Shelby Ohio Blog Entry #1

Shelby, Ohio USA. This is small town, middle America where the streets are safe, the people are generally nice, the population of nearly 10,000 residents is almost 100% Caucasian, and living is easy and slow. Easy and Slow - that's JUST the way they like it. There are no traffic jams, you often see people you know on the street, the air is clear and clean, and they publish the names and addresses of traffic violators in the local newspaper - The Shelby Daily Globe - which is about 8 pages long. There's one high school and only a few elementary schools. The main street going through the town is called, you guessed it, MAIN STREET.

I grew up in Shelby, Ohio, Richland County, but wasn't born there. I was born about 45 miles away on the way to Cleveland, Ohio but we moved to Shelby when I was only a baby, around 1966.

We lived on Earl Avenue in Shelby and, for me, that was the best place on earth. Mom stayed home with my older sister and me until we were old enough to walk to school on our own. The walk to the Central Elementary School was only a few hundred yards away, in fact, so the location was perfect.


The house was near the corner of Earl Avenue and South Gamble Street (S.R. 61) the block was perfect to ride your bike - or "Big Wheel" - around and around and around the four sides, over uneven stone slab sidewalks, pushed up by large maple tree roots. But that didn't stop us neighborhood boys to race each other daily to see who could complete the circuit the quickest. I, being tall - and fast- for my age, won nearly every time, unless I was upset but a tree root, unloading mailman, or crashing with another racer while going around the corner.

Basic data of Shelby Ohio is listed below as stated on the Shelby Ohio WikiPedia page HERE.

As of the census of 2000, there were 9,821 people, 4,073 households, and 2,667 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,949.3 people per square mile (752.4/km²). There were 4,330 housing units at an average density of 859.4/sq mi (331.7/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 98.40% White, 0.14% African American, 0.18% Native American, 0.35% Asian, 0.37% from other races, and 0.56% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.02% of the population.

More Shelby Nostalgia to come!