The 1950s and ’60s were considered the “Contest Era” in America, and no one in the country was better at creating a prize-winning jingle or short poem than Evelyn Ryan.
Her quips usually included a humorous twist, similar to the writing of Ogden Nash, often poking fun at herself. Measuring just 5 feet, 6 inches tall, Evelyn had gained a few pounds later in life and wrote:
Fitting Advice
Of all sad words,
Give these the prize:
‘My dear,
You’ll need
Our larger size'.
Ohio’s writers, poets, authors, and musicians have left lasting impressions on Supreme Court judges, inspired presidents, and moved the entire nation to change its opinion.
The trail showcases more than 70 landmarks, including historical buildings, libraries, and markers, as well as festivals that commemorate Ohio’s literary contributions. The publication took the form of a printed map for the first several decades of its existence. In 2020, the trail went online, where it now features an interactive map that divides the state into five regions. Each section of the site contains links and information about the destinations within the region.
Popcorn and pencil sharpeners, minerals and merry-go-rounds, Great Lakes, and great-big cuckoo clocks: Ohio has a plethora of pretty amazing things to explore. Here’s just a sampling of our state’s perhaps lesser-known museums, collections, and interesting sights.
Back in 2006, local collectors Ron and Ruth Langsdon donated much of their extensive collection of rare minerals to the Mercer County District Library in Celina. The Langsdon Mineral Collection includes more than 900 stunning specimens of minerals from all over the world — from a peacock-colored bornite and raspberry garnet to azurite, amethyst quartz, and an enormous, polished piece of jade.
Wilhite invented the GIF while he worked at CompuServe, an early tech company that was based in central Ohio. Although the name may not mean much to anyone under 40, CompuServe played a pivotal role in the early days of the Information Age. Digital breakthroughs still in use today originated there, including online shopping, stock research, and self-serve airline tickets.
Ernest “Mooney” Warther began carving with his first pocketknife at age 5. A dozen years later, in 1902, he crafted his mother a kitchen knife as a gift. Her friends and neighbors liked it, so he made more.
American steel, American hardware, American wood, Ohio labor, and blades with an amazingly attractive (trademarked since 1907) finish pattern create loyal customers who return regularly to add to their collections. If you visit the company’s new 15,000-square-foot showroom, factory, and office, you’ll find plenty of American-made kitchen products, including cookware and a small army of specialty foods, spices, and condiments. But you’ll quickly see that knives made by fourth-generation craftsmen are the star of the show.
Did you hear that?” my daughter, Rosie, asks as we climb a wooden staircase in the Anchorage, a former mansion on the outskirts of Marietta, in southeastern Ohio. “It sounded like a low grumble.”
A healthy respect for the “other side” is well advised during a visit to Marietta, which dates to 1788 as the first permanent settlement in the Northwest Territory. History and hauntings go hand in hand here, as the city’s storied, well-preserved past provides ghosthunters a spooky year-round playground.
Cleveland native and Hollywood actress Patricia Heaton of Everybody Loves Raymond and The Middle once told a joke about pro football coach Paul Brown: “A football player died and went to heaven.
The joke slyly illustrates the enormous impact and legacy Paul Brown had on the game of football. Pre-Brown, it was characterized mostly by brute force, with little intellectual finesse. Brown’s genius for innovation transformed it into the mental and analytical game that it is today.
Do you like to hike? Emma Rowena Gatewood sure did.
Known for her minimalist, no-nonsense approach to hiking, Gatewood used a homemade sassafras walking stick to help steady her on the trail and carried a cloth sack slung over her shoulder, filled with only 18 pounds of food and equipment. Today’s hikers often carry twice that much weight if not more, and they do it with high-tech backpacks. Instead, she had the following advice for would-be AT hikers:
Whenever merchandise manager Kate Fox welcomes tour bus groups to the J.M. Smucker Co. store and café, she asks visitors to guess Smucker’s first product. “Everyone always answers, ‘strawberry preserves,’” says Fox, “but the company actually started with apple butter.”
Located near U.S. 30, the store sits along a rural road in Wayne County just minutes away from the J.M. Smucker Company’s headquarters in Orrville. The town’s population is less than 10,000, yet it’s home to a Fortune 500 corporation with some 7,000 employees who work in offices and manufacturing facilities spread from Quebec to California. Why Orrville? In 1897, local farmer Jerome Monroe Smucker opened a cider mill there and began making apple butter from concentrated cider.
At the Tiffin Police and Fire All Patriots Memorial, a daylong observance occurs on each anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.
The Tiffin memorial’s centerpiece is a 17.5-foot-long steel beam recovered from the World Trade Center. It weighs more than 3 tons and rests on a pentagon-shaped piece of granite that alludes to the strike on America’s military headquarters. Positioned at an angle of 9.11 degrees, the beam sits low to the ground so people can touch it. “When rust particles drop off that beam, they almost seem like tears,” observes Gosche.
