard Ety, Kenneth Irwin, Kenneth Kull, Shirley Lamb, Roger McCafferty, Richard Michaels, Angiel Welch and me. Shortly after we returned from our trip we donned our caps and gowns and marched up to receive our diplomas from my dad. The graduating class of 1953 fell in between generations. We were too late to be part of the Greatest Generation and too early to be Baby Boomers.
And so we have come to the end of my youthful boyhood memories. What I remember may not always be totally factual, but it is the way I remember it. If you have read this far I hope you can now appreciate why I consider myself so lucky to have been part of a special family during a special time at a special place.
When I return to Carroll now and pull off of the new Route 33 highway (new? – huh! – It’s only been there for fifty-seven years) I reflect on just how much things have changed. Someone had told me that when the new Route 33 was constructed they used the sandstone from the canal locks and the sandstone from the interurban bridge abutments for filler and they leveled Stahl’s hill. Of course, I have outgrown these things, but I can’t help thinking "Where is today's young boy going to play Cowboys and Indians, or learn to swim or to ‘jump the hump’ with his sled?”
It seems that the unsupervised spontaneity of my childhood has been replaced with organized parent chauffeured activities. Every time I get caught in a minor traffic jam near a school with its long line of parents dropping off or picking up their kids, I can’t help but contrast today’s world with the one I knew. I don’t recall any student being driven to or from school in a private automobile in my day.
And when I see kids with their heads buried in cell phones or other portable electronic devices, I think to myself “They don’t know what they are missing, but I do.”
Throughout my childhood there were the occasional trips beyond the borders of Carroll. And once I got my driver’s license these became a bigger part of my life. Here are a few memories linked to some occurrences outside of Carroll.
Melon Patch – We boys would occasionally raid some poor victim’s melon patch. One year Roger Davis had spotted a patch out toward Lockville. So a group of us loaded into Roger’s car. I distinctly remember Roger Davis, Brownie Benson and me but I don’t recall who the other boys were. Next to the melon patch was a cornfield. Roger parked the car at the opposite end of the cornfield in a grassy area. We all got out and proceeded to walk the length of the cornfield where we came to a fence. Just as we were starting to climb over the fence there is the blast of a shotgun. With a lot of adrenaline flowing (a shotgun blast will do that) we all high tail it out of there. We race through the field laughing and holding our arms up to shield our faces from the corn leaves. As we emerge from the other end of the cornfield we stop laughing because here is another man standing next to the car holding a shotgun. He tells us to get into the car. He tells Roger to turn on the headlights. He is soon joined by another man with a shotgun who presumably was the one who fired the warning shot. They talk as they keep us under armed guard and we wait. Roger would shut off the headlights but after a few threatening motions by one of our shotgun toting guards he would turn them back on. Then Roger would start the engine but again after one of the men with his shotgun steps in front of the car Roger would shut the engine off. Then he would turn the lights back off and this routine continued for about a half an hour. Finally a Sheriff’s Deputy arrives. He orders us out of the car and stands us in the headlights of his car and Roger’s car. He proceeds to take down all of our names, ages and addresses. We all give him this information until he gets to Brownie Benson. Much to our surprise Brownie gives him a totally fictitious name and address. I’m thinking that Brownie is making a big mistake by lying to the law. It is one thing to steal melons but an entirely different thing to lie to a law enforcement officer. The first gunman was the melon patch owner but could not press any charges because we had never entered onto his property. The second gunman owned the cornfield and the ground where the car was parked but he refused to press trespassing charges. So we were warned and set free. Then I changed my mind about Brownie’s action. All of our names were on the police record except for Brownie Benson.
Stoutsville – We went to a basketball game in Stoutsville when my brother Dick was a senior and playing on the varsity team. We were sitting in about the seventh or eighth row back. Mom was sitting to Dad’s left and I was sitting on his right. To my right was a young man who did a lot of yelling. Dick was playing well and making a few baskets and the neighbor to my right kept getting more vocal and obnoxious with his yelling. When he yelled “Stop the SOB”, my dad swung his arm right in front of my nose and hit the guy in the chest. I had no idea what was going to happen next as the guy was bigger and younger than my dad. But he just sat down and never uttered another word the entire night.
