Back To My Roots - Travel Day and Muncie - Part 1

Why did we take this quick trip back to the Midwest? I have been writing about my home town of Celina, Ohio and how long it has been since I was there. I left Celina at age 15 in 1949 (sixty years ago) and moved to Kansas City, Missouri to live with my Uncle Ray and Aunt Edith Moore. My grandmother’s health had taken a turn for the worst and I needed another place to live for my last three years of high school.

Our daughter, Brenda, was reading the stories about Celina and thought it was time for a “quick trip to Ohio” since I had recently been diagnosed with Ideopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Ann and I had planned to take a trip there to show her where I grew up but every time we planned a trip, something came up to stop our plans. The last time I was in Celina was just after graduation of high school in 1952 when I made another “quick trip to Ohio” to visit my grandfather before I left for California to attend college. My grandmother passed away one year after I left Celina and I didn’t know when I would get to see grandpa again. We didn’t know that grandpa would live to be 101 years and 11 months old. We were able to see him at his 90th, 95th, and 100th birthdays as his family planned parties to celebrate.

In 1952 I stopped in Muncie, Indiana to pick up my brother, Bob, at our mother’s place and take him with me to Celina and up to Elkhart, Indiana to visit our sisters, Faye and Lenna. It had been a while since Bob had seen them so I wanted a little “family reunion”. Ben was in the Navy overseas and couldn’t be there. I had Ben's 1939 Pontiac for the trip.

Brenda came up with the plan for the trip. She and her husband Scott had American Airlines miles that could be used for our flight. When they got them transferred together, it left a balance of $112.50 each for a round trip to Indianapolis, Indiana. Plan was to go to Chicago from Santa Ana and another flight to Indianapolis on Friday, June 12th. The return flight on Monday June 15th would be from Indianapolis to Santa Ana via Dallas. The trip would be just Brenda and me as Ann was unable to travel at this time. Brenda’s daughter, Hannah, stayed with Nana while we were gone.

Brenda and I rented a Lincoln Town Car in Indianapolis and drove to Muncie, Indiana where my brother, Bob and his family reside. The last time we saw each other was in June 1984 at our mother’s funeral in Covina, California. That was 25 years ago! We have talked on email and the phone but not in person. We spent the night at Bob’s home with a dinner out to a nice establishment with his two son’s Bobby Jr. and James and their families. A neighbor of Bob’s joined us as he is the Executive Pastor of the local Church of the Nazarene and knows our background. Great time - great food! Then back to Bob & Mary Lou’s place for fellowship and pictures.

On Saturday morning we had breakfast together at another eating establishment before continuing our trip. We were able to have lunch with Bob, Mary Lou and Bobby Jr at Cracker Barrel on our return trip to Indianapolis on Monday June 15th. We had a nice reunion after 25 years. Here are some pictures of our time in Muncie.

Dick & Brenda ready to go to Chicago - then transfer to Indianapolis.

My limo and driver -- Our Lincoln Town Car with daughter Brenda.

Dick with his "little" brother Bob (he's 5 years younger).

James, Gwen (Bobby's wife), Bobby and Dick at dinner.

Bob's family - James, Bob, Bobby and Mary Lou.

C.A. Dalton (Bob's neighbor and Executive Pastor of a local Nazarene Church) and Bob.

Breakfast on Saturday morning - Dick, Brenda, Mary Lou, and Bob.

Dick Sings "O Holy Night" In StarPak Production

Before I get into the Celina, Ohio trip stories, I want to share with you the last time I sang in public. This was with the StarPak production at Coast Hills Community Church in Aliso Viejo. Two of my grandchildren were in the production. I was the only adult in this childrens musical/play. I wrote about it in December and you can read it here.

I played Angel Gabriel who spent some time with young angels telling them about the first Christmas since I was there. I had an acting/speaking/singing role and interacted with my two youngest grandchildren. A wonderful experience. The song I sang was "O Holy Night" which I want to share with you now.

This video is on YouTube and will be in the side bar to the right of this BLOG for future viewing.
My son, Rick, did the technical work to put this on. Thanks, Rick!

WOW! What A Quick Trip To Ohio!

My daughter, Brenda, and I took a very quick and very active trip to Ohio last weekend. This will take a number of postings to tell you everything about the trip and how special it was. I will list some of the topics that I will write about over the next two weeks. I have many pictures to help tell the stories.

