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| Joe And Mary Lou At Home in Oxford, Ohio |
It's pitch black in Oxford, Ohio, the #1 college town in the US according to some survey I read recently. Everyone is still sleeping, lucky for them, but I work at my usual 6:15 and am now waiting for my coffee to finish. We hope to be on our way by 8:00 or so, as both Joe and Lou have things to do this morning.
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| Wheat Fields And Skies |
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| Commerce And Religion, A Middle Ameria Mix |
Yesterday was not our usual eight hour drive; instead it was nine and a half hour drive in partial sunshine, a nice change from the past few days of rain. The drive was long and uneventful, through a couple of major cities, St. Louis and Indianapolis, and across two great rivers, The Missouri and The Mississippi, along the great flatlands of America. Not much change in the scenery, mostly vast fields of some sort, off to the left and right, with occasional farm houses and silos. Only when we got near cities did the landscape change to businesses, fast food places, and truck stops.
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| Orchards |
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| Countryside |
Our last hour and a half was off the major highways, on back roads to Oxford, Ohio, again through largely farming areas but also through a couple of neat towns, like Rushville, IN, with imposing, stone city halls we presumed. It was a nice change from the eight hours of mindless driving which is what it ends up being. Put the car in cruise and go.
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| Small Towns, Impressive City Halls |
We arrived at the Barry's around 4:45, just about the time we expected. Joe was my roommate and teammate and Ohio University. It was there that he met his wife Mary Lou and we were both in each others wedding parties back in 1965, the year we graduated from Ohio University, excuse me, Ohio, a new branding for the school. Joe and Lou have lived in Oxford most of their married life, mostly because Joe was the assistant basketball coach at Miami University for over 30 years I would guess. And Mary Lou taught in the elementary school until retiring a few years ago. They have a great home, comfortable and the perfect size for the two of them, about five minutes from the town and university, so they can take advantage of all that both have to offer. I think this is the third time we have taken advantage of their hospitality and stopped on our way back from Kansas City.
We have friends in common from college and grandchildren, we are never at a loss for something to talk about. They, like us, are always on road trips East, to either New Jersey or Connecticut, where their seven grandchildren live. They are always on call and get called quite a bit lately. Most recently, their daughter, Barb, who teachers at a prep school, spent a couple of weeks in China meeting parents, so Joe and Lou did the baby sitting. What else are grandparents good for after all.
They profess to reading my blog so that they know our kind of restaurant, a bar with good fries and burgers. So around 6:30, we drove the long five minutes into town to Mac N Joe's, a short walk down an alley and some stairs. We knew it was good because we could smell the grease before we got in, and heard the noise from the people enjoying the beer and food. And it did not disappoint, especially the onion rings we dipped in an aioli sauce.
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| Dinner At Mac N Joes |
In a college town like this, Joe assured us there were lots of places like this. Afterwards, we walked around the town, past the square all lit up for Christmas, and Joe gave us a tour of the various pubs, Irish and German, as well as a couple of the shops. Everywhere we went they seemed to know someone which was fun. Joe is a minor celebrity having coached and still does the play on TV for the Miami basketball team's games. I can see why it's such a great college town. And according to Joe, many of the buildings downtown have added a couple of stories of apartments, changing its appearances though not drastically. The apartments are spacious and modern, filled with college students who can afford them, many from Asia with cash to spare. The demographics of college campuses has changed drastically over the past twenty years or so with the influx of Asian students not only to colleges but to prep schools. Asian parents want the best education for their children and the US colleges are still the best in the world. And Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, is a safe, picturesque school with a great academic reputation.
We were back by 9:30 and stayed up till 11:00, having a bowl of Graeter's ice cream, a Cincinatti specialty, and talking about both of our sojourns over the past month to visit our kids and grandchildren. Both Joe and Lou are readers so we talked about the books we have been reading recently. We of course bragged about our grandchildren, how smart they are; our grandchildren are a little older than Joe and Lou's, whose oldest is a junior in high school this year. Our evening reminded me of our visit with another of my college teammates, Paul Storey, who stayed with us perhaps a month ago after baby sitting for his two grandchildren in the Boston area. All of us talk about how much fun it was but after a bit, the truth comes out. It's really work, hard, especially if the grandchildren are young. We marvel at our children's energy and patience in dealing with their kids.
It's almost 7:00, and I am through writing and I assume the others will be up shortly, for their coffee and then all of us will get moving, eager for the day. We four are a fortunate group, healthy, happily married, with great kids and grandchildren.
It's now 9:00, and the four of us have been talking over our morning coffee until 8:30, when Lou and Joe had to leave, and we are soon closing up the house and heading home to Chautauqua Lake.
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