Iva Walker

O.K., it’s Thursday, this must be springtime. Holy cow!  What a wild one!  Haul out the long johns, Maudie, the daffodils done froze!  And what does the Old Farmer say?  Not much.  But you’ll be happy to know that on April  18, 2009, Aaron Caissie set a world record by...

This is about the Portage County Park District, first in what will probably be a series of rants. Portage County DOES HAVE a park district. CATCH : Over 800 A of the land comprising the district are currently inaccessible because of a lack of funds.  The budget has been severely...

Garrettsville-Hiram Rotarians have continued discussions on the Great Buckeye Block Fire in Garrettsville, the effects and the future actions that could be taken by both the local group and  Rotarians across the district who wish to make contributions.  Any funds raised will likely be channeled through the 6630 District...

April showers bring May flowers, eh? Somebody alert the providers of floral items.  They’re either going to be left twiddling their thumbs because the general public is inundated by blooms of exotic sizes and descriptions springing up along every highway and by-way or their own backyards…or…there will be wholesalers of...

Garrettsville-Hiram Rotary Club will be moving its time and venue for meetings to Cal’s II at 12:00p.m. Yet to be decided is whether it will be on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday on a permanent basis.   Check it out and get involved with an active, community-oriented group seeking new...

Out like a lamb?  Maybe a drippy-wet lamb.  Maybe a lamb looking up at the occasional flurries and possible thunderstorms lurking in the wings next  week.  Baaaa! Enjoy it while you can.  Quoting The Old Farmer’s Almanac here, “Showers often; the earth softens.  Sunny and sweet.  Watch out for...

Holy Schmoley!  Flames leaping up from the north side of the downtown commercial district.  Customers clutching purchases being hustled past the cash registers by some of G-Ville’s finest  who’d just received word that “Town’s on fire!”  Proprietors hoping against hope to save their goods and their livelihoods…in vain all...

Maplewood, beware! I’m thinking that the cats—at least some of them—need occupational/vocational counseling. One of the guys(It’s always the guys)apparently thinks that he is a watchcat, protecting us all from  dangerous gray tiger cats out on the back porch.  He pays no attention at all to the calico incipiently-maternal feline that...

The first department store in Portage County (Chic & Shabby/the Root Store)transformed into a  source for home decorating with a distinctive touch…a craftsman fascinated by and devoted to clocks… a fledgling lawyer, an experienced attorney…the Barber of G-Ville…lawn and garden equipment gurus…a quilt shop drawing craft persons  from all...

The Campus of Excellence Oversight Committee met on March 20, 2014 in the James A. Garfield Middle School to receive information and updates on the momentous project under way in the district, moving the Intermediate School to the main campus, thus gathering all the parts of the system—Elementary, Intermediate,...

Garrettsville - The March 17 meeting of the James A. Garfield Historical Society was preceded by an open house coinciding with the St. Patrick’s Day festivities in Garrettsville and a number of visitors were welcomed to view the collections in the historic Mott Building. The assembled members read through and...

The Twentieth Century Club of Garrettsville completed its journey through the Dewey Decimal System, fittingly, at the Garrettsville branch of the Portage County District Library, with the 900’s, history and geography.  Roll call was answered by enlightening the group as to what  each would take on  the way to...

Indeed they were!   It was Payback Time. The James A. Garfield Local School Board held a hastily-called meeting on Monday, March 24 to respond to the catastrophic fire which struck the business district in downtown Garrettsville.  Representatives of student groups, faculty and staff organizations,  Nelson and Freedom Township trustees,...

The Oxford English Dictionary has just come out with its quarterly revisions and additions.  Some nine hundred new words and phrases have now been deemed worthy to grace its pages, some of them pretty far out there.  How often do you wish to know the meaning of Empedoclean? (...

Garrettsville-Hiram Rotary is moving closer to changing the club meeting time and location, partly in hopes of  becoming more accessible to more local  residents and business people.  The prospect of having lunchtime meetings at Cal’s II would seem to have advantages and may well be tried this summer, when ...

The ladies…and other members…of the Twentieth Century Club of Garrettsville met on March 6 at the home of Iva Walker on Park Ave., Garrettsville,  for the penultimate meeting of the club year.  The theme for the year has been Exploring the World with Dewey, referring to the Dewey Decimal...

The Old Farmer says of the month of March (and I quote), “In like a sea lion, cold and wet with fishy breath. Rain to snow and snow to rain—di-si-do and back again!  This month can’t be trusted; the hinge of spring has rusted.” Well, D’ya think? Good Grief!  If it...

Mardi Gras, that is.  Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, beginning of the Lenten season.  Carnavale, Carnival, Carnaval, Karneval, Faschtnact/Fasching…whatever your ethnic background, if there’s a shot of Catholic in there anywhere (or even if there’s no Catholicism but a lot of fun-lovers), you may be acquainted with...

SANK!  The word is SANK!  The past  tense of “sink”  is “sank”…”sank”, not “sunk”.  “Sunk” is the perfect tense, which is either being shamefully abused or ignored most of the time by people who ought to know better.  If I have to listen to some talking head on a...

The ladies of the Twentieth Century Club of Garrettsville met with their guests on February 20 in the Garrettsville United Methodist Church for Guest Night and the advance through the Dewey Decimal System, the 600’s, the Arts. The evening’s program was presented by well-known local musician, Dale Lacan.  His repertoire...

Well, here we go again.  The Mayan “end of the world” didn’t pan out, so, now we can look forward to the Viking Apocalypse. It seems that in some enormously long poem in Norse mythology written in the 13th century by( Here’s a name to conjure with) Snorri Sturlson, the...

Garrettsville - The James A. Garfield Historical Society met at 7:30 p.m., February 17, 2014 in the historic Mott Building on Main St. in Garrettsville (The JAGHS meets on the third Monday of the month). Julie Thompson headlined the Old Business with her delineation of the anticipated program to observe...

Garrettsville-Hiram Rotarians are moving on from their successful Family Week activity to support for Rachel Schwan, our local International Student Exchange adventurer for the coming year.  With the very helpful  encouragement and mentorship of Carol Donley, Rachel is looking at the likelihood of spending the 2014-2015 school year in...

Sometimes bon appetit, the 0h-so-upscale cooking magazine, is just too much. They just assume that everyone has access to—and a budget for—artisan cheeses and spirits, baby organic lettuces, at least four different varieties of milk…and we don’t mean simply whole, skim, 2% and buttermilk…oh no.  You’re deprived unless the shelves...

Garrettsville-Hiram Rotarians are focusing on their next community outreach project, the Four-Way Speech Contest.  The premise of the competition is that the speakers are to choose a social, moral and/or ethical problem that they feel strongly about and have personal knowledge about. This confrontation should be bearing in mind...

Don’t you just every so often look out the window or open the door or read the weather forecast and feel like the little boy  on the  internet the other day?  The little guy must have been about four years old, bundled up to a fare-thee-well in mittens, hat...

Garrettsville-Hiram Rotarians met on February 3, 20014 to look back with pride and a sense of accomplishment  on the 2014 incarnation of Family Week and its culmination in Family Fun Day ( see last week’s Villager) and to move on to planning a bigger and better event for next...