Shelby Ohio USA: Hometown Nostalgia

2009 Shelby Whippets Football Schedule

2009-08-11T06:28:00.007-04:00

The following is the new
2009 Shelby Whippets Football Schedule.

GOOD LUCK WHIPPETS!!

DAY	DATE	OPPONENT	HOME/AWAY	TIME
FRIDAY	8/28/09	Madison	Away	7:30
FRIDAY	9/04/09	Lexington	HOME	7:00
FRIDAY	9/11/09	Ontario	HOME	7:00
FRIDAY	9/18/09	Bellevue	HOME	7:30
FRIDAY	9/25/09	Upper Sandusky	Away	7:30
FRIDAY	10/02/09	Galion	HOME	7:30
FRIDAY	10/09/09	Tiffin	Away	7:30
FRIDAY	10/16/09	Norwalk	Away	7:30
FRIDAY	10/23/09	Fostoria	HOME	7:30
FRIDAY	10/30/09	Norwalk	Away	7:30

Link: Shelby Football Schedule and historical scores.

2009 Shelby Ohio Bicycle Days Photos

2009-07-12T13:39:00.003-04:00

Below is a collection of photos from yesterday's (July 11th, 2009) Shelby Ohio Bicycle Days parade. They were taken from the northern side of East Main Street at Wentz Avenue:

Shelby High School Marching Band

The Farm Tractor Brigade

Tiny Twirlettes

Tiny Twirlettes Marching
Llama Trot

Horse Riders and Cleanup Crew Close "Behind"

Candy Scavengers

King Midgets

It was an enjoyable Bicycle Days Parade, partly cloudy, breezy, not too warm. There was a good turn-out too.

Shelby Bicycle Days 2009

2009-07-10T11:18:00.007-04:00

Shelby Bicycle Days is here!

For those who don't know, the Shelby Bicycle Days festival was combined with Shelby's 4th of July festival a few years ago, that's why the festival takes place on the 10th of July. Also, the date allows 4th of July travelers to return to Shelby and still enjoy the local festivities.

The 2009 Shelby Bicycle Days schedule is as follows:

Friday, July 10:

4-8pm: Log Cabin opens
4-10pm: Rides at Central Park
4-10pm: High School Avenue Food Concessions
4:30-10pm: Central Park Vendor exhibits
5-6pm: Band Stand music by the New Washington Band
6pm: Band Stand, Kiddie Royalty Crowning
6pm: Siegfried Park, Family Feud Softball Tournament
7-9pm: band music at Spiritual House
7-8:30pm: Skiles Field, Real Guitar Hero competition

Saturday, July 11:

7:30am: Central Gym, Whippet 5K Run registration
8:15am: High School Avenue, Whippet Fun Run
8:30am: High School Avenue, Whippet 5K Run
8:30am: Dr. Westbeld's Parking Lot, Cornhole registration & tournament
10am: Great Scot Parking Lot, Bike skills competition
12-5pm: Central Gym, TC 1st Annual 3-point shoot-out
12-11pm: Central Park rides
12-11pm: Food concessions open
12-8pm: Log Cabin opens
1pm: Parade preparation, Wentz Ave. & Grand Blvd.
2pm: Parade, Main Street, South Gamble, Tucker Avenue
2-5pm: Shelby Museum opens
3pm: Skiles Field, Real Guitar Hero finals
3:30pm: Band Stand, Shelby Help Line Ministries pie auction
4-10pm: Skiles Field, Christian music concert
7-9pm: High School Ave. & Main Street, Cloverleaf Square Dancers
10pm: FIREWORKS at SKILES FIELD!!

It should be a good time at this year's 4th of July and Bicycle Days Festival in Shelby, Ohio USA. Does it get any better than this for good, wholesome, hometown-small town fun? I don't think so.

