Hebron Crossroads 10-05-03
By Jeff Gill
Crops are coming down, the leaves are withering, and without their baffle effect, the traffic noise from I-70 is clearer every morning.
Colors are not much in evidence on the tree limbs, and some autumnal pundits suggest that fall will be muted after the odd weather cycle we’ve had.
Whether with splashes of orange and gold or in quieter earth tones, the land is changing into pajamas for a long winter’s nap. The terrain is stripping down, and frosts will soothe down the jagged hedgerows and wavy grasses into winter-ready curves.
Frost, as it comes, marks the turn of seasons quite well, and so do pumpkins. James Whitcomb Riley wrote that “when the frost is on the punkin” all manner of changes are due, including the arrival of pumpkin season at some area farms.
Circleville will have their Pumpkin Festival soon, and the Lancaster fairgrounds will swing wide their gates this weekend as well, but two local venues near the Hebron Crossroads offer all manner of pumpkin related fun.
Just the other side of Sunset Hill, west of Hebron, is Devine Farms, home of the famous Barrel Train ride. Those blue barrels are rolling through Ralph and Charla Devine’s cornfields just beyond the barns filled with pumpkin fun.
Their welcome to you and your family starts on the internet, at http://www.devinefarms.com, and continues with free parking and free admission, with most weekend activities still at $1.00.
Ralph and Charla are themselves one of the new attractions this year; well, they’ve been there a while, but the “American Gothic” portrait is new on the east wall of the bank barn, and on the south side is a 54 foot “Pumpkin Story Mural” by Mark Helser and Brian Scott, who have been the pumpkin air-brush painters and carvers these last few years.
On Saturday October 4 they have free hotdogs from 11 am to 1 pm as a thank you to their customers.
Coming up, Saturday Oct. 18 and Sunday, Oct. 19, are special events in honor of Ohio's Bicentennial. Frontier woman Mary Beth Sills will share pioneer lifeways on Saturday (she’s part of the Licking Park District staff in her day job), and on Sunday you can see frontier animals from Noon to 3 pm presented by Ohio Nature Education.
Saturday October 25 is the closing weekend Pumpkin Egg Hunt for ages 2-10 years at 10 am. The prize for the egg hunt is $100 in total prizes, including 2 gift certificates from Toys ‘R Us. Charla says “Come in a Halloween costume and get a free Barrel Train Ride!”
Through the last Wagon rides in the cornfield on Oct. 26 at 6 pm, they’ll have their “Corn Maze” open, crafts and straw for sale, and. . .right. . .pumpkins!
But another important sales note is that the concession stand in Building 4 is run by our own Lakewood High School Drama Club. All proceeds support the club and their activities.
Ralph and Charla are great supporters of our community and even welcome and use your suggestions to improve their “fall festival,” so drop ‘em a line at http://www.devinefarms.com, or just drive out US 40 and pull in.
If you head a bit further west on the National Road, ‘til the milestones say you’re 235 miles from Cumberland, Maryland, you’ll see another lavish display of farm living and pumpkin pleasures.
Ralph and Janice Jutte (what is it about Ralphs and farming?) have a wonderland of harvest displays and sale items, which can be previewed at http://www.pigeonroostfarm.com. The Jutte’s hosted a lunch stop for the bicentennial wagon train along with the village of Kirkersville, and their bicentennial fervor extends to the month of October with a huge Corn Maze that spells out “Ohio 200” and more! You can walk through the words and become one with history. . .especially if you don’t find your way out.
Pigeon Roost Farm always celebrates our area’s history, and does a very good job telling the story of the now extinct passenger pigeon, a former inhabitant of the swamps now drained around the Lake region.
And if anyone has more old tractor seats on display, I’d like to know about it. If you don’t think a wide variety of tractor seats sounds interesting, then you really need to take a trip out to Pigeon Roost.
Janice was testing out a new hands-free speaker system with the first day of school tours, and the high-tech merged well with the low-tech of everyday farming shown to the kids of Hebron Elementary’s kindergarten classes.
Weldon’s Ice Cream out of Millersport offers refreshments, and the fees for various activities are quite reasonable.
Free is the cost of admission to a Tuesday, Oct. 14 “Meet the Candidates” night sponsored by the Hebron Lions at Hebron Elementary. We’ll gather in the gymnasium at 7:00 pm, and you can submit questions in writing that will be asked by a very congenial moderator from the Hebron Crossroads of those running for Lakewood school board, Hebron village council, and mayor of these here crossroads, along with a chance even for unopposed candidates to speak their piece.
More info on that event next week, after I find and wind my stopwatch to keep them all to their three minute opening statements. If you watched the California recall debate, you saw a good model for how not to manage the dialogue: I promise to do better than Ted Baxter did that night!
And a closing word of no particular interest unless you loved “Singing In The Rain,” but I hope that’s many of our readers.
Donald O’Connor, the actor-singer-dancer, and I shared a birthday, and one brief telephone conversation. He died recently, and I wanted to remember something about him with you.
Thirty years ago, while I was in high school, Mr. O’Connor was passing through my hometown doing musical evenings in dinner theaters.
My parents had determined to go for their anniversary, and as the oldest, babysitting for the four of us was my contribution to the evening. That, and. . .
Just as they left, somehow I got the idea to call the Bridge-Vu Theatre, and ask for “Mr. O’Connor.” I got his manager, and explained that my parents would be in the audience and I just thought it would be nice if he could announce that.
The next voice, deeper and lilting, asked me my name, my age, and said something very kind about what it was I was up to, and then asked, “What would you like me to sing for them?”
Stammering, I admitted I had no idea. The voice on the other end laughed, and said “I’ll come up with something from 1958. It was a good year.”
Later that night, my parents came home quite happy with the evening, and bemused that in the middle of a set, Donald O’Connor had asked “where are the Gills?”
Especially since they assumed there was something wrong, and he was paging them to head home immediately!
Instead, he told the audience about their children (who were in good hands, I might add), and then sang them a song for their anniversary.
“What did he sing for you?” I asked.
Mom looked puzzled. “You know, I can’t recall.”
I guess we’ll never know, but thanks again, Mr. O’Connor. You still “Make ‘Em Laugh.”
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and he enjoyed Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds, too, but never talked to them on the phone (or Francis, either). If you have a brush with greatness to share or news we can use, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
Wednesday, October 01, 2003
Monday, September 22, 2003
Hebron Crossroads 9-28-03
by Jeff Gill
Harvesting has begun out in the fields around the Hebron Crossroads. Time is always of the essence, but some factors this year add to the urgency.
Our wildly wet summer brought up some visitors from the south. A rarely seen blight
in this area hit the corn crop, creating the odd brown look to the rows instead of the more usual golden tan by now.
The yield, the quality of the corn itself, hasn't been affected, but the stalks are weak and could blow down on little provocation. Likewise, a species of aphid has taken a more northerly interest in soybeans this summer, nibbling away at the margins, profit and otherwise.
As always, please keep watch on the roads for slower moving farm equipment and give them a "brake." Impatience is for Columbus city streets and the new 670, but trust me when I tell you that the farmers are moving just as fast as they can!
Actually, little and big hopping things are everywhere in our lawns and on our porches,
not to mention occasionally sneaking into our homes. We've got about everything but locusts -- the cicadas started up last weekend, just in time for the autumnal equinox -- and as Jym Ganahl reminds us, this weird run started with record snows last winter and hailstones for Easter, so a plague of hoppers should be no surprise.
While we were doing the 9-11 community service project at Canal Park, a few folks noticed the main crossbeams looked like railroad rails. They're I-beams with a rounded top, and my guess is that they're from the railbed that went to Millersport and not from the interurban, given how long the interurban has been gone (70 plus years). If anyone knows, holler!
Working there also reminded quite a few of the recycling trailer parked there at Canal
and Cumberland. Joyce and I use it to keep our trash volume down and do a small favor to our planet; recycling isn't an environmental panacea, but even if it just kept the cubic footage of trash in landfills down it would be a good idea.
Recycling does take many forms, for efficiency and for the environment. There's those rails recycled into bridge beams, and just north of us in Canal Park is the patch of cement where the power plant for the interurban stood: the bricks from that imposing structure were reused into the 1937 gym addition onto Hebron Elementary, where Dale McFarland played in the first basketball game after the dedication that year, and where my Little Guy now has his indoor recess on these still often rainy days.
That kind of recycling pays all sorts of benefits down the years. . .
Fire Prevention Week is coming up, and a number of you thanked me for explaining why Hebron wanted people to “Get out! Stay out!” Proof, as if any was needed, that folks rarely read beyond the headlines.
If you are still reading, a) thank you, b) give yourself a pat on the back, and c) here’s an added tip. We’re entering that odd period when you want some air flowing in the afternoons, but need the heat to start overnight. This is a critical time to check your furnace or alternate heat sources for safety and reliability, and it is also a fine time, if you’ve not done so already, to get a carbon monoxide detector. Every fall we hear about some very close calls, and a CO detector can be as much of a life saver for your family as a smoke detector.
Plus change the filters and all that good stuff before heating season comes upon us with a vengeance. When Devine Farms has a field full of pumpkins set out, you know that the frost'll be on the punkin fore long. . .
The first Johnstown/Lakewood Band Festival went over big, I’m told. I had the pleasure, with my pastor hat on, of uniting Danielle Allison and Patrick Curran in marriage that same day at Infirmary Mound Park, and a more beautiful day we couldn’t have had. Much the same was said by all the band fans further north on 37, plus the excitement of seeing the Ohio University Band (Patrick & Danielle’s alma mater) in performance.
Marching contingents large and small each got some real learning and experience out of the day, the first of a new tradition I suspect.
Looking further back, the Bicentennial Wagon Train left a great impression, and they’re looking at a “reunion” of sorts at Infirmary Mound Park Oct. 10-11 with a few wagons, muleskinners, and an overnight campout.
Rhonda Carte, webmaster for the Licking Township trustees, was kind enough to send me the web address of their set of photos from the wagon train’s passage. Type into your browser window this URL, http://www.lickingtwpohio.us/wagon_train_photos.htm. Her family, the Swinehearts, have longstanding connections to the Hebron Crossroads, and we might have another story to tell on down the road from her.
And I can’t resist this tidbit from the web, which gave me a chuckle and then really made me think. See what you think: “Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.”
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and possessor of a CO detector in his home; if you have safety tips or recycling stories to share, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
* * * * * * *
Also, Linda Nicodemus of the village office asked me to pass along the following “letter to the editor.”
September 16, 2003
Letter to the Editor,
The Village of Hebron would like to thank all those who helped us exceed our goal during our recent blood drive. We had a wonderful turn-out with the help of local papers, radio stations, McDonalds who ran our ad on their marquee, businesses that let us display fliers, and Hebron Elementary who sent fliers home with children. Because of an emergency the Red Cross was operating with reduced staff for this event. They truly appreciate everyone’s patience with the slightly longer waiting times.
We also want to thank our faithful volunteers Dale McFarland, Jeff Gill and Jacob Hagans who donate their time at each blood drive. Cookies, juice, and other goodies were generously donated by Hometown Deli, Krogers and numerous village residents. Everyone’s next opportunity to participate in saving lives will be November 25th, 2003 from 1- 6 PM, at Hebron Municipal Complex.
Thank you,
Linda Nicodemus,
Blood Drive Coordinator
by Jeff Gill
Harvesting has begun out in the fields around the Hebron Crossroads. Time is always of the essence, but some factors this year add to the urgency.
Our wildly wet summer brought up some visitors from the south. A rarely seen blight
in this area hit the corn crop, creating the odd brown look to the rows instead of the more usual golden tan by now.
The yield, the quality of the corn itself, hasn't been affected, but the stalks are weak and could blow down on little provocation. Likewise, a species of aphid has taken a more northerly interest in soybeans this summer, nibbling away at the margins, profit and otherwise.
As always, please keep watch on the roads for slower moving farm equipment and give them a "brake." Impatience is for Columbus city streets and the new 670, but trust me when I tell you that the farmers are moving just as fast as they can!
Actually, little and big hopping things are everywhere in our lawns and on our porches,
not to mention occasionally sneaking into our homes. We've got about everything but locusts -- the cicadas started up last weekend, just in time for the autumnal equinox -- and as Jym Ganahl reminds us, this weird run started with record snows last winter and hailstones for Easter, so a plague of hoppers should be no surprise.
While we were doing the 9-11 community service project at Canal Park, a few folks noticed the main crossbeams looked like railroad rails. They're I-beams with a rounded top, and my guess is that they're from the railbed that went to Millersport and not from the interurban, given how long the interurban has been gone (70 plus years). If anyone knows, holler!
Working there also reminded quite a few of the recycling trailer parked there at Canal
and Cumberland. Joyce and I use it to keep our trash volume down and do a small favor to our planet; recycling isn't an environmental panacea, but even if it just kept the cubic footage of trash in landfills down it would be a good idea.
Recycling does take many forms, for efficiency and for the environment. There's those rails recycled into bridge beams, and just north of us in Canal Park is the patch of cement where the power plant for the interurban stood: the bricks from that imposing structure were reused into the 1937 gym addition onto Hebron Elementary, where Dale McFarland played in the first basketball game after the dedication that year, and where my Little Guy now has his indoor recess on these still often rainy days.
That kind of recycling pays all sorts of benefits down the years. . .
Fire Prevention Week is coming up, and a number of you thanked me for explaining why Hebron wanted people to “Get out! Stay out!” Proof, as if any was needed, that folks rarely read beyond the headlines.
If you are still reading, a) thank you, b) give yourself a pat on the back, and c) here’s an added tip. We’re entering that odd period when you want some air flowing in the afternoons, but need the heat to start overnight. This is a critical time to check your furnace or alternate heat sources for safety and reliability, and it is also a fine time, if you’ve not done so already, to get a carbon monoxide detector. Every fall we hear about some very close calls, and a CO detector can be as much of a life saver for your family as a smoke detector.
Plus change the filters and all that good stuff before heating season comes upon us with a vengeance. When Devine Farms has a field full of pumpkins set out, you know that the frost'll be on the punkin fore long. . .
The first Johnstown/Lakewood Band Festival went over big, I’m told. I had the pleasure, with my pastor hat on, of uniting Danielle Allison and Patrick Curran in marriage that same day at Infirmary Mound Park, and a more beautiful day we couldn’t have had. Much the same was said by all the band fans further north on 37, plus the excitement of seeing the Ohio University Band (Patrick & Danielle’s alma mater) in performance.
Marching contingents large and small each got some real learning and experience out of the day, the first of a new tradition I suspect.
Looking further back, the Bicentennial Wagon Train left a great impression, and they’re looking at a “reunion” of sorts at Infirmary Mound Park Oct. 10-11 with a few wagons, muleskinners, and an overnight campout.
Rhonda Carte, webmaster for the Licking Township trustees, was kind enough to send me the web address of their set of photos from the wagon train’s passage. Type into your browser window this URL, http://www.lickingtwpohio.us/wagon_train_photos.htm. Her family, the Swinehearts, have longstanding connections to the Hebron Crossroads, and we might have another story to tell on down the road from her.
And I can’t resist this tidbit from the web, which gave me a chuckle and then really made me think. See what you think: “Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.”
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and possessor of a CO detector in his home; if you have safety tips or recycling stories to share, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
* * * * * * *
Also, Linda Nicodemus of the village office asked me to pass along the following “letter to the editor.”
September 16, 2003
Letter to the Editor,
The Village of Hebron would like to thank all those who helped us exceed our goal during our recent blood drive. We had a wonderful turn-out with the help of local papers, radio stations, McDonalds who ran our ad on their marquee, businesses that let us display fliers, and Hebron Elementary who sent fliers home with children. Because of an emergency the Red Cross was operating with reduced staff for this event. They truly appreciate everyone’s patience with the slightly longer waiting times.
We also want to thank our faithful volunteers Dale McFarland, Jeff Gill and Jacob Hagans who donate their time at each blood drive. Cookies, juice, and other goodies were generously donated by Hometown Deli, Krogers and numerous village residents. Everyone’s next opportunity to participate in saving lives will be November 25th, 2003 from 1- 6 PM, at Hebron Municipal Complex.
Thank you,
Linda Nicodemus,
Blood Drive Coordinator
Tuesday, September 16, 2003
Hebron Crossroads 9-21-03
By Jeff Gill
Hurricane Isabel has nothing on the Hebron Crossroads for a swirling torrent of activity!
Let’s start with right now, go to some tips o’ the cap, and then look ahead (but not too far). Block some time out, and sit down with your calendar at hand. Ready? Let’s go:
The Lakewood High School Marching Band, the Marching Lancers, in cooperation with the Johnstown High School Marching Band, the Marching Big Red, presents the very first band festival of its kind in Licking County ... featuring Ohio University's Marching 110! (That's OU, not OSU!) Eight high school bands will be participating, including the sponsoring Lakewood and Johnstown High School Bands.
Here's the scoop, says Sherry Steinman for the Lakewood Band Boosters: Saturday, September 20, 2003, 1-4 p.m., Chambers Stadium at Johnstown High School, 401 South Oregon St. Cost is $5 per person.
[Note for Amy: If you have questions and/or want more info, contact Scott Coffey, Director of the Lakewood HS Band (740-929-1812), or, Band Director, Marc Zirille, at Johnstown High School, (740-967-2721). I’d follow up, but I have two weddings this weekend!]
As most of you have seen, the Sept. 11 memorial community service project was a great success, “painting the town”. . .at least around Canal Park. The “Charlie Wolf” gazebo that was part of Hebron’s sesquicentennial in 1985, the picnic shelter that was a bicentennial tribute in 1976 by Hebron and Buckeye Lake, playground equipment, three pedestrian bridges, and some other equipment between Rt. 79 and Cumberland Street.
Our Hebron Street Department, along with facilitating the whole project, finished up the next day with the rest of the picnic tables, another gazebo behind the ballfields, and the special paint on the concrete pad.
Mrs. Maslowski and Mrs. Manter brought their second graders after learning about service in class the previous few days, and they with a few brave parents helped eighteen kids paint two of the bridges, plus a bit of themselves, if you know what I mean.
Charla Devine and Marsha Justice, along with some preschool help, weeded the rose bed next to the Ohio outline flowers in red, white, and blue, with some paint on the trim from Amber Damron and Jennifer McNichols, while Lisa McNichols, Beth Walters, and Kim Halter finished some spots the kids may have missed.
Councilmembers Annelle Porter, Mike Halter, and Scott Walters all got some paint on ‘em, plus thanks to Bowman Chevrolet and Union Township trustee Jack Justice for getting our “Respond To The Call” banner up on Main Street.
Clay’s Café, McDonald’s, and our council folk helped with the food supply, with some invaluable co-ordinating help from Linda Nicodemus and Tonya Stapleton in the village office under Mike McFarland’s direction.
And the firefighters of our Hebron Division of Fire and EMS were just great! We had a brief ceremony at the station house at 9:15 that morning, and thanks to Brian Harkness, a new pastor in the area, for his involvement. Police, fire, and village officials were all represented at the flagpole, and then almost every fireman on and off duty that day came by Canal Park to help in some way. Thanks of course to Chief Randy Weekley, and yeoman work was done by Capt. Rich Vance, and Mike Yost is the “prince of paint,” whose equipment made more possible than we thought could be done that day. Three cheers for sure to Dulux Paint Center for their support!
But next year, Sept. 11 is on a Saturday, and we’ll find a nice, big, NON-painting project. . .
