August 2015

August 7, 2015

Charles ‘Toad’ Moss and Sage

As you may have figured out by now, I’m a sucker for cemeteries. Fortunately, my Road Warriorettes share my affinity for them. I can’t count the number of U-turns we’ve made to explore some narrow graveled rut of a road that would scare a billy goat.

The Oak Grove Cemetery in Logan, Ohio, has some interesting features going back to the 1800s, but this modern marker for Charles “Toad” Moss was what caught my eye.

Even if it didn’t contain an amazingly lifelike sculpture of a dog, the hanging wind chimes and a white orb that must represent the sun or the moon would make you want to get closer. (Click on the photo to make it larger.)

Moss Obituary in Logan Daily News

LOGAN — Charles “Toad” Almon Moss, 73, of Logan, passed away Friday, Dec. 27, 2013 at his residence.

Born Nov. 14, 1940 in New Vienna, Ohio, he was the son of Frances Lucille (Mowery) Moss of Circleville and the late Charles Elmer Moss.

Toad previously farmed in Pickaway County and had retired after 46 years of service as a plant engineer from PPG Industries in Circleville. Charles attended the Immanuel United Methodist Church and had formerly attended the Trinity Lutheran Church, both of Logan. He was a former member of the Minor Chords Barbershop Chorus and the Columbus All Breed Dog Training Club.
He is survived by his loving wife, Suzanne (Shoenfelt) Moss; two sons, Charles Douglas (Vicki) Moss of Westerville and Michael Sheldon (Lori) Moss of Canton, Ohio; two daughters, Heidi Michelle Moss of Blacklick and Mariah Bree Moss of Logan; four grandchildren, Zack, Josh, Lee and Mackenzie Moss; two sisters, Judy (Jim) McCord of Dublin and Nina (Chuck) Southall of Chillicothe. He also is survived by his faithful dogs, Sage, Rosie, Honey Bear and Major.

The dog statue is wearing a real collar with a tag that says, “Sage 2002 – 2014.” I guess that means owner and faithful dog are reunited.

August 6, 2015

A Garden of Fireworks

Not only did Curator Jessica make me get up early to shoot the Wilkesville Fourth of July parade, she insisted that it would be “fun” to watch the fireworks being shot over the Ohio River at Middleport, half an hour south of Athens.

It was chilly enough that a light jacket felt good. We got a parking place about a block from a decent vantage point, and I set up a tripod.

For you photo geeks, I locked the ISO at 200 because I wanted to force the camera to use a four-second exposure at about f/8. I usually pushed the shutter release when I heard the firework leave the tube. That would capture the rocket tail and most of the display.

I would have liked to have gotten at least one shot with the crowd visible in the foreground, but there wasn’t enough ambient light to capture them, and I was too lazy to walk back to the car for a strobe. Miz Jessica offered to go back for it, but I’ve learned that it’s not a good idea to trust your Road Warriorettes with the car keys. Sometimes they hold a grudge for some imagined slight during the day.

Fireworks photo gallery

Click on any image to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the gallery.

August 5, 2015July 4, 2021

Wilkesville’s 4th of July

Curator Jessica and I went to Wilkesville to see if Long and Son General Merchandise store was still around so I could update photos of it I had done of it on an icicle day in 1969. We didn’t see anything that looked like it on the main drag, so we stopped into a small diner where we had an excellent lunch and found out that the building was long gone.

On the way out, we saw a flyer for the Wilkesville Fourth of July parade. She gave a squeal of excitement.

I gave Miz Jessica my standard “Do You Know How Many Small Town Parades I’ve Covered?” speech, but she is not one to be denied. The next morning, I found myself getting up way too early to head to the Vinton County town.

They’ll have at least two spectators

“The good news for the town,” I told her, “is that we just freed up a spot for two more people to participate in the parade. A lot of these towns are so small they have to draw lots to see who will be spectators.”

Fourth of July photo gallery

I won’t tell Curator Jessica, but it was fun to see how everybody showed up with their homemade floats and flags. I have to say that I was a little discomforted by the casual way they treated the flags, but I guess the Flag Code isn’t something covered in school these days. Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the images.

August 4, 2015August 4, 2015

Deciding What Is Important

You accumulate a lot of stuff in 93 years, longer than that if you count the stuff that I recognize from my Grandmother’ house in Advance. It’s hard to decide if it goes into the Annie Laurie stack for sale; the stack for charity or the stack for the dumpster.

One item that was hiding in plain sight all these years was a little copper-clad perpetual calendar made by the Couch Mfg. Co. of Denver Colorado.

You’d move that little black slider on the bottom until the first day of the month would line up with the right day of the week, and everything else would fall into place. (Except for February and Leap Year.) On the back of the inside of the stand was a handy printed chart that showed where you should line up the 1st for 1949 through 1952.

Must have been my Grandmother’s

Back in 2011, I did a bio of Elsie Adkins Welch. In it, I mentioned that I have an undated Missourian clipping that says, “ON TRIP TO YELLOWSTONE.” Leaving Sunday for a ten-day trip through the western states were Mrs. Lillian Ackert, Mrs. Roy Welch, Mrs. H. Zimmerman and Mrs. L.O. Reutzel. They will stop in Denver and Colorado Springs, and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.”

To say this was unusual in that day and age would be an understatement. I remember crying when they left town because I wanted to go with them, so I had to have been around three, which would have put the trip in about 1950. (I’m the little kid sitting on the suitcase.)

If the other boys don’t want it, I guess I’ll claim it.