In the Country

Here’s today’s Sunday Story, mostly about the contrast of city and country in Ohio – with just a “touch” of politics.

Archbold

Archbold, Ohio, is a small town “out in the country”.  It’s about halfway, fifty miles or so from Toledo or Ft Wayne, on the windswept plains surrounding Lake Erie.  Archbold is encircled by farm fields and the kids there consider themselves “country”.  But the town is also the headquarters to the Sauder Furniture company, with several large plants manufacturing tables, chairs, cabinets, desks, coffins and shelves for all over the world. 

Actually the drive from Columbus to Archbold marks the interesting contrast of Ohio. The state is covered in farm fields, early corn growing on one side of the highway, soybeans just breaking the surface on the other side. And then, around a corner, there’s a different kind of plant, a giant factory. Leaving Columbus you pass the major Marysville Honda assembly plant. Getting near Lima, there’s a Ford engine assembly plant. Just outside of Defiance, it’s the General Motors Powertrain foundry. Then it’s back out into rural America, Congressman Jim Jordan’s country.

There’s lots of brand new high schools out there too: Marysville and Bellfontaine, Kalida, Ayersville, and Tinora. The state commission is building everywhere. Archbold has a proud high school, even though it was new in the 1960’s.  It might be the cleanest building I’ve ever been in, especially in the summer.  I spent my entire adult life around high school buildings, and usually the month after the end of school the buildings are trashed.  But at Archbold, the halls are cleared, the restrooms sparkling, and the custodial crews hard at work on the bane of summer cleaning, stripping and waxing the tile floors.

The town is at the intersection of State Route 2 and State Route 66  (not THAT Route 66).  But the center of town is split by the railroad tracks.  It’s a main east/west route through the Midwest, and trains are constantly passing through town.  Timing is important in Archbold; get caught on the “wrong” side of the tracks, and you could be waiting fifteen minutes or more to get that last half-block to your destination.

Pole Vault Coach

I spent three days coaching on the pole vault runway at Archbold High School.  The Sauder company funded Archbold to a track facility even the largest high school in the state would be proud of.  John Downey, the recently retired long-time coach, made sure that it was the “best” around.  And the track area comes right up against the railroad right-of-way.  The two things you try to get used to at Archbold High School:  the trains constantly coming by, and the giant wind turbine at the other side of the football stadium, the whooshing blades that supply power for the schools.

Standing on the runway, I worked with kids from all over rural Northwestern Ohio.  Vaulters were from Petitsville, Ayersville, Patrick Henry, Montpelier, and other small schools scattered among the fields.  And of course, there were kids from the home school.  We got a lot done in three days of ninety degree heat.  I think the kids held up better than I did.

Watching Trains

I must admit, sometimes my mind drifted to the passing trains.  I didn’t see what I would call “traditional” trains, like the ones we counted as kids that went by the Winton Place Station in Cincinnati.  Looking back, Mom and Dad did that “inventorying” as an educational exercise.  We counted the  cars, searching for a “record” over one hundred.  We carefully logged each one as they went by.  It was in the 1960’s and freight cars were wooden, with doors that opened to the side.  And there was still a red wooden station at Winton Place. Now it’s long gone; no one goes to the “end of the street” to catch a train anymore.

The trains passing through Archbold were grain cars and tankers. And most of the cars were “tagged” by graffiti. It’s colorful art, swirls and bubbles like a late sixties Peter Max work. Surprisingly it’s not profane or obscene, more artist than vandal. And then the jagged signatures, the “mark” drawn by the artist in the freight yards of Chicago or Toledo or Cleveland. They left their “mark” so that everyone “in the know” would know who risked breaking into the yard to “tag” this train.

I wondered what my high school vaulters saw when they looked at those passing trains, so common to them. Was the graffiti just vandalism, a sign of the “lawless” big city, so dangerous and scary?  Or were they more interested in the graphics, intrigued that kids, probably their own age, would risk getting in trouble just to make their “mark”?  They were “country” kids, but the Archbold weight room echoed with hip-hop as the football team completed their morning workout.  

The City

Archbold is in the country, but the railroad displays the “city” as it rolls through town.  Even the hotel that the coaches stay in has become a bit more “urban”.  It’s the Sauder Inn, next to Sauder Village, a tourist site with little trains that tour a turn-of-the-century replica town.  The Inn is spacious and comfortable, a luxurious step up from the un-air conditioned college dorms we used to stay in for track camps.  They give the coaches credit to eat at the restaurant.  Not surprisingly, the fried chicken and mashed potatoes are amazing.

In the past, the only news channel choices were Fox News and CNN.  But now, even the Sauder Inn has MSNBC on their channel lineup.  I imagine that, like the graffiti on the trains, some see that as an urban intrusion into their lives, and others watch it with secret, almost guilty interest.

It was a great three days at Archbold. We old coaches spent the evenings telling stories of teams gone by, ancient conflicts won, and athletes who succeeded. And we got to spend some time a little outside the rushing stream of “city life”. Things are a bit slower in Archbold — except for the trains speeding through the center of town.

The Sunday Story Series

• Riding the Dog  – 1/24/21
• Hiking with Jack – 1/31/21
• A Track Story – 2/7/21
• Ritual – 2/14/21
• Voyageur – 2/19/21
• A Dog Story – 2/25/21
• A Watkins Legend – 3/7/21
• Ghosts at Gettysburg – 3/14/21
• Lessons from the State Meet – 3/28/21
• More Lessons from the State – 4/4/21
• Stories from the Road – 4/11/21
• A Bear Wants You – 5/1/21
• My Teachers – 5/9/21
• Old Friends  – 5/23/21
• The Gift – 6/6/21
• Echoes of Mom – 6/20/21
• Stories of the Fourth – 7/3/21
• Running Memories – 7/25/21
• Lost Dog of Eldora – 8/1/21
• Dogs and Medals – 8/8/21
• The New Guy – 9/5/21
• Stories of 9-11 – 9/12/21
• The Interview – 9/26/21
• Night Moves – 10/3/21
• Funeral for a Friend – 10/11/21
• National Security – 10/24/21
• Boots on the Trail – 10/31/21
• Taking Care of Mom and Dad – 11/14./21
• Dogs Found and Lost – 11/21/21
• Watching Brian 12/12/21
• Stories from Shiloh – 12/19/21
• Team Trips – 12/26/21
• Uphill, Both Ways  – 1/9/22
• Old Trophies – 1/30/22
• The Last Time – 2/7/22
• Olympic Miracles – 2/13/22
• Mind Numbing – 2/20/22
• Track Weather – 4/3/22
• What’s Missing – 4/11/22
• A Scouting Story – 4/17/22
• Waterproof Paper – 5/8/22
• Origin Stories – 5/22/22
• Origin Stories – Part Two 5/29/22
• Back at State – 6/5/22
• Out in the Country – 6/19/22