We had something over 60 individuals involved at one time or another through the day, and thanks to all of them named and un-named, and don’t let me end the thanks without noting that my wife Joyce Meredith and I got to do some painting together, which was more fun than you’d think! Marriages can survive painting, no matter what some may say.
Our fire department is still working hard, with “Fire Prevention Week” coming Oct. 5 through 11. Those banners at village hall, the station, and at Main and High saying “Get Out – Stay Out!” are not about visitors to Hebron (who said that?), but are the lesson we want children and adults to learn about a structure fire.
Doesn’t matter what the circumstances are: if you’re in a building on fire, “Get out! Stay out!” Too many people who die in fires have actually left the building, and go back in to get a pet or photo album or checkbook, not thinking right about the many ways a fire in a home or office can kill.
So the Hebron Fire Department will be out and about through a busy week, starting with the Buckeye Lake Fire Prevention Parade down Walnut Road on Oct. 5 starting at 2 pm.
Monday, Oct. 6 is an equipment demo at the Hebron Kroger from 6 to 8 pm.
Tuesday the 7th is aimed largely at older adults. At the fire station, 111 Basin St., the department will hold training sessions at 10 am and 2 pm on preventing falls and fire extinguisher use. Call the station number, 928-4721, for more information.
Thursday will be “Safety Day” at Hebron Elementary, and the firefighters will be interacting with the kids on both the 9th and 10th as they press home the message “Get Out! Stay Out!”
The kids at Hebron Elementary have benefited from the “Ohio Reads” program and our own local “Hebron Reads” initiative. Reading tutors are needed again for the coming year; we had about 24 total trained last year with 15 participating through the year. At least that many, if not more, are needed, and the training is coming soon. Call the school office at 928-2661, and Donita or Dr. Geist will get the message to Mrs. Christian, Mrs. Frush, or Mrs. Henry, and one of those teachers will be in touch with you. I’ve gotten to work with six different young readers over the last four years, and can tell you that the rewards last a lifetime for both participants. If you have a half hour a week between 9 am and 3:30 pm weekdays, you can be a tutor.
If you want to help out at the school district level, the Lakewood Board of Education is still taking applications for the Citizens Advisory Committee through Sept. 30. Hebron, I’m told, is well represented, but we need folks to participate from all geographic areas of the district. The Administrative offices on E. Main near the Rt. 79 bypass have forms, plus they went home with all district schoolchildren last week, and any building secretary or Tracy at the board office will be glad to receive your application.
The plan right now is for the board to appoint 15 members, and put in their hopper questions like fees, pay to participate, and a growth plan for the district. Come join the discussion!
Have you registered to vote in the November election? After petitions circulated for our council members, mayoral candidates, and Lakewood school board, it became clear that a fair number of people who think they’re registered are NOT. If you haven’t voted for a number of years, you aren’t registered anymore. If you’ve moved since you voted last, you aren’t legally registered anymore. If you’ve never actually filled out a registration form (“but I just got my driver’s license, right?”), you aren’t actually registered. If the election is Nov. 4, then you need to be registered no later than Oct. 4.
But it is very easy to register for voting, and you can drop by the municipal complex or library to get a simple form to do just that. It’s just that you’d better do it in the next couple weeks!
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church, where they also have a stack of voter registration forms on hand. If you have tales of citizenship and community in action to share from around the Hebron Crossroads, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
By Jeff Gill
Hurricane Isabel has nothing on the Hebron Crossroads for a swirling torrent of activity!
Let’s start with right now, go to some tips o’ the cap, and then look ahead (but not too far). Block some time out, and sit down with your calendar at hand. Ready? Let’s go:
The Lakewood High School Marching Band, the Marching Lancers, in cooperation with the Johnstown High School Marching Band, the Marching Big Red, presents the very first band festival of its kind in Licking County ... featuring Ohio University's Marching 110! (That's OU, not OSU!) Eight high school bands will be participating, including the sponsoring Lakewood and Johnstown High School Bands.
Here's the scoop, says Sherry Steinman for the Lakewood Band Boosters: Saturday, September 20, 2003, 1-4 p.m., Chambers Stadium at Johnstown High School, 401 South Oregon St. Cost is $5 per person.
[Note for Amy: If you have questions and/or want more info, contact Scott Coffey, Director of the Lakewood HS Band (740-929-1812), or, Band Director, Marc Zirille, at Johnstown High School, (740-967-2721). I’d follow up, but I have two weddings this weekend!]
As most of you have seen, the Sept. 11 memorial community service project was a great success, “painting the town”. . .at least around Canal Park. The “Charlie Wolf” gazebo that was part of Hebron’s sesquicentennial in 1985, the picnic shelter that was a bicentennial tribute in 1976 by Hebron and Buckeye Lake, playground equipment, three pedestrian bridges, and some other equipment between Rt. 79 and Cumberland Street.
Our Hebron Street Department, along with facilitating the whole project, finished up the next day with the rest of the picnic tables, another gazebo behind the ballfields, and the special paint on the concrete pad.
Mrs. Maslowski and Mrs. Manter brought their second graders after learning about service in class the previous few days, and they with a few brave parents helped eighteen kids paint two of the bridges, plus a bit of themselves, if you know what I mean.
Charla Devine and Marsha Justice, along with some preschool help, weeded the rose bed next to the Ohio outline flowers in red, white, and blue, with some paint on the trim from Amber Damron and Jennifer McNichols, while Lisa McNichols, Beth Walters, and Kim Halter finished some spots the kids may have missed.
Councilmembers Annelle Porter, Mike Halter, and Scott Walters all got some paint on ‘em, plus thanks to Bowman Chevrolet and Union Township trustee Jack Justice for getting our “Respond To The Call” banner up on Main Street.
Clay’s Café, McDonald’s, and our council folk helped with the food supply, with some invaluable co-ordinating help from Linda Nicodemus and Tonya Stapleton in the village office under Mike McFarland’s direction.
And the firefighters of our Hebron Division of Fire and EMS were just great! We had a brief ceremony at the station house at 9:15 that morning, and thanks to Brian Harkness, a new pastor in the area, for his involvement. Police, fire, and village officials were all represented at the flagpole, and then almost every fireman on and off duty that day came by Canal Park to help in some way. Thanks of course to Chief Randy Weekley, and yeoman work was done by Capt. Rich Vance, and Mike Yost is the “prince of paint,” whose equipment made more possible than we thought could be done that day. Three cheers for sure to Dulux Paint Center for their support!
But next year, Sept. 11 is on a Saturday, and we’ll find a nice, big, NON-painting project. . .
We had something over 60 individuals involved at one time or another through the day, and thanks to all of them named and un-named, and don’t let me end the thanks without noting that my wife Joyce Meredith and I got to do some painting together, which was more fun than you’d think! Marriages can survive painting, no matter what some may say.
Our fire department is still working hard, with “Fire Prevention Week” coming Oct. 5 through 11. Those banners at village hall, the station, and at Main and High saying “Get Out – Stay Out!” are not about visitors to Hebron (who said that?), but are the lesson we want children and adults to learn about a structure fire.
Doesn’t matter what the circumstances are: if you’re in a building on fire, “Get out! Stay out!” Too many people who die in fires have actually left the building, and go back in to get a pet or photo album or checkbook, not thinking right about the many ways a fire in a home or office can kill.
So the Hebron Fire Department will be out and about through a busy week, starting with the Buckeye Lake Fire Prevention Parade down Walnut Road on Oct. 5 starting at 2 pm.
Monday, Oct. 6 is an equipment demo at the Hebron Kroger from 6 to 8 pm.
Tuesday the 7th is aimed largely at older adults. At the fire station, 111 Basin St., the department will hold training sessions at 10 am and 2 pm on preventing falls and fire extinguisher use. Call the station number, 928-4721, for more information.
Thursday will be “Safety Day” at Hebron Elementary, and the firefighters will be interacting with the kids on both the 9th and 10th as they press home the message “Get Out! Stay Out!”
The kids at Hebron Elementary have benefited from the “Ohio Reads” program and our own local “Hebron Reads” initiative. Reading tutors are needed again for the coming year; we had about 24 total trained last year with 15 participating through the year. At least that many, if not more, are needed, and the training is coming soon. Call the school office at 928-2661, and Donita or Dr. Geist will get the message to Mrs. Christian, Mrs. Frush, or Mrs. Henry, and one of those teachers will be in touch with you. I’ve gotten to work with six different young readers over the last four years, and can tell you that the rewards last a lifetime for both participants. If you have a half hour a week between 9 am and 3:30 pm weekdays, you can be a tutor.
If you want to help out at the school district level, the Lakewood Board of Education is still taking applications for the Citizens Advisory Committee through Sept. 30. Hebron, I’m told, is well represented, but we need folks to participate from all geographic areas of the district. The Administrative offices on E. Main near the Rt. 79 bypass have forms, plus they went home with all district schoolchildren last week, and any building secretary or Tracy at the board office will be glad to receive your application.
The plan right now is for the board to appoint 15 members, and put in their hopper questions like fees, pay to participate, and a growth plan for the district. Come join the discussion!
Have you registered to vote in the November election? After petitions circulated for our council members, mayoral candidates, and Lakewood school board, it became clear that a fair number of people who think they’re registered are NOT. If you haven’t voted for a number of years, you aren’t registered anymore. If you’ve moved since you voted last, you aren’t legally registered anymore. If you’ve never actually filled out a registration form (“but I just got my driver’s license, right?”), you aren’t actually registered. If the election is Nov. 4, then you need to be registered no later than Oct. 4.
But it is very easy to register for voting, and you can drop by the municipal complex or library to get a simple form to do just that. It’s just that you’d better do it in the next couple weeks!
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church, where they also have a stack of voter registration forms on hand. If you have tales of citizenship and community in action to share from around the Hebron Crossroads, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
Thursday, September 11, 2003
Hebron Crossroads 9-14-03
by Jeff Gill
Not long ago I was watching, through dark of night, "The Last Picture Show." The Little Guy has taken to regularly waking at 2 am or so, and while he goes back to sleep with some mild tending, the parents do not, often. Hence, movie watching 'til dawn.
If you don't know this movie . . . a young Cybill Shepherd, Peter Bogdanovich directing with Larry McMurtry's script, and Cloris Leachman in an amazing role . . . too many references could throw you, but the title tells most of what you need.
A small Texas town, but still the hub for a vast sweep of ranchland all around, is losing the tiny movie theater on the dying Main Street, and the cinematography in black and white starkly illuminates the desolation most of the residents see, except for a few lucky souls who thrive on the stark beauty and simplicity of their sweeping horizons.
Of course, the young all bemoan how far away "everything worth doing" is, and it would seem hard to argue the point.
What this got me to thinking about, though (and I warned you this was during the wee hours), was how everywhere I've ever lived, I hear youth and parents say that "you have to go away somewhere to find anything to do."
Now, I grew up in a county seat town ten minutes from Lake Michigan and forty minutes from downtown Chicago: OK. In seminary I served a church not five minutes from the center of Indianapolis, and before coming to Hebron pastored in West Virginia, plus service before and in between that spanned those demographics.
In each place, kids said about the same thing: "If I lived in (name of place about an hour away), there'd be more to do. This place is boring." Around all those communites, moms and dads said, "I just wish there was more for kids to do around here, like they have in (place known by TV that is distant, but not too far away)."
It all makes me wonder if boredom is simply a state of mind, an attitude of persons more than a quality of place.
Here in Hebron, we have more going on and more to do every passing day, and there are more homework assignments, more clubs and groups meeting and working even beyond extracurriculars at the school, more options and choices about leisure time activities, and more concern about, well, being bored.
But at the same time I see high school youth volunteering for Ohio Reads, rocking for the Drama Club, working at Hayman's Dairy Bar and Clay's Cafe, stopping atop one of the bike jumps they built themselves at Evans Park and looking long and intently at a flaring, horizon wide sunset, like Ben Johnson leaning on his pickup door. They don't look, sound, or act bored. Tired maybe, but not bored.
I wouldn't quite want to say that being bored is a character flaw, but maybe not being bored is a sign of maturity. Except that small children hardly ever seem to be bored; they find a pile of dirt and three sticks and are rapt in fascination for hours (well, minutes anyhow) at a time.
Perhaps being interested as a person is more like being an interesting person than we like to think. Hebron and the Buckeye Lake region are filled with interest and activity, and it is up to us to make the most of what the Lakewood area has to offer. Boring or interesting: we make the call, we create the reality, for ourselves and others around us.
A group called "Partnerships for Success," working through the county Children and Families First program, is preparing to do another round of what they call "Community Youth Mapping." In this process, youth themselves are trained to go out and interview peers and community members to find out what activities and services for youth and families are available in their area.
Invariably, when the kids get back from a round of doing youth mapping, they are amazed to find out how much is going on around them that they didn't even know was available. Of course, the next step is to help spread that word, and you can count on the Hebron Crossroads to help do just that when the process works through our area.
Next week, I'm looking forward to telling you about our local response on Sept. 11, as we "responded to the call" of Patriot Day, as President Bush has designated the commemoration. There will be interesting stories to share, I'm sure!
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and gets to meet many interesting people through writing for the Booster as well; if you know any interesting folk we'd all enjoy meeting, call Jeff at 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
by Jeff Gill
Not long ago I was watching, through dark of night, "The Last Picture Show." The Little Guy has taken to regularly waking at 2 am or so, and while he goes back to sleep with some mild tending, the parents do not, often. Hence, movie watching 'til dawn.
If you don't know this movie . . . a young Cybill Shepherd, Peter Bogdanovich directing with Larry McMurtry's script, and Cloris Leachman in an amazing role . . . too many references could throw you, but the title tells most of what you need.
A small Texas town, but still the hub for a vast sweep of ranchland all around, is losing the tiny movie theater on the dying Main Street, and the cinematography in black and white starkly illuminates the desolation most of the residents see, except for a few lucky souls who thrive on the stark beauty and simplicity of their sweeping horizons.
Of course, the young all bemoan how far away "everything worth doing" is, and it would seem hard to argue the point.
What this got me to thinking about, though (and I warned you this was during the wee hours), was how everywhere I've ever lived, I hear youth and parents say that "you have to go away somewhere to find anything to do."
Now, I grew up in a county seat town ten minutes from Lake Michigan and forty minutes from downtown Chicago: OK. In seminary I served a church not five minutes from the center of Indianapolis, and before coming to Hebron pastored in West Virginia, plus service before and in between that spanned those demographics.
In each place, kids said about the same thing: "If I lived in (name of place about an hour away), there'd be more to do. This place is boring." Around all those communites, moms and dads said, "I just wish there was more for kids to do around here, like they have in (place known by TV that is distant, but not too far away)."
It all makes me wonder if boredom is simply a state of mind, an attitude of persons more than a quality of place.
Here in Hebron, we have more going on and more to do every passing day, and there are more homework assignments, more clubs and groups meeting and working even beyond extracurriculars at the school, more options and choices about leisure time activities, and more concern about, well, being bored.
But at the same time I see high school youth volunteering for Ohio Reads, rocking for the Drama Club, working at Hayman's Dairy Bar and Clay's Cafe, stopping atop one of the bike jumps they built themselves at Evans Park and looking long and intently at a flaring, horizon wide sunset, like Ben Johnson leaning on his pickup door. They don't look, sound, or act bored. Tired maybe, but not bored.
I wouldn't quite want to say that being bored is a character flaw, but maybe not being bored is a sign of maturity. Except that small children hardly ever seem to be bored; they find a pile of dirt and three sticks and are rapt in fascination for hours (well, minutes anyhow) at a time.
Perhaps being interested as a person is more like being an interesting person than we like to think. Hebron and the Buckeye Lake region are filled with interest and activity, and it is up to us to make the most of what the Lakewood area has to offer. Boring or interesting: we make the call, we create the reality, for ourselves and others around us.
A group called "Partnerships for Success," working through the county Children and Families First program, is preparing to do another round of what they call "Community Youth Mapping." In this process, youth themselves are trained to go out and interview peers and community members to find out what activities and services for youth and families are available in their area.
Invariably, when the kids get back from a round of doing youth mapping, they are amazed to find out how much is going on around them that they didn't even know was available. Of course, the next step is to help spread that word, and you can count on the Hebron Crossroads to help do just that when the process works through our area.
Next week, I'm looking forward to telling you about our local response on Sept. 11, as we "responded to the call" of Patriot Day, as President Bush has designated the commemoration. There will be interesting stories to share, I'm sure!
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and gets to meet many interesting people through writing for the Booster as well; if you know any interesting folk we'd all enjoy meeting, call Jeff at 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
Tuesday, September 02, 2003
Hebron Crossroads 9-7-03
By Jeff Gill
Time to answer a few questions and first, make a correction!
A very nice note was passed to me following the Sweet Corn Festival, written in the sacred confines of the Lakewood Band Boosters donut booth. Contrary to my impression that the entire uniforms of our marching band were new this year, it was pointed out to the Community Booster by the Band Boosters that each band member is sporting new “hats and spats,” a black beret jauntily worn at one end, with bright “shoe toppers” giving flash to their dash at the other end.
Their fifteen year old uniforms “look new, because of the Loving Care of the three ladies on the Uniform Committee, Karen, Cheryl, and Vivian.”
Well, thanks for the loving care, the loving correction, and the reminder that someday soon those well worn jackets and trousers will have to be replaced, and the Uniform Committee doesn’t want to hear any surprised comments when they announce in a coming year that it’s time to buy new ones.
Obviously, men (like me) know nothing about accessorizing outfits! It is amazing what some modest improvements around the edges can do to improve the look of the whole. The school buildings along US 40 and Hebron Elementary all got under $90,000 worth of paving and some painting done, and they look like new for just that much (plus driving through the lots is a whole lot easier).
Speaking of schools, the Lakewood School Board “Citizens Advisory Committee” will take names through Sept. 30; forms to show your interest are available in the offices of each school or on E. Main at the Administrative Offices. Your correspondent has turned his name in, and we hope for a full complement to review and share community input with the elected members of the board in their decision-making.
Focusing back to Hebron, our “Respond To The Call” service project for Sept. 11 will start at 10 am in Canal Park. Come down Cumberland to the picnic shelter entrance through the day, and we’ll be painting up a storm on a clear, sunny day (right?) across the two bridges and the gazebo with the shelter. All skill levels are welcome!
Folks often ask, and I try to mention every few months or so here in print, why do I/don’t I get the “Booster” at my home? The official answer is that the Advocate motor carriers are “supposed” to deliver, on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, a copy to each home that isn’t a subscriber to the daily Advocate. Right here in Hebron, Monte tries to get one to every house, which I take very kindly, but each route is a little different.
They also leave a stack at places like Hometown Deli, the Duke Station, and so on. Basically, I can’t get anyone to deliver you a copy, but moving into Hebron proper would help! I understand that almost 25,000 copies of the Booster go out each week; there is also a “Booster West” that carries different columns for Alexandria, Johnstown, and Granville, which runs another 10,000-plus, but since they don’t get “Hebron Crossroads,” they’re just missing out, aren’t they?
Sadly, I often get asked about a fellow (actually, a series of fellows, but hold on) who stands at the I-70 exit ramp onto Rt. 37 near the truck stops with a sign “Will work for food.” Friends, let me tell you as a pastor: don’t give him/them a dime, not one thin dime. Try offering them a ride to a place with a “now hiring” sign, or tell them you’ve got a cord of wood to split for $7 an hour, and you’ll see what I mean.
This is an all too typical scam, staffed by a number of guys carefully dressed badly, but not too badly, all holding the same sign that they pass to each other at “shift change.” They count on guilty consciences heading home from a good day at work in tough economic times, who want to help someone less fortunate with a twenty or a fifty out the window and drive on. An actual offer to help will result in a well-timed stammering stall until the light changes, and then back to the next line of cars.