I expect to be attending tomorrow's parade so later I'll post some photos. Looking forward to it! And it seems that this year, unlike in year's past, it should be a little cooler with highs in the mid-80s. On the downside, the Shelby weather forecast for tomorrow's festivities includes scattered thunderstorms. That's bad.

"When I was a boy," I too rode my little banana-seat coaster bike in Shelby's Bicycle Days Parade. It was carefully adorned with wheel-spoke noise-makers and handlebar streamers. Man, I could pop some wheelies on that thing. But proudly, if not reservedly, I displayed my bikemanship during this annual Shelby Parade under the hot summer sun. Inevitably, impatient and energetic youngsters would often crash into one another, sending adjacent kids tumbling to the asphalt - albeit at less than 1-mile per hour.

Shelby High School Visit

2008-11-15T15:46:00.006-05:00

Last month I visited the Shelby Senior High School for the first time in probably 10 years. Wow. It's exactly the same as when I went there in the early 1980s and yet lots of details are very different. Of course, the architecture has remained the same since its building in, when, 1968??

I visited the High School for the annual Arts & Crafts fair which takes place every October in the Shelby High School basketball gymnasium and also in the YMCA gymnasium next door.

What I noticed immediately about the differences in the Shelby gymnasium is that it has a new scoreboard, new wall-art, and - the biggest change of all - the brand new bleachers! I don't know when they tore out all those long wooden planks but replaced them with short sections of red-or-gray fiberglass ones. That must have been a HUGE expense but it's good to know the high school, school board, boosters, or "other" take such pride in wanting the best for their kids.

The basketball bleachers were always an ominous mechanical mechanism. So many times I found myself sneaking around underneath with a little nervousness, not knowing WHEN the bleachers would be detracted, certainly slicing-and-dicing my body into an unrecognizable pile until the cleaning crew would find me after the next basketball game. At pep rallies we band members would sometimes drop our music, jackets, or even trombone slides into the unreachable depths below.

Same goes for the Shelby High School cafeteria. It was (and surely STILL IS) another location for all kinds of eating, flirting, food-fighting, and lots of other nonsense. The dining hall looks exactly the same, complete with trophy case and photos of past football & basketball team champions, top athletes, and academic overachievers. The only difference I could see are those cool-new cafeteria dining tables! They're still the fold-up/stand-up variety but they seem to have a plastic or fiberglass top as opposed to the old particle board we had. Also, the seats seem to be retractable, round plastic stools. We had the run-of-the-mill stackable chairs. I have to wonder how many children have fallen off of these new, round seats with only one leg.

I'd like to someday take a tour of the Shelby High School halls, visit some of my old classrooms, check out the empty locker rooms and weight room, and even look into the bathrooms. Surely they look tiny now. Almost all of my teachers have since retired except for one or two. Sometimes I'll run into the retired ones in the stores and shops around Shelby or Mansfield. It's always nice to see them.

2008 Shelby Whippets Football Schedule

2008-08-14T05:44:00.019-04:00

(also see: 2009 Shelby Whippets Football Schedule)

The 2008 varsity football schedule for the Shelby Whippets has been posted! (scroll down for schedule)

Before long the Shelby stadium bleachers at W.W. Skiles Field will be full of anxious fans cheering on their hometown heroes. The first-time starters and the rest of the team, well-trained and well-prepared, will have those first-game butterflies in their stomachs. The coaches, anxious to find out if their boys have learned their plays and if they will execute them sharply, will soon know what kind of season they'll have. While preparation is key for the first game of any new season, the results of that first game will reveal what improvements must be made.

There's something really very special about playing under the lights on the freshly-cut grass of Skiles Field. It's the first warm football Friday night of the year and you're in front of the entire town of Shelby, Ohio USA. The Shelby Marching Band is performing many Shelby High School and Ohio State University fight songs to encourage their team as they rip through the GO SHELBY WHIPPETS banner before the game starts, while preparing for a crucial 3rd and long, or giving the defense a boost.