We flew from Santa Ana, CA to Chicago, IL to Indianapolis, IN. Rented a Lincoln Town Car. Brenda and I shared the driving.

1. Saw my younger brother Bob and his family after 25 years. The last time was in 1984 at our mother’s funeral here in Covina. Bob lives in Muncie, Indiana. We stayed with him Friday night and also had lunch with him on Monday on our return trip.

2. Trip to Troy, Ohio Saturday morning to visit Riverside Cemetery where my dad was buried in June 1940 when he was 31 years old and I was 6. Bob was one. Bob has never been to the cemetery but plans to go soon. Our grandparents are buried there about 30 feet from our dad. Interesting story coming up in a posting.

3. Celina on Saturday afternoon:
A. Web Cam at Market and Main. (Unplanned) We called my wife Ann and Brenda’s family so they could see us waving to them on the internet.
B. Meeting “Whitey” Klosterman and riding in his 1946 Buick.
C. My friend, Karl Allmandinger, who I knew in Junior High and who married a friend of mine. Complete story later.
D. Dinner out Saturday night with Karl.

4. Celina Church of the Nazarene visit
A. Different building than when I attended in 1949. In fact, this is the second location since the one I remember.
B. I got to address the congregation concerning my background with this congregation and what I have done with my life.
C. Met some people who knew my grandfather who was pastor of this church from 1943 to 1946. He retired from active preaching and had to buy his own home since he was living in the parsonage. He continued to attend this church and became the janitor -- yes, my brother Ben and I cleaned the church, kept the lawn mowed, and the snow off the sidewalks.

5. Sunday afternoon tour of Celina with Karl:
A. Visited both houses I lived in from 1943 to 1949.
B. Two of the three schools I attended were torn down and the land has new occupants.
C. My Junior High School (7,8,9) was also the Senior High School (10,11,12) building. It now has school offices and a Head Start school. New Elementary K-4 school, new Intermediate School
5-6, new Middle School 7-8 and new High School 9-12.
D. The planned Web Cam appearance at 2:00 p.m. Ohio time which was mentioned to others so they could look in and see us wave! My son, Rick took pictures off the internet of us and wrote an article for his BLOG (HolyCoast.com).
E. Dinner near the West Bank Inn and Spillway Sunday Night. Here comes Whitey Klosterman to see us in his 1948 Buick Convertible. Another ride.

6. Monday morning at The Daily Standard newspaper offices meeting the publisher and staff. Two hour tour and interview for story with pictures. They will send me copies. The photo and story was in Friday June 19th edition. Whitey called me from Celina and Karl emailed me about the newspaper article and picture.

7. Lunch with brother Bob, his wife Mary Lou, and their son Bobby at The Cracker Barrel in Muncie.

8. Indianapolis Terminal, return rental car and flight home to Santa Ana, CA Monday afternoon via Dallas.

So you can see there are many stories here and I want to split them up to make them more interesting to you.

Stay tuned!

Taking Your Dad To His Home Town - Priceless!

I have written about my home town of Celina, Ohio several times on this BLOG so you know where I spent my youth from ages 9 to 15 years. I left Celina in September 1949 which will be 60 years ago this September. My last visit there was in 1952 just before I left for California to begin my college days at Pasadena Nazarene College in Pasadena.

I have planned, with my wife Ann, to make the trip back there so many times but things just didn’t go right for us to visit my home area. She wanted to see where I grew up and I wanted desperately to show her. We planned trips by car and during my working years, vacations were used up quickly for other family needs. So I never got the chance to go back. Now it is difficult for her to travel.

My daughter, Brenda, wrote me an email and said -- Dad - it’s time for you to take that long awaited trip to your roots - your home town of Celina. She said we could go on Friday June 12th and return home Monday June 15th. She had American Airline miles that could be used and both of us would pay a small fee for the trip.

My first thought was about Ann who is handicapped and needs someone here with her and provide a lunch out daily. Our son, Rick, will help there along with our son-in-law Scott. A granddaughter will come and stay with Nana so the home front is taken care of by family.

I am required by my pulmonologist to take an oxygen compressor for the “in flight” use only. Do you have any idea what a hassle this has been to get that approved by the airlines? I think we finally have it worked out.