As long as they stay well to one side, don’t walk out into the road until beckoned over, and start to walk away each time they see a Highway Patrol cruiser coming up the ramp, there’s nothing that can be done officially about them. They are (generally) breaking no laws, and when you hand over cash, you hand over all right to how that money is used.
I’ve had opportunity to follow up on cons like this before, and I can say that at least for me, I have never, ever seen one of these “will work for food” situations at roadside ever be anything other than a scam at best, and a well-run if utterly amoral business at worst.
A few months back, drinking coffee and reading a newspaper before a meeting in Heath, I saw a fellow working the 30th and Hebron Rd. corner get a large wad of bills from a very sweet, well-intentioned fast food employee, along with a cold drink on a hot day. Not long after she walked back into the store, he started to fold his sign under his arm, and knowing what I’ve seen before, I decided to drive past him, stop, and see where he ended up.
Sure enough, he walked down 30th to another restaurant, where behind it was waiting his “boss,” I assume, who got a portion of his cash from five pockets before they got in the car. A Cadillac. A new Cadillac. With whitewalls.
If you want to help the needy, good for you; there is much need around us. Talk to Lynne Cash at Buckeye Lake LEADS (928-1435), or call my heroes at the Licking County Housing Coalition (345-1970). Or call your church! They know how to help in ways that really help.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and knows that Hebron area folk really want to help; if you have ideas or suggestions for community causes, call 928-4066 or e-mail him at disciple@voyager.net.
By Jeff Gill
Time to answer a few questions and first, make a correction!
A very nice note was passed to me following the Sweet Corn Festival, written in the sacred confines of the Lakewood Band Boosters donut booth. Contrary to my impression that the entire uniforms of our marching band were new this year, it was pointed out to the Community Booster by the Band Boosters that each band member is sporting new “hats and spats,” a black beret jauntily worn at one end, with bright “shoe toppers” giving flash to their dash at the other end.
Their fifteen year old uniforms “look new, because of the Loving Care of the three ladies on the Uniform Committee, Karen, Cheryl, and Vivian.”
Well, thanks for the loving care, the loving correction, and the reminder that someday soon those well worn jackets and trousers will have to be replaced, and the Uniform Committee doesn’t want to hear any surprised comments when they announce in a coming year that it’s time to buy new ones.
Obviously, men (like me) know nothing about accessorizing outfits! It is amazing what some modest improvements around the edges can do to improve the look of the whole. The school buildings along US 40 and Hebron Elementary all got under $90,000 worth of paving and some painting done, and they look like new for just that much (plus driving through the lots is a whole lot easier).
Speaking of schools, the Lakewood School Board “Citizens Advisory Committee” will take names through Sept. 30; forms to show your interest are available in the offices of each school or on E. Main at the Administrative Offices. Your correspondent has turned his name in, and we hope for a full complement to review and share community input with the elected members of the board in their decision-making.
Focusing back to Hebron, our “Respond To The Call” service project for Sept. 11 will start at 10 am in Canal Park. Come down Cumberland to the picnic shelter entrance through the day, and we’ll be painting up a storm on a clear, sunny day (right?) across the two bridges and the gazebo with the shelter. All skill levels are welcome!
Folks often ask, and I try to mention every few months or so here in print, why do I/don’t I get the “Booster” at my home? The official answer is that the Advocate motor carriers are “supposed” to deliver, on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, a copy to each home that isn’t a subscriber to the daily Advocate. Right here in Hebron, Monte tries to get one to every house, which I take very kindly, but each route is a little different.
They also leave a stack at places like Hometown Deli, the Duke Station, and so on. Basically, I can’t get anyone to deliver you a copy, but moving into Hebron proper would help! I understand that almost 25,000 copies of the Booster go out each week; there is also a “Booster West” that carries different columns for Alexandria, Johnstown, and Granville, which runs another 10,000-plus, but since they don’t get “Hebron Crossroads,” they’re just missing out, aren’t they?
Sadly, I often get asked about a fellow (actually, a series of fellows, but hold on) who stands at the I-70 exit ramp onto Rt. 37 near the truck stops with a sign “Will work for food.” Friends, let me tell you as a pastor: don’t give him/them a dime, not one thin dime. Try offering them a ride to a place with a “now hiring” sign, or tell them you’ve got a cord of wood to split for $7 an hour, and you’ll see what I mean.
This is an all too typical scam, staffed by a number of guys carefully dressed badly, but not too badly, all holding the same sign that they pass to each other at “shift change.” They count on guilty consciences heading home from a good day at work in tough economic times, who want to help someone less fortunate with a twenty or a fifty out the window and drive on. An actual offer to help will result in a well-timed stammering stall until the light changes, and then back to the next line of cars.
As long as they stay well to one side, don’t walk out into the road until beckoned over, and start to walk away each time they see a Highway Patrol cruiser coming up the ramp, there’s nothing that can be done officially about them. They are (generally) breaking no laws, and when you hand over cash, you hand over all right to how that money is used.
I’ve had opportunity to follow up on cons like this before, and I can say that at least for me, I have never, ever seen one of these “will work for food” situations at roadside ever be anything other than a scam at best, and a well-run if utterly amoral business at worst.
A few months back, drinking coffee and reading a newspaper before a meeting in Heath, I saw a fellow working the 30th and Hebron Rd. corner get a large wad of bills from a very sweet, well-intentioned fast food employee, along with a cold drink on a hot day. Not long after she walked back into the store, he started to fold his sign under his arm, and knowing what I’ve seen before, I decided to drive past him, stop, and see where he ended up.
Sure enough, he walked down 30th to another restaurant, where behind it was waiting his “boss,” I assume, who got a portion of his cash from five pockets before they got in the car. A Cadillac. A new Cadillac. With whitewalls.
If you want to help the needy, good for you; there is much need around us. Talk to Lynne Cash at Buckeye Lake LEADS (928-1435), or call my heroes at the Licking County Housing Coalition (345-1970). Or call your church! They know how to help in ways that really help.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and knows that Hebron area folk really want to help; if you have ideas or suggestions for community causes, call 928-4066 or e-mail him at disciple@voyager.net.
Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Hebron Crossroads 8-31-03
by Jeff Gill
A couple weeks ago, on a Sunday evening out at Evans Park on Refugee Road, Prime Producers 4-H celebrated the close of their season of activity.
Some 40 model rockets went up into the air once, twice, some even four times, as the 4-H’ers launched their group projects towards, if not into, space.
The sky and the winds co-operated, with the gentlest of breezes and feathers of cirrus clouds giving depth to the air and a screen for the changing colors of sunset. The last few launches, as the sun dipped below the western horizons, had visible orange trails capped in a red-gold “pop” as the descent charge fired from the top of the engine to push off the nosecone and deploy the drogue chute.
Martha and Dave Cable have done a great job with these 40 kids since February, and they deserve congratulations all around for their work, which has resulted in recognition through Hartford Fair judging for the members in woodwork, cooking, sewing, and of course, model rocketry among many others. The rockets, by the way, were homemade by the kids, with fins hand cut from card stock, drinking straws for launch guides, and cones each uniquely lathe turned from foam. After a few flights they also had a fair amount of duct tape on them, too, but they flew just as well as store bought.
The Cable’s son David let my Little Guy “launch” his rocket a few times after the first round, and take it home, where he hasn’t hardly let it out of his sight.
By the time you read this, we’ll have started kindergarten at Hebron Elementary; it’s hard to believe that he wasn’t even two when we first moved back to Licking County four years ago this week. This is our fifth Sweet Corn Festival, and from being our “first night” outing with a babe in stroller, to this year riding in the Greater Buckeye Lake Historical Society rocketship: what a long, strange trip it’s been! The rocket, by the way, is from one of the great old rides at Buckeye Lake Park that the society has on display in their Museum on Walnut near the Post Office.
Oh, and y’all have put up with my blather for two years now; thanks for writing and e-mailing and calling and saying nice things in line at the store, and a shout-out to Les Anspaugh and Joe Reed who let us know these columns actually get read.
The best way I can thank excellent editor Amy, though, is to get back to work. . .
Local updates: Hebron Village blood drive on Friday, Sept. 5 from 1 to 6 pm; come bleed with us! “Respond To The Call” community service project on Sept. 11 (and can you believe that it has been two years now since that grim day?), starting at the picnic shelter from 10 am to ??? as we paint our way to the two pedestrian bridges at the east end of the park.
Lakewood football got started, and we’ve got some home games coming up to cheer on down at Calhoun Field; the grounds crew would like us to not park on the grass, since we’ve got plenty of paved parking all around the campus, from the intermediate school to the back of the high school. C’mon folks, most of us need the walk, and you’ll have to work off the Band Booster food anyhow; let the people with the blue handicap permits have the close-in spots and stay off the grass! Save the mudbog event for the Lancaster fair next month.
Lakewood Band. . .well, all I can say is you gotta see ‘em, but they have a new look, new uniforms, new routines, and even a new walk off the field. Yeah, and a drum major with a few tricks too. . .
Speaking of schools, a little news reminder combined with an editorial. The staff at all the buildings (and for you foreign readers, this pretty much applies to all of Licking County and beyond, I’m fairly sure) tell parents that kids can’t bring medication of any sort to school, including cough drops or throat lozenges, and that kids found giving any kind of pill or capsule to a fellow student, even if it’s a painkiller found at the cash register of any convenience store, will be suspended.
I’ve heard quite a few parents groan, roll their eyes, and say how dumb they think that kind of rule is. Friends, can I ask you all to think it through for a moment? The teachers and staff are not pharmacists, and they can’t waste time monitoring medication transfers on the playground or in the back rows of classrooms. You may say it’s easy to tell “drugs” from a Tylenol, but that’s not their job and I don’t want it to be, either (and how do you know it’s that easy, hmmmm?).
The point is there’s no need for kids to be medicating other kids. Once swallowed, if a student says “he just gave me an aspirin,” how do you know what that was? So please, back up the administration on this one, and tell your kids this is how it needs to be, and send necessary meds to school through the office with the signed form.
Between paving potholed parking and painting in almost every building (love those steps at Hebron), Lakewood schools are looking good. We're looking good with some improvement from the last year, with room to look better at "continuous improvement" (see http://www.ode.state.oh.us/reportcardfiles/2002-2003/DRATINGS/047993.pdf for full info), and with the average experience of our teaching staff at 14 years, one year better than the state average. Let’s keep Lakewood looking good, inside and out!
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and parent of a new kindergardener (try typing that word three times fast); if you have first day tales or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
by Jeff Gill
A couple weeks ago, on a Sunday evening out at Evans Park on Refugee Road, Prime Producers 4-H celebrated the close of their season of activity.
Some 40 model rockets went up into the air once, twice, some even four times, as the 4-H’ers launched their group projects towards, if not into, space.
The sky and the winds co-operated, with the gentlest of breezes and feathers of cirrus clouds giving depth to the air and a screen for the changing colors of sunset. The last few launches, as the sun dipped below the western horizons, had visible orange trails capped in a red-gold “pop” as the descent charge fired from the top of the engine to push off the nosecone and deploy the drogue chute.
Martha and Dave Cable have done a great job with these 40 kids since February, and they deserve congratulations all around for their work, which has resulted in recognition through Hartford Fair judging for the members in woodwork, cooking, sewing, and of course, model rocketry among many others. The rockets, by the way, were homemade by the kids, with fins hand cut from card stock, drinking straws for launch guides, and cones each uniquely lathe turned from foam. After a few flights they also had a fair amount of duct tape on them, too, but they flew just as well as store bought.
The Cable’s son David let my Little Guy “launch” his rocket a few times after the first round, and take it home, where he hasn’t hardly let it out of his sight.
By the time you read this, we’ll have started kindergarten at Hebron Elementary; it’s hard to believe that he wasn’t even two when we first moved back to Licking County four years ago this week. This is our fifth Sweet Corn Festival, and from being our “first night” outing with a babe in stroller, to this year riding in the Greater Buckeye Lake Historical Society rocketship: what a long, strange trip it’s been! The rocket, by the way, is from one of the great old rides at Buckeye Lake Park that the society has on display in their Museum on Walnut near the Post Office.
Oh, and y’all have put up with my blather for two years now; thanks for writing and e-mailing and calling and saying nice things in line at the store, and a shout-out to Les Anspaugh and Joe Reed who let us know these columns actually get read.
The best way I can thank excellent editor Amy, though, is to get back to work. . .
Local updates: Hebron Village blood drive on Friday, Sept. 5 from 1 to 6 pm; come bleed with us! “Respond To The Call” community service project on Sept. 11 (and can you believe that it has been two years now since that grim day?), starting at the picnic shelter from 10 am to ??? as we paint our way to the two pedestrian bridges at the east end of the park.
Lakewood football got started, and we’ve got some home games coming up to cheer on down at Calhoun Field; the grounds crew would like us to not park on the grass, since we’ve got plenty of paved parking all around the campus, from the intermediate school to the back of the high school. C’mon folks, most of us need the walk, and you’ll have to work off the Band Booster food anyhow; let the people with the blue handicap permits have the close-in spots and stay off the grass! Save the mudbog event for the Lancaster fair next month.
Lakewood Band. . .well, all I can say is you gotta see ‘em, but they have a new look, new uniforms, new routines, and even a new walk off the field. Yeah, and a drum major with a few tricks too. . .
Speaking of schools, a little news reminder combined with an editorial. The staff at all the buildings (and for you foreign readers, this pretty much applies to all of Licking County and beyond, I’m fairly sure) tell parents that kids can’t bring medication of any sort to school, including cough drops or throat lozenges, and that kids found giving any kind of pill or capsule to a fellow student, even if it’s a painkiller found at the cash register of any convenience store, will be suspended.
I’ve heard quite a few parents groan, roll their eyes, and say how dumb they think that kind of rule is. Friends, can I ask you all to think it through for a moment? The teachers and staff are not pharmacists, and they can’t waste time monitoring medication transfers on the playground or in the back rows of classrooms. You may say it’s easy to tell “drugs” from a Tylenol, but that’s not their job and I don’t want it to be, either (and how do you know it’s that easy, hmmmm?).
The point is there’s no need for kids to be medicating other kids. Once swallowed, if a student says “he just gave me an aspirin,” how do you know what that was? So please, back up the administration on this one, and tell your kids this is how it needs to be, and send necessary meds to school through the office with the signed form.
Between paving potholed parking and painting in almost every building (love those steps at Hebron), Lakewood schools are looking good. We're looking good with some improvement from the last year, with room to look better at "continuous improvement" (see http://www.ode.state.oh.us/reportcardfiles/2002-2003/DRATINGS/047993.pdf for full info), and with the average experience of our teaching staff at 14 years, one year better than the state average. Let’s keep Lakewood looking good, inside and out!
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and parent of a new kindergardener (try typing that word three times fast); if you have first day tales or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Notes From My Knapsack – The Church Window Sept. 2003
Many of you saw the article in the Advocate recently that quoted Bob and John Slater, along with their sister Mary Alice Dernberger, about the impact of Buckeye Egg Farm’s closing on local markets for farmers large and small.
We often don’t think about how what we don’t like is involved in what we do like: washing dishes makes the next hearty meal possible, kitty cats have litter boxes to clean, and lovely green lawns gotta be mowed. We want cheap eggs and family farms in our area, but it is so easy to say “and Buckeye Egg has to go!”
I’m sure I’d be less than thrilled to have 4000 layers in a battery just west of us, but there are ways we all have to tend to the maintenance and building of community that are easy to miss is reality right now.
“Respond To The Call” will have a number of us observing the second anniversary of 9-11 with a very everyday task that needs doing: painting the bridges and shelters in Canal Park. It doesn’t just happen, but peeling and decay do, so obviously the need to tend things on an ongoing basis is part of the very structure of creation – nothing just takes care of itself.
That would seem to me a reason to believe that we’re called to find a deeper meaning, a wider value, and even some joy is those mundane tasks that God refuses to take away from us. We may find someone else to do some of them, we may be able to say “not in my backyard,” but sooner or later we all have to do our part somehow, and why not find the blessing in the middle of what appears to be a curse?
Since I’m already looking forward to the fellowship of the work and the satisfaction at the end of the day that we felt last year with the fire hydrant project, I know that must be part of the blessing. But are there more blessings waiting to be found?
Why don’t you come join us and see? Beth Walters and I will be looking for you at Cumberland and Canal on Thursday, Sept. 11 after 10 am, when we commemorate the day and “Respond To The Call!”
In Grace and Peace, Pastor Jeff
Fall Bible Study: The Book of Acts!
Wed. at 10 am starting October 1
Coming soon: “The Purpose-Driven Life”
An invitation will be extended to the entire congregation
From the elders, who are finishing a study of
“The Purpose-Driven Church,”
to join in a 40 day discipline of reading/listening
together with these 40 meditations.
If you’ve already read Rick Warren’s book,
please let Pastor Jeff know!
Many of you saw the article in the Advocate recently that quoted Bob and John Slater, along with their sister Mary Alice Dernberger, about the impact of Buckeye Egg Farm’s closing on local markets for farmers large and small.
We often don’t think about how what we don’t like is involved in what we do like: washing dishes makes the next hearty meal possible, kitty cats have litter boxes to clean, and lovely green lawns gotta be mowed. We want cheap eggs and family farms in our area, but it is so easy to say “and Buckeye Egg has to go!”
I’m sure I’d be less than thrilled to have 4000 layers in a battery just west of us, but there are ways we all have to tend to the maintenance and building of community that are easy to miss is reality right now.
“Respond To The Call” will have a number of us observing the second anniversary of 9-11 with a very everyday task that needs doing: painting the bridges and shelters in Canal Park. It doesn’t just happen, but peeling and decay do, so obviously the need to tend things on an ongoing basis is part of the very structure of creation – nothing just takes care of itself.
That would seem to me a reason to believe that we’re called to find a deeper meaning, a wider value, and even some joy is those mundane tasks that God refuses to take away from us. We may find someone else to do some of them, we may be able to say “not in my backyard,” but sooner or later we all have to do our part somehow, and why not find the blessing in the middle of what appears to be a curse?
Since I’m already looking forward to the fellowship of the work and the satisfaction at the end of the day that we felt last year with the fire hydrant project, I know that must be part of the blessing. But are there more blessings waiting to be found?
Why don’t you come join us and see? Beth Walters and I will be looking for you at Cumberland and Canal on Thursday, Sept. 11 after 10 am, when we commemorate the day and “Respond To The Call!”
In Grace and Peace, Pastor Jeff
Fall Bible Study: The Book of Acts!
Wed. at 10 am starting October 1
Coming soon: “The Purpose-Driven Life”
An invitation will be extended to the entire congregation
From the elders, who are finishing a study of
“The Purpose-Driven Church,”
to join in a 40 day discipline of reading/listening
together with these 40 meditations.
If you’ve already read Rick Warren’s book,
please let Pastor Jeff know!
Thursday, August 21, 2003
Hebron Crossroads 8-24-03
By Jeff Gill
"Respond To The Call" returns to Hebron in a few weeks; that’s the name of our community service project commemorating 9-11.
Last year, we brought people from all over our community together to then send them out, with the guidance of the Hebron Fire Department, to paint fire hydrants (yellow, in case you forgot) and got about 150 of them done for the HFD. We had firefighters, schoolkids from Hebron Elementary, staff from the village offices, and folks from most of the churches in town, all responding to the call.
