Flashback Friday #48

My Hometown

Greeting to all. Welcome back. In today's ramblings I will cover something that everyone has, and some people don't claim, their hometown.

Some people who get rich & famous don't like anyone to know the humble beginnings from which they came. I have never been considered rich or famous, so here goes the story of the small burg I lived in from birth until marriage.I had someone question it's existence. He thought I was making it up.

If you look on and Ohio map, near the middle you will find Morrow County (or Moron County as The Ogre refers to it). In that county you will find a small black dot called Marengo. That is where I lived for a long time (In Marengo, not on the small dot on the map.).

Everything there was on the main drag with the exception of the school I went to, some professional buildings, a mill, and a gas station. It had two four way stops, and no traffic lights. It reminds me of Mayberry, only smaller.

Coming from our house, the first business in town was on the corner of the first stop sign. It was a lumber yard on the left. It is now a drive thru and Mexican restaurant. Crossing through the intersection we find the bank that loaned my class the money when I was a sixth grade CEO (Flashback Friday #33). It has changed hands many times. Next to it stands a hardware store, and until I was about eight, a working blacksmith shop. I wish I hadn't been so shy that I wouldn't visit the blacksmith and watch him work.

Across the street we find the drug store where I bought my first pack of baseball cards in 1972. I still have those cards, and can pick them out of the thousands that I have. Next to the drugstore is the town bar. It was burned down once when I was in Jr. High, so they rebuilt it out of cement blocks. At the end of the block is a pizza shop (doesn't every small burg have a pizza shop?) Across the street was at one time a gas station owned by some of my parents friends. It had an electric bowling machine that was really cool. I was too short to play the pinball machine. When the friends sold out, it became an auto fix-it shop.

Crossing to the next block, the next "business" you come to is the town church. Like pizza parlors, every town has a church. Also like pizza parlors, every church has it's own taste. Next to the church was a little dairy twist type restaurant the end of the block. They used to offer a 32 ounce milkshake for 99 cents.That was worth rummaging through the couch looking for change.

Crossing the street from the restaurant, was a mini plaza that held the town grocery store. There was a beauty shop, and insurance agent and a barber in the little plaza along with the grocery store. I got my hair cut at the barber shop. He cut your hair the way he wanted, no matter how you said you wanted it. We used to call him "Butcher Bob".

Next to the mini plaza was the volunteer fire department.They were the truck that arrived to put out "The Fire"(Flashback Friday #27). The fire department also doubled as the voting poll. Once, while the polls were open, the fire alarm sounded. Voting booths were hurried out of the way while the fire personnel assembled. Behind the fire station, one block away was the school I attended from K-6th grades. More about that in a future post.

The "professional plaza" was left, a couple blocks down from the first stop sign. It used to absolutely crack me up. Right in a row was the doctor's office, a flower shop, and a funeral home. We used to call it one stop shopping. Once the doctor killed you, you could pick up flowers on the way to the funeral home.

The mill and gas station were at the other end of town, if you took a right at the second stop sign. The mill carried any type of animal feed you could want, even monkey chow. That's where I got the feed for my "dairy hogs"(Flashback Friday #32).

I hope you've enjoyed the tour through my home town. Please remain seated until the ride come to a full stop.