Ohio Portraits Vol. 2: More Midwestern Micromemoirs
By Erika Price
()
About this ebook
It was a quarry that easily yielded a novel and much-appreciated variety of sandstone that we called grindstone. Then it became the seat of a developing quarry village. Methodists came; they built a seminary and then a college. The college grew, welcomed women and then black people, and became a small town.
While it’s close in proximity to Cleveland, it is not technically a suburb. It was a city in its own right, a destination however small, and much older than a lot of the surrounding towns. It has a downtown area shaped like a triangle, an old clock tower, old stone churches, and gazebos abutted by water. It is prettier than your average maze of cul-de-sacs. It boasts the county fairgrounds.
The quarry was emptied and it became a trash heap. The people radiated out from the campus, built split-levels and duplexes for miles around. The trash grew fallow and smelly, and then it was covered in water. Ducks came back, and deer, and raccoons. The murky green water hid the marks that man had made, and the trash that man had left behind atop it. Then it became our primary water source.
A water treatment plant was nestled in the trees. A gorgeous park was built around it, suggesting that nature had never been fully perturbed. This attracted developers, who built houses. The houses brought families, who needed more schools. The burgeoning community attracted NASA, then the Cleveland Browns. It brought people from the East and other rust-belt towns. It brought our parents or grandparents.
Our water has a funny odor and a hard texture. It’s full of minerals that are probably okay for you. The quarry is still now, green and wet. We pull fish from it; we take wedding and confirmation photos near its gazebo. We walk the paths.
We take the remaining grindstones and cut them into circles, then use them for decorative signs in front of our schools, our churches, our library, our town museum. We are named after some two-bit nowhere of a place mentioned as an aside in the Bible. We are easily forgotten or overlooked, but we are distinctive.
We are shrinking. Our population is aging. Our schools are closing. We are falling apart. We are getting small. We are forgettable. But at least we still have NASA, our parents, the fairgrounds, and the Browns. It is a cheap place to live. A place where we all might one day retire.
Erika Price
Erika D. Price is a writer and social psychologist living in Chicago, Illinois. Her work has been featured in Whiskey Paper, EFiction, Red Fez, Literary Orphans, and on Liar’s League NYC’s podcast, among others. She’s also written journal articles for academic presses that no sane human being would ever read. She writes regularly at http://www.erikadprice.tumblr.com
Read more from Erika Price
Tower Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMyths Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSynapse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCorpus Callosum Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOhio Portraits Vol. 1: A Midwestern Micromemoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Ohio Portraits Vol. 2
Related ebooks
Thanks for the Trouble Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hi, My Names Charlie Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStorms Much Stronger and Other Woes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Order of Chaos: The Outlaw Manuscripts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPaper Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Clone - The Lost Chapters (Book #3) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFor a Ghost-Free Time, Call Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNew Town, New Witch: Magic and Mayhem Universe: Starting Over Series, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Queen of the Cicadas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Kill a Kingpin: The Ex-Whisperer Files Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Sky Always Hears Me: And the Hills Don't Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scum Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Cat's Garden of Secrets Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Girlfriend Bucket List Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThings We Saw At Midnight Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKnotted Roots Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Primrose Hill is Suddenly Single: The Snuggle Up Romance Series, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKilling Buddha Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Love You, Luke Piewalker Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSomeplace Else Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dessert Tray & Other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAre You Going to Kiss Me Now? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Girl Lost: Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeautiful Twisted Things Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSex and the Married Guy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeath Valley: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I Was A Teenage Necromancer: Book One, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDamaged Heart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kiss of Awakening Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Figurines Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Biography & Memoir For You
The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Bulletproof: Protect Yourself, Read People, Influence Situations, and Live Fearlessly Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Meditations: Complete and Unabridged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mommie Dearest Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5People, Places, Things: My Human Landmarks Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: the heartfelt, funny memoir by a New York Times bestselling therapist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ivy League Counterfeiter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Taste: My Life Through Food Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jack Reacher Reading Order: The Complete Lee Child’s Reading List Of Jack Reacher Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers: Spiritual Insights from the World's Most Beloved Neighbor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Rediscovered Books): A Triumph Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wright Brothers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Ohio Portraits Vol. 2
0 ratings0 reviews