What’s old is new again

“Well, there is a property for sale in Hilliard that comes with a 4,000-square-foot bunker that is 30 feet underground, has 2-foot-thick concrete walls and ceiling and is able to "withstand 20 megaton blast from 2 1/2 miles, 1,000 (mph) winds, and 40-G shock wave.”  Columbus Bizjournals.com

In our old neighborhood on Abington Road which was generally developed during 1938-40, paused for the war, then 1945-, some houses in the Canterbury area which were built in the 1950s had bomb shelters.  It was a big thing in those days, I remember the duck and cover drills and food stored in the hallways of our school in Mt. Morris, IL. Apparently, someone was fearful a few years back (don’t know when the Hilliard home was built).  The one I saw in our former area was used as a playroom for the kids in the 1970s.

Christmas 2000--was it really 10 years ago?

My Dad was visiting us from Dec. 2-5 and then went on to visit my siblings. We called it the "grand tour." Although there was one hitch in the trip and Dad got sick one night at my sister's, I think his trip went pretty well. I bought some adjustments for the bathroom because his legs were weak from congestive heart failure. It was his first holiday without my mother who had died in January. They were married over 65 years. We really had a wonderful visit, and our daughter hosted the whole family for dinner at her house, all decorated for Christmas. We just had a smattering of the snow they got in Illinois which postponed his trip home by one day, in fact, we mostly had ice and wind.

When I retired in October 2000 I started going to exercise classes with my husband. Could barely do 1 lb. weights when I started, but was up to 5 lbs by December. That year I checked out an Ed Sullivan Christmas video from the library. Sort of fun--and seemed so innocent. Some was black and white and some color--"the really big shew." You may recall that we'd been through a rancorous election season and hanging chads, so was a pleasure to see something other than the election coverage.

On Sunday the 10th we attended a Victorian Christmas Open House in Mechanicsburg, Ohio at the Neelys who used to live in Upper Arlington and were members of our church. Their home had been written up in the Ohio Magazine. The house was gorgeous--they wanted a place to build memories with the grandchildren, and this was the perfect setting.

On December 16 we had a BIG choir Christmas dinner--$25/ticket. We took our daughter and son and their spouses, and it was a dressy event. They all looked so lovely--still have the photos, although not the daughter-in-law. Fabulous music at the Mill Run church which had just opened that year.

Then on the next Monday evening we went to a caroling/cookie party. I made my dozen cookies early in the week--a simple oatmeal bar with melted chocolate chips and pecans on top--and put them in the freezer. On Saturday the 23rd our daughter and son-in-law planned to take us to see the Nutcracker, but one of us--don't remember who--got sick, so we've still never seen it. On Sunday, Christmas Eve, we hosted dinner in the evening, opened presents and then all went to church together.

Now, the only way I know any of this happened is not because I have a terrific memory, but because I wrote someone a letter that year, and now I have the memories stored in my computer.

Friday Family Photo--Spring snow 1975

Today we're supposed to have 8-12" of snow dumped on central Ohio, but because Columbus sits in a trough, our weather is always iffy, and snow and rain easily go north or south, and we stand in an inch or two with cancelled activities and a lot of salt on the roads. But not in the Spring of 1975. We'd had one of those big wet early spring snows, and the kids rushed out to make a fort before it all melted.


I don't have a date on the photo, but it's between the January and Easter 1975 photos in the album. When you look at an old photo, you see a lot you hadn't thought about in years. See the fence? My husband designed, built and painted it and talked a friend into helping with the post holes on the hottest day of the year 1970--the intention was to keep our children, particularly our little, very active, very risk taking little boy where I could see them. The city planners of Upper Arlington had decided (our street was platted around 1938) huge front yards with no sidewalks and tiny back yards would make the community look pastoral. This meant we had a very long drive-way, also very difficult to shovel after a snow storm, which we also gated. You can see if you look closely that there is a gate in that fence--that was so our babysitter, Kristy Mellum, could walk through. She and her 40-something widowed mother, Ruth, and brother Bobby lived behind us. They attended Upper Arlington Lutheran Church, which I knew nothing about and had never seen because it was so well hidden in a neighborhood north of us. Someone told me that Ruth was the first woman president (chair?) of UALC's council/board. (We have been members now since 1976.) Later, all the kids who lived on Brixton Rd. used that gate to cut through. Eventually, we removed it, and new neighbors built a huge privacy fence with no gate--they had no children, nor did most families who lived in that house.

The coats the kids are wearing were in their last season. I tried to be thrifty and get 2 seasons out of winter coats which were expensive. That meant the coats were too big the first season and too small at the end of the second season. Our boy looks taller in this photo, but that's because she is bending over. They are 12 months and 3 days apart in age, and around age 13 he passed her up and has been the biggest in the family after years as the smallest.

You can't see them, but they would have been wearing over-the-shoe boots, which meant stuffing wiggly feet into plastic bags, then into the boot, all the while straddling a squirming, struggling child who was in a hurry to get outside to the snow before it melted. You also can't see the attached garage which was on the left, but around 1979 we converted it to a family room, and built a free standing garage on the other side at the end of the drive-way, further reducing the small backyard. You also can't see all the mud and water puddling on the hall and kitchen tiles after they came inside, wet and cold, ready for snack time.

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Monday Memories

Monday Memories: Did I ever tell you about: Our First Spring in Columbus?


This photo is a bit fuzzy, but it is my husband and his mother (possibly Mother's Day) Spring 1968. We bought the house right after a big snow storm, and we were anxious to see what would come up in the Spring. There is the magnolia tree right behind them, and some wonderful daffodils (had already bloomed) that continued on another 10-15 years. There's the mighty oak tree in the front yard that didn't drop its leaves until February, the tree my husband says he doesn't miss one bit. Our drive-way was separated from the neighbor's by some very messy, straggly bushes that eventually we cut way back in order to get them to fill out.

My children wouldn't remember that the house across the street was painted white then. Early in the 70s the paint was blasted off to reveal a wonderful "used brick" pattern, not popular in the early 40s when it was built, but right in fashion in the 70s. Our house was still white then, with black shutters. About 7 or 8 years later we took off the shutters and painted it a light gold with a darker trim color. It had a standing seam metal roof with bits of green and black roof paint from an earlier day, so we also painted that--tan I think. I'm sure my in-laws made a huge fuss over our baby daughter, and this may have been their first visit both to see her and our new home. June was a lovey, gushy grandmother who adored all her grandchildren and thought they could do no wrong.