Message Forum

Anita Joan Thornhill (Funsch)

A very good September day with crystal clear sky and quiet weather. I was in a non-descript and unused parking lot between Broad and Second street in Fairborn. This parking lot was once the house I grew up in and I was parked where my bedroom once stood in an abstract ritual.

The date was September 5th and the 70th Anniversary of Fairborn, Ohio when the villages of Fairfield and Osborn merged. Osborn once occupied the field beside the now abandoned Skyborn Drive-in and after the 1913 Flood the houses of Osborn were physically moved and set back down beside Fairfield. Railroad tracks and the old electric tramway delineated the boundary.

From my old home location I retraced the path I walked for eight years to and from Central School. A lot of the older homes along the way are still in place. This path was where I pondered my first life crises occurring in the First Grade . . . Many times walking home I kept thinking, "I don't think I can do this for twelve more years" . . .

I retraced where my buds and I walked to the old high school for the first couple years of high school before we started driving or hitching rides to school. Most of the stately old homes on Xenia Avenue are still in place and where visitors to Fairborn remark on a bucolic feeling to the old neighborhood.

It's said one can never go home again but there are emotional highlights, good and bad, that never goes away. They are kept in a box and once in a while the lid is reopened, and yep, they're still there.

09/07/20 03:21 PM

#59

Thank you Michael. My dad got stationed at Wright Pat inn1960 and I never knew the history of the area. Your post was very informing.

Anita Joan Thornhill Funsch

09/07/20 07:34 PM

#60

Mike. What a great analogy of how those of us walkers felt when on our long trek to school. I so envied the kids who got to ride a bus. Then the first few years of high school began, and that was REALLY an adventure in walking.

09/07/20 07:43 PM

#61

Hey Dianne, here in South Texas, we play "Texas Hold-em" the Texas way.........stop in some time and I'll show you our Texas Hold-em the original way......... He, he, he.........LOL, keep smiling thru the pandemic.

You know Dianne, Omaha Steaks still delivers and that with your local wine "home delivery" you should be getting along nicely. I feel your pain as I spent some time in Grenada a while back and the locals were great as we had endless delivery of Pizza but getting thru Cuban Customs was a real B--ch.

09/08/20 04:11 PM

#62

What a great memory, Mike! The house where I grew up has been a parking lot since 1973 after my Dad died. I walked from the corner of Cedar Dr and Broad St, down Xenia Dr to the driveway to the elementary school (Miller Ave ?). Then from there to the high school was a trek! it wasn't uphill both ways, but close!

Some of those memories are so vivid! But I can't remember what I did yesterday! Ugh! But hey, for being almost 75, I am in pretty good shape. And that is what I told the Physical Therapist today. And that's the truth!

09/08/20 04:59 PM

#63

Gayle, I remember you and I crossing paths walking to and from Central School. Bobby Newton lived down the street from me on the corner of Second and Xenia and we also crossed paths. John Michael LLoyd lived a street over and at times he'd be singing out loud as he walked to school.

About 5th grade Dale Smith, Walter Potts and I came together as buds and we'd meet at Wright Avenue to and from school. During summers when we got out of sight of our mothers we were the typical "feral" children running from Wright to Broad Street.and twixt in between. .

09/09/20 05:38 PM

#64

Mike, remind me was Wright after Miller as you continued on Xenia?

And at the corner of Broad and Cedar was a courthouse-like building, Brodt's Insurance, Huffman Realty in front of my house and a vacant lot opposite. Oh my gosh, the memories!

09/10/20 11:07 AM

#65

Hi Gayle,

Not sure about Miller. Dale and Walter both lived on Wright Ave. When crossing Xenia at Wright toward Central School it ran over the creek (Hebble?) bridge with the school bus garages there at the curve. John Spriggs lived at the corner house on the north side of Xenia and Wright intersection. Ranleys store was at the corner of Wright and Main.

Do we remember the free summer movies for Fairborn's kids? The local Chamber of Commerce had stores in Fairborn give out free movie tickets to our parents when a store was patronized. The tickets looked like play money and each week they changed color.

09/11/20 03:18 PM

#66

Little did we know then, that those were the innocent days of our lives. My brother, Carl Poling, and I would stand in line every Wednesday at the theater to watch the free movie. We were always hoping to win one of the prizes given out during the intermission. Of course I always had to be the one to carry the big bag of popcorn mom popped for us to eat! It seemed like we walked forever from S. Grand to Broad to reach the theater.

