FROM HERE: The Soul of a Town Newspaperman

By Ollie Roehm

There was a time when community newspapers thrived and were of great importance to the area they served. People could count on their newspaper to give them what they wanted and needed to know. They depended on the folks at the paper to put out the latest important information about their schools, mayors, city councils, planning commissions, township trustee boards, crime and other serious news.
Readers also enjoyed lighter fare such as stories about community events, sports, births, weddings, engagements, feature stories and a lot more. Issues of the day were discussed and debated on the opinion page. The town newspaper was a pretty big deal.
Sadly, due to many reasons, the number of community newspapers in America has dropped like a bomb. And that bomb has been devastating.
Newspaper deserts have been created all over the country, leaving many communities without a paper. Most of the surviving publications have cut editorial staffing to the point where they only provide a fraction of the news they formerly delivered. Thus, a lot of people don't know what's going on where they live. Important stories that deeply affect their lives are not being reported. Public officials are not being held accountable.
Ollie Roehm was part of The Harrison Press for the better part of 25 years, serving as editor for most of them. It was during a time when the town newspaper was an important part of the fabric of a community.
The Harrison Press earned a combination of 30 national and state awards from 1997 until the time Ollie left in 2011. Sixteen of those awards were for his column, "From Here." Many of those award-winning columns are scattered through this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Aug 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9798350908237

Book preview

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Copyright © 2023 by Ollie Roehm

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the author, addressed Attention: Permissions at [e-mail].

Ollie Roehm

704 East St.

Harrison Ohio 45030

Print ISBN: 979-8-35090-822-0

eBook ISBN: 979-8-35090-823-7

Printed in the United States of America

First Edition

All columns were published from 1988 through 2011 in The Harrison Press newspaper owned by Delphos Herald of Indiana, Inc. Permission to publish the columns has been granted by Delphos Herald Inc.

Contents

INTRODUCTION

THANKS

HEARTSTRINGS

Parents thanked for prejudice-free youth

Herbie and the flags

Mr. Umpire

Cactus Jack and Miss Arizona

Goodbye to the old home place

The most beautiful girl in our class

Something happened on the hill

End of Post stirs memories

Saying goodbye to Mary’s

Jake’s must rise again

LAUGHTER

Who’s the goat?

I feel so cheap

Harrison’s name game

Trouble in Maggie Valley

Confession of a drug-addicted writer

Gee thanks, but…

Farewell, dear readers

Yes, it was a joke

Some congratulations

A Merry Christmas poem

Oh, the dreams of withdrawal

ANGER

It’s tough to be you

When the death penalty hits home

Such a shame

Sitting ducks better start quacking

LOSS

When sweethearts part

Kids get to the heart of the matter

Happy Memorial Day?

Goodnight Homie

A loss that can’t be measured

DUTY

Amber’s family deserves compassion

Our vigil for Amber

A nightmare of a night

Return of The Scrawler

I swear it’s not me

Tribute to Buddy is happening

We did it!

Welcome to Harrison

It’s you

FAMILY

Happy birthday Andy

For the birthday girl

All because of her

My little girls

Team Blur hits town

HG gets the Team Blur show

This can’t be

ABOUT THE AUTHOR103

INTRODUCTION

There was a time when community newspapers thrived and were of great importance to the area they served. People could count on their newspaper to give them what they wanted and needed to know. They depended on the folks at the paper to put out the latest important information about their schools, mayors, city councils, planning commissions, township trustee boards, crime and other serious news.

Readers also enjoyed lighter fare such as stories about community events, sports, births, weddings, engagements, feature stories and a lot more. Issues of the day were discussed and debated on the opinion page. The town newspaper was a pretty big deal.

Sadly, due to many reasons, the number of community newspapers in America has dropped like a bomb. And that bomb has been devastating.

