SURFING THE WEB

Keeping Current “Back East”

By: Dick Travis

On a cold day in January, I was reminiscing about the “news and happenings” of a small town in Ohio where both of my parents and grandparents were raised. Both of my grandparents had raised very large families in Defiance, Ohio, but now only two cousins and their family’s still reside there.

Using the all-purpose reference website called www.refdesk.com, I quickly scrolled down three pages to their “Reference Resources” and under this heading clicked on “USA and World Newspapers”.

This page allows you to find any state in the USA and lists most of the newspapers by name and city/town. Finding the Defiance newspaper link to their daily paper linked me into a very well laid out website covering all of the news and activities of not only Defiance, but of the greater Northwest Ohio area.

If I thought it was cold in California, I was immediately reminded that the weather back east, particularly in Defiance was 12° with a “feels like” ZERO. I felt warmer immediately and remembered the cold winters in Ohio! The worst part was looking at the snazzy 10 day forecast to find out that the next day’s highs and lows would be 18°/16° and the following day 22°/20°. Now that’s really staying in the freezer a little too long!

I knew the weather would still be unbearable but I wanted to know more about the town, the people and their activities. The website was user-friendly for a visitor and I could take a virtual tour, check out the stores or look at maps of the area. Every store in town was listed including the north ,east, south and downtown sections of town. The north part of town now sports a large mall with Sears, JC Penney and another regional department store. The food service at the mall included an interesting Chicago Pizza shop entitled—“East of Chicago Pizza”. Well… it is only some 185 miles to Chicago!

I enjoyed looking at the map and remembering where both of my parent’s lived as well as my Uncle John and Aunt Catherine’s homes. My aunt lived right across from the Library and one block from Fort Defiance and one block from downtown Defiance. I remember the warmth and beauty of the neighborhood and the close proximity of stores, books and parks. Try that in California, without a car!

Looking at the “Events” scheduled for January was interesting—for most of the events are being held inside the mall. Scanning the “outside recreation events” I found a walking tour inside the mall? The real outside recreational events are scheduled for the non-winter months and they are plentiful, with the Maumee, Auglaize and Tiffin rivers meeting in Defiance.

I looked up homes available for sale and found some really good deals for under $200,000. You could even buy 37 acres of commercial property for $300,000. Ever think of selling your California home and owning land in a growing area of Ohio? Just send an email and you may be on your way to working with developers and living the Life of Riley in Aunt Catherine’s house across from the Library!

Try surfing the web to learn more about the towns or areas you or your relatives used to call home. It is not only easy, but fun and keeps you up-to-date with their local news. Websites are becoming very prolific for even the smallest of communities, so keep current through the use of the World Wide Web.

Email me at dtravis2@cox.net or call at (760) 724-4091