New Route 33 - Joe Blow (not his real name) had recently gotten his driver’s license and he had his own car. Right after school one day Joe and I are riding on new Route 33 just north of Carroll when a young man we recognized as one of the guys who hung out in Hordy’s, zooms past us. Joe takes off in hot pursuit and after a couple of miles catches up to the other driver. And then Joe does the stupidest thing I ever witnessed. He proceeded to pass the other driver, cut back in front of him very quickly and stomp on his breaks. The guy swerved to the right to miss us, hit the berm, lost control and rolled over at least two revolutions. We proceeded on down the road not knowing if the other driver was injured or even alive. We discussed the likelihood of Joe getting into trouble. He never did as far as I know. But a curious thing happened later that evening. I walked into Hordy’s and here was this other guy sitting there, obviously unhurt, playing rum as though nothing unusual had happened that day.
Flat Rocks – After Roger Davis graduated from high school he enlisted in the Navy. A few of us boys decided to have a going away party for him. I borrowed my dad’s car and we went to a bar named Flat Rocks which was north of Rising Park in Lancaster. We could all get served there even though most of us were under age. Later that night some of us were headed for Columbus to somewhere I don’t remember. Shortly after we passed Carroll on new Route 33 we came upon a parked car on the highway. Two men had stopped and walked off to the side of the road to inspect something. Now just how stupid was that? However, the ensuing accident was still my fault for not realizing soon enough that their car was stopped. I hit the brakes and crashed into the car. The police came and arranged to get my dad’s car towed back into Carroll and took us all home except Puss Boyer. Puss was in the back seat and appeared to be injured. He was taken to a hospital but soon released with nothing seriously wrong. I did not want to drive after that and spent my evenings working on bookkeeping. After about three weeks my dad asked if I wanted to go for a drive. I said “not really” but he persisted and we went. He made me drive. He recognized that my confidence was shaken and this was his way of helping me get it back. One good side effect of this sad story was that my grades in bookkeeping improved and I have a certificate in hand that says I placed Third in Fairfield County in the Preliminary District-State Scholarship Test that year.
Rock Mill – About my junior year in school we discovered that Rock Mill was a good swimming hole. This was before Rock Mill was recognized as being of historical interest and a possible tourist attraction. One time I kicked a broken glass there and cut my foot right between my little toe and the next one. It was still bleeding when I arrived home so my dad asked Doc Simiele to come. He came and had to tie off an artery while I continued to pass in and out of consciousness due to the pain.
Another more pleasant memory was of the day when Gary Swick, Russel Weaver and I dove from the ledge above the falls. After Gary and Russel dove I thought of how I wanted to do this. Don’t push off too hard so that I don’t over rotate. Lock hands together tightly. Make sure head is between my arms. Brace arms for hitting the sandy bottom for the water was only about eight feet deep. I dove and because I had to start pulling out of the dive the instant I entered the water it caused the calves of my legs to slap the surface. My legs stung but the dive was exhilarating enough that I dove two more times that day. Later I returned to Rock Mill by myself and dropped a rope over the ledge to determine how high it was. It measured thirty-eight feet.
Lake Hope – One summer Sunday Buck Eveland and I double dated for a picnic and swim at Lake Hope. Buck’s girl, Lu, had fixed me up with Joy Mills. Joy was a very attractive girl especially in a swimsuit. Hope was not only the name of the lake. I wanted to make a great impression. As soon as we have our swimsuits on and have picked a spot near the water for our picnic I proceed directly to the high diving board and execute an excellent jack knife. As soon as I enter the water I feel something pull down across my face and realize that I had forgotten to remove my glasses. I climb out on to the diving float and consider my options. I decide to dive to the bottom and try to find them. I do this in twenty-two feet of water and fish around in the mud unsuccessfully. I return to the surface with both ears hurting terribly. I return to our blanket picnic spot and tell the others what I have done, trying to make a joke out of it. Having lost almost all interest in this picnic swim party I stay there on the blanket while the others swim and I proceed to get badly sunburned. I don’t talk much on the ride home since I am lost without my glasses, my ears are killing me and my sunburn is occasionally making me forget my ears. Joy never went out with me after that date. I guess she had no appreciation for a suave guy who could do a great jack knife.
