Lost Dayton Ohio

As you may (or may not) know, I love buildings. My love of buildings started at a young age, and I believe it was when I first walked into the brand new elementary school in town. It was so modern and unique that you would never know it was a school if it didn't have a playground beside it. As I grew older, I also developed an interest in old buildings and their history... long story short, I have worked for an Architect for the past 26 years and our most recent office move landed us in Downtown Dayton. Our initial landlords were big talkers and big planners but they never did anything with any of their buildings until finally some of their investors took over ownership and are finally making some progress (which is all part of another story or multiple stories). Plus, as you probably do know, I'm an aspiring writer. So, pulling all of that background story together, you'll understand why I'm so excited to have gone to a presentation last evening featuring Andrew Walsh author of the book "Lost Dayton Ohio".

Andrew moved to Dayton from Madison, Wisconsin and rented an apartment in Dayton Towers. Looking out of his apartment window he wondered what the green space below used to be. His research led him to discover a wealth of information about his new hometown that most of us Daytonians probably don't even know.  For instance, I never knew that Dayton used to have a Red Light District. Did you? If you're over a certain age, (I won't say what that age is) then you may have known it was located along Pearl Street. We no longer have a Pearl Street as it was "repurposed" along with the brothels and bars that made it a red light district.

Another interesting point was a photo he shared of Bomberger Park back in the day. It used to have a beautiful pool but now is only green space. Green space in downtown anywhere is great, but the pool looked pretty awesome.

Andrew's entire presentation was filled with interesting information about the buildings that surround my office building, and the transformations that have taken place and even more that are in the process of changing. So, even though his book is titled "Lost Dayton Ohio" it's not all about what is no longer here. By "lost" he means "transformed." Like the buildings that

once made up Delco. One of the original buildings is now Delco Lofts; another became the Mendelson building, still another was torn down and that site now houses our 5th/3rd baseball field.

There are chapters about NCR, Wright Company Factory, Dayton Arcade, Rike's Department store, just to name a few. Andrew definitely did his research (did I mention he's a Librarian and volunteers part-time at one of our museums?) and filled the book with wonderful old photographs of what Dayton used to look like.

If I've gotten any of this information wrong, I apologize, but you'll just have to buy the book and read all about it for yourself. I bought three copies!

Follow Andrew Walsh on Instagram or Twitter @daytonvistas
on Facebook DaytonVistas
and/or subscribe to his newsletter www.daytonvistas.com/newsletter.

This event was held at the Brookville branch of the Dayton Metro Library. Check out their website for events near you. We are so blessed to have all of these beautiful new libraries.

Shout out to Frederick Marion for posting this event on his weekly Dayton Lit newsletter. If you're a writer in the Dayton area, you need to subscribe to stay up to date on all of the latest literary happenings. If you're not a writer, you need to subscribe anyway to enjoy the gifted writing talent of Fred Marion as he shares a personal experience every week filled with wisdom, inspiration, and sometimes just a great twist that leaves you thinking "wow".

A literal green light from God

Yesterday morning there was snow on the grass and icy slush on the roads. Normally, I would just stay home until the roads were clear, but yesterday I needed to get to the City building when they opened to pay my water bill because they shut me off. (That's a whole other story).

The roads between here and there weren't bad at all, so I decided to go on to work. Country roads are a challenge in bad weather because they don't get cleared off right away, and those that do often get covered with drifting snow, but as I was heading to the more traveled roads I decided the country roads were clear enough for me to continue on, plus it's faster and less traffic than going through the towns. 

At the first four-way stop I came to after making this stupid decision, I picked up an SUV who rode my bumper for several miles. I went the speed limit, 55 mph, but I wasn't comfortable driving that fast, and he obviously wanted me to go faster, so it was a lose-lose situation. There was a stop sign ahead anyway, so I took my foot off the accelerator, and he thankfully turned off before we got to the four-way stop. I tapped my brakes gingerly but didn't feel like I was slowing down fast enough so I tapped them a little harder.

My car

I should mention that I drive a Cobalt. It was the cheapest new car we could find in 2006 and the car lots were packed full of them. One of the ways to make a cheaper car is to leave off important features, like anti-lock brakes (grrrr). Personally, I would have paid the extra $100 to have them installed but my husband at the time said we didn't need them. Ha! The car is super lightweight so it slides around even on the smallest amount of snow and ice, especially when stopping and starting.

All it took was that little bit of extra pressure to the brake. I did a 180. Fortunately, there was no one on that stretch of road, and I didn't go off into a ditch. I did scream a curse word over and over. When I came to a complete stop, I took a deep breath and drove at a crawl to the nearest parking lot, where I was able to calm myself down. I had to decide whether to go home or continue on to work. I was equal distance from both. I said a prayer and headed to the office.

No one was coming as I approached that same stop sign, so I just drove very slowly through it instead of trying to stop. Next, there was a stop light at a fairly busy intersection and the left turn lane didn't look clear at all. I wasn't driving very fast anyway, so I was hoping the car would just lose momentum and stop by itself when I got to the light. I was praying, "Please make it turn green!", and it did! I blurted out, "Thank you, Lord." I was now on a heavily traveled road, and it was a straight shot all the way to work. Sadly, the condition of said road was pretty bad. It looked more like no one had been on it, and definitely, no salt truck or plow had been through there. Stupid mistake number two.  Plus, what I didn't think of was that there were 14 traffic lights on that messy street giving me at the very least, 14 opportunities to spin-out again. Stupid mistake times infinity.

My view and focus as I drove

I drove white-knuckled to the first red light, took my foot off the accelerator, started to tap my brake, but the light changed before I had to completely brake! As I drove under it, I again said: "Thank you, Lord." The next light just ahead turned red, and I figured, well, here I go again, but as I slowed down, a white Kia Sorento pulled out ahead of me. He was going pretty slow (even for me) but there was no way I was going to pass him. By the time we crawled up to the light, it changed to green! "Thank you, Lord!" This happened through 9 consecutive stop lights. That has never happened in my life. When we (the driver of the Kia and myself) got downtown, the roads were completely clear, and he turned off, and I stopped without incident at the next two lights, and then the remaining lights were all green.

I have no doubt that God was with me through all of that! When we call on Him, He is there. He's there even when we don't call, but it's just so miraculous when He shows Himself in response to our prayers.

God is good! All the time!

Camp Nanowrimo 2017 First Day

Today is the first day of Camp Nanowrimo!
NaNoWriMo is the nickname given to National Novel Writing Month which I participated in 2011, 2015, and 2016. This is a mid-year event to help those of us who need to be held accountable in order to focus and write the novel that all of us have buried deep within. I've been working on this novel for six years and am only on Chapter 2. While that may sound pathetic, I should explain that I've written the entire thing once, and I've re-written the first Chapter (which is rather long) at least 8 times, but then I get frustrated and stuck and tell myself that it's terrible and no one will ever want to read it, and I'm not really a writer anyway,...but guess what??? It turns out that everyone who writes has those exact same self-defeating thoughts and fears! I'm not alone! Plus, I'm part of a fantastic Nanowrimo community right here in Dayton, OH. We encourage and support each other, share information. It's almost impossible to describe, but it is incredible, and I'll keep coming back for more, and who knows? Maybe in another six years I'll have finished four whole chapters of my book :D
Writing is my "thing" right now; my hobby, my passion. It's what keeps me going when everything else seems to be falling apart. It gets me out of bed in the morning, and sometimes keeps me up late at night. It keeps me sane.
Write On!!!


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