Be It Ever So Humble …
There’s NO PLACE like Home.
Robert and I watched our old high school ‘Redskins’ lose another football game Friday night 45 to 0 via Satellite TV. It was a loss for the sixth week in a row. That’s sad for the once bustling little Ohio town.
In our day, we won most of our games – not bad for a town of only 11,000 people. My longtime partner, Robert, even played football for the ‘Redskins’ when we were in high school.
In our day, the whole town was proud of Coshocton. Every other town in the U.S. has at least one, usually many more towns bearing the same name. Not so with Coshocton. It’s the only one. Its name came from a Native American word meaning ‘little black bear’.
Coshocton sits at the confluence of two rivers, the Walhonding and the Tuscarawas where they join to become a third, the Muskingum.
It’s in a beautiful valley setting with lots of trees, surrounding hills and farmland. I remember a couple of times when Coshocton was inundated by several weeks of solid heavy rain that resulted in major floods when all three rivers overflowed their banks. (see photo at top).
Our last trip to Coshocton was in 2018 and we were shocked at how much our little hometown had gone downhill. There were so many changes. When we were young, Coshocton was like the movies, “It’s a Wonderful Life” or “Back to the Future”.
Main Street used to be bustling with day and nighttime shoppers. In 2018, it was quiet. There were even a few empty stores on both sides of the street.
Robert’s dad and siblings still live in Coshocton. After our drive around town, we asked what had happened to Coshocton over the years. We didn’t even see a lot of children playing outside or on playgrounds like when we were young.
His dad told us so many large businesses had moved out. Their owners and CEO’s had funded a lot of things in and around town. In a way, they were the very foundation of Coshocton. It was their decision and backing when the football field got new bleachers, the high school new choir robes, or Cambridge Road got repaved.
Gone were: Edmonts (work gloves), General Electric, Hercules Tires, Pretty Products, Clows, Shaw Barton (Specialty Advertising), The Beach Company (Promotional Advertising and Calendars), American Art Works (printed advertising on various items).
Even the Stainless Steel Plant, Universal Cyclops, where my dad was a foreman for many years, ceased operations in the 1980s. This led to job losses for 950 workers. It was easy to understand what had transpired when it was explained that way.
There are still several great reasons to visit Coshocton:
Three Rivers Wine Trail has six unique wineries and a brewery.
Historic Roscoe Village, just across the river from Coshocton. Step back in time to a restored 1800’s canal-era town filled with locally-owned shops, restaurants and an Inn.
**Worth Noting: “Filming for the NBC miniseries Centennial took place in Roscoe Village, OH, during the summer of 1978, with specific scenes shot in June 1978. During this time, filmmakers transformed the village to resemble a 19th-century Pennsylvania town for the production.
What they did: Universal Studios brought in truckloads of dirt to cover the paved streets and added other props to make it look like an 1844 street in Lancaster, PA. They also filmed a Conestoga wagon race and other scenes in the area.”
Helmick Covered Bridge. One of Ohio’s oldest covered bridges, an historical landmark, built in 1863.
When I was younger, my mother’s parents retired and moved to Florida. Mama was saddened —she knew how much she would miss them. I remember asking, “Why would they do that? Coshocton is their home!”
To make the six of us children feel better, Daddy told us, “We’ll go visit them every summer and they’ll visit us, too, when they can. Just remember, home is a state of mind. Home is where you hang your hat and scratch any place that itches.”
In all the moves I’ve made over the years, which is a lot, I always think about that quote. Each new place did become “Home”. It’s all in how you look at it ... and where you have to scratch …
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CJ , Great piece on the things that shape us. D
This is so sad. So many towns in America have changed so much ... a lot of times for the worse .. at least for us who grew up there. Nostalgia is all about whatever we remember from childhood, but that's not necessarily the "good old days." May hometown is no longer recognizable nor is it friendly unless you hve wads of money. Well, that leaves me out.