Photo courtesy of MReece
I’ve been meaning to weekly post links to my column as they appear in CityBeat. Haven’t really gotten around to doing that. I’ve done four so far and you can see the archives of those and a couple other stories I’ve written for CityBeat.
This week’s column, though, was a little personal. It involves the area where I grew up and one of the “suburban” legends that flourished when I attended Colerain High School and, I found out Saturday night, lives on today. Except, as I also learned, that the physical part of the legend is being torn down, possibly ending the stories for good – but also possibly finally giving the soul of the woman who was tormented by those legends a little peace. But it also ends the chances of seeing a familiar sight from my childhood growing up on Dry Ridge Road – loads of happy, giggling hayrides through Colerain’s rolling hills.
Even though my parents have sold the house I grew up in and I now live in the local near-antithesis of my boyhood confines, Over-the-Rhine, I still have a fondness for where I grew up. I have little desire to live there anymore, not because I am a snob or think I’m too good for the area. It’s more of a been-there-done-that sort of feeling I get when I go back to that part of town.
I just like the urban life more than I care for the suburban life. I was explaining this to my lovely ladyfriend, Melissa, the other day, summed up, in part, as my irritation of having to drive more than 20 minutes to get to anything. I’d prefer not to drive at all when in town, but if I have to travel more than about 20 minutes I start get a little irritated (sometimes I just take a bus).
Luckily Melissa lives in Mount Washington, an easy 15 to 20 minute drive from downtown (and though it’s a bit suburban, it’s still in the city). Colerain, well, that takes about 30 minutes to get to. Bummer.
Northgate Mall, Colerain Avenue, Colerain Elementary and (the former) Colerain Junior High School, my old high school, the YMCA, the Skatin’ Place – where I attended numerous school skating parties and later was a deejay – plus places as simple as Farbach-Werner Nature Preserve, Groesbeck United Methodist Church or White Oak Presbyterian church, where I attended numerous events, all bring back memories. It’s not a bad place. Just not my place anymore. And a nice place to visit.
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