Other Diversions – In addition to swimming at Miller’s Park in Lancaster, skating at the skating rinks in both Amanda and Lancaster and attending a movie nearly every week at the Palace, Lyric, Broad or Skyview Theater, there were other sources of entertainment. There were basket dinners at Rising Park with the obligatory climbing of the Indian Footsteps on the side of Mount Pleasant. Some annual festivals were the Circleville Pumpkin Show, Millersport Sweet Corn Festival, the Canal Winchester Labor Day Street Fair and of course, the Fairfield County Fair. School would close for a week and everyday would be spent at the fair. There was always a lot to see and do with the exhibition halls, the livestock barns, games, rides, and concessions. Our senior class sold cider and donuts at one of the concession tents in 1952 to help finance our senior trip. I don’t recall ever paying admission to the county fair. It was too easy to climb over the fence at the northwest corner of the grounds.
And then there were the occasional events such as picnic trips to the Columbus Zoo, the Ohio Caverns and the State Parks in the Hocking Hills. There also were special shows such as the Cole Brothers Circus in Lancaster and Barnum Bailey Ringling Brothers Circus in Columbus. My dad once took us to see Eddie Cantor on stage at the Palace Theater in Columbus. We attended a Cleveland Browns Football game once and a Cleveland Indians baseball game once. We even attended a wrestling match during the early popularity of wrestling on television. But just possibly the best of these occasional events would be a trip to Buckeye Lake. I was too young to attend any of the big band shows at the Crystal or Pier Ball Rooms but just knowing they were there and had famous people playing in them was exciting. There is a family myth about a distant cousin who was playing Santa Claus and was to make his entrance to Buckeye Lake Amusement Park by parachute. He jumped out of the plane, opened his chute, missed the amusement park and landed in the lake and drowned.
Then there were the two absolutely once in a lifetime events that occurred in Lancaster. In 1947 Hollywood came to town to film the movie The Green Grass of Wyoming at the Lancaster Fairgrounds. The movie stars were Charles Coburn, Burl Ives, Lloyd Nolan and Peggy Cummins. I’ve always wondered if I was in any of the crowd shots in this picture. In doing a little research on this picture I found an interesting item. Marilyn Monroe was an extra in this movie. I read in Paul Miller’s book Lancaster, Ohio, What a Town, What a Time! that it was rumored that Marilyn Monroe had climbed Mount Pleasant. It sure seems possible. The other unique event was the celebration of Lancaster’s one hundred fiftieth birthday. This sesquicentennial celebration occurred in 1950 and was kind of like Carroll’s Old Timer’s Celebration multiplied by a factor of fifty. I remember all the men with beards and the stockade by the courthouse. By the way, my mom and dad were the King and Queen of the Carroll Old Timers Celebration in 1975.
Senior Class Trip – The Senior Class trip was the first step into the time when ‘Place’ was growing beyond the borders of the state. Before this trip I think I had been out of Ohio on only one occasion when we visited my uncle in Indiana. This was my first ride on a train. We visited the campus of the University of Virginia, Jefferson’s Monticello, and various Washington DC points of interest. There were twenty kids in my graduating class. Nine of us had shared the same classroom for twelve years. That is longer than a lot of marriages last. The nine were Norma Amspaugh, Richard Ety, Kenneth Irwin, Kenneth Kull, Shirley Lamb, Roger McCafferty, Richard Michaels, Angiel Welch and me. Shortly after we returned from our trip we donned our caps and gowns and marched up to receive our diplomas from my dad. The graduating class of 1953 fell in between generations. We were too late to be part of the Greatest Generation and too early to be Baby Boomers.
And so we have come to the end of my youthful boyhood memories. What I remember may not always be totally factual, but it is the way I remember it. If you have read this far I hope you can now appreciate why I consider myself so lucky to have been part of a special family during a special time at a special place.
When I return to Carroll now and pull off of the new Route 33 highway (new? – huh! – It’s only been there for fifty-seven years) I reflect on just how much things have changed. Someone had told me that when the new Route 33 was constructed they used the sandstone from the canal locks and the sandstone from the interurban bridge abutments for filler and they leveled Stahl’s hill. Of course, I have outgrown these things, but I can’t help thinking "Where is today's young boy going to play Cowboys and Indians, or learn to swim or to ‘jump the hump’ with his sled?”
It seems that the unsupervised spontaneity of my childhood has been replaced with organized parent chauffeured activities. Every time I get caught in a minor traffic jam near a school with its long line of parents dropping off or picking up their kids, I can’t help but contrast today’s world with the one I knew. I don’t recall any student being driven to or from school in a private automobile in my day.
And when I see kids with their heads buried in cell phones or other portable electronic devices, I think to myself “They don’t know what they are missing, but I do.”