Spy Balloon - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Spy Balloon

Chinese Spy Balloon Over Montana

Chinese Spy Craft Route

 Spy Balloon Shot Down over the Atlantic

All the hullabaloo about the Chinese spy balloon flying over the US that was finally shot down over the Atlantic Ocean reminded me as a kid on the family farm when Dad and I discovered a large deflated balloon that had landed in one of our fields. It was about 4 feet in diameter with a small instrument of some sort dangling from a cord attached to the balloon.

There was a message on the device that read if found return postage prepaid to the National Weather Service in Washington, DC. Had it not been postage pre-paid, I’m sure Dad would have trashed it, but not before I opened up the gadget to see how it worked. There was no indication of where the balloon originated, but obviously it had to be somewhere out west as that's the direction of the prevailing wind. 

Checking the internet, it turns out the Weather Service had launched over 50 weather balloons from Illinois during that period. I do recall writing a report about the weather balloon discovery for my science class. Turns out the device was called a radiosonde and the instrument looked like this on the inside.

Social media had a field day as the spy craft traversed the nation at 70 mph and an altitude of 66,000 feet. Here’s a sampling:

 Spoof video of private plane flying by the Chinese spy balloon

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'78 Blizzard - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Blizzard of ’78

Last week marked the 45 anniversary of the 1978 Blizzard that overwhelmed Ohio and most of the midwest. We lived in Michigan and only received a fraction of the snow without the high winds and subzero temps that midwestern Ohio experienced over a three day period in late January of that year.

My siblings all vividly recalled that historic blizzard. Here are their stories:

From my brother: Mom & Dad were stranded by themselves on the home farm without power, water, heat or phone. They hunkered down in the kitchen with a mattress on the floor using candles and lanterns for heat and light. They blocked off the other rooms with blankets over the various access points to keep the heat in the kitchen. Note the rosary on the kitchen table in the photo below, so they also did a lot of praying!

Dad had to drain the baseboard heating system in the house to keep it from freezing and would go to the barn periodically to break the ice in the water tank for the beef cattle he was raising. I recall him telling me he would put snow into the water tank to melt and replenish any water consumed.

Finally, my brother was able to head over to Mom and Dad’s on his snowmobile and noticed the makeshift bedroom living area in the kitchen, an inconvenience they seemed to handle very well in an upbeat manner.

If you lived through the Great Depression immediately followed by WWII, a couple days of no power and water seemed nothing for them. For sure, "the Greatest Generation”.

Dad eventually plowed out the long lane with the tractor, no doubt a real challenge in the cold and wind.

Fortunately, Dad had sold his milk cows a few years earlier, otherwise he would have had to milk them by hand under light from the kerosene lantern, like Mrs. O’Leary back in 1871 Chicago, but God-forbid without the same consequences. Legend has it that incident is linked to a famous square dance tune.

My middle sister’s husband also visited his parents, but his truck slid into a huge snowdrift and was stuck, so he walked the rest of the way. My sister had no idea what happened to him as the power and phone lines were down, so she and her two young children ages 1 & 4, were by themselves in their home to weather the brunt of the storm. Her husband finally walked back late that evening reporting that his parents were ok and he fortunately found my sister and their kids ok as well.

My youngest sister reported that everyone kicked in to help neighbors during the blizzard. They stayed at a neighbor’s place who had a fireplace to keep warm. At the time, she was working at Fair Haven nursing home in Sidney, but could not get to work for 3 days. The trips to and from work that winter were very challenging due to the high snow drifts that kept recurring with just a little wind. Her shift started very early at 5:45am so she had to travel those back roads between Ft. Loramie and Sidney well before the snowplows were out. Needless to say she did not stay at Fair Haven long after that winter, finding nursing employment elsewhere. But she reported it was nice being with Grandma and Grandpa who resided at Fair Haven. She'd spend her lunch with them to provide comfort in their final years, just as she did so faithfully for both our parents when they went to the nursing home.

My eldest sister also indicated they had no power and phone service for three days. Mom was the first person she called after getting the service restored. Both were so relieved and thankful to learn everyone was all right.

My brother also indicated how treacherous the roads were all that winter due to the drifting snow. He drove a truck at that time making deliveries and recalled a road in Indiana that did not open for two weeks after the storm and then only one lane. The drifts were higher than his truck!

Share your Blizzard of ’78 saga by clicking this link.

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Comic Books - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Comic Books

In the recent issue of the Knights of Columbus magazine, I was surprised to see an article entitled “Pow! The Knights Behind a Comic Book Revival”. As a kid, comic books were a favorite form of reading and entertainment so I had quite a collection, all since destroyed by my brother or thrown out by my mother, so the K of C article attracted my attention. The author of the article interviewed fellow Knights who had worked in the comic book industry over the years creating many of my favorites and concluded with the interesting point that young children can be introduced to and positively influenced by Christian-based comic books. Children's attention is better maintained with dynamic visuals to complement the written word. The conclusion reached is that evangelization of children to the Christian faith is enhanced through comic books.

My favorite comics growing up were Archie & Jughead, especially characters Veronica and Betty for obvious reasons shown in the edition below. Loved those bikinis!

Next favorites were the super hero comics like Spider Man, Bat Man and Super Man, battling the forces of evil while portraying the ideals of courage, strength and self-sacrifice. Peter Parker, Adam West and Clark Kent became my alter-ego’s, but their superpowers evaded me!

Robin Hood was another favorite comic book and recall creating a makeshift bow and arrow. Another Robin, Batman’s sidekick, used a sling shot, which I also made as a kid. My sling shots never seemed to last long, as either the rubber made out of an old inner tube tore or the connection of the rubber to the Y shaped tree limb failed. Regardless, the bow and arrow and sling shot provided many hours of fun and enjoyment as a kid before getting a BB gun for Christmas at about age 10 or so.

The BB gun inspired me to be attracted to another series of comic books about westerns, such as the Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hoppalong Cassidy, and more. But before the BB gun, bow and arrow and sling shot came cap guns as toys and playing cowboys and Indians was tons of fun as a kid with my friends. My sisters loved the Annie Oakley comics, especially since she was a native of nearby Willowdell.

My sisters also like comics about Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker and the Disney characters, especially Cinderella.

And my wife fondly recalls her dad reading the comic book about Nancy to her as a young child.

Another source of comics were in bubble gum packages. Each comic also included a pithy statement as well as an offer for a free item if you send in enough comic strips. I fell for several and no surprise, they were all junk!

Far from a super hero, bumbling Army private Beetle Bailey was also a fun comic book read. Note the sling shot in Beetle’s back pocket of this vintage comic book cover.

There were some religious comic books back then but I never recall buying any of them. Maybe I should have read this one!

Classic Illustrated comics came in handy as they could be used as a shortcut to reading the novel. That never seemed to work because the teacher was typically onto us so asked a question on the test about something not in the comic book. Curses! Foiled again.

Here’s a comic book that’s new to me, but sounds interesting! Go Blue!

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