Tag Archives: ohio

4720 East Walnut Street

E. Walnut St.

Formerly known as 4720 East Walnut Road, where my mom lived in the late ’40s and early ’50s. The driveway goes straight on where the road curves, to the right of the first arrow.

According to the woman who lives next door (barely visible near the arrow), a guy named Yokum owned both 4710 and 4720. He lived in 4710 and his parents lived in 4720. Later (presumably after his parents died), he moved into 4720, rebuilt and expanded it after a fire, and sold 4710 ($150,000 in 1986). Also, some of the contracting work was apparently a bit dodgy. She said that they’re in a pissing contest with their neighbors over the septic system.

Really, she said that.

The original ten acres looks like it’s been subdivided into five lots. 4710 is 3.9 acres; the rest are all smaller.

A Dearth of Yaks

So far I have seen no yaks on this trip. On the plus side, that makes it less likely that small children will hurl yak dung at me.

No moas, either, but they are not indigenous to Ohio.

Westerville

Rented a car. Drove where the iPad map thingy said to go. Figured out how to turn on the lights after driving several miles in the dark. Also, it rained. But then it stopped. Found the motel. Ate Wendy’s chicken sandwiches.

Nerk Shirts

The high school reunion may be my mother’s purpose in going to Ohio, but my purpose is to get myself another Nerk shirt.

People in Central Ohio tend to slur the syllables of Newark together so that it sounds like Nerk. Ohio sounds like Ahia. That may be a slight exaggeration, but it’s true enough that stores in Newark sell shirts that say Nerk on them.

Or at least they did in 1979 when I got mine.

I’m sure they still have them. According to the guide book:

You won’t endear yourselves to most residents if you call it Nerk, Uh-hi-uh. Though the cloddish pronunciation can be seen on an occasional t-shirt, laughter about it has long since subsided in this old town.

But the guide book is from 1999, so I’ll bet they’re laughing again now.

In Arizona

Which is right on the way to Ohio, in a non-linear sense.

Yesterday I flew to Phoenix, rented a Dodge Grand Caravan (they were out of compact cars), and drove to Prescott to collect my mother, whose 65th high school reunion is the reason for going to Ohio in the first place.

Today we’re driving back to Phoenix and flying to Columbus.