September 11 falls on a Thursday this year. The plan, as Beth Walters and I have discussed with helpful guidance from Mike McFarland, village administrator, is to gather this year at Canal Park at 10 am, and spend the day painting there.
Levi Glaser is doing his Eagle Scout project painting the bleachers, so that takes care of the south side of Cumberland! We’ll be starting at the picnic shelter and working north, painting the shelter, gazebo, and tables, coating the floors of each, and then heading along the old canal bed to the two pedestrian bridges on either side of the Ohio outline flower bed that Mary Alice Dernberger keeps up for us. If we have time, we may even weed the bed of rosebushes next to it that was moved when the municipal building relocated (another Eagle project, one that Beau Heberlin put in and was relocated to Canal Park).
So we’ll be painting wood stain brown, floor coating grey, rustproof silver on the handrails and supports, and a good solid white on the decking of the two bridges. Pick your work clothes accordingly, or add some new colors to your yellow from last year.
On those bridges over the old canal channel, you might notice as you step up that the stone supports on the ends are Black Hand Gorge sandstone, pieces from the locks and bridge supports of the Ohio & Erie Canal itself. As we commemorate some recent history, we’ll be honoring our local history as well.
As you can tell, there’ll be painting for folks who like ladders, jobs at eye level for all heights, sitting down work, and lots of unskilled labor to share. Everyone can participate!
Like last year, we know not everyone is available between 10 am and 6 pm on a weekday, but in fact quite a few are, and this is both a service project and our own way of having a memorial: an active memorial, which year by year will make a positive impact on our community. Beth and I hope that next year we might be able to aim towards putting up a shelter house at Evans Park to match the historic one at Canal Park. . .but that’s for ’04. For this year, just plan to "Respond To The Call!"
The village staff is also sponsoring their next American Red Cross Blood Drive on Friday, Sept. 5, from 1 to 6 pm. Dale McFarland knows your preference by now back at the canteen after you’ve donated, and if you haven’t tried the variety of cookies and goodies offered after you’ve left behind a measly little pint of blood, you need to drop by and let the ARC staff and Hebron volunteers help relieve you of it. Thanks also to Bowman Chevrolet, who held a blood drive in their new showroom recently.
Speaking of volunteers at the Hebron Crossroads, at a recent village council meeting, a presentation was made to Kim Halter showing appreciation for all the organizational work on the Ohio Bicentennial Wagon Train. The clear panel of the display shows the Hebron seal, with the historic "Crossroads of Ohio" both announced in text and shown in outline: a very appropriate thank you for that event.
Mayor Cliff Mason presented one of these to Kim, and also one to your correspondent, for traffic control above and beyond the call of necessity, no doubt. We’re still seeing some really neat pictures from the wagon train, including the cover of "Country Living" magazine (thanks to David Dernberger on that). Kim is looking forward to pulling her rocker up to the side of US 40 in 2053 to watch the holographic wagon train roll by; somebody else will be in charge, she says. We’ll see. . .
This week, friends, school is back in session. Watch the corners and sidewalks early in morning as we get used to the new/old traffic patterns, especially out in the country where the corn is high at the intersections, blocking easy views during most of the year.
Drive carefully, thank a teacher if you can read this, and enjoy the new beginnings of a school year just starting, especially for new kindergardeners!
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church, and dad for a brand new kindergardener (as if you didn’t know that already); if you have school updates or other news to share, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
By Jeff Gill
"Respond To The Call" returns to Hebron in a few weeks; that’s the name of our community service project commemorating 9-11.
Last year, we brought people from all over our community together to then send them out, with the guidance of the Hebron Fire Department, to paint fire hydrants (yellow, in case you forgot) and got about 150 of them done for the HFD. We had firefighters, schoolkids from Hebron Elementary, staff from the village offices, and folks from most of the churches in town, all responding to the call.
September 11 falls on a Thursday this year. The plan, as Beth Walters and I have discussed with helpful guidance from Mike McFarland, village administrator, is to gather this year at Canal Park at 10 am, and spend the day painting there.
Levi Glaser is doing his Eagle Scout project painting the bleachers, so that takes care of the south side of Cumberland! We’ll be starting at the picnic shelter and working north, painting the shelter, gazebo, and tables, coating the floors of each, and then heading along the old canal bed to the two pedestrian bridges on either side of the Ohio outline flower bed that Mary Alice Dernberger keeps up for us. If we have time, we may even weed the bed of rosebushes next to it that was moved when the municipal building relocated (another Eagle project, one that Beau Heberlin put in and was relocated to Canal Park).
So we’ll be painting wood stain brown, floor coating grey, rustproof silver on the handrails and supports, and a good solid white on the decking of the two bridges. Pick your work clothes accordingly, or add some new colors to your yellow from last year.
On those bridges over the old canal channel, you might notice as you step up that the stone supports on the ends are Black Hand Gorge sandstone, pieces from the locks and bridge supports of the Ohio & Erie Canal itself. As we commemorate some recent history, we’ll be honoring our local history as well.
As you can tell, there’ll be painting for folks who like ladders, jobs at eye level for all heights, sitting down work, and lots of unskilled labor to share. Everyone can participate!
Like last year, we know not everyone is available between 10 am and 6 pm on a weekday, but in fact quite a few are, and this is both a service project and our own way of having a memorial: an active memorial, which year by year will make a positive impact on our community. Beth and I hope that next year we might be able to aim towards putting up a shelter house at Evans Park to match the historic one at Canal Park. . .but that’s for ’04. For this year, just plan to "Respond To The Call!"
The village staff is also sponsoring their next American Red Cross Blood Drive on Friday, Sept. 5, from 1 to 6 pm. Dale McFarland knows your preference by now back at the canteen after you’ve donated, and if you haven’t tried the variety of cookies and goodies offered after you’ve left behind a measly little pint of blood, you need to drop by and let the ARC staff and Hebron volunteers help relieve you of it. Thanks also to Bowman Chevrolet, who held a blood drive in their new showroom recently.
Speaking of volunteers at the Hebron Crossroads, at a recent village council meeting, a presentation was made to Kim Halter showing appreciation for all the organizational work on the Ohio Bicentennial Wagon Train. The clear panel of the display shows the Hebron seal, with the historic "Crossroads of Ohio" both announced in text and shown in outline: a very appropriate thank you for that event.
Mayor Cliff Mason presented one of these to Kim, and also one to your correspondent, for traffic control above and beyond the call of necessity, no doubt. We’re still seeing some really neat pictures from the wagon train, including the cover of "Country Living" magazine (thanks to David Dernberger on that). Kim is looking forward to pulling her rocker up to the side of US 40 in 2053 to watch the holographic wagon train roll by; somebody else will be in charge, she says. We’ll see. . .
This week, friends, school is back in session. Watch the corners and sidewalks early in morning as we get used to the new/old traffic patterns, especially out in the country where the corn is high at the intersections, blocking easy views during most of the year.
Drive carefully, thank a teacher if you can read this, and enjoy the new beginnings of a school year just starting, especially for new kindergardeners!
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church, and dad for a brand new kindergardener (as if you didn’t know that already); if you have school updates or other news to share, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
Tuesday, August 12, 2003
Hebron Crossroads 8-17-03
by Jeff Gill
Red. Deep, dark, glowing, vital red; cherry tomato red, with streaks of russet yellow echoing the seeds rougher gold inside.
There's no doubting that the tomato crop this year is small and slow, no doubt to a severe drought of sunlight with the excessive surplus of water, agua, liquid precipitation.
But oh, do they taste sweet and strong!
No one has left tomatoes on my doorstep anonymously, nor have they appeared on the driver's seat of cars incautiously left unlocked as in years past. There won't be quite the same abundance of marinara, or "red sauce" this fall, or of homemade salsa in the Gill residence, but the cherry tomatoes tast absolutely heavenly.
We've got a pot of basil going, too; it has a strong and savory taste to it as well. Nature is going for density over quantity this year, and we'd best enjoy it. Scissored up over a cold pasta salad or just on top of angel hair and olive oil with parmesan is a great late summer dish, especially as i'm way too lazy to make pesto. (Climb the mountain, pick the pinon nuts, crack and grind them, wash the tree resin off my. . .what? They have pine nuts at Kroger? Nevermind. . .)
Green is also dark and deep right now. Francis Mayes, the poet, talks of "the green fuse" of spring, but it's the mid to late August explosion of wildflowers straight up into the sky that amazes me with nature's resiliency and surprise. Ironweed in particular: boom, right up in a deep green shading to purple stem with flanging leaves, growing seemingly overnight and then a kapow of glowing purple majesty.
Brown is starting to fringe the trees and fields. Searing heat at the margins plus the work of voracious mites on the locust trees gives a distinct hint of autumn in various corners and pockets, but with less yellow than you might expect with as cool a summer as we've had.
Dark pockets of dim shadow are filling the voids under the heavy canopy along treelines; even at noon -- no, especially at noon, the dim recesses of the woodlots are a kind of dark you only see in high summer, a darkness suffused with light.
But there's also no whiteness of sumulus clouds like you get in August, with the ridged columns of white lined out by a shadowed blue that hints of the water inside them, waiting to fall thousands of feet to pund you tomatoes yet again.
And the pink of evening cloudbanks in the west, shimmering into a magenta on the way to night.
Turquoise at the dawn to come around again, and the light strikes the dull silver of the cages around the tomato plants, with their heavy green leaves spilling out through the rungs, shading the occasional dot of. . .red, as a larger sphere in the east bumps up over the horizon to echo its smaller cousin hanging from the vine, glowing tomato red in the early morning murk low in the sky.
So, have you bought a box of crayons yet for your child's back to school? Lord have mercy: lime fizz green, neon yellow, electric gonzo blue, ethnically diverse brown, snazz-bo silver, fright-house severed finger red, zone of lethal radioactivity chartreuse. (I may have made up a few of those last ones) What will the Little Guy color with these? Kindergarten will be a fun year, I have no doubt; we just want him to enjoy it, too.
But I do hope that the primary grades still use the primary colors, occasionally. Still, we have only ourselves to blame for the fact that he thinks that rodents have three fingers (see Mouse, Mickey), octopi have pets who are made up of fast food parts (you don't watch Oswald and Weenie-dog?), and that a box of crayons have no colors found in nature.
On the other hand, when I read him "The Wind In The Willows," the idea of a Water Rat rowing a Mole across The River isn't strange to him at all, and that's how it should be as the summer of 2003 comes to a close.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and proud possessor of a 64 color box of crayons, the old set that includes "burnt sienna." If you have stories of lost colors, primary or elementary, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
by Jeff Gill
Red. Deep, dark, glowing, vital red; cherry tomato red, with streaks of russet yellow echoing the seeds rougher gold inside.
There's no doubting that the tomato crop this year is small and slow, no doubt to a severe drought of sunlight with the excessive surplus of water, agua, liquid precipitation.
But oh, do they taste sweet and strong!
No one has left tomatoes on my doorstep anonymously, nor have they appeared on the driver's seat of cars incautiously left unlocked as in years past. There won't be quite the same abundance of marinara, or "red sauce" this fall, or of homemade salsa in the Gill residence, but the cherry tomatoes tast absolutely heavenly.
We've got a pot of basil going, too; it has a strong and savory taste to it as well. Nature is going for density over quantity this year, and we'd best enjoy it. Scissored up over a cold pasta salad or just on top of angel hair and olive oil with parmesan is a great late summer dish, especially as i'm way too lazy to make pesto. (Climb the mountain, pick the pinon nuts, crack and grind them, wash the tree resin off my. . .what? They have pine nuts at Kroger? Nevermind. . .)
Green is also dark and deep right now. Francis Mayes, the poet, talks of "the green fuse" of spring, but it's the mid to late August explosion of wildflowers straight up into the sky that amazes me with nature's resiliency and surprise. Ironweed in particular: boom, right up in a deep green shading to purple stem with flanging leaves, growing seemingly overnight and then a kapow of glowing purple majesty.
Brown is starting to fringe the trees and fields. Searing heat at the margins plus the work of voracious mites on the locust trees gives a distinct hint of autumn in various corners and pockets, but with less yellow than you might expect with as cool a summer as we've had.
Dark pockets of dim shadow are filling the voids under the heavy canopy along treelines; even at noon -- no, especially at noon, the dim recesses of the woodlots are a kind of dark you only see in high summer, a darkness suffused with light.
But there's also no whiteness of sumulus clouds like you get in August, with the ridged columns of white lined out by a shadowed blue that hints of the water inside them, waiting to fall thousands of feet to pund you tomatoes yet again.
And the pink of evening cloudbanks in the west, shimmering into a magenta on the way to night.
Turquoise at the dawn to come around again, and the light strikes the dull silver of the cages around the tomato plants, with their heavy green leaves spilling out through the rungs, shading the occasional dot of. . .red, as a larger sphere in the east bumps up over the horizon to echo its smaller cousin hanging from the vine, glowing tomato red in the early morning murk low in the sky.
So, have you bought a box of crayons yet for your child's back to school? Lord have mercy: lime fizz green, neon yellow, electric gonzo blue, ethnically diverse brown, snazz-bo silver, fright-house severed finger red, zone of lethal radioactivity chartreuse. (I may have made up a few of those last ones) What will the Little Guy color with these? Kindergarten will be a fun year, I have no doubt; we just want him to enjoy it, too.
But I do hope that the primary grades still use the primary colors, occasionally. Still, we have only ourselves to blame for the fact that he thinks that rodents have three fingers (see Mouse, Mickey), octopi have pets who are made up of fast food parts (you don't watch Oswald and Weenie-dog?), and that a box of crayons have no colors found in nature.
On the other hand, when I read him "The Wind In The Willows," the idea of a Water Rat rowing a Mole across The River isn't strange to him at all, and that's how it should be as the summer of 2003 comes to a close.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and proud possessor of a 64 color box of crayons, the old set that includes "burnt sienna." If you have stories of lost colors, primary or elementary, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
Sweet Corn Festival 2003
By Jeff Gill
“Heritage Village at Historic Lions Park” is the latest attraction at the 57th annual Millersport Sweet Corn Festival. Starting Wednesday, August 27 and ending at midnight on Saturday the 30th, the midway, entertainment stages, and all the long standing attractions will join the newest, attracting tens of thousands to this village at the west end of Buckeye Lake.
That, and lots of buttered sweet corn to eat!
“We started out in 1996 to create an area where our history will live on for the benefit of future generations,” says Ron Keller, general chairman for this year’s edition of the festival. “Ohio statehood and our 200 year history are visible in this collection of historic buildings.” Near the Lions’ clubhouse on the festival grounds, a local “Greenfield Village” of relocated and refurbished structures, from a covered bridge and a canal barge to an early gas station and pharmacy, is open for visitors with hosts and hostesses scheduled through the run of the event.
For a county with no official “county fair,” residents of Licking County have a wide range of choices through the end of the summer. Especially in the southern half of the county, residents are kept busy with following the 4-H displays up to the Hartford Fair in Croton (just ended), supporting many local non-profit organizations through their food booths at the Sweet Corn Festival, and winding down the season (and starting the fall) at the Fairfield County Fair in Lancaster.
But groups like the local Lions Clubs, the Buckeye Lake Youth Association, and Lakewood Band Boosters all raise a significant portion of their funds each year through this four day celebration of food. “We have 80 charitable groups from eight counties in central Ohio who sell food and raise funds at the festival,” says Keller. “Many people don’t know how important that part of the Sweet Corn Festival is.”
The Millersport Lions Club is the sponsoring organization, as they have been since 1946 when the first plans were laid after World War II to put on a fun and fund-raising activity for the Buckeye Lake area. Fairfield, Licking, Perry, and Franklin Counties have always been well represented in both the participant and the visitor side of the festival, and some visitors have been spotted from as far away as Australia and Japan.
This is probably one of the most family friendly activities in central Ohio, with no entry fee to the festival grounds and entertainment on four free stages. You can pay for parking if you want, but free parking is easily available, and the cost for the midway attractions is some of the lowest you’ll find.
As for food, from ears of butter-dunked sweet corn to boxes of freshly fried doughnuts, you won’t find better deals anywhere, anytime.
For most festival goers, Wednesday at 6 pm is the real beginning of the program, with the Sweet Corn Parade starting out at Millersport High School and turning downtown out to the festival park. Many area marching bands are making their first public appearance since organizing at band camp earlier in the month, and are testing out new music and routines.
With the state “festival season” winding down, an amazing number of “Strawberry Queens” and “Pork Princesses” from all over Ohio appear in the parade, a pretty counterpoint to the raucous assortment of Shriner vehicles and antique fire engines and other assorted entries, along with some very attractive floats and rolling displays by a variety of local organizations and businesses.
With the Sweet Corn Festival in full gear, each night is some kind of “corn eating contest,” with Saturday night culminating in the Grand Champion Corn Eating Contest, featuring each night’s champs.
Saturday, August 30, starts the last day of the affair with the Ken Keener Classic 5-K Run, open to all ages (call 740-246-6101 to register). Word has it that runners are looking for fresh cut French fries as soon as the race is over, causing the deep fryers to start early, as they’ll run late to the midnight drawing for the $10,000 Sweet Corn Festival Raffle Grand Prize.
Through the last day is also the Amateur Talent Show on the bandstand stage, with cash prizes for the top five finishers (call 740-246-5680 to register).
When the last box of doughnuts is sold for church coffee hour the next morning, and the raffle announcement echoes off the emptying grounds of Lions Park, it will be both the end of the 57th Sweet Corn Festival, and the start of the 361 days of planning for the 58th, which will be as it always has on the Wednesday through Saturday before Labor Day, 2004!
For more information and a complete schedule of the 57th Millersport Sweet Corn Festival, click on www.sweetcornfest.com.
By Jeff Gill
“Heritage Village at Historic Lions Park” is the latest attraction at the 57th annual Millersport Sweet Corn Festival. Starting Wednesday, August 27 and ending at midnight on Saturday the 30th, the midway, entertainment stages, and all the long standing attractions will join the newest, attracting tens of thousands to this village at the west end of Buckeye Lake.
That, and lots of buttered sweet corn to eat!
“We started out in 1996 to create an area where our history will live on for the benefit of future generations,” says Ron Keller, general chairman for this year’s edition of the festival. “Ohio statehood and our 200 year history are visible in this collection of historic buildings.” Near the Lions’ clubhouse on the festival grounds, a local “Greenfield Village” of relocated and refurbished structures, from a covered bridge and a canal barge to an early gas station and pharmacy, is open for visitors with hosts and hostesses scheduled through the run of the event.
For a county with no official “county fair,” residents of Licking County have a wide range of choices through the end of the summer. Especially in the southern half of the county, residents are kept busy with following the 4-H displays up to the Hartford Fair in Croton (just ended), supporting many local non-profit organizations through their food booths at the Sweet Corn Festival, and winding down the season (and starting the fall) at the Fairfield County Fair in Lancaster.
But groups like the local Lions Clubs, the Buckeye Lake Youth Association, and Lakewood Band Boosters all raise a significant portion of their funds each year through this four day celebration of food. “We have 80 charitable groups from eight counties in central Ohio who sell food and raise funds at the festival,” says Keller. “Many people don’t know how important that part of the Sweet Corn Festival is.”
The Millersport Lions Club is the sponsoring organization, as they have been since 1946 when the first plans were laid after World War II to put on a fun and fund-raising activity for the Buckeye Lake area. Fairfield, Licking, Perry, and Franklin Counties have always been well represented in both the participant and the visitor side of the festival, and some visitors have been spotted from as far away as Australia and Japan.
