DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... My old home town

Grew up in Wellsvile, worked in East Liverpool for years. I don't live there anymore but still call it home.

Spent all day Monday and Tuesday in the area. Steubenville, Wellsville, Wintersville , East Liverpool.

Steubenville is beautiful. If you've never seen Nutcracker Village, it's worth the drive. It's worth the drive to help stimulate that economy. Watching to the end of that video I found the two most important words, "struggle and resilience", you see it in nearly everyone's face. Sometimes you have to read between the lines or look behind the smile to see it, but it's nearly always there.

All of those towns have a shocking amount of empty buildings in what used to be retail areas. Steubenville refuses to go down without the strongest of fights while the others seem to be on the brink.

My wife and I don't stay still. It's road trips, planes, trains and an occasional ship. I don't remember the places as much as the people I meet. It was a new chapter of "good people" that we met, chatted with, and rubbed elbows over a drink Monday and Tuesday. That is the salt of the earth we crave when we go out and about. Friendly, helpful, a genuine ear and a genuine smile.


The place we wanted to check out in East Liverpool was closed. We left with a recommendation for a restaurant/bar in Lisbon. The duo of cashiers asked where we were headed and said "Pondi's is on your way home! Go to Pondi's!!"

The best food and service I've had in ages... and more salt of the earth. We sat at a high-top close to the bar and felt like we were on the set of "Cheers" everyone there knew everyone by name. Everyone that left the dining area and walked by to leave stopped and talked to someone at the bar. Every. Single. Person. And this place was packed to the gills with people parking in a field across the street... on a Tuesday. If we weren't made to feel so welcome, we'd have probably thought we walked into a cult lol.

The Rust Belt and Appalachia get a bad rap. The narrative is that it's a drug-ridden cesspool, but these people will never let a narrative define them. Never. Poetic justice to lives well lived.

They'll fight and fight and never give up without more fight. I can't say I'm surprised that these are the roots of the Oak we know as "GM".

I'm sorry to hear the conditions in the town where you grew up. I would hate to return to where I grew up and see it in such conditions. Fortunately the town I grew up in moved in the opposite direction and is thriving. So much so I hardly even recognize it anymore. And while I'm happy for the people I know still living there it will never be the same "small town charm" community I grew up in to me.

I lived in Kentwood, Mich from ages 5-10. (or so)

It is unrecognizable today compared to then. It had a grocery store, a candy store, and maybe 2 or 3 others ..... and now it is all built up.

Boardman is really what I associate as my "home town",

When I was 16 or so, it had the mall, the plaza, and a few other minor developments .... but not a bunch.

Now it is competely build up, from end to end. Is it totally different. Market St, South Ave., and 224 are so built up it's insane, but they still keep finding ways to build more.

I sometimes wander, (by car) just checking out some old haunts and hangouts ....and even jobs ... and they are all gone. The drive in at the end of my old street .... with many good memories, is gone. There used to be such beautiful wooded areas .... all gone. Boardman Park used to abut WKBN's tower property. That tower's former home is now a sizable plaze. The park has changed as well. There used to be a fair amount of wildlife, including deer. The last few times I have been there haven't even been many squirrels. That plaze is so noisy that it ruins the wooded areas and trails.

Progress, I suppose.

That's what I grew up around and it helped shape me into the man I am today. Just plain old small town living



LOL another one of my old hangouts, I bet I was responsible for recycling 1,000 cases of beer in there. Lived about a half mile away from there when we moved to Lisbon. Our friend owns Pondi's


Small town living at it's best


After all my weight loss I'm more like a Charlie Brown Chrsitmas tree than an Oak

BEing only 45 minutes form There and still having so many family and friends in that area I am there all the time still. The town might not be the same as it use to be, but the folks sure are

Progress is what killed all the small towns along the Ohio River. All we heard growing up was how much business Route 7 would bring to the area buy having the Highway run along the river. What it did in fact is kill all the small towns. Before the Highway all traffic went right down main street. People stopped at the gas stations, stores, restaurants, etc, etc. Once the Highway was finished everybody just flew by the towns at 75 MPH by passing the towns and hurting businesses.

I know we have a music video thread, but this fits this thread perfectly. Don Williams sings of an Old Coyte Town in west Texas but it could just as easily been about any of thousands of small towns around this country.

I absolutely love Don Williams. His voice sounds like he’s talking right to you, and that is a gift.

Smooth as silk.