The Ghosts of Columbus Past

It has been about twenty years since I left Fredonia, New York, for the lights of the city of Columbus, Ohio. Three wives, ten jobs, seven cars, and three abodes later I'm still here - and should be for a very long time. In seven years, I will have lived in Ohio longer than New York State.

As part of the 30/30 project I put together a list poem.

Twenty Things I miss About Columbus After Twenty Years of Living in Columbus

1. The polkas and good old time music of accordion playing Esther Craw
and Glenn Wilson on stand up bass at Deibel's
2. Seeing the fireworks at Cooper Stadium while eating dessert
at Christopher's on top of the Riffe Center
3. Watching the flames shoot out of the Tiki Gods at the Kahiki. Having drinks out of skull mugs there. Not the food.
4. Big Bear grocery store, when it was a local chain run by people who lived here and before their farmland in Powell became a condo development
5. Nickelby's, Fireside, Little Professor, Readmor Books along with other independent bookstores and news stands
6. The little coffee shop at the corner of Hudson and Indianola. It's been so long I forget what it was called.
7. Billy Inmon camping out on the Statehouse lawn because Governor Voinovich would not debate him
8. City Center between 1990-1994, when downtown shopping was still available
9. Kenneth Branagh's Henry V at The Drexel North Theater and nearly turning around to watch it again
10. Seeing the Ohio State Hockey team play in the old ice rink. The Schottenstein Center is nice, but when 2,000 people watch a game in a rink that seats 17,000, it's a tomb
11. The Columbus Chill fighting their way to eighty three straight sellout crowds and mediocrity at the Fairgrounds Coliseum
12. The view of downtown from the seats on the first base line watching a Clippers game
13. Firdous restaurant on campus, cleanest place in town
14. The wire strung between telephone poles on High Street on weekends nights to keep the kids from staggering into traffic
15. Stache's/Little Brothers because the small rock and roll club has not been replaced
16. The Giant L tank on the roof of the downtown Lazarus lit up at Christmas
17. The months in 1990 when Buster Douglas was heavyweight champion
18. Watching the rise and fall of the Buffalo Bills at Michael Dominic's on Wilson Bridge Road
19. Katie Smith leading the Quest to two straight ABL championships
20. Nancy's Diner, but it's going to be off this list soon when it reopens!

That would make a cool photo blog, if I had the pictures to match up with each item. Some I may, somewhere. It would involve a but of hunting and scanning.

It took a long time, but I've become accustomed to this place. I'm still not sure if I was dragged here kicking and screaming. Can't even remember when exactly I moved in here. Was it before or after Thanksgiving? That's been blocked out, and the only person who might be able to answer that is no longer speaking to me. There's certainly been a lot of loss, which has been countered by gains. Has it smoothed out? Not quite, I think I'm in a better place now though.