This is probably one of the most family friendly activities in central Ohio, with no entry fee to the festival grounds and entertainment on four free stages. You can pay for parking if you want, but free parking is easily available, and the cost for the midway attractions is some of the lowest you’ll find.
As for food, from ears of butter-dunked sweet corn to boxes of freshly fried doughnuts, you won’t find better deals anywhere, anytime.
For most festival goers, Wednesday at 6 pm is the real beginning of the program, with the Sweet Corn Parade starting out at Millersport High School and turning downtown out to the festival park. Many area marching bands are making their first public appearance since organizing at band camp earlier in the month, and are testing out new music and routines.
With the state “festival season” winding down, an amazing number of “Strawberry Queens” and “Pork Princesses” from all over Ohio appear in the parade, a pretty counterpoint to the raucous assortment of Shriner vehicles and antique fire engines and other assorted entries, along with some very attractive floats and rolling displays by a variety of local organizations and businesses.
With the Sweet Corn Festival in full gear, each night is some kind of “corn eating contest,” with Saturday night culminating in the Grand Champion Corn Eating Contest, featuring each night’s champs.
Saturday, August 30, starts the last day of the affair with the Ken Keener Classic 5-K Run, open to all ages (call 740-246-6101 to register). Word has it that runners are looking for fresh cut French fries as soon as the race is over, causing the deep fryers to start early, as they’ll run late to the midnight drawing for the $10,000 Sweet Corn Festival Raffle Grand Prize.
Through the last day is also the Amateur Talent Show on the bandstand stage, with cash prizes for the top five finishers (call 740-246-5680 to register).
When the last box of doughnuts is sold for church coffee hour the next morning, and the raffle announcement echoes off the emptying grounds of Lions Park, it will be both the end of the 57th Sweet Corn Festival, and the start of the 361 days of planning for the 58th, which will be as it always has on the Wednesday through Saturday before Labor Day, 2004!
For more information and a complete schedule of the 57th Millersport Sweet Corn Festival, click on www.sweetcornfest.com.
Thursday, August 07, 2003
Hebron Crossroads 8-10-03
By Jeff Gill
There’s a figure from Newark’s history who passed through our Hebron Crossroads many times, needing some special attention from all corners of Licking County.
Israel Dille, whose portrait by local legend Amzi Godden hangs in the Sherwood-Davidson House along the Licking County Historical Society row on 7th Street in Newark, was born near the beginning point for our recent bicentennial wagon train, at Dille’s Bottom near Martin’s Ferry. He came into this world about the same time as Ohio became a state, in 1802, and was buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery after his death in Washington DC in 1874. His monument. . .well, more about that later.
From a pioneer family in the Cleveland area and teaching in the Somerset vicinity, Israel apprenticed to the law, and shortly after moved to become one the first true citizens of Licking County’s new seat of government. He was an early county commissioner, a mayor of Newark, held a variety of other county offices, and was the leading light in the first "board of education" in the county in 1848, and his daughter Anna was the first graduate of Newark schools in 1853.
He helped to bring the now 150 year old Ohio State Fair to Licking County, put on within the vast embrace of the Great Circle earthworks now at the entrance to Newark Earthworks State Memorial. It is still known to some old-timers as "the Fairgrounds Circle" since it was the county fair grounds for many years afterwards.
One of the organizers of the nascent Republican Party, then a new "third" party on the American scene, he led the movement to support freedom for slaves, education for all, and equality of opportunity for everyone (including his daughters). He lost his only son, William, in the Civil War, and served in our nation’s capital from the Lincoln administration to the time of his death.
An elderly man by the standards of his day in DC, he was notably healthy and active, and caught the attention of fellow amateur scientists, antiquarians, and lovers of literature, including Joseph Henry, the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and poet Walt Whitman, who noted with sorrow Dille’s sudden death in his letters.
I was remembering Israel Dille a few weeks ago when I saw an article in "The Atlantic Monthly" about Whitman which references a significant but little known prose work of his called "Democratic Vistas." Finding it on line and reading the whole, again I ran into Mr. Dille, who is unmistakably described in the essay as a respected friend and perceptive political analyst.
Clearly, we much to be proud of with someone like Dille in our local history (and I haven’t told the half of it!); he was known by his contemporaries as an authority on archaeology, botany, geology, and meterology (keeping Licking County’s first systematic weather records).
But Israel himself, a good Episcopalian, wasn’t given to public displays, and in fact ordered that his grave site, on the highest spot in Cedar Hill (which he was influential in establishing) be marked with no gravestone at all. There’s an echo here of Christopher Wren, architect of St. Paul’s cathedral: "If you desire to see his monument, look around."
Not long ago, though, there was on the grounds of the county courthouse a plaque noting that, long before Dawes Arboretum, there was on the Courthouse Square a "Newark Botanic Gardens," an extension of the many and varied plantings once surrounding his home just north of where Hudson and St. Clair now intersect. Dille established these gardens during his term as mayor as another silent gift to all of Licking County, but the marker was discreetly maintained as one place the citizens would see this illustrious name preserved.
Somehow, a few years back, it disappeared. Could it be returned or restored? Let’s think about it, as we mull over our patriotic reflections this bicentennial year.
Dille, with his forward looking and advanced thinking approach to public policy, was on my mind recently as Congress had a hissy-fit over a program that clearly not a one of them understood. I can just see the twinkle Amzi Godden tried to capture in his marvelous portrait (you really should go see it) as Dille might read through the idea of a "forecasting marketplace" for the finest minds of the country to place bets on likely future events.
Then he’d log on to the internet and click on www.longbets.org to see how his forecasts were doing in attracting speculation and investment. That’s right, the very thing senators and representatives derided as "bizarre foolishness" has one of the few self-supporting presences on the web, started by two of the founders of Wired Magazine and the Whole Earth Review. We need some Israel Dille’s in public life again, that’s for sure.
Astronomy and deep time would have sparked Dille’s twinkle as well; late at night, look to the southwest to see Mars as close as it’s been in 60,000 years (paging Dr. Wells, attention, H.G. Wells, your agent is calling). Bright and fiery, even a good pair of binoculars will reveal some green shot through the orange background, and at the right angle, a jaunty cap of white at the north pole. We’ll be celebrating Ohio’s quadricentennial before Mars is anywhere near this close again (AD 2200 or so), so go check the Red Planet out tonight.
The Perseid meteor shower is this weekend, but a full moon all night Aug. 12 is right on top of the peak activity evening, so we won’t have much to record in the make a wish department. Just salute the boundless curiosity and creativity of Licking County pioneers as you gaze at the heavens this weekend.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church; he has a pair of bionculars and isn’t afraid to use ‘em! If you have news to use, just e-mail disciple@voyager.net or call 928-4066.
By Jeff Gill
There’s a figure from Newark’s history who passed through our Hebron Crossroads many times, needing some special attention from all corners of Licking County.
Israel Dille, whose portrait by local legend Amzi Godden hangs in the Sherwood-Davidson House along the Licking County Historical Society row on 7th Street in Newark, was born near the beginning point for our recent bicentennial wagon train, at Dille’s Bottom near Martin’s Ferry. He came into this world about the same time as Ohio became a state, in 1802, and was buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery after his death in Washington DC in 1874. His monument. . .well, more about that later.
From a pioneer family in the Cleveland area and teaching in the Somerset vicinity, Israel apprenticed to the law, and shortly after moved to become one the first true citizens of Licking County’s new seat of government. He was an early county commissioner, a mayor of Newark, held a variety of other county offices, and was the leading light in the first "board of education" in the county in 1848, and his daughter Anna was the first graduate of Newark schools in 1853.
He helped to bring the now 150 year old Ohio State Fair to Licking County, put on within the vast embrace of the Great Circle earthworks now at the entrance to Newark Earthworks State Memorial. It is still known to some old-timers as "the Fairgrounds Circle" since it was the county fair grounds for many years afterwards.
One of the organizers of the nascent Republican Party, then a new "third" party on the American scene, he led the movement to support freedom for slaves, education for all, and equality of opportunity for everyone (including his daughters). He lost his only son, William, in the Civil War, and served in our nation’s capital from the Lincoln administration to the time of his death.
An elderly man by the standards of his day in DC, he was notably healthy and active, and caught the attention of fellow amateur scientists, antiquarians, and lovers of literature, including Joseph Henry, the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and poet Walt Whitman, who noted with sorrow Dille’s sudden death in his letters.
I was remembering Israel Dille a few weeks ago when I saw an article in "The Atlantic Monthly" about Whitman which references a significant but little known prose work of his called "Democratic Vistas." Finding it on line and reading the whole, again I ran into Mr. Dille, who is unmistakably described in the essay as a respected friend and perceptive political analyst.
Clearly, we much to be proud of with someone like Dille in our local history (and I haven’t told the half of it!); he was known by his contemporaries as an authority on archaeology, botany, geology, and meterology (keeping Licking County’s first systematic weather records).
But Israel himself, a good Episcopalian, wasn’t given to public displays, and in fact ordered that his grave site, on the highest spot in Cedar Hill (which he was influential in establishing) be marked with no gravestone at all. There’s an echo here of Christopher Wren, architect of St. Paul’s cathedral: "If you desire to see his monument, look around."
Not long ago, though, there was on the grounds of the county courthouse a plaque noting that, long before Dawes Arboretum, there was on the Courthouse Square a "Newark Botanic Gardens," an extension of the many and varied plantings once surrounding his home just north of where Hudson and St. Clair now intersect. Dille established these gardens during his term as mayor as another silent gift to all of Licking County, but the marker was discreetly maintained as one place the citizens would see this illustrious name preserved.
Somehow, a few years back, it disappeared. Could it be returned or restored? Let’s think about it, as we mull over our patriotic reflections this bicentennial year.
Dille, with his forward looking and advanced thinking approach to public policy, was on my mind recently as Congress had a hissy-fit over a program that clearly not a one of them understood. I can just see the twinkle Amzi Godden tried to capture in his marvelous portrait (you really should go see it) as Dille might read through the idea of a "forecasting marketplace" for the finest minds of the country to place bets on likely future events.
Then he’d log on to the internet and click on www.longbets.org to see how his forecasts were doing in attracting speculation and investment. That’s right, the very thing senators and representatives derided as "bizarre foolishness" has one of the few self-supporting presences on the web, started by two of the founders of Wired Magazine and the Whole Earth Review. We need some Israel Dille’s in public life again, that’s for sure.
Astronomy and deep time would have sparked Dille’s twinkle as well; late at night, look to the southwest to see Mars as close as it’s been in 60,000 years (paging Dr. Wells, attention, H.G. Wells, your agent is calling). Bright and fiery, even a good pair of binoculars will reveal some green shot through the orange background, and at the right angle, a jaunty cap of white at the north pole. We’ll be celebrating Ohio’s quadricentennial before Mars is anywhere near this close again (AD 2200 or so), so go check the Red Planet out tonight.
The Perseid meteor shower is this weekend, but a full moon all night Aug. 12 is right on top of the peak activity evening, so we won’t have much to record in the make a wish department. Just salute the boundless curiosity and creativity of Licking County pioneers as you gaze at the heavens this weekend.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church; he has a pair of bionculars and isn’t afraid to use ‘em! If you have news to use, just e-mail disciple@voyager.net or call 928-4066.
Sunday, July 27, 2003
Hebron Crossroads 8-03-03
By Jeff Gill
Hartford Fair time is coming around again, which means that summer is winding down. Of course, summer isn’t over, no matter what the temperature does or the first day of school starts on, until the Millersport Sweet Corn Festival winds up, so we’ve got some time.
Before I turn to the fair (or fairs), kindergarten prescreening is next week on Wednesday and Thursday at Hebron Elementary, where our Little Guy is starting this year. If your little one is starting kindergarten this year (and I hear some wonderful new kindergarten teachers have been hired for the building already to meet the all-day needs for Hebron and Buckeye Lake), make sure they get a time slot next week to get ready for this big new step in their life. Call 928-2661 for more info.
Supposedly, we have no “official county fair” in Licking County, but wherever our 4-H judging is shown off is official enough for me. Prime Producers 4-H is getting their rocket powered booth ready, with some help from Martha Neutron or someone like that, and I can’t wait to see it and the barrel racing and the hog barns up in Croton (Hartford P.O.), or is it Hartford (Croton P.O.)? Anyhow, sometime remind me to tell you about the story of the Halcyon Academy. . .
But this is the 145th Hartford Fair up in the northwest corner of Licking County, where since before the Civil War the lambs have been shown and the tomatoes compared. Quilts, cobblers, whittlin’, hobby projects, and all the stuff of which dreams are made of. . .or at least idle activities are made of can be found on display.
Way back when the first eastern settlers came to Licking County, the Beards and the Greens and the Bevers and the Cooperriders and the Staddens (to name just a few pioneer families) wondered how the next farm’s harvest came in, or how their calves looked compared to grandma’s whiskey rubdown treatment.
Even preceding the venerable Hartford Fair, Isaac and Ezra would lean over the fence rails and say, “Howzabout those turnips? You use livestock manure, or mix it with swamp mud?” Next thing you know, you’ve got a county fair . . . official or otherwise.
So this week, I hope to see you up there; the omnipresent Newspaper Network of Central Ohio probably has a booth there (insert editorial comment here, Amy!) and maybe we can move the Hebron Crossroads temporarily up there for a week.
They aren’t kidding when they call it “145 years of family traditions,” and their year-round web site, http://www.hartfordfair.com has a full schedule and other information on it (or call 893-4881, but they won’t answer too fast next week, and don’t ask to page someone). Along with the Ohio State Fair, which is also beginning about now, they are one of the real perks of living in Central Ohio, and you really should take advantage of them!
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church, and a pretty fair fairgoer; if you have tales of the midway or sad stories of elephant ears gone wrong, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
By Jeff Gill
Hartford Fair time is coming around again, which means that summer is winding down. Of course, summer isn’t over, no matter what the temperature does or the first day of school starts on, until the Millersport Sweet Corn Festival winds up, so we’ve got some time.
Before I turn to the fair (or fairs), kindergarten prescreening is next week on Wednesday and Thursday at Hebron Elementary, where our Little Guy is starting this year. If your little one is starting kindergarten this year (and I hear some wonderful new kindergarten teachers have been hired for the building already to meet the all-day needs for Hebron and Buckeye Lake), make sure they get a time slot next week to get ready for this big new step in their life. Call 928-2661 for more info.
Supposedly, we have no “official county fair” in Licking County, but wherever our 4-H judging is shown off is official enough for me. Prime Producers 4-H is getting their rocket powered booth ready, with some help from Martha Neutron or someone like that, and I can’t wait to see it and the barrel racing and the hog barns up in Croton (Hartford P.O.), or is it Hartford (Croton P.O.)? Anyhow, sometime remind me to tell you about the story of the Halcyon Academy. . .
But this is the 145th Hartford Fair up in the northwest corner of Licking County, where since before the Civil War the lambs have been shown and the tomatoes compared. Quilts, cobblers, whittlin’, hobby projects, and all the stuff of which dreams are made of. . .or at least idle activities are made of can be found on display.
Way back when the first eastern settlers came to Licking County, the Beards and the Greens and the Bevers and the Cooperriders and the Staddens (to name just a few pioneer families) wondered how the next farm’s harvest came in, or how their calves looked compared to grandma’s whiskey rubdown treatment.
Even preceding the venerable Hartford Fair, Isaac and Ezra would lean over the fence rails and say, “Howzabout those turnips? You use livestock manure, or mix it with swamp mud?” Next thing you know, you’ve got a county fair . . . official or otherwise.
So this week, I hope to see you up there; the omnipresent Newspaper Network of Central Ohio probably has a booth there (insert editorial comment here, Amy!) and maybe we can move the Hebron Crossroads temporarily up there for a week.
They aren’t kidding when they call it “145 years of family traditions,” and their year-round web site, http://www.hartfordfair.com has a full schedule and other information on it (or call 893-4881, but they won’t answer too fast next week, and don’t ask to page someone). Along with the Ohio State Fair, which is also beginning about now, they are one of the real perks of living in Central Ohio, and you really should take advantage of them!
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church, and a pretty fair fairgoer; if you have tales of the midway or sad stories of elephant ears gone wrong, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
Notes From My Knapsack -- August 2003 "The Church Window"
It was hard to miss, sitting on the platform during commencement June 8th at Lakewood High, hearing how often people referred to a "small" school like ours. . .especially the youth saying it.
Some of you have heard me say already that we need, at Hebron Christian Church, to get out of the mindset that we're "a small church." Of course, as with the seniors who made the same reference on their graduation day, "small" can be an acknowledgement of affection, a statement of a good quality we want to affirm: we're not "big," as in "nameless" or "anonymous" or "impersonal." And some of the comments about smallness are invocations against what we fear as the area develops and changes and, yes, grows.
But for our congregation and our schools and our area, it's important that we have an accurate and honest understanding of where we're at, and what our benchmarks and comparisons ought to be in measuring healthy growth and effective development.
The Yearbook of the Christian Church comes out in July, and once again we can see a number of interesting statistical facts about who and where we are. Out of about 200 churches in the Ohio region, our worship attendance average puts us around the 75th percentile. That means 25 percent are larger than us, and 75 percent are smaller.
Our budget (operating funds) is a bit behind that, closer to 70th percentile, and our outreach behind that, and our Disciple outreach is almost right on 50th percentile. That shows room for growth, but still isn't "small."
Some figures don't go in the yearbook, like our 12 youth to church camps this summer (plus supplying a director and a counselor to the camping program); others are harder to compare because most churches don't have clerks like Dave D., but our average age in worship is strikingly lower than the average for Protestant churches as a whole.
Add to that the fact that we have a fascinating new challenge that relatively few Disciples' churches in Ohio and around the US and Canada have -- our area is, in fact, growing! -- and you see a picture of a congregation that may not be World Harvest or Grace Brethren, but is an important part of the life of the Christian Church in Ohio, and beyond.
We don't need to brag, and we shouldn't be shy, either, about taking our light out from under the proverbial bushel and letting it shine. In fact, one of the clearest signs of the health and vitality of Hebron Christian Church is how often our fellowship is mentioned when there's community work to do. 9/11, wagon trains, help for a family after a fire, parking cars at National Trails: our name gets called, and our people repsond.
How we can continue to invite and include others into a fellowship with this kind of history and trajectory is what your elders will be studying and reflecting on during the five Sundays of August. Pray for us and be ready to hear what we come out with as we study "The Purpose Driven Church" and look honestly and accurately at where we are and where we're going as God's people in Hebron!
In Grace and Peace, Pastor Jeff
* * * * * * *
Choir practice begins Thursday, Sept. 4, at 7:00 pm. Come and sing, all are welcome!
It was hard to miss, sitting on the platform during commencement June 8th at Lakewood High, hearing how often people referred to a "small" school like ours. . .especially the youth saying it.
Some of you have heard me say already that we need, at Hebron Christian Church, to get out of the mindset that we're "a small church." Of course, as with the seniors who made the same reference on their graduation day, "small" can be an acknowledgement of affection, a statement of a good quality we want to affirm: we're not "big," as in "nameless" or "anonymous" or "impersonal." And some of the comments about smallness are invocations against what we fear as the area develops and changes and, yes, grows.
But for our congregation and our schools and our area, it's important that we have an accurate and honest understanding of where we're at, and what our benchmarks and comparisons ought to be in measuring healthy growth and effective development.
The Yearbook of the Christian Church comes out in July, and once again we can see a number of interesting statistical facts about who and where we are. Out of about 200 churches in the Ohio region, our worship attendance average puts us around the 75th percentile. That means 25 percent are larger than us, and 75 percent are smaller.
