THE CITY HALL
By: Stan Jordan
This is the second city hall for Antwerp. The first one was down on the southeast corner of Stone and Erie Street. I don’t know when it was built. There was a lot of people who didn’t want to spend the $8000 for a new city hall, but after three tries, the issue passed and in February of 1908, the above city hall came in to being.
The building shows that it did have big glass windows, but they were replaced in the 1950’s or 60’s. When I first remember it, about 1930, the lower left window was the police station and the big right hand door housed the fire fighting equipment. The local fire bell was in a small cupola on the roof.
The new fire house was built about 1963 and a lot of renovations were done on this building. As I remember the new, bare building cost $32,000. I will tell more about that later.
After the fire trucks were moved out, it held Mr. Ehrhart’s collection of taxidermy animals and bugs and it was very interesting, but the state inspectors closed it up because of the chemicals Mr. Ehrhart used.
Over the early years, the town hall was pretty busy. I attended a few square dances there and some dance lessons, a couple of wedding receptions and some important meetings. The boy scouts used to use it for their Halloween ghost thriller.
Now all the space is used, it is a very busy establishment and very neat and well governed.
Just to the south of the town hall, in my time, was an electrical warehouse, owned by Frank Armstrong. Then later on, just before WWII, about 1940, Bert Majors Sr. had a small restaurant there on the right. Later on that building were torn down and Bert had a shoe repair shop in Defiance. Hobos were allowed to sleep downstairs in cold weather.
See ya!
WHAT GOOD IS SNOW?
By: Stan Jordan
Yes, what good is snow? Now let’s be fair about this. The farmers like on the wheat, a good cover of snow in weather like this last week of January is good for the wheat, for this extreme cold.
And a good snow fall will close the school for a few days and make the kids happy.
A good snow is needed for the skiers, sled boards, snow mobiles and maybe an old sleigh ride. Some hunters like a good tracking snow, the man who just bought his own snow plow, the artist likes to see snow in the peaks, kids like to play in the snow, some snow is better to play in than others.
Find some clean snow and a kid can make some homemade ice cream. A good snow covers up a lot of sore spots.
Maybe you can go on?
See ya!
THE OTHER SIDE
By: Stan Jordan
I hate snow! It’s a four letter word, it is too bright for your eyes and most times it is too cold for your hands.
A snow fall ruins lots of plans. A good snow fall can close school and puts the kids at home under your feet. You must buy extra clothes for snow. Snow turns to water and water turns to mud, the kids track both into the house that causes extra work and short tempers.
If you get a good snow fall, you have to shovel the walks, you will probably get stuck in your car. With a good snow fall, you can’t go anywhere. The highway people put out traffic orders, your driveway is drifted shut. The kids want to go somewhere and can’t, that causes a little boredom.
Maybe you can go on.
See ya!
CANCER
By: Stan Jordan
I am very upset with what I heard on the news this morning. The man said one out of five children has cancer. Here it is 2019 and the number of cancer patients is many times worse than when I was a child back in the 1920’s and 1930’s.
I know breast cancer has been helped in that type and that is good news. It seems that the medical people have been working on eliminating cancer and its trauma, but it seems we have more cancer now then ever.
The laboratories and medical groups are all over the nation, do they exchange notes and findings? It seems to me that they have been in testing and suppositions for 70 years. Yes, they have helped but American people have donated billions of dollars for research and it seems that 1 out of 5 children is way too high.
I’m just thinking.
See ya!
SNOWY OWLS
By: Stan Jordan
I sure had a nice evening last night, let me tell you about it.
Gale and I went to the “O” for supper. There was Dan Bowers and his folks, Judy and Kenny, Gale, Jim Pendergrast and myself. A real nice lady came over and asked, “Are you the man who writes for the paper?” I said, “Yes ma’am, I am.” She said, “I read all of your writings and I like your little paper.” I thanked her for the kind words and I said, “I like you, who are you?” She said, “My name is Girardo.” Of course I forgot her first name. She was telling me about seeing a snowy owl up on State Line Rd and then a little south. He was on a telephone pole. She was amazed at how big he was. Now that is the same area as Roger Lilly was telling me about and the rural letter carrier from Payne was also telling me about. We are pretty sure that there is a nest in that area.
Jim Pendergrast was telling about a mile this side of Tipton, he saw a male snowy owl right in the middle of the road, and he didn’t seem anxious to fly away. All of these people remark how big these birds are.
I remember Tipton was about 3-4 miles east of Payne on the Nickel Plate Railroad, just an elevator and a ball diamond. I think years ago, Tipton had a very good girls softball team.
We are getting more and more reports of sightings of the snowy owl. I’m wondering if they stay here the year around. Some animals do change their habits.
Or maybe they have migrated south to us.
See ya!