My days as a junior and senior class football player under head coach Bill Varble have long passed me by but the memories are vivid and enjoyable.

(also read "Shelby Whippets Football: Hometown Giants")

The schedule below was taken from the www.HungryHounds.or g website. Go there for game results.

DAY	DATE	OPPONENT	HOME/AWAY	TIME	RESULTS	W-L
FRIDAY	8/22/08	Madison	HOME	7:30
FRIDAY	8/29/08	Lexington	Away	7:00
FRIDAY	9/5/08	Ontario	Away	7:00
FRIDAY	9/12/08	Tiffin	HOME	7:30
FRIDAY	9/19/08	Norwalk	Away	7:30
FRIDAY	9/26/08	Fostoria	HOME	7:30
FRIDAY	10/3/08	Willard	HOME	7:30
FRIDAY	10/1008	Bellevue	Away	7:30
FRIDAY	10/17/08	Upper Sandusky	HOME	7:30
FRIDAY	10/24/08	Galion	Away	7:30

Shelby Daily Globe, Mansfield News Journal

2008-08-10T13:52:00.011-04:00

Most small towns have only one newspaper. We had The Shelby Daily Globe locally but many people also subscribed to the Mansfield News Journal - the newspaper of the nearest city 12 miles away.

The Shelby Daily Globe was always delivered Monday through Saturday by a young boy of maybe 12 years old, riding a coaster bike and maybe streamers attached to his handlebars. While I don't recall what time the paper was delivered, it USUALLY reached the front porch with a muffled "thump!" or the front door with a "bang!". Or, sometimes, the paper would reach the bushes and we'd have to go searching for it.

The Shelby Globe is very professional for being a "small town newspaper". It carries roughly 9 pages of national and international news, local news, local sports (of course!!), and 2 or 3 pages of classifieds. It really has a little of everything packed into a little space. When I was growing up The Globe was only printed in Black & White and with grainy photos. Now different colors are used and the color photos are sharp.

The Mansfield News Journal also had everything but in greater depth and individual sections you could pull out. All the usuals included Sports, News, Home & Garden, Classifieds, and on and on. While one could subscribe to the News Journal daily, most people in Shelby would only get it on Sundays. We kids always looked forward to the Sunday comics, reading such old-time favorite comic strips as "Blondie and Dagwood", "Peanuts", "Hagar the Horrible", "Sad Sack", and my personal favorite, "Andy Capp".

While not so much when I was very young, I always got a kick out of reading the Shelby Globe section that listed the births, deaths, marriages, and engagements. It was always easy to keep up on local news this way, knowing what your neighbors were up to without personally intruding. This section also included - get this - police calls of disturbances, fights, and traffic violations!!! Oftentimes you'd read that (for example) John Smith, residing at 123 West Street, was ticketed $20 for failure to stop at a stop sign, arrested for drunk driving, or arrested for a domestic dispute. How embarrassing this must be for the person (maybe a well-known person) arrested for public intoxication and not only see his name but also his address in the newspaper! OH THE SHAME! THE SHAME!

Saturday mornings in the autumn were always much anticipated days to receive the Shelby Daily Globe. This was the day the entire town could read about the previous night's Shelby High School football game and find out how many yards their classmates ran, for how many yards their neighbors threw, or how many touchdowns their boyfriends scored. And as wonderful as it is to see your friend's name in the local newspaper, it's 10 times better seeing your own name in the newspaper. When this happens we glow with pride - or cower in shame - when walking down Main Street.

The News Journal always carried a very brief description and scores of all the area high school football games but nothing more than that. The Sunday Mansfield News Journal was always the best place to read about the previous day's Ohio State Football game, complete with statistics & photos. The anxious sports reader could also read pre-game Cleveland Browns articles - which often left the same reader somewhat depressed on Monday morning upon hearing the results.

