Back to School- Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

This is a guest blog by an anonymous Fish Report reader as part of a series of periodic posts that will focus on cherished memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Back to School

Smallest to tallest in 1965: Lisa Simon, Joanie Goubeaux, 
Joan Francis, Patty Goubeaux, Laura Francis, John Francis, 
Marla Simon, Denise Simon, Nancy Grillot, Deb Francis, 
Bootsy Goubeaux, Barb Grillot, Cheryl Goubeaux, Joan Grillot

Growing up, we had several cousins who lived in the small town of Russia nested between Versailles and Houston. Every Labor Day weekend, our family would make the trek to visit our cousins during the Russia Homecoming (a.k.a. Russia World’s Fair), which was always a blast. But this annual event signaled summer was over and the school year would begin in earnest. Some 50 years ago, this group of Russia students from a neighborhood just east of town were waiting in line for the school bus, when the mother of the youngest took this photo on her daughter’s first day of school in 1965, fifty years ago. Of the fourteen kids, only one was a boy, John Francis, who was really happy when a kid nicknamed Frog eventually moved into the neighborhood!