09/11/20 10:40 PM

#67

I used to "crash" my bike in front of the theater entrance to see the shows. Never, ever did I EVER have any problems with abandoning my bike on the ground without a lock for several hours. Quoteth the raven....Never More.

09/12/20 04:01 PM

#68

I was talking with Katie today and told her about the Message Forum. I asked if she wanted to hear any of the entries and ended up reading them all through 9/10/20! She enjoyed the writings and memories very much! She sends love, and hugs and a big HI to everyone! When I verified her city, she said she lives in University Place WA, next to, but not in Tacoma!

09/25/20 02:38 PM

#69

Kathy Lynn Goodman

This rang the old nostalga bell for me. If I remember correctly those free movies were on Wednesday afternoon. Mom would give me a quarter. Candy was 6 cents. That would give my brother and I each 2 selections. I do remember I would always get a "slo poke" and "red hots". Not because they were necessarily my favorites but because they both took a long time to eat and would last me the whole movie. Incidently, Mom always asked for her change - all one cent of it. She was all about financial responsibility.

09/26/20 12:09 PM

#70

If I recall I think it was Schiff's Shoe Store that had the foot X-Ray machine and sticking our shod feet in the stand up position and look down into the viewer to see the bones in our feet. I played with that thing so much . . . who knew.

There was one hobby shop in town and at first it was located off the downtown traffic circle beside the lawyer's offices. Then it moved several doors down from Giovanni's on Main St. We would spend so much time browsing in that store without buying much, we had to get on the owner's nerves. Probably thinking we would swipe something - we never did.

Fairborn's Jurassic Park was the cement plant quarry to the sides of Rt. 235. It was strictly "No Trespassing" but we would get in the danger zone by riding our bikes about halfway up the 235 steep hill - stop and check for no car traffic - then run like hell pushing our bikes up the narrow gauge railroad tracks that connected the quarry to the processing plant. We dodged plant personnel vehicles, sometimes hear blasting in the distance and found out Fairborn's police department had a pistol firing range out there. A young and dumb kick in not getting caught. It is now Oakes Quarry Park and open to the public.

Right in the middle of 14 year old passions for motor scooters was Earhart's Sporting Goods store just oblique across the street from Giovanni's. In the spring and summer there would be a lineup of sparkling bright Lambretta scooters parked right up to the sidewalk. We would loiter looking and dreaming at those motorized freedom machines.

09/26/20 07:26 PM

#71

Mike..you adressed life in sleepy Fairborn during the late 50s exactly.

09/26/20 10:10 PM

#72

Thank you Mary. It was all of our times and our place.

09/27/20 11:08 PM

#73

It sure was. Wish all kids could have experienced life in the Fairborn of the 50s and 60s.

10/05/20 02:04 PM

#74

Built in the

FIFTIES

Original and unrestored

Some parts still in working order

(saw this on a T-shirt)

10/05/20 05:00 PM

#75

Fifties......?...? Is that what you tell all the little co-eds Mike? Hahahahahahaha (;8~{)

10/05/20 09:38 PM

#76

Well one could say we were still in the process of building out our personal selves . . .

Don't think a 'FORTIES' T-shirt would sell well.

10/06/20 06:06 PM

#77

10/6

I went to the kids last night and Bill's Dad had sent him pictures of the renovation in South Fairborn. Maple Ave is down to dirt from the overpass out to Five Points it looks like. And they have torn down South School. Will tear down Palmer. And he thinks they have or will tear down Five Points. Then they will be building new elementary and middle schools. Quite a shock to see!

10/11/20 03:28 PM

#78

In 8th grade at Central School did our class have a newsletter? Kind of an innocent gossip sheet and maybe one issue run off on a mimeograph machine?

Something in my old (now peach pit) brain has a snapshot of this . . . And no I've never been on weed . . . .

10/12/20 07:40 AM

#79

10/12

Yes, there was a newsletter. I don't remember how often or how many there were.

Run off on a mimeograph machine really dates us! Does anyone remember who wrote it or produced it?

10/12/20 11:11 AM

#80

I seem to recall a writer and a subject person on one article but not going to name names. Too long ago to be sure and needed caution with the written word concerning personages.

But one subject was footwear fashion. Men's black slip on loafers with a white lightning stripe embossed on the side ~ 'Lightning Boots".

10/12/20 04:33 PM

#81