Our budget (operating funds) is a bit behind that, closer to 70th percentile, and our outreach behind that, and our Disciple outreach is almost right on 50th percentile. That shows room for growth, but still isn't "small."
Some figures don't go in the yearbook, like our 12 youth to church camps this summer (plus supplying a director and a counselor to the camping program); others are harder to compare because most churches don't have clerks like Dave D., but our average age in worship is strikingly lower than the average for Protestant churches as a whole.
Add to that the fact that we have a fascinating new challenge that relatively few Disciples' churches in Ohio and around the US and Canada have -- our area is, in fact, growing! -- and you see a picture of a congregation that may not be World Harvest or Grace Brethren, but is an important part of the life of the Christian Church in Ohio, and beyond.
We don't need to brag, and we shouldn't be shy, either, about taking our light out from under the proverbial bushel and letting it shine. In fact, one of the clearest signs of the health and vitality of Hebron Christian Church is how often our fellowship is mentioned when there's community work to do. 9/11, wagon trains, help for a family after a fire, parking cars at National Trails: our name gets called, and our people repsond.
How we can continue to invite and include others into a fellowship with this kind of history and trajectory is what your elders will be studying and reflecting on during the five Sundays of August. Pray for us and be ready to hear what we come out with as we study "The Purpose Driven Church" and look honestly and accurately at where we are and where we're going as God's people in Hebron!
In Grace and Peace, Pastor Jeff
* * * * * * *
Choir practice begins Thursday, Sept. 4, at 7:00 pm. Come and sing, all are welcome!
Monday, July 21, 2003
Hebron Crossroads 7-27-03
By Jeff Gill
What a sight, what a sound: about a dozen couples standing at the close of a worship service, all in unison renewing their wedding vows.
Along with Sherman and Evelyn Clay celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, we had everything from a couple with 59 years of marriage under their belts (thanks Forrest and Ginny Sands!) to a couple getting married next year sitting among all these veterans standing, whispering the words to each other for practice.
That was way cool, to use a mildly unministerial term, and I just hope to get to do it again someday!
It was also good to have Randy Clay back to preach; he’s a Timothy of our congregation, as we call those who go into the ministry after being raised in a particular church, and also the head of Suran Systems, which is one of the leading computer software companies focused on congregations. Randy has built quite a business up from scratch, which relatively few people succeed in doing. . .let alone clergy! Hebron has good reason to be proud of Randy.
While I’m talking church, let me note that this weekend is Vacation Bible School for pre-K through 5th grade co-sponsored by the United Methodist Church of Hebron and Hebron Christian Church, hosted this year at Hebron Christian, 610 W. Main St. We’re having an opening program Friday night at 6:30 pm for “What Did Jesus Do?” with an introduction to life in Bible times, and then all day Saturday, from 9 am to a family picnic at 4 pm. (Children in K or pre-K need to have an adult staying with them through Saturday to participate.)
We’ll be collecting an “offering” of light housewares and paper products for the Licking County Housing Coalition, to help furnish their transitional housing units. Saturday morning and in the closing program, as well as in worship Sunday, we’ll gather up paper towels, tissues, and toilet paper; also kitchen utensils, dishdrainers, liquid soap dispensers, and similar items.
The Coalition is always looking for these items because they go with the family as they leave transitional housing and re-enter the housing market, and each unit has to be refurnished. New sheets and towels are also welcome!
Come on down and join us in our “WDJD?” theme, and if your church still has a VBS in August, let me know through the contact info at the end of the column.
A regular health and safety note for everyone around this time of year: remember that our landscape is changing as the corn grows. Driving up to intersections you may be used to “coasting” through is a very different experience, with the stalks now roof high even for pickups and minivans. Lines of sight are blocked, and even stop sign intersections require an extra measure of caution.
This lasts only a few weeks a year, but in our otherwise level or rolling rural landscape, we’re not used to treating every corner like the intersection of two streets in downtown Columbus. For a little while, they’re all that, and with school out and kids about on bikes, we all just need a little more care.
Last weekend there was a very nice wrap-up cookout for all the Bicentennial Wagon Train participants down US 40 at Herb-and-Ewe, which hosted a lunch stop for the “Path To Statehood” caravan. We enjoyed the glow of a job well done, and also just plain done. Everyone was intrigued to hear that at the closing day in New Paris, which Marcia Phelps attended on our behalf, the wagoneers had a meeting about doing two weeks next summer crossing Indiana along the old National Road. Some of us may just have to do a road trip in summer ’04 to see how those Hoosiers do with hosting a wagon train.
Anyhow, I hadn’t been to Herb-and-Ewe since long before their new building went up. Barb Wade has a wonderful business there with herbs and myriad scented products and garden plants and ornaments, which can be seen most days from 10 am to 6 pm, with lunch from 11 am to 2 pm served in their roomy dining area or on the porch overlooking a stretch of the old US 40 road bed.
The food is great, as I can now testify, and even my Little Guy enjoyed running all over the terraced gardens and landscaped areas all around.
Barb is also hosting the stray murder mystery dinner and other special programs; keep your ears open for the next event at Herb-and-Ewe. . .i know I will!
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and grower of a few pots of basil, sage, and rosemary; if you have thyme to tell a garden story, e-mail disciple@voyager.net or call 928-4066.
By Jeff Gill
What a sight, what a sound: about a dozen couples standing at the close of a worship service, all in unison renewing their wedding vows.
Along with Sherman and Evelyn Clay celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, we had everything from a couple with 59 years of marriage under their belts (thanks Forrest and Ginny Sands!) to a couple getting married next year sitting among all these veterans standing, whispering the words to each other for practice.
That was way cool, to use a mildly unministerial term, and I just hope to get to do it again someday!
It was also good to have Randy Clay back to preach; he’s a Timothy of our congregation, as we call those who go into the ministry after being raised in a particular church, and also the head of Suran Systems, which is one of the leading computer software companies focused on congregations. Randy has built quite a business up from scratch, which relatively few people succeed in doing. . .let alone clergy! Hebron has good reason to be proud of Randy.
While I’m talking church, let me note that this weekend is Vacation Bible School for pre-K through 5th grade co-sponsored by the United Methodist Church of Hebron and Hebron Christian Church, hosted this year at Hebron Christian, 610 W. Main St. We’re having an opening program Friday night at 6:30 pm for “What Did Jesus Do?” with an introduction to life in Bible times, and then all day Saturday, from 9 am to a family picnic at 4 pm. (Children in K or pre-K need to have an adult staying with them through Saturday to participate.)
We’ll be collecting an “offering” of light housewares and paper products for the Licking County Housing Coalition, to help furnish their transitional housing units. Saturday morning and in the closing program, as well as in worship Sunday, we’ll gather up paper towels, tissues, and toilet paper; also kitchen utensils, dishdrainers, liquid soap dispensers, and similar items.
The Coalition is always looking for these items because they go with the family as they leave transitional housing and re-enter the housing market, and each unit has to be refurnished. New sheets and towels are also welcome!
Come on down and join us in our “WDJD?” theme, and if your church still has a VBS in August, let me know through the contact info at the end of the column.
A regular health and safety note for everyone around this time of year: remember that our landscape is changing as the corn grows. Driving up to intersections you may be used to “coasting” through is a very different experience, with the stalks now roof high even for pickups and minivans. Lines of sight are blocked, and even stop sign intersections require an extra measure of caution.
This lasts only a few weeks a year, but in our otherwise level or rolling rural landscape, we’re not used to treating every corner like the intersection of two streets in downtown Columbus. For a little while, they’re all that, and with school out and kids about on bikes, we all just need a little more care.
Last weekend there was a very nice wrap-up cookout for all the Bicentennial Wagon Train participants down US 40 at Herb-and-Ewe, which hosted a lunch stop for the “Path To Statehood” caravan. We enjoyed the glow of a job well done, and also just plain done. Everyone was intrigued to hear that at the closing day in New Paris, which Marcia Phelps attended on our behalf, the wagoneers had a meeting about doing two weeks next summer crossing Indiana along the old National Road. Some of us may just have to do a road trip in summer ’04 to see how those Hoosiers do with hosting a wagon train.
Anyhow, I hadn’t been to Herb-and-Ewe since long before their new building went up. Barb Wade has a wonderful business there with herbs and myriad scented products and garden plants and ornaments, which can be seen most days from 10 am to 6 pm, with lunch from 11 am to 2 pm served in their roomy dining area or on the porch overlooking a stretch of the old US 40 road bed.
The food is great, as I can now testify, and even my Little Guy enjoyed running all over the terraced gardens and landscaped areas all around.
Barb is also hosting the stray murder mystery dinner and other special programs; keep your ears open for the next event at Herb-and-Ewe. . .i know I will!
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and grower of a few pots of basil, sage, and rosemary; if you have thyme to tell a garden story, e-mail disciple@voyager.net or call 928-4066.
Wednesday, July 16, 2003
Hebron Crossroads 7-20-03
By Jeff Gill
Sherman and Evelyn Clay will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this weekend (and my own parents just had their 45th as it happens). Many if not most of the Clay and Ours families (plus various Slaters, Jones, and others) will join in the festivities, which they’re generously sharing with Hebron Christian’s congregation as they and any others who wish will renew wedding vows at the close of the 10:30 service.
What makes a long lasting marriage? Even those celebrating will quickly concede that good health and some luck play a part, but beyond that, answers vary.
One factor that is very unfashionable to credit is perseverance. Go ahead, look it up. You don’t see that word very often in an age of high mobility, frequent moves, regular career changes, and disposable clothes.
Perseverance is persisting, “keeping on keepin’ on,” staying the course. While there’s not a natural market for perseverance these days, the general lack of this quality keeps some interested. A book on this subject by Eugene Peterson, a Presbyterian pastor, is called somewhat lengthily “A Long Obedience In The Same Direction” and has never gone out of print in the quarter century since I first read it.
Peterson offers, on one level, a study of the “Songs of Ascents” from Psalms 120 to 134, and talks about pilgrimage. On another level he’s inviting us to reflect on the necessity of perseverance and persistence in most of life, where the dishes always need washing, the trash always has to be taken out, and the next meal is always coming soon.
Just as reaching the beauty of your anticipated destination requires so many everyday, simple activities (like putting one foot in front of the other, and washing your feet at the end of a dusty day), the truest love may be expressed in taking out the trash reliably, pulling weeds consistently, coming back home at the end of the day reliably.
In marriage, we’re conditioned to think in terms of true love as being thunderbolty, suddenly “knowing” the one you’re “meant” to be with, of fate and kismet and first sight kind of stuff. It’s not “romantic” to talk of endurance and consistency and faithfulness.
But the 40 and 45 and even amazing 50th anniversary celebrators, like Evelyn and Sherm, invite us to think about the epic quality of romance symbolized by hanging in there, working through challenges, maintaining a relationship through changes and setbacks and the sheer passage of years.
If Ulysses is epochal for staying in focus on just getting home over decades in “The Odyssey,” why isn’t it just as epic to then stay with Penelope on the island of Ithaca for decades ever after? As Tolstoy says in opening one of his epics, “All happy families are happy the same way; every unhappy family is unhappy differently”. . .and we all know whose story is more intriguing to tell.
So let’s set some time aside for the simple unvarnished tale of faithfulness and perseverance, and share a toast and eat some cake in honor of the Clay’s and the Gill’s and all the couples who took luck as they found it and made persistence their virtue and are celebrating a round number’s worth of anniversaries. Long may they wave!
I had the pleasure of directing the Clay’s van, for once not delivering a stromboli to my house from Clay’s Cafe, into one of the ad hoc parking zones established by Dawes Arboretum for last weekend’s “Picnic With the Pops.” Somehow I keep ending up in an orange vest these days. . .
The weather couldn’t have been better and the venue is working out well, with the necessary qualifier that Dawes is temporarily looking more like a logging camp than an arboretum, due to the red oak blight that they’re fighting. Add to that the limb drops and tree falls from the recent windstorms we’ve had, and the axe, chain saw, and stump grinder have all been hard at work.
Once the Columbus Symphony Orchestra swung into action, all was beauty again. Their annual appearance is a great new Lakewood area tradition that deserves our support, with just a ten dollar ticket: parking and the view are all free! Bring your own picnic basket or sack o’ food, a blanket or lawn chair, and your weekend is complete.
Wonder if we can get ‘em back for a fall concert. . .
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and married for a mere 18 years to the lovely Joyce Meredith; if you have tales of marital bliss or family adventures to share, e-mail disciple@voyager.net or call 928-4066.
By Jeff Gill
Sherman and Evelyn Clay will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this weekend (and my own parents just had their 45th as it happens). Many if not most of the Clay and Ours families (plus various Slaters, Jones, and others) will join in the festivities, which they’re generously sharing with Hebron Christian’s congregation as they and any others who wish will renew wedding vows at the close of the 10:30 service.
What makes a long lasting marriage? Even those celebrating will quickly concede that good health and some luck play a part, but beyond that, answers vary.
One factor that is very unfashionable to credit is perseverance. Go ahead, look it up. You don’t see that word very often in an age of high mobility, frequent moves, regular career changes, and disposable clothes.
Perseverance is persisting, “keeping on keepin’ on,” staying the course. While there’s not a natural market for perseverance these days, the general lack of this quality keeps some interested. A book on this subject by Eugene Peterson, a Presbyterian pastor, is called somewhat lengthily “A Long Obedience In The Same Direction” and has never gone out of print in the quarter century since I first read it.
Peterson offers, on one level, a study of the “Songs of Ascents” from Psalms 120 to 134, and talks about pilgrimage. On another level he’s inviting us to reflect on the necessity of perseverance and persistence in most of life, where the dishes always need washing, the trash always has to be taken out, and the next meal is always coming soon.
Just as reaching the beauty of your anticipated destination requires so many everyday, simple activities (like putting one foot in front of the other, and washing your feet at the end of a dusty day), the truest love may be expressed in taking out the trash reliably, pulling weeds consistently, coming back home at the end of the day reliably.
In marriage, we’re conditioned to think in terms of true love as being thunderbolty, suddenly “knowing” the one you’re “meant” to be with, of fate and kismet and first sight kind of stuff. It’s not “romantic” to talk of endurance and consistency and faithfulness.
But the 40 and 45 and even amazing 50th anniversary celebrators, like Evelyn and Sherm, invite us to think about the epic quality of romance symbolized by hanging in there, working through challenges, maintaining a relationship through changes and setbacks and the sheer passage of years.
If Ulysses is epochal for staying in focus on just getting home over decades in “The Odyssey,” why isn’t it just as epic to then stay with Penelope on the island of Ithaca for decades ever after? As Tolstoy says in opening one of his epics, “All happy families are happy the same way; every unhappy family is unhappy differently”. . .and we all know whose story is more intriguing to tell.
So let’s set some time aside for the simple unvarnished tale of faithfulness and perseverance, and share a toast and eat some cake in honor of the Clay’s and the Gill’s and all the couples who took luck as they found it and made persistence their virtue and are celebrating a round number’s worth of anniversaries. Long may they wave!
I had the pleasure of directing the Clay’s van, for once not delivering a stromboli to my house from Clay’s Cafe, into one of the ad hoc parking zones established by Dawes Arboretum for last weekend’s “Picnic With the Pops.” Somehow I keep ending up in an orange vest these days. . .
The weather couldn’t have been better and the venue is working out well, with the necessary qualifier that Dawes is temporarily looking more like a logging camp than an arboretum, due to the red oak blight that they’re fighting. Add to that the limb drops and tree falls from the recent windstorms we’ve had, and the axe, chain saw, and stump grinder have all been hard at work.
Once the Columbus Symphony Orchestra swung into action, all was beauty again. Their annual appearance is a great new Lakewood area tradition that deserves our support, with just a ten dollar ticket: parking and the view are all free! Bring your own picnic basket or sack o’ food, a blanket or lawn chair, and your weekend is complete.
Wonder if we can get ‘em back for a fall concert. . .
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and married for a mere 18 years to the lovely Joyce Meredith; if you have tales of marital bliss or family adventures to share, e-mail disciple@voyager.net or call 928-4066.
Sunday, July 06, 2003
Hebron Crossroads 7-13-03
By Jeff Gill
If you had a seat on the shady side of Main Street, looking across at the sunlight striking the rough, weathered face of the Hebron Mill, you saw the best backdrop imaginable for the entry of the “Path To Statehood” wagon train into town.
Hebron Village did a wonderful job with a welcoming banner and a straw bale softened platform, Brezina Design & Construction had a laden board covered with food for the wagoneers (since they hadn’t eaten a bite for 2.6 miles, after all), and the Hebron Crossroads turned out.
Driving back from the high school early that morning towards town, there were vans and cars and pickups already angled along US 40, waiting to catch a good view of the 14 mule drawn prairie schooners (carts, really, most of them were, and more authentic for all that I was assured).
Once inside the village limits, from the cemetery to the municipal building there were lawn chair clusters and clumps of standing viewers shading their eyes to the east, watching for the first sign that “they were coming.”
Our Hebron Police stood ready to block off US 40 for the program, routing cars briefly to the south; Lt. Brooks and his crew was out in force, but smiling as much as any of the crowd. Fire Chief Weekly walked over from the station to check the coffee for the wagon train, both he and I pronounced it “good and strong” while some just said “strong” and accused me of making it, or at least of scooping the grounds. Not true!
Carlos Brezina was proudly looking over the gathered crowd, all admiring the work his crews had done on the restored mill (in the official bicentennial brochure, a typo labeled the Hebron stop “Resort Mill,” which produces a number of wild ideas: bed and breakfast, hotel, hot tub party barn. Carlos seems happy with it the way it is, though).
Suddenly the flashing lights heralded the coming of the first wagons down the National Road, and all eyes went to the east. As they pulled up behind Russ, the head wrangler on his horse (and did you see his assistant, SpongeBob Cowboypants? He had the yellow neckerchief. . .), they quickly formed a double line in front of the mill, where the wood above and the leather and brass below made for a visual harmony of history remade.
On one of the first wagons was our mayor and his boss, Clifford and Rose Mason, in full authentic regalia. They had camped out with the group at Lakewood the night before, enjoyed the breakfast from Jacksontown United Methodist’s good folks, and were riding aboard all day.
Disembarking, our village was greeting the riders and wranglers with bursts of applause and offers of cookies, and obviously both were welcome. Overheard was one person asking Bill Ours how he’d go about towing one of these vehicles, but he either was looking very thoughtfully at the problem or didn’t hear the question.
After a bit of the usual milling around, with a background of traditional music on the sound system (thanks Mike, Linda, and Tonya!), the dignitaries stepped up to the microphones and gave us a brief program, highlighted by the very clever proclamation from our mayor and council.
You have to know that the folks on this wagon train have heard, and will yet hear, more “Proclamations” than you can shake a 200 year old stick at. The one they heard in Hebron will likely be the most unique one and enjoyable to hear of their entire trip.
The words were crafted in a 19th century manner, enjoining the citizens of our fair village to offer every courtesy and assistance to these venturers, allowing the use of our watering troughs and hitching posts as they pass through, and wishing them well as they follow the path many before them have ridden through Hebron to points west.
It went on in a flowery and fictitious vein for some time, but the wagon train folks, connoisseurs at this sort of thing by now, leaned in to hear it all the way through.
Then the passengers and crew, after a brief response with one eye looking on down the trail, clambered back on board and they rolled forward to the cheers of the crowd.
Heading out of the village were yet more delighted onlookers and clusters of video camera wielding wagon fans. Kathryn Lockwood’s daughter Pat had a friend from her Columbus church walking with the wagon train, so they brought a special cheering section to set up in front of Hebron Christian, and front porches all the way down Main Street were jammed.
