Follow the Drinking Gourd
The Crescent Farm barn in Rome Township has a beautiful barn quilt that hints at the farm’s clandestine past.
Ashtabula Harbor, a history
In the fall of 2016 I embarked upon the most ambitious writing project of my life, crafting a history of Ashtabula Harbor, Ohio. Why? For more than two decades, The Harbor was the greatest iron ore receiving port in the world. More iron ore...
A sun sets, we beg for understanding
Complain we must about the rain, the clouds, the odd weather that tinkers with our plans for a picnic, wedding, campfire and fishing. The fact remains that the clouds are good for sunsets, and sunsets are good for the heart. A sunset well...
On being INFJ
All my life I have felt weird, out of place. Like a dust bunny in an operating suite. A vegetarian at a Texas barbeque. A lifetime WCTU member at a distiller’s convention. The rest of the world was having fun, I observing, thinking about...
Keys
My friend of many years, Betty Layport Feher, recently dug out some memorabilia from Shady Beach Hotel, one of the many relatively elegant hotels that once operated at Geneva-on-the-Lake, Ohio’s oldest summer resort. Shady Beach dates back...
Elmer Backlund
I met him about 15 months ago, when I interviewed Elmer Backlund and two other A&B Dock employees for an Ashtabula Wave story. Elmer brought a surprise to that meeting at Norman Millberg’s house: The log he had kept while machine...
What two divorces taught me about marriage
In a nutshell: Marriage is the most selfless act a person can take on, aside from dying on a cross. And divorce is the most selfish. And the line between the two is as thin as a divorce decree. That is what I have learned from two marriages and...
Joe College, you were so cool
My brother-in-law from my first marriage died early this morning. Robert N. College. Most people just called him “Joe College.” Joe came into the family shortly after I and Barb married. Her older sister had met him while working in...
‘Finnished’
The past three months I have been involved in a documentary film project about the immigration of Finnish workers and their families to Ashtabula Harbor. It’s been a grueling task, particularly the past two weeks as I’ve edited hours...
Illegal pursuits
What I did was illegal, but the misty river was sublime. And so on the morning of October 14, 2016, I pulled off the side of Route 340 in Virginia, attached my Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 lens to my D800, and took a hike along the insanely busy...
Sorghum
The day we harvested sorghum it did not matter if the sorghum grew on red or blue land. The cane was green, the community a rainbow of calloused hands and smiles. The sky voted for life, the sun for abundance, the sap for a sweet finish, its...
A veteran for peace
Walter S. Nicholes slid into the school bus seat next to me, nodded and asked me where I was from. Walter is from Shaker Heights. He is a World War II veteran. He served in the Merchant Marines; entered the academy in July 1942. He saw the world...