We visited the Newark Earthworks, or at least part of it. It’s very spread out. This photo shows the mound at the center of the Great Circle Earthworks, which contains a ceremonial longhouse.

Newark is pretty beat up and has several redevelopment areas that don’t seem to be redeveloping very well. I didn’t see anything that looked like a clothing or souvenir store and thus did not succeed in finding a Nerk shirt.

But I took a picture of the Longaberger basket building, and that’s nearly as good.

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.