You can't go back

Readers of this column will recall that I recently took a trip back to the land of my birth, Ohio. It brought back many happy memories but some harsh realities.

Folks if you had suddenly put me down in the center of my home town I would not have recognized where I was.

Changes had occurred all over town. The school I attended for twelve years is no more. It has been demolished! There is a new one, of course, but it is not the same for this old man. What has happened to the Brumbaughs and Andersons grocery stores? Hinkles Bakery, Stockslagers and Lentz’s barber shops. Kingery’s meat market, Dorsey Izor’s restaurant, the IOOF Lodge and perhaps the most striking thing missing for me, was the creek that ran through the town just south of the only church in town.

I used to go frog hunting and trap muskrat and raccoon along that creek. I suppose they have piped it underground. I am sure this is healthier, but I sure had a lot of good times along that old creek.

I could go on and on but there is no need as you get the idea. Times and places change. They always have and always will. Be that as it may the memories I have of my home town are still vivid and that is the town I still see even if it is vastly different now.

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