Shelby's newspaper was always - and still is - a good read. Sometimes the national and international news would sadden but the local news was never terrible, never disastrous, and never made you want to lock your doors at night - or during the day - because there were never any murders or rapes. The occasional tragic car accident fatality would emotionally devastate the community temporarily but this was about as bad as the news got in Shelby. Mansfield, however, was another story.

Shelby Bicycle Days Parade Festival 2008

2008-07-07T11:04:00.007-04:00

(Note: Also see "Shelby Bicycle Days 2009")

NOTE: Today's posting is more current of a current events posting than anything else. More Shelby Nostalgia to come in the very near future.

This summer's combination 4th of July festivities and Shelby's Bicycle Days parade brings lots of fun, wholesome, small town entertainment for the whole family. See the lineup below:

11 JULY: Shelby Bicycle Days Festival

LOG CABIN OPEN NOON - ??

Shelby Bicycle Days Festival

Central Park

RIDES OPEN NOON - 10:00 PM

Shelby Bicycle Days Festival

Central Park

FOOD CONCESSIONS OPEN NOON - 10:00 PM

Shelby Bicycle Days Festival

High School Avenue

VENDOR EXHIBITS OPEN NOON - 10:00 PM

Shelby Bicycle Days Festival

Central Park

LOVE BONES PERFORMANCE 2:30 PM - 4:30 PM

Shelby Bicycle Days Festival

High School Avenue Stage

SHELBY MUSEUM OPEN 1:00 PM - ??

Shelby Bicycle Days Festival

East Main Street

NEW WASHINGTON BAND PERFORMANCE 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Shelby Bicycle Days Festival

Central Park Band Stand

KIDDIE ROYALTY CROWNING CEREMONY 6:00 PM

Shelby Bicycle Days Festival

Central Park Band Stand

ASYLUM PERFORMANCE 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Shelby Bicycle Days Festival

High School Avenue Stage

12 JULY: Shelby Bicycle Days Festival

WHIPPET 5K RUN

Shelby Bicycle Days Festival

7:30 AM - Registration at Central Gym

8:15 AM - Fun Run on High School Avenue

8:30 AM - 10:00 AM - Whippet 5K Run

LOG CABIN OPEN NOON - ??

Shelby Bicycle Days Festival

Central Park

VENDOR EXHIBITS OPEN NOON - 9:30 PM

Shelby Bicycle Days Festival

Central Park

RIDES OPEN NOON - 11:00 PM

Shelby Bicycle Days Festival

Central Park

FOOD CONCESSIONS OPEN NOON - 11:00 PM

Shelby Bicycle Days Festival

High School Avenue

SHELBY MUSEUM OPEN 1:00 PM - ??

Shelby Bicycle Days Festival

East Main Street

Shelby Bicycle Days Festival Parade Registration & Line-Up 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

Grand Blvd & Wentz Avenue

12 JULY Shelby Bicycle Days Festival Parade 2:00 PM

Parade Route: Main Street to South Gamble to Tucker Avenue

Bike Races Immediately following parade--approximately 3:30

Shelby Bicycle Days Festival

Main Street

Shelby Helpline Ministries Pie Auction Immediately following parade--3:30

Shelby Bicycle Days Festival

Central Park Band Stand

GREG BELL PERFORMANCE 3:30 PM - 5:30 PM

Shelby Bicycle Days Festival

High School Avenue Stage

THE RELICS PERFORMANCE 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Shelby Bicycle Days Festival

High School Avenue Stage

CLOVERLEAF SQUARE DANCERS PERFORMANCE 7:00 PM - 9:30 PM

Shelby Bicycle Days Festival

High School Avenue & Main Street (Central Park area)

12 JULY FIREWORKS 10:00 PM
Shelby Bicycle Days Festival

Skiles Field

The above Bicycle Days Festival information was culled from the Shelby Chamber of Commerce website at http://www.shelbyoh.com .

