The truth is. Delphos was a magical world where crime was almost nonexistent, no one locked their homes or their cars, everyone knew everyone else and life was as innocent as I have ever known. We had very few toys or none at all yet we couldn't wait to get up in the morning and go out to play. A sandbox was far better than a playstation. We only got 3 channels on TV and only 1 of those came in good half the time. And that channel went off from 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM. If TV was never there to begin with with I never would have cared. By the way. I no longer own a TV. They say the average person spends 8 years of their life in front of a TV. Junk food? We got to go to the A & W for root beer and an order of frys maybe twice a year. Dairy Queen was rarer yet. That was it. There was no other junk food. Most of us kids did have a bike and we were all experts at patching flats. I can remember seeing flats with 12 or more patches on them. Tree houses, rope swings, lemonade stands, ant hills, bird nests, marbles/jacks, clay, card houses, kites, balsa wood gliders, homemade slingshots, pea shooters, homemade paper airplanes. We just really didn't have time for toys. Why is it that in this age of industrialization and technology that my life is suppose to be so much easier and so much improved that I am so unhappy? Why do I keep wishing for the simpler days when I am being told that everything now-a-days is simpler, faster, and easier to use? It's not the loss of childhood. As a young adult things were much easier than they are now and I think I finally found the reason which will come to no surprise to anyone. Money. The more educated folks have figured out that they can get more of your money by hiding how much they charge you for something in the wording they use and the math calculations they use. This is nothing new. But it has risen to a level of interpretation that most of us common folks are baffled by let alone be able to have the time to sit down to even begin to figure it out. My water bill takes a mathematician to read. Back in the day, you used this much then you paid for this much. End of bill. Now look at it. They make it so difficult that customers rarely if ever challenge their bills so they keep tacking on a little more here and a little more there. A year or so after I moved out to Bremerton, Washington (1996) the Kitsap County Sheriff retired with a pension at over $88,000.00 a year. I'll wage it was much higher due to cost of living allowances, medical, and other added bennies. Not bad for a public servant. Hell, we don't even know if any of us will even see any social security.
Yup, I miss those days and the older I get the more I miss them. I was very very lucky to have lived during that period of time. Very lucky indeed. I have got to do things and go places that most folks just dream about. I have watched Killer Whales swim off the coast of Montague Island, Alaska. Dug Loggerhead Turtle eggs on a beach on Prichard Island, South Carolina. Hauled in sails in a severe thunder/storm in the middle of the night on the USCGC Eagle somewhere off the eastern seaboard. The ship was pitching and waves washing across the deck, it was then I realized I wasn't on a pleasure cruise.
Surfaced through the ice somewhere near the North Pole on a submarine. Climbed to the top of Mt Fuji, Japan. The list goes on and on. I've got to do it all. But by far, living in Marbletown tops the list. Nothing was as good as that. I'm not sure exactly why and I'm not sure I really care.
USS Whale (position classified)
I even got to go to one of the last one room school houses in Ohio if not the last. Garfield Elementary.
1st and 2nd grades. My teacher's name was Mrs Allen. She taught both grades. I don't know how she did it but she did and she was good at it to. I was not very good when it came to most subjects except for science. When she would get into that subject I'd perk up. She did as good a job as she could with me. I had her for both 1st and 2nd grade and then they closed the school the next school year at the start of my 3rd grade year. Everyone then went to Franklin Elementary which was located about the middle of town. They finally tore the little school down. Last I saw they had erected a small park in it's place.
Photo Credit:
"Garfield Elementary School" Courtesy of The Delphos Historical Society Web site: http://www.delphos-ohio.com/history/Holdgreve/Schools..htm Window to the past, A Brief History of Delphos Public Schools by Bob Holdgreve
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