More Significant Than I Knew…

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death, life, month, october, reunion, school

October would be a significant month for me. October proved to be very important when I did my student teaching. My teaching career began in October. And October was the month I lost my dad, Gene Glenn Holland. It is Saturday October twenty-eighth 1989, and my plans are to DJ at a sweet sixteen party in Greentown, Ohio. My parents are to go to my dad’s McGregor Grade School reunion at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox in Canton. That same day I receive news that I can pick up my high school diploma the following Monday. My parents left for their reunion, and I waved goodbye to them as they drove off in our brown 1984 Pontiac station wagon, for my dad and I it turned out to be the last goodbye. He danced with my mom for about ten minutes. He walked over to the table he had been sitting. Placed his hands on the shoulders of an old friend who was sitting with him. He collapsed, and he was gone before he hit the floor. Massive heart attack, with ninety-six percent blockage. My mom and dad met dancing, and they parted dancing. My mom was the strongest, and held the family together for the next twenty-one years. More later…

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Images from the Past

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concrete, diamond, Family, photos, Portland

A very nice Italian lady called last week, who had noticed our library website. Ramsayer Research Library She told me her father was president of the Diamond Portland Cement Co. in Plain Township, Stark County. She, and her family had donated a collection of photographs from this company. She stopped by the library and viewed her photos after 22 years. We posted a family picture, of them holding some of the photos. Diamond Portland Cement Images

Family Ties

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29th, Civil, Family, OVI, reenactment, War

Being a Living Historian, and a reenactor is really a pleasure beyond words. Drilling, camping, marching, fighting, and living like a soldier in the Army of the Ohio is wonderful. Showing people your equipment, the equipment that they used 150 years ago is very meaningful. The family atmosphere is appealing to me as well. A sense of really belonging is something very difficult to explain. Working with history, and living history, and playing history is well worth the time…more later…

Dawn Breaks in Hale Farm

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Gettysburg, Hale Farm, Living Historian

A Day in the Life of a Living Historian
6:15 Reveille
6:45 Morning Reports Due (All soldiers reporting for duty, sick call, and on leave)
7:10 First Call (Prepare for battle, or drill)
7:15 Form Companies
7:30 Form up on the road (as Army)
8:00 Tactical (this is a battle scenario, closed to the public)
9:15 Breakfast
9:50 First Call
10:00 Battalion Drill
11:00 Suttler’s Tents (food, gear, civilian luxuries)
12:25 Lunch
12:50 First Call
1:15 Presentation of Plaque Hale Farm, and the Western Reserve Historical Society
2:00 Battle of Gettysburg, First Day Scenario July 1, 1863
4:30 Rest
5:30 Dinner
8:00 Grand Ball

Canal Daze…

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boats, Canal, transportation

Growing up near Canal Fulton was an advantage because I learned a little about the canals, and that mode of transportation. The stones they used to build this lock, in Peninsula, Ohio were quarried not too far away, in Deep Lock Quarry.  The builders would number them, in order to put them together like a puzzle.

Snow Storm

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Aultman, Birth, Boy, Hospital, Scouts, Snow, Storm

The Blizzard of 71 hit, and I entered the world. Early morning, February 8th my mom woke and knew it was time. My dad drove her to Aultman Hospital. When I was born, my brothers weren’t allowed to be in the hospital room. They stayed outside, and made a snowman in my honor. Dr. Andrew Botchner delivered me into the world. I went to my first Boy Scout meeting on the way home from the hospital…more later…

Old Friends, and New Spaces

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education, friends, Genealogy, organization, volunteers

Putting things together, a little at a time. The Ramsayer Research Library is a busy place when it wants to be. The people who volunteer are so helpful, and understanding. They are a real boon to our organization. For the third week in a row we had researchers for genealogy. The requests numbers are up as well. I called the genealogy department at the Stark County District Library and an old friend answered. I thought, this will be easy! We will begin to collaborate with that office to benefit genealogists. One of our volunteers gave me a very nice compliment on how we were moving in the right direction…the spirit of the library at Mckinley Presidential Library & Museum is beginning to breathe deep, and take form…

Where did the lights go…

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Lights, podcast, Preserving history, Thomas Edison

Podcast

In the nineteenth century there were candles, oil lamps, gas lamps, and electric lights. It was the century where Thomas Edison turned on the lights! He was supposed to have never worried about much of anything. He worked in a lab, and slept in a lab.  His wife, and his close friends would say how he would go to sleep for just a few hours, and wake up refreshed as if he had slept for eight or nine.  He was in tune with nature.  Keeping busy, and keeping his mind busy. No time to worry. The person who preserves history, or attempts it, has some of the same advantages. Worry, is a thing of the past when you have the past to think about…

More Later…

It is up to us …

It is up to us to listen to their voices…