Shelby Whippets Football: Hometown Giants

2008-05-14T11:08:00.007-04:00

When I was a small boy of 6 or 7 years old I was already keenly aware of the existence of the Shelby Whippets high school football program. And for anyone not from the United States of America, American Football was the main sports attraction in the Midwestern States.

And since we lived on Earl Avenue, only about 2 blocks from W.W. Skiles Field - the Shelby football stadium, we could hear the roar of the crowds in the autumn on Friday nights and could see the stream of football fans walking home after the games. Some nights we would walk down to the grand football field and I would marvel through my little boy's eyes the huge crowds of fervent football fans, all wearing Red and Grey. Then there were those bright stadium lights and the giant gladiators running across the large field and the Shelby Whippet Marching Band playing encouraging tunes. To a small boy this all was the absolute ultimate.

I suppose all this, to a small boy, is equal to watching your favorite professional soccer team (in Europe) play live for the first time. These helmet-wearing boys were men to me. They were monsters! They all looked so strong, so fast, so well organized, and the fans loved them. When a touchdown was made the crowd went absolutely wild.

Then, of course, whenever there was a summer or autumn parade, there they were atop the flat-bed trailer, all wearing their red, numbered football jerseys, all proud and mature and oh so cool. The sidewalk spectators would cheer and clap and these guy were Shelby's pride and joy.

Back in the 1960s and 1970s and even into the 1980s the Shelby Football program was hard-nosed football. I can't say how it is now but I suspect it's changed quite a bit but with great success. Back then it was a time of Woody Hayes, Joe Paterno, or even Bobby Knight-style coaches. But instead of them, we had equally hard-nosed, long-term football coaches like Bill Varble and Bill Wilkins before him. The coaches back then were feared, hated by some, and respected by everyone. As a player, it surely looked as if the coaches had blackened eyes, sharpened teeth, and breathed fire every time they shouted orders and were ready to snap necks when orders weren't carried out with precision.

I imagine coaching today is more of a science, more of a psychology, more attuned to computerized technology to aid them better their chances and utilize everything to their greatest abilities. Today is the day of the cerebral, calm, calculated coaches like a Jim Tressel of the Ohio State University football program. Nowadays when you see a coach who shouts in the face of a player you think that coach must have lost his mind. Back in "the day", that's the way it was done.

Shelby high school football players walked on a different cloud. And on game days, Fridays, the high school football team wore their jerseys to school. So when you saw them downtown wearing their football jerseys they received stares, smiles, slaps on the back and lots of well wishes for that evening's game. They were true celebrities no matter who they were. Of course, the starting team, the ball carriers, the receivers, and the quarter backs were best known and got more publicity. But the notoriety doesn't last forever.

It wasn't until some years later that I was fortunate enough to proudly wear the Shelby High School football jerseys on game day. But that's for another blog entry.

GO SHELBY WHIPPETS!!

(Also read "2008 Shelby Whippets Football Schedule")

Candy! Ben Franklin, Five and Dime

2008-04-17T06:59:00.012-04:00

Living so close to downtown Shelby Ohio I took every opportunity to spend what little money I had on CANDY - an important staple of a growing child's diet.

My favorite childhood candies were the NECCO wafers - the black licorice ones were the best and quickly turned your entire mouth BLACK.

Other pure-sugar-goodies high on my want-list included Lik-M-Aid Fun Dip. This is a packet of flavored sugars in different compartments. You take the pure, hardened stick of sugar, lick it, and stick it down into the fine-grained sugars, pull out with the sugar-covered-sugar-stick, and lick it! PURE SUGAR EXCITEMENT!

For more substantial "food candy" I'd often choose the wonderfully peanut-buttery-coconut-crunchy Zagnut candybar. Mmmm... If I didn't have enough for the Zagnut I'd get the cheaper Chick-O-Stick which was the same thing only in stick form and, no doubt, made by a different candy company.

Oh, and another all-time favorite candy were the Bottle Caps candy. The candies were round, and ridged at at the edges, looking like real bottle caps but they came in various flavors like Cola, Root beer, Cherry, and Lemon-Lime. So tasty!