Newspaper deserts have been created all over the country, leaving many communities without a paper. Most of the surviving publications have cut editorial staffing to the point where they only provide a fraction of the news they formerly delivered. Thus, a hell of a lot of people don’t know what’s going on where they live. Important stories that deeply affect their lives are not being reported. Public officials are not being held accountable.

I was part of The Harrison Press for the better part of 25 years, serving as editor for most of them. It was during a time when the town newspaper was an important part of the fabric of a community.

Ours was not a sleepy publication. We covered all the usual stuff you would find in a weekly community newspaper - the aforementioned area events, sports, births, weddings, engagements and the like.

But, we also delivered stories about mayoral scandals, police scandals, elections, fraud, embezzlement, tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, floods, blizzards, droughts, plane crashes, rapes, murders, thieves, child molesters and much more.

I am proud to say The Harrison Press earned a combination of 30 national and state awards during my time there. Sixteen of those awards were for my column, From Here. Those award-winning columns are scattered through this book.

There were upwards of a thousand From Here columns and I have selected 46 of them for you. You will find very few about tragic news events and local scandals. There were a lot of columns of that nature worthy of inclusion but I don’t want to reopen old wounds.

Moreover, I believe that my best stuff was about the people I encountered, humorous adventures, heart tuggers, anger, loss, duty and family. I hope you agree.

Feel free to communicate with questions and comments by e-mailing to: [e-mail].

THANKS

I could not have put this book together without the assistance of three wonderful women. I offer them my profound thanks.

Irene McLaughlin Fritz transcribed all of the columns from the huge bound volumes at the Harrison library, the only place where back issues of The Harrison Press existed. Irene wrestled the books into submission, magically extracted the columns I selected, and gave them to me in great condition for this book.

Thanks to my wife Mary Ewing Roehm and my cousin Vicki Anderson Davis for proofreading all of the words in this book. If you happen to find a typo or error, it’s not because they didn’t try their best.

There was a period where I almost gave up and packed it in. I stopped working on this book because I couldn’t come up a good reason why I was doing it. What was the point? Why would anyone want to read a bunch of old columns by an old newspaperman?

I shared my consternation with my friend. I told him I didn’t know why I was doing a book of old columns. He said: Because they are really good columns. Those six words put me back on track and are probably the reason you are reading this. Thank you Lee Rolfes.

This book is lovingly dedicated to Bill Kuntz,

the best man I’ve ever known.

HEARTSTRINGS

Many of my columns were sincere attempts to touch the reader’s heart. I hope some of these touch yours.

It was 1988 and I was selling advertising for The Harrison Press. Our editor needed to fill some space on the opinion page and challenged me to write something. I accepted his challenge and wrote my first newspaper column. Unbeknownst to me, he later submitted it to the National Newspaper Association and it won a national award. Thanks Mom and Dad.

Parents thanked for prejudice-free youth

11-16-88

From here it looks like there are a couple of people I need to thank. My parents, Lou and Gladys Roehm, are a true phenomenon. They raised a son in Midwestern America who gets uncomfortable when he hears a racist joke. They raised a son who hates the N-word.

In the area where I come from and now live, it’s a very popular word. I remember teachers in my school using the word in the 1960s. Today in 1988, some teachers still use it, only more discreetly.

Most of my friends use the word. But these teachers and friends come by it naturally. They were brought up by parents who use the word because their parents used the word.

The fact that my parents aren’t racist towards black people defies logic. Most, if not all of their brothers and sisters are bigots and so were their parents. They were both raised in a time when the inferiority of negroes was a given. But somehow they both saw through all of this and decided that the color of one’s skin was not an accurate barometer of one’s character and worth.

My dad says the most profound incident in his life that affected his attitude happened in 1937 in New Albany, Indiana. He was playing on the local semi-pro baseball team and they played a barnstorming black team called the Zulu Cannibal Giants.

They were dressed in ridiculous cannibal garb - grass skirts, bones through the nose and barefoot. Dad says the reason they had to demean themselves and their heritage in this manner was because it was the only way they could get the chance to play against whites.

White people did not wish to play