We will fly from Santa Ana to Chicago and change planes for Indianapolis arriving there about 5:30 p.m. Indiana time. A car rental is waiting and we will drive to Muncie, Indiana to see my younger brother who I haven’t seen since 1984 at our mother’s funeral. He is arranging dinner plans for us and we will stay the night there with Bob. In the morning we will leave for Troy, Ohio to visit a cemetery that has my dad (died in 1940) and my grandparents. I want Brenda to “meet” them.

Then it’s off to Celina, Ohio where I spent my youth. We have reservations at a lakeside hotel. A friend from my school days there married a friend of mine named Helen Howell. She was my brother, Ben’s, girlfriend when we lived there. I knew Karl Allmandinger from my time in Celina schools. He was a year ahead of me. We will be with Karl who will “show” us the sights around Celina. I expect to take a lot of pictures.

On Sunday morning Brenda and I will visit the Celina Church of the Nazarene where I used to attend -- new building and a different location. Grandpa was the pastor of this church for a number of years. You can read about my last visit to this church in 1952 by clicking here. The afternoon will be spent seeing the sights and locating any people that I might know. At 2:00 p.m. Celina time (11:00 a.m. California time) Brenda and I will be standing in front of the Mercer County Court House talking to Ann on the phone while she sees us wave on the Web Cam the city has set up. You can read about the web cam and how to access that by clicking here.

Monday morning I hope to be able to visit The Daily Standard office where I used to work as a paper boy and janitor. Then it is off to Indianapolis for our return trip home. A hurried trip but will be worth the effort.

Thanks, Brenda, for making this trip possible. Something that was on my “Bucket List” can now be scratched off!

We will have the story and pictures on our return.

Town & Country Manor Concert Videos To View

I wrote an article about a concert that I did for Town & Country Manor in Santa Ana, CA on September 7, 2008. You can read the story by clicking here.

A DVD has been produced by my daughter and son-in-law and videos are available on YouTube (done by my son Rick) for you to see and hear. One of them is listed here for you to view. The others are on my BLOG on the right hand column. Please feel free to share this information to those who you think would enjoy songs of yesteryear.

This video features two songs related in subject. That One Lost Sheep / The Ninety and Nine.

Let me know what you think in the comments section below.

Celina, Ohio -- My Home Town - Part 2

This posting is a continuation of the story concerning my home town. Enjoy!

Celina was a small town of about 5,000 people. It was next to a large lake called Grand Lake. That is, Celina called it Grand Lake. Ten miles away was Saint Marys and they called it Lake Saint Marys. You will find both names on maps to this day. The lake was 12 miles long and 3 miles wide. Lots of fish and we spend many evening catching our next days meal. Grandpa liked to fly fish - drag a line through the water and have fish grab it. Grandma enjoyed cork fishing -- just throw a line in and watch the cork. When it went under, you had a fish! We used to sit there and chat while waiting on the fish to act.

Grand Lake was our swimming hole during the summer and a place to ice skate during the winter. I had clamp on ice skates and we would skate at night to car lights shining on the ice. I remember a fellow with a Crosley car driving the ten miles to Saint Marys on the ice. Ohio was cold during the winter. I learned to swim there. Mainly by doing it. No one taught me.

We lived in three houses while I lived there from 1943 to 1949. The first one was on Sugar as I had mentioned before. I don’t remember the inside of the house. I have a picture of the outside with Uncle Gary in army uniform on the porch. The second house was at 230 West Warren Street and was a two story brick house. Had a half city block lot so there was some yard to mow. Houses back then had a “front room” that was closed off during the winter to save heating costs. Hardly ever used during the winter. Everything was open for summer including the doors as it was hot and no air conditioning. We slept next to an open door that had a screen to keep out the flies. We were in the Warren Street house until Grandpa retired from being the minister. Had to find a home of our own for the first time.

Grandpa bought a large lot that had a two story wood frame house covered with an imitation brick siding. The address was 630 Nickerson (later named Brandon) Avenue. The house had one cold water pipe to the kitchen -- no bathroom and no hot water. We had a path outside to the outhouse. Believe me, that was a cold trip during the winter. Fortunately, Grandpa built a bathroom off the kitchen using the pantry and extending it out for the shower. Added hot water heater and we were like normal people again. Prior to this we had to heat water on the kitchen stove for our Saturday night bath. Baths were taken in the kitchen.

