The March 2, 2023 meeting of the Twentieth Century Club of Garrettsville was held in the Garrettsville Family YMCA with Karen Ziarko and Joyce Fashing serving as hostesses for the evening.
The roll call response was favorite Ohio landmarks and the members proved to be well-traveled and enthusiastically appreciative of their Buckeye State. Parks, such as Nelson-Kennedy Ledges, Mound City, Marblehead Lighthouse, Hocking Hills, Perry’s Monument; institutions, such as Case-Western University, the Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland’s Lakeside Cemetery, the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo; and personal favorites such as Euclid Beach the Harding Monument, Sugar Bush Golf Club, the Ohio State Fair and the vanished Blue Hole all got mentions and reminiscences.
It was resolved that any future recipients of donations from the club should be vetted first to ensure their non-profit status. Information was being sought for individuals willing to serve on the program committee and for ideas pertaining to future programs. The nominating committee presented the slate of officers for the upcoming year : president–Kathy Countryman, vice president–Mary Furillo, secretary–Anne Rubin, treasurer–Carol Smith, historian–Pat Amor. This slate was voted upon and approved unanimously.
The program, on Statehood of Ohio, was presented by Karen Miller and covered an interesting miscellany of information and experiences from March 1, 1803 (when Ohio became a state–sort of, official papers did not get signed until 1953), through the following two hundred and twenty years. Happy Birthday, Ohio! These included the original Iroquois name, “Oyo”–great or beautiful river, through several historical persons and places (seven Presidents, a famous battle on Lake Erie, “Mad” Anthony Wayne), the Ohio State Fair(touching on the Ohio State Fair youth choir and its travels),and the oldest continuous county fair in Ohio–the Great Geauga County Fair in Burton. Wrapping this all up was a display of some “fancywork” entered in said Great Geauga County Fair and the ribbons which they garnered.
Refreshments were Ohio-focussed, including Eskimo Pies from Mansfield, some chocolate-peanut butter confections resembling the state buckeye tree nut and Happy Birthday, Ohio cupcakes. Enjoyed by all.
Next meeting, March 16.