Another good, cheap sugar fix was achieved by the Jaw Breakers - which would last a good 30 minutes, depending on their size, and could shatter your teeth into shards if attempting to chew them. And they were cheap too, maybe 2 or 5 cents each. Other cheap candies found at the check out counters were the yummy Root Beer Barrels, mini Tootsie Rolls, Smarties, and those WONDERFUL Red Hot Atomic Fire Balls - which were sweet cinnamon jawbreakers which would nearly literally set your mouth on fire! You could buy them buy the box but also individually wrapped.

Other goodies included the ZOTS, which had a sour explosion in their centers, Pixie Stix, Pop Rocks - which mythically killed Mikey (photo), the Life Cereal kid from the 1972 commercial where Mikey's brothers test the cereal on their little brother and then exclaim, "He likes it! Hey Mikey!" (see YouTube video of the commercial HERE) by mixing Pop Rocks with Coca Cola, Sweetarts and Spree, and of course those syrup filled wax bottles and big wax lips for a laugh. I usually went in for the sugar candies as opposed to the candy bars. Candy bars and M&Ms (peanut) were preferred by many but they were more expensive too, always at least 25 cents and a little kid isn't usually carrying around that kind of loot - in the early 1970s!

You could get candy in a number of places but the best were Main Street's Ben Franklin store, down the hill a little at the Five and Dime, and just a little further down at Stevenson's Pharmacy and soda shoppe.

Ben Franklin, a small town, midwestern chain of stores which carried a little of everything - like of like an Old Time, small-town version of Wal-Mart. The Ben Franklin Stores always had the best and largest selection so I did most of my "shopping" there. I'd carefully count my coins and then make the necessary calculations to see how much STUFF I could buy. There were rarely any lines at the cash register and if there was it'd give me more time to see how much change I'd be given back and buy the penny candy at the counter. YES, there REALLY WAS PENNY CANDY back then!

The Five and Dime I don't remember as well as, I believe, Ben Franklin finally put them out of business with competition, but they were good too.

Stevenson's Pharmacy was a fantastic place "back-in-the-day". Not only was it a pharmacy but they also sold a large variety of greeting cards, a good selection of candy, and even had a real life Soda Fountain with spinning stools at its counter, serving not only milk shakes but also ice cream and root beer floats. Mmmm... They finally went out of business too but don't recall why. Possibly due to the competition of the Struble Drug Store across the street - where I got my FIRST JOB as a 14-year old (or 15). Man, I hated that job and the boss/pharmacist certainly didn't go out of his way to make life easy for me - just the opposite. But maybe it was because I was just a kid and not used to standing on my feet for hours or taking orders from a grouch with more four-letter-words in his vocabulary than I had. But again, I was young and since have met hundreds of these kinds of people. I think I lasted 5 or 6 months at that job, often getting to work by bicycle after school or on the weekends. Sometimes Mom would drop me off and I'd walk home, exhausted, afterwards. But maybe all this is better left for a later posting.

Check out a FANtastic website about historical American candies and their wrappers at http://www.candywrappermuseum.com/ . Another good one is at http://www.oldtimecandy.com/ - "Candy You Ate as a Kid".

Downtown Shelby Parades

2008-03-20T05:12:00.004-04:00

There's almost nothing more wholesome than a small town, midwestern parade down main street. We had plenty of these in Shelby, Ohio.

Whether it be the Fourth of July parade, the Bicycle Days parade, the Homecoming Parade, Memorial Day Parade, or the Halloween Parade, we always had great parades - at least they were great as seen through the eyes of an innocent child.

The Memorial Day Parade always passed through downtown Shelby and came down Gamble Street near our house on its way to the large cemetery there. People would get set up on the street's edge early and put out their folding lawn chairs to get an up-close-and-personal vantage point as the soldiers and veterans marched by.