Downstairs we had the kitchen, dining room, front room, bathroom, and master bedroom. Upstairs we had a guest room and one bedroom that Ben and I shared. The rest of the upstairs was turned into a small apartment with outside stairs. Grandpa was very good at building and did all the work himself. We rented that out to help with expenses. We had a number of fruit trees on the property and a grape arbor. A large portion of the land was farmed for food. So this land and the church land was farmed for everything but meat, eggs, and milk. Those we bought. We even grew our own popcorn!

The dining room was our social place. That was where the heating stove was that kept the house warm in the winter. We used coal that had to be brought in from the garage. Listening to the radio and playing a board game with Grandma was a highlight. A porch swing got a lot of attention during the warm evenings.

I’m a collector of things that don’t seem to be important to others but to me they mean something. Things of my past. I had a postage stamp collection in a book for that purpose and it is interesting to see the countries that no longer exist as that name. For instance - Ceylon. I stopped collecting stamps when I left Celina in 1949 and the book remains in the condition it was when I moved to Missouri.

I'm including a paragraph from Part 1 concerning the webcam:

Celina has a webcam at the corner of Main and Market showing the Mercer County Court House. You can check it as I do daily to see what is going on there. Here is how you can access it: http://www.dailystandard.com/ , click on Community, then Celina, then webcam, and you can enlarge the picture for better viewing. With high speed internet, you can watch cars go by, people walking, see if it is raining, snowing, etc. Since it is my home town, I check it daily just to see what is going on. This corner is right down the street from The Daily Standard which is to the right of the picture. Check it out.

Celina, Ohio -- My Home Town - Part 1

As mentioned before, my grandfather was the pastor of the Nazarene church in Celina, Ohio, in 1943 when we moved there. The church provided a house (parsonage) for the pastor and the first one I can remember was on Sugar Street near the church. We could walk to the church from that home. I was nine years old at the time.

The church bought another parsonage at 230 West Warren Street which was on the corner of Warren and Sugar about a mile from the church. This house I remember very well. Ben and I shared a corner room on the second floor. Grandpa had a printing press in the back of the house where he printed the church bulletin each week.

I had 4 uncles in the army serving the United States of America during World War Two. I can remember a flag that was placed in the window with four stars on it representing each of the four uncles. Uncle Carlan served in Peru. Cecil made a career of the Army serving 20 years. He was in Europe and was involved in secret work for our government. Cecil met his wife, Francis, who was also in the service of our country. Dale served in Patten’s 3rd Army in Europe and related to me how he came upon an airfield where planes without propellers were there. Germany had the first jet aircraft but fortunately ran out of fuel for them keeping the jets on the ground. Dale met his wife, Leyla, in Paris, France. Uncle Gerald (Gary) served in Okinawa in communications.

During the war rubber was hard to come by for bike tires and Grandpa wanted us to have a bike. So he bought one (1) and Ben and I shared it. You can imagine how successful that was. It wasn’t long before I bought my own bike from money I earned on the paper route. I bought a Schwinn bike from my Uncle Carlan.

From 1943 to 1949, I had a paper route with The Daily Standard. This was a 6 day a week job as they didn’t publish a Sunday paper. I had about 150 customers and collected every Saturday for the week. I think it was 20 cents a week for the paper then. Sometimes people would give me a dollar and I would punch their card for 5 weeks. But I had to budget the money and pay for the papers every week even though they were paid up on my books. The paper route taught me a lot concerning finances. Christmastime was great as many would give me a tip or a gift for my service throughout the year. Because of the job, I was able to save money and buy things that I wanted without needing to ask for help.

Besides the bicycle, I bought a used Whizzer Motor Bike. I rode this motor bike all over Celina and the surrounding area getting 35 miles per hour and about 125 miles to the gallon. Pretty cheap transportation. When I left Celina, I sold the Whizzer to another news boy for $100. A reconditioned one in 2000 sold for about $5,000. Whizzer is back in business again and you can read about it here.

One day in 1949 I found a 1948 (P48) Powell motor scooter for sale -- one year old. They sold for $300 new and he wanted $50 for it. I told my grandpa and he thought it was a mistake but we went to see it. He asked the man what he wanted for it and he said $45. Grandpa said sold! I paid for this one myself as I had for the other modes of transportation. The P48 got about 50 miles to the gallon and could travel at 70 miles per hour. Had a 7 horsepower motor and was belt driven using a centrifugal clutch (no gears to shift). That motor scooter went with me to Kansas City in 1949 when I moved there.You can read about my teen modes of transportation here, here, and here.