And as the sun rose higher, you could see the one understandable anachronism the wagon train participants indulged themselves in: almost every horseback riders and most of the teamsters on the wagons had day-glo bright water pistols, and they merrily squirted one another and passers-by while riding along.
You could tell their spirits would keep them going all the way to New Paris and the Indiana line on the 14th as we waved them goodbye, steadily dwindling up Sunset Hill and leaving us to the west.
Unless, of course, you dashed around them to get ahead and repeat the process all over again later that day; and many did!
We’ll long remember the 200th birthday of our state here at the Hebron Crossroads.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and just smart enough not to wear authentic wool and heavy linen on a midsummer’s day; if you were brave enough to wear the real deal and join the wagon train, and want to share your story, e-mail disciple@voyager.net or call 928-4066. The responses may be a bit slow because you columnist is off to church camp, so it’s filler for a couple weeks, but we hope good filler, like Twinkies.
By Jeff Gill
If you had a seat on the shady side of Main Street, looking across at the sunlight striking the rough, weathered face of the Hebron Mill, you saw the best backdrop imaginable for the entry of the “Path To Statehood” wagon train into town.
Hebron Village did a wonderful job with a welcoming banner and a straw bale softened platform, Brezina Design & Construction had a laden board covered with food for the wagoneers (since they hadn’t eaten a bite for 2.6 miles, after all), and the Hebron Crossroads turned out.
Driving back from the high school early that morning towards town, there were vans and cars and pickups already angled along US 40, waiting to catch a good view of the 14 mule drawn prairie schooners (carts, really, most of them were, and more authentic for all that I was assured).
Once inside the village limits, from the cemetery to the municipal building there were lawn chair clusters and clumps of standing viewers shading their eyes to the east, watching for the first sign that “they were coming.”
Our Hebron Police stood ready to block off US 40 for the program, routing cars briefly to the south; Lt. Brooks and his crew was out in force, but smiling as much as any of the crowd. Fire Chief Weekly walked over from the station to check the coffee for the wagon train, both he and I pronounced it “good and strong” while some just said “strong” and accused me of making it, or at least of scooping the grounds. Not true!
Carlos Brezina was proudly looking over the gathered crowd, all admiring the work his crews had done on the restored mill (in the official bicentennial brochure, a typo labeled the Hebron stop “Resort Mill,” which produces a number of wild ideas: bed and breakfast, hotel, hot tub party barn. Carlos seems happy with it the way it is, though).
Suddenly the flashing lights heralded the coming of the first wagons down the National Road, and all eyes went to the east. As they pulled up behind Russ, the head wrangler on his horse (and did you see his assistant, SpongeBob Cowboypants? He had the yellow neckerchief. . .), they quickly formed a double line in front of the mill, where the wood above and the leather and brass below made for a visual harmony of history remade.
On one of the first wagons was our mayor and his boss, Clifford and Rose Mason, in full authentic regalia. They had camped out with the group at Lakewood the night before, enjoyed the breakfast from Jacksontown United Methodist’s good folks, and were riding aboard all day.
Disembarking, our village was greeting the riders and wranglers with bursts of applause and offers of cookies, and obviously both were welcome. Overheard was one person asking Bill Ours how he’d go about towing one of these vehicles, but he either was looking very thoughtfully at the problem or didn’t hear the question.
After a bit of the usual milling around, with a background of traditional music on the sound system (thanks Mike, Linda, and Tonya!), the dignitaries stepped up to the microphones and gave us a brief program, highlighted by the very clever proclamation from our mayor and council.
You have to know that the folks on this wagon train have heard, and will yet hear, more “Proclamations” than you can shake a 200 year old stick at. The one they heard in Hebron will likely be the most unique one and enjoyable to hear of their entire trip.
The words were crafted in a 19th century manner, enjoining the citizens of our fair village to offer every courtesy and assistance to these venturers, allowing the use of our watering troughs and hitching posts as they pass through, and wishing them well as they follow the path many before them have ridden through Hebron to points west.
It went on in a flowery and fictitious vein for some time, but the wagon train folks, connoisseurs at this sort of thing by now, leaned in to hear it all the way through.
Then the passengers and crew, after a brief response with one eye looking on down the trail, clambered back on board and they rolled forward to the cheers of the crowd.
Heading out of the village were yet more delighted onlookers and clusters of video camera wielding wagon fans. Kathryn Lockwood’s daughter Pat had a friend from her Columbus church walking with the wagon train, so they brought a special cheering section to set up in front of Hebron Christian, and front porches all the way down Main Street were jammed.
And as the sun rose higher, you could see the one understandable anachronism the wagon train participants indulged themselves in: almost every horseback riders and most of the teamsters on the wagons had day-glo bright water pistols, and they merrily squirted one another and passers-by while riding along.
You could tell their spirits would keep them going all the way to New Paris and the Indiana line on the 14th as we waved them goodbye, steadily dwindling up Sunset Hill and leaving us to the west.
Unless, of course, you dashed around them to get ahead and repeat the process all over again later that day; and many did!
We’ll long remember the 200th birthday of our state here at the Hebron Crossroads.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and just smart enough not to wear authentic wool and heavy linen on a midsummer’s day; if you were brave enough to wear the real deal and join the wagon train, and want to share your story, e-mail disciple@voyager.net or call 928-4066. The responses may be a bit slow because you columnist is off to church camp, so it’s filler for a couple weeks, but we hope good filler, like Twinkies.
Wednesday, July 02, 2003
Hebron Crossroads 7-13 (or 6?)-03
By Jeff Gill
After 47 meetings and seemingly endless discussions of "what will we do when the bicentennial wagon train comes to town," it was quite satisfying to see the real, live, actual wagon train come clopping over the brow of the hill east of Lakewood High.
The flashing red lights of the troopers leading them came as no surprise, with cell calls and walkie-talkie alerts of "they’re at Linnville. . .they’re leaving Jacktown. . .coming in ten minutes" making the appearance much less than anticlimactic, but to finally see ‘em coming down the road: it was good.
And we really did expect y’all to come, but perhaps not – y’all. By which I mean you all really did show up, and y’all kept coming, and we saw all of you all make y’all’s way to our little encampment.
No one could actually count, well, y’all, but we were fairly sure that over 700 cars came through our lots July 1, and most of ‘em had two, three, four and more in ‘em. Estimates ranged from 1,500 to 3,000, and we heard about (and your friendly neighborhood amateur traffic cop saw) many who for various reasons just cruised by and saw from their vehicle what was going on around the circle of wagons. By the way, congrats to Barbara Pierce for getting home from Columbus just in time to see the show in her neighborhood!
However many were there, it was a great, great evening. Russ and Tennessee John were great to work with on the wagon train, Carmelita and the others from Worthington and the state bicentennial commission, plus Pam and Kim from the county planning commission along with Marcia Phelps, our county commissioner coordinator extrordinaire, just all of the official folk were so incredibly helpful, and only got more so as things got going.
But our local community has so very much to be proud of. To pull this together on relatively short notice, and to make it go as smoothly as it did is nothing short of miraculous, which is the kind of miracle the ol’ Hebron Crossroads is used to seeing. Phil Herman and all the staff with the Lakewood Local School District were accomodating (literally!) and gracious about the prospect of having a herd of mules on the property, let alone an indeterminate number of whoever else.
The churches pulling together out-hauled highly trained mule teams, with Hebron Christian Church, Jacksontown United Methodist Church, and the United Methodist Church of Hebron leading the crews involved with spirit and good will, and not a note of mulish obstinacy to be seen.
Thanks also to the Greater Buckeye Lake Historical Society who brought us Variations, the square dance band, and to the Licking District Boy Scouts of America, who helped in a wide variety of roles but foremost in their remarkable Kaniengahaga Order of the Arrow dance team, who drew raves from the wagon crews and visitors alike.
For Action Pest Control, Devine Farms, and Creative Catering, your public spiritedness helped make our community proud as we gave the "Path To Statehood" crew and participants one of the nicest meals and layouts they’ll have all the way across the state. We can’t thank you enough. Ditto Licking Park District, Tri-County Dive Team, the Girl Scouts, the Eastern Star, and many others who played a part in getting the pieces put together in a gorgeous summer patchwork historical quilt, sprawled across the side of the National Road.
And I hope you all, y’all, get a chance to both thank and congratulate Kim Halter of Hebron for being the linch-pin of this harness and rig that got so many mules to pull together and so many wagons on the road through Hebron. She did an amazing job with organizing all of this, and the area owes her a debt of sincere gratitude, although I’m sure she’ll settle for having her phone ring a little less often!
This is being written by dark of morning just after the overnight encampment (whenever it is this actually runs, who knows?), so I’m neglecting to mention anything about the actual Hebron stop, which the village staff and Brezina Design & Construction is putting together.
That event will doubtless call for another set of thanks and its own particular description, so keep reading for that on down the road. And over the crackle of the campfire and among the flashing of the lighting bugs, good night!
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and was wearing an orange vest for most of the Wagon Train stop; if you’d like to sing "Home On the Range" again with a thousand voices, or are sorry you didn’t run him down when he was standing in the middle of Lancers Road when you had the chance, tell him at disciple@voyager.net or call 928-4066.
By Jeff Gill
After 47 meetings and seemingly endless discussions of "what will we do when the bicentennial wagon train comes to town," it was quite satisfying to see the real, live, actual wagon train come clopping over the brow of the hill east of Lakewood High.
The flashing red lights of the troopers leading them came as no surprise, with cell calls and walkie-talkie alerts of "they’re at Linnville. . .they’re leaving Jacktown. . .coming in ten minutes" making the appearance much less than anticlimactic, but to finally see ‘em coming down the road: it was good.
And we really did expect y’all to come, but perhaps not – y’all. By which I mean you all really did show up, and y’all kept coming, and we saw all of you all make y’all’s way to our little encampment.
No one could actually count, well, y’all, but we were fairly sure that over 700 cars came through our lots July 1, and most of ‘em had two, three, four and more in ‘em. Estimates ranged from 1,500 to 3,000, and we heard about (and your friendly neighborhood amateur traffic cop saw) many who for various reasons just cruised by and saw from their vehicle what was going on around the circle of wagons. By the way, congrats to Barbara Pierce for getting home from Columbus just in time to see the show in her neighborhood!
However many were there, it was a great, great evening. Russ and Tennessee John were great to work with on the wagon train, Carmelita and the others from Worthington and the state bicentennial commission, plus Pam and Kim from the county planning commission along with Marcia Phelps, our county commissioner coordinator extrordinaire, just all of the official folk were so incredibly helpful, and only got more so as things got going.
But our local community has so very much to be proud of. To pull this together on relatively short notice, and to make it go as smoothly as it did is nothing short of miraculous, which is the kind of miracle the ol’ Hebron Crossroads is used to seeing. Phil Herman and all the staff with the Lakewood Local School District were accomodating (literally!) and gracious about the prospect of having a herd of mules on the property, let alone an indeterminate number of whoever else.
The churches pulling together out-hauled highly trained mule teams, with Hebron Christian Church, Jacksontown United Methodist Church, and the United Methodist Church of Hebron leading the crews involved with spirit and good will, and not a note of mulish obstinacy to be seen.
Thanks also to the Greater Buckeye Lake Historical Society who brought us Variations, the square dance band, and to the Licking District Boy Scouts of America, who helped in a wide variety of roles but foremost in their remarkable Kaniengahaga Order of the Arrow dance team, who drew raves from the wagon crews and visitors alike.
For Action Pest Control, Devine Farms, and Creative Catering, your public spiritedness helped make our community proud as we gave the "Path To Statehood" crew and participants one of the nicest meals and layouts they’ll have all the way across the state. We can’t thank you enough. Ditto Licking Park District, Tri-County Dive Team, the Girl Scouts, the Eastern Star, and many others who played a part in getting the pieces put together in a gorgeous summer patchwork historical quilt, sprawled across the side of the National Road.
And I hope you all, y’all, get a chance to both thank and congratulate Kim Halter of Hebron for being the linch-pin of this harness and rig that got so many mules to pull together and so many wagons on the road through Hebron. She did an amazing job with organizing all of this, and the area owes her a debt of sincere gratitude, although I’m sure she’ll settle for having her phone ring a little less often!
This is being written by dark of morning just after the overnight encampment (whenever it is this actually runs, who knows?), so I’m neglecting to mention anything about the actual Hebron stop, which the village staff and Brezina Design & Construction is putting together.
That event will doubtless call for another set of thanks and its own particular description, so keep reading for that on down the road. And over the crackle of the campfire and among the flashing of the lighting bugs, good night!
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and was wearing an orange vest for most of the Wagon Train stop; if you’d like to sing "Home On the Range" again with a thousand voices, or are sorry you didn’t run him down when he was standing in the middle of Lancers Road when you had the chance, tell him at disciple@voyager.net or call 928-4066.
Tuesday, July 01, 2003
Hebron Crossroads 7-6-03
By Jeff Gill
There’s a figure from Newark’s history who passed through our Hebron Crossroads many times who needs some special attention from all corners of Licking County.
Israel Dille, whose portrait by Amzi Godden hangs in the Sherwood-Davidson House along the Licking County Historical Society row on 7th Street in Newark, was born near the beginning point for our recent bicentennial wagon train, at Dille’s Bottom near Martin’s Ferry. He came into this world about the same time as Ohio became a state, and was buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery after his death in Washington DC in 1874. His monument. . .well, more about that at the end.
From a pioneer family in the Cleveland area and teaching in the Somerset vicinity, Israel apprenticed to the law, and shortly after moved to become one the first true citizens of Licking County’s new seat of government. He was an early mayor of Newark, held a variety of county offices, and was the leading light in the first "board of education" in the county in 1848, and his daughter Anna was the first graduate of Newark schools in 1853.
One of the organizers of the Republican Party, then a new "third" party on the American scene, he led the movement to support freedom for slaves, education for all, and equality of opportunity for everyone (including his daughters). He gave a son, William, in the Civil War, and served in our nation’s capital from the Lincoln administration to the time of his death.
An elderly man by the standards of his day in DC, he was notably healthy and active, and caught the attention of fellow amateur scientists, antiquarians, and lovers of literature, including Joseph Henry, the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and Walt Whitman, who noted Dille’s sudden death in his letters.
I was remembering Israel Dille a few weeks ago when I saw an article in "The Atlantic Monthly" about Whitman which references a significant but little known prose work of his called "Democratic Vistas." Finding it on line and reading the whole, again I ran into Mr. Dille, who is unmistakably described in the essay as a respected friend and perceptive political analyst.
Clearly, we much to be proud of with someone like Dille in our local history (and I haven’t told the half of it!); but Israel himself, a good Episcopalian, wasn’t given to public displays, and in fact ordered that his grave site, on the highest spot in Cedar Hill (which he was influential in establishing) be marked with no gravestone at all. There’s an echo here of Christopher Wren, architect of St. Paul’s cathedral: "If you desire to see his monument, look around."
But not long ago, there was on the ground of the county courthouse a plaque noting that, long before Dawes Arboretum, there were on the Courthouse Square a "Newark Botanic Gardens," an extension of the many and varied plantings once surrounding his home just north of where Hudson and St. Clair now intersect. Dille established these gardens as another silent gift to the public, but the marker was discreetly maintained as one place the citizens would see this illustrious name preserved.
Somehow, a few years back, it disappeared. Could it be returned or restored? Let’s think about it, as we stroll away from our patriotic reflections this weekend of the Glorious Fourth.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and a lover of local history; if you have news to use, just e-mail disciple@voyager.net or call 928-4066.
By Jeff Gill
There’s a figure from Newark’s history who passed through our Hebron Crossroads many times who needs some special attention from all corners of Licking County.
Israel Dille, whose portrait by Amzi Godden hangs in the Sherwood-Davidson House along the Licking County Historical Society row on 7th Street in Newark, was born near the beginning point for our recent bicentennial wagon train, at Dille’s Bottom near Martin’s Ferry. He came into this world about the same time as Ohio became a state, and was buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery after his death in Washington DC in 1874. His monument. . .well, more about that at the end.
From a pioneer family in the Cleveland area and teaching in the Somerset vicinity, Israel apprenticed to the law, and shortly after moved to become one the first true citizens of Licking County’s new seat of government. He was an early mayor of Newark, held a variety of county offices, and was the leading light in the first "board of education" in the county in 1848, and his daughter Anna was the first graduate of Newark schools in 1853.
One of the organizers of the Republican Party, then a new "third" party on the American scene, he led the movement to support freedom for slaves, education for all, and equality of opportunity for everyone (including his daughters). He gave a son, William, in the Civil War, and served in our nation’s capital from the Lincoln administration to the time of his death.
An elderly man by the standards of his day in DC, he was notably healthy and active, and caught the attention of fellow amateur scientists, antiquarians, and lovers of literature, including Joseph Henry, the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and Walt Whitman, who noted Dille’s sudden death in his letters.
I was remembering Israel Dille a few weeks ago when I saw an article in "The Atlantic Monthly" about Whitman which references a significant but little known prose work of his called "Democratic Vistas." Finding it on line and reading the whole, again I ran into Mr. Dille, who is unmistakably described in the essay as a respected friend and perceptive political analyst.
Clearly, we much to be proud of with someone like Dille in our local history (and I haven’t told the half of it!); but Israel himself, a good Episcopalian, wasn’t given to public displays, and in fact ordered that his grave site, on the highest spot in Cedar Hill (which he was influential in establishing) be marked with no gravestone at all. There’s an echo here of Christopher Wren, architect of St. Paul’s cathedral: "If you desire to see his monument, look around."
But not long ago, there was on the ground of the county courthouse a plaque noting that, long before Dawes Arboretum, there were on the Courthouse Square a "Newark Botanic Gardens," an extension of the many and varied plantings once surrounding his home just north of where Hudson and St. Clair now intersect. Dille established these gardens as another silent gift to the public, but the marker was discreetly maintained as one place the citizens would see this illustrious name preserved.
Somehow, a few years back, it disappeared. Could it be returned or restored? Let’s think about it, as we stroll away from our patriotic reflections this weekend of the Glorious Fourth.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and a lover of local history; if you have news to use, just e-mail disciple@voyager.net or call 928-4066.
Saturday, June 28, 2003
Notes From My Knapsack – July 2003 "The Church Window"
It should come as no surprise that I’m very big on promoting and interpreting the role churches play in communities.
From within, we know that being part of a community of faith is how we maintain and enhance our beliefs and actions growing from those beliefs about God and how God works in the world. We need that family of believers around us on a regular basis to encourage us in the hard times and remind us to appreciate the good times.
But the way churches benefit even those who never enter our worship space or share any of our beliefs is less often understood. Your newsletter editor (thank you, David) recently added a line about how a church the size of ours, according to a sociologist who got curious about the services and activities of Christian congregations, adds about a quarter of a million dollars of economic value annually to the community they live in, if that was billed as most social service agencies do in more formal contracts.
Of course, that’s roughly akin to the old saw about what you’d have to pay a mother if you subcontracted out all she does – shopping, cooking, basic medical care, counseling, etc. – but like most old saws, there’s a true line that it cuts. Someone would have to do those things, and if you had to pay for each individual action, you’d see the value better of motherhood.