This was in the early 1970s and the Vietnam War was still going on. But as seen from the innocent eyes and pure mind of a 6 year old boy it was something really special, not anything political, but real soldiers carrying what seemed to be real rifles, marching in perfect lockstep.

A year or two later I actually was part of the parade with my Cub Scout Troop. One year we marched in our uniform and another year we rode in the back of our Troop leader's pickup truck. We were all so proud to be seen by the whole city... errr.. town of Shelby. And while I don't remember specifically, I'm sure we each had our little American flag to wave alone the route. And since the cemetery was somewhat close to our hour I could walk home afterwards, accompanied by my mother, father, and sister.

But year after year, there were always veterans from the FIRST world war. And then, naturally, every subsequent year there were fewer and fewer until only one remained. He was driven slowly along the parade route with a large sign on the side of his chauffeured Cadillac and sponsored by the local dealership.

The High School, Junior High School (now called "Middle School"), and even elementary school bands marched the long parade distance from end to end, playing military or otherwise patriotic tunes. Later in life I too was part of this Shelby marching band, having played trombone from 6th grade through 10th grade.

The Halloween parades were always a lot of fun. I don't think Shelby has these anymore. They took place after dark and would pass down Main Street as all the Shelby Parades did. The people on the elaborately designed and decorated flatbed trucks or wagons would toss Halloween candy to the kids seated on the curbs along the street.

I even participated in several of the Bicycle Days parades. This was a summer parade and always under the baking hot sun. We would spend hours washing, maybe waxing, and decorating our little Coaster Bikes (as bicycles were called which did not have gears or hand breaks) with streamers, noise makers, and whatever we had, and would ride ever so slowly through downtown Shelby. It's rather difficult to ride a bicycle slowly, don'tchaknow! Sometimes we'd ride around in circles and sometimes we have a slow collision with the bike rider near us. But we were kids and it didn't matter. Surely we were threatened with sunstroke but no one worried about these things back then.

The Homecoming Parade was a real oddity for me - and one of the shortest parades you'd see. Not only would you see the Homecoming King and the Homecoming Queen and their court on the back of a flatbed truck or trailer, but also truckloads of proud football players wearing their football jerseys, cheerleaders, boosters, and also the obligatory "support vehicles" advertising their shop or service, all decorated with Red and Grey colors and Shelby Whippet art.

Small town parades are always so joyful and the participants and spectators are so full of civic pride. As seen from the eyes of a child, there's almost nothing better - except for attending his first Friday night Varsity Football Game under the lights at historic W.W. Skiles Field. Now THAT'S something special - but that's for another blog entry.

Little MailMan Wannabe

2008-03-11T14:10:00.006-04:00

In the weekday afternoons after lunch I'd often sit on the sofa back and gaze out the window to the end corner of our block. I'd wait and I'd wait. What was I waiting for?

THE MAILMAN! It doesn't take too much to impress or excite a 6 or 7 year old boy.

So there I was, looking through the tall, thick, double-hung windows just waiting for Mister X. I can't remember his name but I'm certain my mother made sure I addressed him as Mister Johnson or whatever it was and not to bother him in his duties.

As soon as I spied him between the houses, walking towards the corner of South Gamble Street and Earl Avenue, I'd shout to my mother, "I'm going to see the MailMan!" as I'd grab my coat off the hook next to the door and throw open the screen door with a BANG! Downhill I'd run to the corner, hoping to get to the mailbox before Mister Johnson.

When I was fast enough and meet at the mailbox, huffing and puffing, I'd greet Mister Johnson with a big smile. I remember he always wore the same mailman's uniform; black leather shoes, navy blue pants, navy blue jackets with lapels and gold buttons, navy blue billed hat with a kind of insignia in the middle, and always a white shirt and black tie. It must have been easy to do his laundy.