While we are on the subject of transportation, I rode solo only once on a motorcycle - a 1937 Indian whose controls were opposite those of a Harley Davidson. This belonged to my Uncle Bob. We visited him at his home and he saw me admiring it. He asked if I wanted to ride the motorcycle. I had never been on one so he showed me the foot clutch, hand gear shift, speed control on the left handlebar and said have fun. Bob lived in the country so there was very little traffic. The Indian had a clutch that wouldn’t stay down when you came to a stop. That added a little excitement when you had to slow down and turn around. But I managed and found this to be a fun experience.

During my last year in Celina and at the newspaper, I served as janitor of the office after my paper route. The publisher and owner, Parker Snyder, paid me 50 cents an hour to do that job. Mr. Snyder was getting ready to have one of the employees teach me to drive the Studebaker pickup truck so I could take the papers to other cities. I moved before that could happen. Besides I was 15 at the time. Probably could get a license that limited me to the job.

In the six years I served as news boy I kept only one Daily Standard. That was April 12, 1945 Extra that we sold when President Franklin D. Roosevelt died and Harry S. Truman became president. Because of that paper, I was shown in one of the Reminisce magazines holding the paper with a short article about it. The story appeared on the front page of The Daily Standard as one of the subscribers to Reminisce lived in Celina and showed the article to the newspaper. So -- former Celina newspaper boy makes good!

In 1948 I decided to buy a box camera to record my adventures and friends. It was an Ansco Box Camera and my daughter currently has the original. I have one just like it that I found in an antique store in Oklahoma. The camera took eight (8) pictures to the roll and didn’t have a flash -- all pictures had to be taken in daylight outside. I took pictures of our home, my grandparents, brother who lived there and relatives who came to visit. I have a picture of Grandpa’s 1938 Hudson Terraplane, my Whizzer Motor Bike, Ben’s motor bike, a 1948 Tucker on tour that stopped in Celina, Uncle Gary’s 1937 Reo Coupe, and Uncle Cecil’s 1948 Frazer Sedan. I regret that I did not take a picture of my P48 Powell motor scooter.

I have pictures of a few friends, especially my best friend Tom Keifer. Tom and I were the same age and attended the same church. He lived a few blocks from me and we would go bike riding often together. We built a trailer that was attached to the back of my bike and there is a picture of that in my scrapbook. Tom was at the train station when I left Celina. After a few years, I lost track of Tom. He came to visit me in California in the early 1960’s and we lost contact after that. When my name appeared in the paper, his brother, Dick Keifer, called me to chat. He told me that Tom had passed away about 1989.

The church we attended was Celina Church of the Nazarene where my grandfather was the pastor. I took a picture of the church back then but the congregation has moved to another location which I have never seen. The building had a basement where all the Sunday School classes took place. Up stairs was the auditorium for services. There were approximately 125 who attended regularly. Some names that come to mind were Harlow Fetters (had the same birthday) and Bill Baer (led the music). Mr. Fetters bought a new 1946 Plymouth and I rode in it a few times. My first car was a 1947 Plymouth that I bought in 1954. The Keifer’s attended the church. Ralph Grapner was my age and attended.

Beside being the pastor, it fell to our family to mow the yard and remove the snow on Sundays when necessary. The church gave us a large plot of land surrounding the church building for farming. We grew a lot of our food there. Many hours were spent planting, hoeing, harvesting the food. You name it -- we grew it. Including sugar cane that was turned into molasses. We used to say we raised cane behind the church and got away with it!

When Grandpa retired as pastor, he continued to serve the church as janitor. So we spent a lot of time there taking care of the building and yard. They allowed us to continue to farm the grounds surrounding the church as well.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this story.

Celina has a webcam at the corner of Main and Market showing the Mercer County Court House. You can check it as I do daily to see what is going on there. Here is how you can access it: http://www.dailystandard.com/ , click on Community, then Celina, then webcam, and you can enlarge the picture for better viewing. With high speed internet, you can watch cars go by, people walking, see if it is raining, snowing, etc. Since it is my home town, I check it daily just to see what is going on. This corner is right down the street from The Daily Standard which is to the right of the picture. Check it out.