Posts Tagged ‘My World’

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My World # 19

February 23, 2009
My first home in Lakewood, Ohio, circa 1963.

My first home in Lakewood, Ohio, circa 1963.

I apologize for the quality of the picture above — it’s a scan from a slide made over 45 years ago.

This house was my first home after graduating from college — not bad, huh?

Actually, I only lived in part of the second floor.  I can’t remember how I found out about the house — I think I read about it in an ad in the Lakewood  paper.  But somehow I contacted the elderly couple who owned the house and who were looking for renters.  They had a bedroom with private bath and a shared kitchen for rent on the second floor.  There was a separate entrance for me to use to get to the room.  Since I thought what they were asking was very reasonable, I took the room.

The good Lord takes care of Indiana farm boys in the big city.  When I moved to Lakewood in August prior to beginning my teaching job, I found that the other room for rent had been rented to another new teacher at Marshall.  Larry taught English and was from southern Ohio, which is about as rural as my home in northern Indiana.

Larry and I were able to carpool to school almost every day that year.  The house, as you can see, was very spacious and in one of the older neighborhoods of Lakewood.  It was only about two blocks off the lake and I will admit that I enjoyed living there very much.

Unfortunately in the spring of that first year the owners sold the house to a younger couple, so I had to get myself another place to live.  But this house was an important part of my world for nearly a year.  When showing Betsy around some of my haunts in 2002, we drove past this house and it was still there.

To see more of our wonderful world, or to join and share your part of the world with us, click HERE.

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Posted in My World | 37 Comments »

My World # 18

February 16, 2009
John Marshall High School, Cleveland, Ohio. May, 1964.

John Marshall High School, Cleveland, Ohio. May, 1964.

The building in the picture above was a big part of my world from 1963 – 1966.  The school is John Marshall High School in Cleveland, Ohio.  John Marshall was my first job after graduating from college.  The high school was on the western side of Cleveland, practically in the suburbs.  When I was there it contained approximately 1200 students in grades 9 – 12.

It was quite a change for this farm boy from Indiana.  Living in a large city was quite a change.  Looking back I’m amazed that I got along as well as I did, but there were about twelve new teachers my first year and we quickly gelled into what would now be called a support group.  We attended many school functions together.

During the summer my department chairman told me that I would be teaching mostly first-year algebra, with ‘one other course’.  I spent more than a moment or two during the summer wondering about that ‘one other course’.  On the first day of new teacher orientation Mr. Allen called me into his office to give me the bad news (his words).  John Marshall was going to be offering AP Calculus for the first time and since none of the teachers with more seniority wanted to teach it, I, as the new kid on the block, would have to do it.  I think I did a pretty good job of hiding my ‘disappointment’.

John Marshall remained part of my world until the summer of 1966, when I went to the University of Illinois to get my Master’s degree.

To see more of our wonderful world, or to join and share your part of the world with us, click HERE.

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My World # 17

February 9, 2009
Bicycles at Tianjin zoo. Summer, 1987.

Bicycles at Tianjin zoo. Summer, 1987.

The picture above was an important part of my world in the summer of 1987.  To see more of our world, or to join the fun and post your own pictures of your world, click HERE.

As many of you know, I have been to China four times to teach English.  In 1987 I was part of a group of professors from Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio, who went to Tianjin, Peoples Republic of China, to teach English to Chinese professors at Tianjin Normal University.

China was a pretty drab place in 1987.  Many people, men and women, wore dark Mao suits.  There were almost no automobiles on the road even though Tianjin was a city of 7 million people.  Almost every one rode black bicycles.

We found that our Chinese students were quite good at reading English, fairly good at writing English, but very poor at speaking and understanding spoken English.  So much of our teaching involved talking with our students and getting our students to talk to us.

I quickly discovered that my students were much more likely to talk outside the classroom than in.  One of my students got a bicycle for me and we went riding around the city just about every day after class and on weekends.  The picture above was taken at the parking area for the Tianjin zoo.

