Whizzing Through America: Living Memories Tour, Otterbein - OH

I've always called this place Otterbein because that was the name of the church that my father was pastor of right across the street. To find it on Google Maps to get directions, I had to call it Otterbein Cemetery. This was one of four churches in Darke County my father was pastor of. In the two years I was here, a lot happened...

I ran cross-country, the 13th runner on a twelve-man squad. The official track was through and around a corn field that was about four miles away from the school. The bus would take us out there and we had to run back. Since this was before I drove, I then also got to "run" home. (By that time it was more like walking. It was good that cross-country was a warm weather sport.) On the days that I did not run at school, mostly in the summer, and wasn't particularly lazy, I ran around the cemetery lane. It was almost exactly one-quarter mile in length. Many of the trees that made it so eerie to run around at dusk are gone.

The summer before I got my driver's license, I painted a fence, no longer there, and my neighbor's house and barn. The house now has an enclosed porch and what looks to be vinyl siding. One particularly hot day I rode my pedal bike to the closest swimming pool. It had to be at least five miles away and my bike was no gear shifting touring bike, nor was it adjustable to my then height. Needless to say, I only did this that once.

I'd like to say that my vistas opened up when I got my license. I'd like to but I can't. We still had only the one car and my father had a job that kept him in it all the time. That was one of the reasons that I practiced my parallel parking skills on the way to the test, once. All I can say is that I passed. Maybe rural Ohio standards were a little laxer than California ones, but none of my children passed on their first attempt.

Of course, school life dominated. These were heady times. I enjoyed playing chess with some people of whom at least one was much smarter than me. He would challenge anyone to come up with a list of things, 25 or more long, and would develop a mnemonic such that he could recall it almost at any time later. I read "Dr. Zhivago," including the poems that Boris Pasternak had at the back. I memorized poems just for the fun of it, and since many of them were depressing, "Thanatopsis" by William Cullen Bryant, it's a good thing that I've forgotten them all.

I even remember thinking I was bored, but definitely don't think that of then now. Wow! I did a lot of things and they all were new and fun. I now know what boring really is and that wasn't it.

I was in chorus and went to several contests. Even though I didn't get the best rating, it was my singing at one of them that got me a music scholarship offer from Miami University at Oxford, Ohio. I also co-starred in plays, at least three in the two years I was there. One spring in my junior year I was in two at once, one for the church, in which I played a soldier at Christ's crucifixion. I had some really long monologues in it. I tried to get a cassette tape of it but due to operator error I never did. At least the words in it were far different than the school play occurring at the same time. In the school play I played the only sane person in a mental hospital, which was being visited by outsiders. Then at the end I blew my sanity cover by proclaiming that I, as J.D. Rockefeller, would finance one of the crazy schemes.

For a brief moment I was a tenor in a barbershop quartet, then my voice changed. I also was a professional singer, once. I sang at a funeral and got an honorarium. I don't remember whether or not it was before or after my voice changed but do remember the song, "Beyond the Sunset." I don't remember my voice changing in any abrupt and cracking way. It was almost as if one day I was a tenor, the next few a baritone, and finally a bass with a large range. (Definitely don't have that range today and my voice cracks like it is making up for not doing so then.)

It was also while I was here that I bowled in a church league. If I did the team any good it was because I established a high handicap early. I did do something that is rarely done, I bowled a triplet, all three games one night had the same score. If only it had been a higher score than the 159 it was.

I also worked at a lumber yard in town for a while, at least one whole summer. This was before nail guns and my job was to nail trusses together. I got so I could start the nail with a tap and drive it with the follow on blow. The best part about nailing trusses was the delivery afterwards. Some of the places were really far away, or at least the driver made them appear so by driving slowly.

Of all the places I've lived, This is the only place that I still can't remember the upper floor, even though I know my bedroom was up there and I can remember the stairs going up, at least the downstairs entry to them. I blame a traumatic experience. I went out on the roof to adjust the TV antenna that had been blown off its ideal direction. Smartly I got out of my slick soled shoes. Foolishly I left my socks on. I was really surprised when they started rolling off of my feet and I almost tumbled off of the roof. I didn't have that much time for TV anyway and there couldn't have been that much on to watch. We could have only poorly received Dayton channels.












It is definitely not a parsonage now. No parsonage would have a shop/garage of this size. The hedge that I maintained is gone. The trees may even be new. The church looks to have been closed for some time. It was established in 1881.