So churches can make the same claim, and I’m glad we’re in a municipality that knows and appreciates that. It’s been on my mind again recently because of the Ohio Bicentennial Wagon Train, which is getting two days’ worth of dinner and breakfast for about 150 as it passes through eastern and central Licking County because of three United Methodist churches and Hebron Christian. God bless Barbara at Herb-and-Ewe, too; and if the Christian community hadn’t rallied around the ancient spiritual discipline of hospitality ("every guest shall be Christ to you"), perhaps it wouldn’t have hurt our villages at all to quietly let the wagons pass by unacknowledged, but what a gift to the community this work has become!
And the value is far beyond that of 600 meals served to strangers, or a little festival unexpectedly appearing on the local calendar. Once again, congregations have blessed their communities with the joy they have to share, and everyone gets a little more unified, a bit more hopeful, and a whole lot more aware of each other’s gifts whether they join in our worship through our service.
Thanks to Kim Halter, Connie Wildermuth, Jody Shoop, the Cottermans, and all the other workers and preparers who gave this gift of Christ’s presence to and through us this bicentennial year of 2003.
In Grace and Peace,
Pastor Jeff
It should come as no surprise that I’m very big on promoting and interpreting the role churches play in communities.
From within, we know that being part of a community of faith is how we maintain and enhance our beliefs and actions growing from those beliefs about God and how God works in the world. We need that family of believers around us on a regular basis to encourage us in the hard times and remind us to appreciate the good times.
But the way churches benefit even those who never enter our worship space or share any of our beliefs is less often understood. Your newsletter editor (thank you, David) recently added a line about how a church the size of ours, according to a sociologist who got curious about the services and activities of Christian congregations, adds about a quarter of a million dollars of economic value annually to the community they live in, if that was billed as most social service agencies do in more formal contracts.
Of course, that’s roughly akin to the old saw about what you’d have to pay a mother if you subcontracted out all she does – shopping, cooking, basic medical care, counseling, etc. – but like most old saws, there’s a true line that it cuts. Someone would have to do those things, and if you had to pay for each individual action, you’d see the value better of motherhood.
So churches can make the same claim, and I’m glad we’re in a municipality that knows and appreciates that. It’s been on my mind again recently because of the Ohio Bicentennial Wagon Train, which is getting two days’ worth of dinner and breakfast for about 150 as it passes through eastern and central Licking County because of three United Methodist churches and Hebron Christian. God bless Barbara at Herb-and-Ewe, too; and if the Christian community hadn’t rallied around the ancient spiritual discipline of hospitality ("every guest shall be Christ to you"), perhaps it wouldn’t have hurt our villages at all to quietly let the wagons pass by unacknowledged, but what a gift to the community this work has become!
And the value is far beyond that of 600 meals served to strangers, or a little festival unexpectedly appearing on the local calendar. Once again, congregations have blessed their communities with the joy they have to share, and everyone gets a little more unified, a bit more hopeful, and a whole lot more aware of each other’s gifts whether they join in our worship through our service.
Thanks to Kim Halter, Connie Wildermuth, Jody Shoop, the Cottermans, and all the other workers and preparers who gave this gift of Christ’s presence to and through us this bicentennial year of 2003.
In Grace and Peace,
Pastor Jeff
Monday, June 23, 2003
Community Booster
Ohio’s "Path To Statehood" Wagon Train
Much of today’s world frantically beeps, maniacally buzzes, flashes insistently, or just glows an unearthly green.
Part of the trip back to 1803 is to step in pace with plodding mules, to hear their grunts against a harness that jingles and creaks with a leathery groan, to start to nod your head along with the clop, clop, clop of shod hooves, until you fall asleep that night in a firelit bedroll on the ground.
If all the talk of Ohio’s bicentennial has left you imagining what that pace and rhythm would be like, then June 30 through July 3 will give Licking County residents just that opportunity.
While the deadline is past for signing up to actually ride along with the 14 wagons, and the crew of re-enactors and first few registered participants left Ohio’s eastern border last week, you are invited to visit with the "Path To Statehood" trek at a number of overnight stops and daily breaks along the old National Road, US 40 through southern Licking County.
"We will smell, taste, feel, and see history in these wagons," says Skip Bollinger, the wagon train coordinator for the city of Worthington, sponsor of this statewide event as their contribution celebrating a municipal bicentennial as well. "A nationally recognized mule driver will guide our transportation, we’ve got a PhD in microbiology checking out our food preparation, and most of the wagon drivers are active re-enactors who do this all the time."
The replica Conestoga wagons, like the mules that pull them, are not original to 1803. But the process of loading the wagons, tending the mules, getting up the steep (and admittedly paved) roads, and some of the overnight campouts will give a sense of long-ago everyday life to participants and observers alike.
June 30 the long line will cross into Licking County, and immediately get a warm welcome from Gratiot, where the Gratiot United Methodist Church (and a number of sister congregations in the area) has activities and events planned all afternoon, from 1:00 pm, for the general public. They’ve also taken on the task of feeding the nearly 150 crew and guests, as have volunteers and contributors at each stop in the county. Evenings the encampment will be open to the public until 8:30 pm at every stop.
After breakfast, the mules will struggle up hill and clump down grade until they reach the Eagle’s Nest Historical Marker for a pause; lunch is for the wagon crews only at Herb-N-Ewe’s. Tuesday, July 1 will wrap up with a celebration break at the Licking Township Hall in Jacksontown, and then one last "down grade" to Lakewood High School, where the wagons will camp on the north side and the public is invited to park on the south side of the building and walk around to join a full evening of activities from 6 to 8:30 pm.
Hebron Christian Church and the United Methodist Church of Hebron are feeding the wagon crews dinner, and Jacksontown United Methodist Church is providing breakfast the next morning, July 2. Action Pest Control, Devine Farms, and the Hebron Historical Society are helping sponsor and staff the events, and the Greater Buckeye Lake Historical Society is offering square dancing where the audience will be invited to participate. The local Boy Scout Order of the Arrow Dance Team is doing a display of Native American crafts and dancing at the other end of the display area.
Wednesday, July 2 the procession will wheel into Hebron about 9:30 am, with a proclamation and celebration break at the restored Hebron Mill, sponsored by the restorers, Brezina Design & Construction, who will offer tours of the historic building after the wagon train rolls on to the west, heading for their lunch break at Jutte’s Pigeon Roost Farm, where activities and food for the general public are offered, along with feeding the wagoneers on their way. The Pigeon Roost Farms activities will preceed and and follow the wagon train, from 10:30 am to 3:00 pm, even as the Conestogas rumble on to a break in Kirkersville and to their final stop for the night at Watkins Memorial High School.
Reynoldsburg will host the growing wagon loads of guests and crew at an invitation only lunch on the Department of Agriculture grounds, and then the procession will, one at a time, leave Licking County for a winding route through Franklin County on their way to Worthington and a July 5 celebration there.
Marcia Phelps, county commissioner, and county staffers Pam Jones and Kim Workman have done all the county line to county line co-ordination of this statewide event, often with little clear picture of what Worthington and the state Bicentennial Commission had in mind, but Phelps says "we just kept going, and we couldn’t have done any of it without the local organizing committees, who have just been fabulous."
A special thank you will go to all the individuals and groups who have substantially aided in carrying out this series of programs, "and that’s hundreds of people" Phelps adds.
By the time the Bicentennial Wagon Train has finished their trek, largely along the National Road, they’ll have passed through 10 Ohio counties from Martin’s Ferry in Belmont County to New Paris in Preble County, but few counties will have given as warm a welcome to the wagon train as Licking, even if only measured in food! "The scale and amount of stuff going on here overshadows almost every other location we’ll see" says Bollinger. "We’re as self-sufficient as we need to be, but this area is going to take most of the load off of us."
Lake Erie has its "Tall Ships" and the Ohio River their "Tall Stacks" to celebrate the 1803 founding of this state, but Licking County will have some "tall tales" to tell when the "Path To Statehood" has long since ridden into the sunset.
Ohio’s "Path To Statehood" Wagon Train
Much of today’s world frantically beeps, maniacally buzzes, flashes insistently, or just glows an unearthly green.
Part of the trip back to 1803 is to step in pace with plodding mules, to hear their grunts against a harness that jingles and creaks with a leathery groan, to start to nod your head along with the clop, clop, clop of shod hooves, until you fall asleep that night in a firelit bedroll on the ground.
If all the talk of Ohio’s bicentennial has left you imagining what that pace and rhythm would be like, then June 30 through July 3 will give Licking County residents just that opportunity.
While the deadline is past for signing up to actually ride along with the 14 wagons, and the crew of re-enactors and first few registered participants left Ohio’s eastern border last week, you are invited to visit with the "Path To Statehood" trek at a number of overnight stops and daily breaks along the old National Road, US 40 through southern Licking County.
"We will smell, taste, feel, and see history in these wagons," says Skip Bollinger, the wagon train coordinator for the city of Worthington, sponsor of this statewide event as their contribution celebrating a municipal bicentennial as well. "A nationally recognized mule driver will guide our transportation, we’ve got a PhD in microbiology checking out our food preparation, and most of the wagon drivers are active re-enactors who do this all the time."
The replica Conestoga wagons, like the mules that pull them, are not original to 1803. But the process of loading the wagons, tending the mules, getting up the steep (and admittedly paved) roads, and some of the overnight campouts will give a sense of long-ago everyday life to participants and observers alike.
June 30 the long line will cross into Licking County, and immediately get a warm welcome from Gratiot, where the Gratiot United Methodist Church (and a number of sister congregations in the area) has activities and events planned all afternoon, from 1:00 pm, for the general public. They’ve also taken on the task of feeding the nearly 150 crew and guests, as have volunteers and contributors at each stop in the county. Evenings the encampment will be open to the public until 8:30 pm at every stop.
After breakfast, the mules will struggle up hill and clump down grade until they reach the Eagle’s Nest Historical Marker for a pause; lunch is for the wagon crews only at Herb-N-Ewe’s. Tuesday, July 1 will wrap up with a celebration break at the Licking Township Hall in Jacksontown, and then one last "down grade" to Lakewood High School, where the wagons will camp on the north side and the public is invited to park on the south side of the building and walk around to join a full evening of activities from 6 to 8:30 pm.
Hebron Christian Church and the United Methodist Church of Hebron are feeding the wagon crews dinner, and Jacksontown United Methodist Church is providing breakfast the next morning, July 2. Action Pest Control, Devine Farms, and the Hebron Historical Society are helping sponsor and staff the events, and the Greater Buckeye Lake Historical Society is offering square dancing where the audience will be invited to participate. The local Boy Scout Order of the Arrow Dance Team is doing a display of Native American crafts and dancing at the other end of the display area.
Wednesday, July 2 the procession will wheel into Hebron about 9:30 am, with a proclamation and celebration break at the restored Hebron Mill, sponsored by the restorers, Brezina Design & Construction, who will offer tours of the historic building after the wagon train rolls on to the west, heading for their lunch break at Jutte’s Pigeon Roost Farm, where activities and food for the general public are offered, along with feeding the wagoneers on their way. The Pigeon Roost Farms activities will preceed and and follow the wagon train, from 10:30 am to 3:00 pm, even as the Conestogas rumble on to a break in Kirkersville and to their final stop for the night at Watkins Memorial High School.
Reynoldsburg will host the growing wagon loads of guests and crew at an invitation only lunch on the Department of Agriculture grounds, and then the procession will, one at a time, leave Licking County for a winding route through Franklin County on their way to Worthington and a July 5 celebration there.
Marcia Phelps, county commissioner, and county staffers Pam Jones and Kim Workman have done all the county line to county line co-ordination of this statewide event, often with little clear picture of what Worthington and the state Bicentennial Commission had in mind, but Phelps says "we just kept going, and we couldn’t have done any of it without the local organizing committees, who have just been fabulous."
A special thank you will go to all the individuals and groups who have substantially aided in carrying out this series of programs, "and that’s hundreds of people" Phelps adds.
By the time the Bicentennial Wagon Train has finished their trek, largely along the National Road, they’ll have passed through 10 Ohio counties from Martin’s Ferry in Belmont County to New Paris in Preble County, but few counties will have given as warm a welcome to the wagon train as Licking, even if only measured in food! "The scale and amount of stuff going on here overshadows almost every other location we’ll see" says Bollinger. "We’re as self-sufficient as we need to be, but this area is going to take most of the load off of us."
Lake Erie has its "Tall Ships" and the Ohio River their "Tall Stacks" to celebrate the 1803 founding of this state, but Licking County will have some "tall tales" to tell when the "Path To Statehood" has long since ridden into the sunset.
Hebron Crossroads 6-29-03
By Jeff Gill
Atticus Finch is not dead.
Recently the actor Gregory Peck died, and our sympathy is surely with his family, friends, and fans. Most of us, of whatever age, associate him with one role, a character he never minded being confused with (unlike many other actors kissed by fame in a particular part).
In the screen version of "To Kill a Mockingbird," Peck played a single father, a lawyer in a small town, and a white man who was seen as a friend to the "Negro community" as the majority of the population there would have been called on a good day in 50’s Alabama. All tough jobs, all challenges to portray without over-acting, and a remarkable amalgam on the page in the 1959 novel, let alone depicted in the 1962 movie.
Harper Lee is still with us, but has lived a quiet life in New York and Alabama since her startling first novel (that’s right, first novel), and what little she’s had to say publicly indicates that she’s just not sure how much more she has to say after "Mockingbird," and having said so much in that little book, she’s entitled.
But her great creation, the character of Atticus Finch, is not even as dead as many living historical figures are in our recollections, let alone the fading of long past cinematic portrayals. Just before Peck’s death, and I truly hope he knew of it before his passing, a poll of movie fans listed Atticus Finch as the number one hero in movie history.
All things being equal, I would have shrugged and sighed, briefly, if the news story had said the poll result was Ah-nold, or that ol’ die hard Bruce Willis. Some older cinephiles might pick out "the Duke," or even the likes of Douglas Fairbanks or Tyrone Powers.
There is something downright encouraging when Atticus Finch is recalled when someone asks a question about what a hero is. If you haven’t seen the movie for a while (or since a high school English teacher made you watch it, bemused at the black and white and the age of this thing you were expected to care about, struck by the remarkable title sequence as the words rose from beneath the charcoal rubbing, and then amazed at how you were drawn into this old fossil of a film). . .well, watch it again, OK?
William Harris has a hero, and while his first book will not likely make him a fortune to live on the rest of his life, it tells the common story of uncommon valor shown by his grandfather, William J. Johnson, and many like him in World War II.
Janice and Phil Harris (who just celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary) are proud of both their children, with Tricia graduating last year from Wilmington, but the focus right now is on William, a Lakewood Middle School student.
In Mrs. Warthen’s class, he had the chance to write and illustrate a book that would be printed up. I’ve seen a number of these, and the motivation of knowing your final product will come out between hard covers has spurred some very nice collections of poetry, essays on hobbies and interests, and appreciations of various family members. . .or pets!
But William chose to adapt a journal that his grandfather had assembled to summarize and tell the story of his service in the United States Navy through World War II and Korea. Taken from his letters and diary, plus a few records left from his progress from Signalman to Chief Quartermaster through the ranks and some 20 ships, grandfather William left his daughters and grandchildren and anyone else who might care a narrative of what life was like "back then" and why young men and women made some of the choices they did in places like Bellaire and Shadyside, Ohio.
The idea worked, because grandson William read the journal, and retold the story from his perspective, entitled quite sensibly "My Grandfather, William J. Johnson." And now, many others have picked up the story and read it, gaining young William honors from the printers who prepared the class books, readership well beyond his immediate family, and a write-up last weekend in a Wheeling and Ohio Valley newspaper.
William and Lora Johnson, his high school sweetheart and wartime bride, both died last year, but their story lives one. Thanks, William, both of them!
You can read more about the Ohio Bicentennial Wagon Train July 1 and 2 elsewhere in this paper, and don’t forget the annual Civil War Re-enactment out at Infirmary Mound Park this weekend. History is all around the Hebron Crossroads. . .
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and a local historian and archaeologist; if you have news of note or historical announcements to make, share them through disciple@voyager.net. Please remember that a few weeks notice is necessary to get time-bound articles into the column!
By Jeff Gill
Atticus Finch is not dead.
Recently the actor Gregory Peck died, and our sympathy is surely with his family, friends, and fans. Most of us, of whatever age, associate him with one role, a character he never minded being confused with (unlike many other actors kissed by fame in a particular part).
In the screen version of "To Kill a Mockingbird," Peck played a single father, a lawyer in a small town, and a white man who was seen as a friend to the "Negro community" as the majority of the population there would have been called on a good day in 50’s Alabama. All tough jobs, all challenges to portray without over-acting, and a remarkable amalgam on the page in the 1959 novel, let alone depicted in the 1962 movie.
Harper Lee is still with us, but has lived a quiet life in New York and Alabama since her startling first novel (that’s right, first novel), and what little she’s had to say publicly indicates that she’s just not sure how much more she has to say after "Mockingbird," and having said so much in that little book, she’s entitled.
But her great creation, the character of Atticus Finch, is not even as dead as many living historical figures are in our recollections, let alone the fading of long past cinematic portrayals. Just before Peck’s death, and I truly hope he knew of it before his passing, a poll of movie fans listed Atticus Finch as the number one hero in movie history.
All things being equal, I would have shrugged and sighed, briefly, if the news story had said the poll result was Ah-nold, or that ol’ die hard Bruce Willis. Some older cinephiles might pick out "the Duke," or even the likes of Douglas Fairbanks or Tyrone Powers.
There is something downright encouraging when Atticus Finch is recalled when someone asks a question about what a hero is. If you haven’t seen the movie for a while (or since a high school English teacher made you watch it, bemused at the black and white and the age of this thing you were expected to care about, struck by the remarkable title sequence as the words rose from beneath the charcoal rubbing, and then amazed at how you were drawn into this old fossil of a film). . .well, watch it again, OK?
William Harris has a hero, and while his first book will not likely make him a fortune to live on the rest of his life, it tells the common story of uncommon valor shown by his grandfather, William J. Johnson, and many like him in World War II.
Janice and Phil Harris (who just celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary) are proud of both their children, with Tricia graduating last year from Wilmington, but the focus right now is on William, a Lakewood Middle School student.
In Mrs. Warthen’s class, he had the chance to write and illustrate a book that would be printed up. I’ve seen a number of these, and the motivation of knowing your final product will come out between hard covers has spurred some very nice collections of poetry, essays on hobbies and interests, and appreciations of various family members. . .or pets!
But William chose to adapt a journal that his grandfather had assembled to summarize and tell the story of his service in the United States Navy through World War II and Korea. Taken from his letters and diary, plus a few records left from his progress from Signalman to Chief Quartermaster through the ranks and some 20 ships, grandfather William left his daughters and grandchildren and anyone else who might care a narrative of what life was like "back then" and why young men and women made some of the choices they did in places like Bellaire and Shadyside, Ohio.
The idea worked, because grandson William read the journal, and retold the story from his perspective, entitled quite sensibly "My Grandfather, William J. Johnson." And now, many others have picked up the story and read it, gaining young William honors from the printers who prepared the class books, readership well beyond his immediate family, and a write-up last weekend in a Wheeling and Ohio Valley newspaper.
William and Lora Johnson, his high school sweetheart and wartime bride, both died last year, but their story lives one. Thanks, William, both of them!
You can read more about the Ohio Bicentennial Wagon Train July 1 and 2 elsewhere in this paper, and don’t forget the annual Civil War Re-enactment out at Infirmary Mound Park this weekend. History is all around the Hebron Crossroads. . .
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and a local historian and archaeologist; if you have news of note or historical announcements to make, share them through disciple@voyager.net. Please remember that a few weeks notice is necessary to get time-bound articles into the column!
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