I know my bicycle is on that lot — it’s a black one.

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Posted in China | 27 Comments »

My World # 16

February 2, 2009
A woodpecker buffet in the Glade. January 31, 2009.

A woodpecker buffet in the Glade. January 31, 2009.

I think there may be woodpeckers in my world — or at least very close to my world.

I took the above picture Saturday (the picture can be enlarged by clicking on it).  I was carrying wood from the woodpile to the garage when I noticed this tree on the property line between our house and the empty lot next door.  I just had to get a picture.  I apologize for the perspective, but I wanted to shoot at such an angle that you could see the hole that went all the way through the tree.

As you can see there has been quite a bit of damage done to this old tree.  I know we have quite a few different types of woodpeckers around the house — red-bellied woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, northern flickers, red-headed woodpeckers and HUGE pileated woodpeckers.

We live in a wood frame house.  This is as close to my world as I want those woodpeckers to get!

To see more of our wonderful world, or to join in the fun and post your own pictures of your world, click HERE.

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Posted in Glade | 44 Comments »

My World # 15

January 26, 2009
The former Washington School, Crown Point, Indiana. July, 2002.

The former Washington School, Crown Point, Indiana. July, 2002.

This building was a very important part of my world from 1948 – 1952.  Although it is now a private residence, back then it was Washington School in Center Township, the ‘farm country’ surrounding Crown Point, Indiana.  (The three car garage is a modern addition.)

I attended grades 1 – 4 at Washington School.  The most interesting thing about the school was that it was a two–room school.  Grades 1 & 2 met in one room, while grades 3 & 4 met in the other.

My first and second grade teacher was Mrs. Isolampe.  She was a formidable woman, but I liked her.  In the second grade she had a reading contest — who could read the most books over a multi-week period.  She started the contest by letting us go to the book shelf contra-alphabetically to pick out the book we would read.  By the time my turn came all the easy books were gone, so I had to pick one of the harder books to read.  This went on for a couple of weeks, but about half-way through the contest my classmates had to start reading the harder books while I had simple books I could read very quickly.  I won the reading contest — one of the few times in my life when I’ve won something.

Mrs. Laney was my third and fourth grade teacher.  I was pretty good at reading and arithmetic, so I could listen in on the fourth grade lessons while still in the third grade.  When I was in the fourth grade Mrs. Laney had me helping third graders with arithmetic.  She was one of the reasons I became a teacher.  I’ve always thought there were more advantages than disadvantages to going to that two room school.

Washington School was part of my world.  To see more of our wonderful world, or to join in sharing your world with us, click HERE.

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Posted in American Life | 47 Comments »

My World # 14

January 19, 2009
Our roses in the snow. January 19, 2008.

Our roses in the snow. January 19, 2009.

This is my posting for the My World meme, which last week had 102 people sharing their worlds with us. To join in, click HERE.

As most of you know, my beautiful bride loves snow.  She has been disappointed by the lack of snow this winter.  But we finally got some during the day on Monday, as you can see from the picture above.  So Betsy is now feeling a little happier, although she’s hoping for an additional 3 or 4 inches!

I have to admit that I’m not as enthusiastic about the snow as Betsy is.  The picture also shows a part of one of our rose beds, and the roses sure do look cold.  I want to see them green and in bloom!

Snow on our jasmine bush. January 19, 2009.

Snow on our jasmine bush. January 19, 2009.

I know Betsy would like to have more snow, so I tried to make it look as if we had more snow than we actually did by taking this close up of snow on the jasmine bush.

My world this week was gray, cloudy and cold.  I’m hoping it will be brighter, sunnier and warmer next week!

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Posted in Home | 46 Comments »

My World 13

January 12, 2009
The South Ward school building, Crown Point, Indiana. July, 2002.

The South Ward school building, Crown Point, Indiana. July, 2002.

This building was an important part of my world in 1947, since I attended kindergarten there.  South Ward in Crown Point, Indiana, is the school shown above in a picture taken in July, 2002.  The picture may be enlarged by clicking on it.