So I'd meet Mister Johnson at the mailbox and give him that big "Oh Please! Oh Please! Oh Please!" smile and he couldn't resist. He'd pull out this long chain from his deep pocket and at the end were was seemed like hundreds of keys. He'd fish out the appropriate key and hand it to me. I'd put it in the mailbox keyhole and turn gently and down would fall the metal door, exposing dozens of envelopes.

This was probably against his Mail Man rules but he let me anyway. He never did, however, let me touch the envelopes he's scoop out and put into his shoulder bag. I just stood and watched him work. When he was done, he'd let me lock the box up again, he'd give it a tug to be sure it was shut, then he'd take the key back.

I don't even remember if he ever knew me by name but I was the only boy who would meet him at that mailbox nearly everyday for those two years. When I didn't go outside because it was raining or snowing or I was tired, I'd watch him walk from house to house delivering envelopes to people's front porch mailboxes. In Shelby, nearly EVERYONE had/has a front porch as did we. I'd always think, "Wow. That must be the best job in the world. You get be outside everyday, talking to interesting people, walking at a relaxed pace, and you get to open all those cool mailboxes."

Again, it doesn't take much to impress a 6 or 7 year old boy in a small town - in 1971 or so. Now, it takes A LOT to impress a boy of the same age.

Kindercamp and my first girlfriend

2008-03-06T13:18:00.009-05:00

My first foray into the educational system - if you can call it that - was when I was, what, 4 years old (about 1969 or 1970) when I started going to Kindercamp, as it was called.

Kindercamp comes BEFORE kindergarden and is more of a daycare than actual education. I wonder if my parents paid something for that. It was housed downtown in the basement of the church behind the Shelby Post Office (yes, there's only one Post Office in Shelby) which was just down the backstreet from the Marvin Memorial Library and next door to the ice cream Drive In. They had/have a cool drive-through window, something unusual for those times. The drive in's name escapes me now but these years it has a kind of 1950s theme to it.

Shelby Post Office on North Gamble Street, corner of Whitney Avenue, Shelby Ohio

Mom would drive me every morning to kindercamp. While it was housed in the basement of the church (see building at far right edge of above photo) it was not a religious center of any kind. Seemed pretty normal to me. We had story time where we would grab our piece of carpet and lie down on the floor while listening to the woman reading a book about a dog or cat or both. I don't recall falling asleep during the reading but no doubt it happened.

And they had the best toys there. What's NOT great about spending 4 hours in a place when all these thousands of toys are new to you, you get to paint and paste and make macaroni "portraits", and also hold hands with the cute girls. I suppose some fights among the boys took place over WHO would get to play with the charp-edged metal plow toy but no one ever bothered or tested me.

I clearly remember my first day. I cried and cried, not wanting to go in, scared to death of this new and strange place. But after the first few minutes I was fine. And within a few days - or maybe weeks - I had my first ever girlfriend... errr.. girlfriendS - plural.

My first FIRST girlfriend's name was ANGIE. She was tall for her age too as I recall, and so very cute, black hair, beautiful smile. We never kissed, I don't think, but did look longingly into each others eyes and if you THINK you're boyfriend-girlfriend then heck, YOU ARE! In fact, we were boyfriend-girlfriend several times throughout the first few years of school but at that age its tough to be a one girl boy. hehehe...

Mom would pick me up at around noon and take me home or run errands. Funny, I don't remember HOW she came to get me but imagine she came on foot since we only lived about 8 or 10 blocks away - and since we only had one car and Dad took that to work. Surely we'd often go to Main Street's Ben Franklin store and 5 and Dime store to buy knitting supplies for her and a candy for me.

After our long walk home for my 2 little legs, Mom prepared a delicious lunch for me, with my best memories being of grilled cheese sandwiches and Campbell's Soup, my favorite being the chicken noodle soup. But those grilled cheese sandwiches, using Velveeta Cheese (was it reallllly cheese???) were the best.

Shelby Ohio Blog Entry #1

2008-02-26T10:00:00.007-05:00

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!