South Ward was on the same street (Court Street) as the house where my family lived.  The house was about three blocks from the school.  When I started kindergarten, my Mom walked to and from school, but after she became convinced that I knew how to cross the streets she let me walk without her.  Most of my classmates also walked by themselves — it was a different world back then.

My class was in the front of the building on the first floor.  It has the windows to the left of the front door.  We had low tables and chairs, too low for adults to use.  If I remember correctly there were four places at each table.  There was also a place in the room for our daily nap time.

Sometime in the last few years the building has been converted to condominiums.  The parking lot is where the playground used to be.  I have not been in the building since it was converted.

One other thing — South Ward used to be South Ward High School.  That was the high school from which my Dad graduated.

To see more views of the world, click HERE or on the logo below.

mwtblack

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Posted in American Life | 30 Comments »

My World 12

January 5, 2009

Crossville, Tennessee, bills itself as the ‘Golf Capital of Tennessee’.  We live near Crossville in Fairfield Glade, which has five golf courses.  Although I haven’t played golf since I was in college, the last two homes I’ve owned have been on golf courses.  I’m sure there’s a message there someplace, but I’ll save that for another time.

Right now  the golf course in my world is Druid Hills.  It’s a favored walking path when golfers aren’t around.
myworld01
The picture above was taken in the spring on the 11th fairway.  Since I was walking I could face the mountains in the distance.  If I were playing golf the mountains would be to my back.
myworld02
This was taken from the same fairway in early winter.  Note the church steeple poking up above the trees.
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Unfortunately for Betsy, this picture, taken on the 12th tee, was shot in 2006.  Betsy is still waiting for snow this year.
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The summer picture was taken from behind our house on a beautiful clear day.  This is the 18th fairway of the Druid Hills course.
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This early morning picture was taken from the 18th green.  Our house (out of sight) is down the hill on the right.  I like the early morning fog in the valleys below the course.

To see more of this fascinating world of ours, click HERE or on the logo below.

mwtblack

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Posted in Glade | 29 Comments »

My World 11

December 29, 2008

To day I want to share a small, but very important part of my world — our home in the Glade.  It’s not a very big or fancy house, but we sure do like it.

We saw the house for the first time in August, 2002.  The picture below shows us what sold us that first time — the great room.  If you click to make the picture bigger you’ll see that there is a fireplace (which gets a lot of use in cool weather) and the doors opening out onto the wrap-around back deck.  There is a third patio door to the right of the pictures.  The three doors provide wonderful ventilation in the summer.
world01

The picture below shows the front of the house on the day we closed.  We were so excited — he had a retirement home!  We used the house as a weekend hideaway until July, 2003, when we moved up here full time.
world02

Since then, we’ve made some changes — mostly on the outside of the house.  This next picture was taken this year, and shows some of the changes we’ve made.  As you can see, we’ve added a flagpole, three circular flower beds (only two are visible) and the rose beds on either side of the driveway.
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This last picture is of the larger of the two rose beds.  I’ve included it because I like roses and because I am already thinking about Spring (don’t tell Betsy!).
world05

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my little corner of the world.  To see more of the world, click HERE or on the logo below.

mwtblack

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Posted in Home | 24 Comments »

My World

December 15, 2008

mwtblack

This is the first time I’ve joined the My World meme.  To see pictures of our world from many different places, click  on the  logo or above or click HERE.

I thought I would share an after dark view of Christmas here in the Glade.  I think this is a beautiful area any time of the year, but it becomes magical at Christmas with all the lights.

The Glade sends a bright welcome as you enter.

christmaswelcome

Some homes have elaborate displays.
christmashouse

Homes on Lake Canterbury give a double display of lights.
christmaslake1

Another lake-front home decorated for the season.

christmaslake2

This is our house.  It’s not as fancy as some, but the Spirit of Christmas is alive and well here.

christmashouse1

Additional pictures of Christmas in the Glade can be found HERE.

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Posted in Home | 16 Comments »

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