Fine Dining in the Time Warp Cafe

A few nights ago, we had dinner at one of our favorite places here in Troy, K's Hamburger Shop. It's been in business, owned and operated by the same family, since 1935. It may not boast the ambience of the more expensive establishments, but the interior takes you back to an earlier time, complete with all the nostalgia for times past. There is a counter with little round stools, and booths, many of which seem to be in possession of their original springs, now showing the passage of time. It can make for an adventurous seating experience. But even though it can be a bit bumpy, the overall feeling is one of comfort. There are flowers (yes, of course, they're fake!) separating the banks of booths and more flowers in the window.


And the promise made by the unchanged appearance is delivered by the food. No health-conscious menu here, no sir! This is good, honest, 1950's style food. Unpretentious and tasty, just like what you remember from the good old days. The hamburgers are on the small side, a bit larger than the mini versions now being offered by Ruby Tuesday's and Applebee's, and they're delicious. The fries are plump, with crisp outsides and tender insides. And the chocolate frosty is to die for. They have plenty of other items on the menu (which is up on the wall -- no printed menus here), but I love the burgers and fries so much that I have to confess I've never sampled anything else. And the prices, while not quite as firmly rooted in the past as the rest of the place (their burgers were originally sold for a nickel apiece), are still a bargain.

A Night at the Theatah

Last night my husband, Matt, and I, along with our friend Pat, spent the evening at the Barn in the Park, home of the Troy Civic Theatre, watching their production of The Odd Couple. The auditorium offers seating for perhaps 100-120, with the front row being so close to the edge of the raised stage that it's difficult to get through if others are already seated. Talk about up close and personal!

While I don't think Broadway has anything to fear, it was still a fine job. Someone even managed to convince our mayor to play one of the supporting roles, and he did it with gusto. This is the second play we've seen in this venue and we've decided we'll probably spring for season tickets for the next season.

Maple Trees Are Evil!

Before launching into my rant about evil maple trees, I did want to show a few photos of our yard. We have some pretty wildflowers at the base of our maple tree in the front yard. And a patch of ornamental grasses that we're hoping to make into a pleasant sitting area. And I guess as long as no one enlarges the photos, it's not so bad. But if you look at the photo of our driveway, you will see the spoor of my archenemy. Yes, that same tree that looks so friendly and harmless surrounded by those flowers, in collaboration with its colleagues around the neighborhood, has left its mark in our yard. This spring has had an abundance of rain, which has caused the grass and many other plants to thrive. I swear our grass grew an inch overnight one rainy night this past week! And the maple trees have gone crazy. Last Sunday morning, we had high winds gusting in the 30s. At one point I looked out the window and did a doubletake -- the maple tree whirligigs were coming down so thick and fast that it looked like a snowstorm. Our yard and driveway were covered with the things! It's almost impossible to get rid of them. The yard has already been raked and yet they're still everywhere. Which means that we'll spend a lot of time this summer pulling up baby trees. These maple trees are engaged in a plot to take over the world. They're evil, I say!

Small Towns, Big Cities

My First Small Town

I grew up in a small town, St. Marys, Ohio, population 7-8,000. It was a peaceful place in which to grow up. I went to high school in St. Marys, too. The high school is still there and is still being used as the town's only high school. My father graduated from this same building in 1938. It's an ooooooooooooold building and will be retired in the next few years. I believe a new school is already in the works although I don't know when it will open.

There wasn't a lot to do, but we did have a movie theater where I spent a lot of time in my youth. Time has not been good to the theater, however. It no longer shows movies, but is used for occasional events.

I used to spend time at the local lake with my friends as well, sometimes swimming, sometimes picnicking, sometimes fishing. From what I've heard, there used to be a very popular amusement park on the lake, but that was already in the past by the time I came along. There's still a state park, and it's still a pretty area but, like me, past its prime.

A large parking lot at the lake was the site of my very first driving lesson. This was before drivers ed became widespread. I don't know if it was even offered at my school yet. But everyone I knew back then learned the same way I did -- our parents taught us. My father drove me out to the lakefront parking lot because (a) it was big and (b) since it was late fall, there was no traffic out there. It would have been almost impossible for me to run into anything. And this is a good thing because my driving options were (a) my father's 1959 Buick (aka The Boat) and (b) my mother's 1954 Chevy (aka The Tank).

Small towns are good places for growing up, at least back then. There wasn't a lot of traffic, so not much danger of getting hurt (although two of my high school classmates did die in an automobile accident during our junior year). Not much crime either, except a bit of vandalism from time to time. But as I neared adulthood, I wanted more than peace and safety. So at the age of not-quite-twenty, I moved to the big city.

My One and Only Big City

Although my very first job in Washington, DC, was with the State Department (as a lowly clerk typist), it wasn't long before I found my way to Capitol Hill. I spent a total of about 15 years there, working for a few different Senators. It was a stimulating place to work, at least at times. I was working on the Hill during the Vietnam war era, with protest marches and demonstrations occurring with some regularity.

I was there during the riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. We had a 6:30 pm (or thereabouts) curfew for several days, and national guardsmen stationed at half-block intervals throughout the city. And later that year, I was there when Senator Robert Kennedy was assassinated in California. That was one of those times when you couldn't always get a dial tone when you picked up the phone because the trunk lines were overloaded.

And I was still working on Capitol Hill during Watergate. It was like being at the center of a soap opera. My office had a variety of betting pools going on -- first one indicted, date of impeachment, and others.

But even though politics form the heart of Washington, it has many other charms. The cherry blossoms around the tidal basin can be quite breathtaking -- at least before the inevitable late frost takes them down. And the sight of the Independence Day fireworks at the Washington Monument is just plain awesome, although perhaps not quite so awesome as the task of trying to get home afterwards. One of the decidedly UNcharming parts about life in Washington is the fact that parking is almost unobtainable. Don't even THINK about finding a space on the street within a block or two of your destination. And many of the popular destinations around the Mall don't have parking garages in the vicinity.

Fast forward a few years (or so), and I had left Capitol Hill, gone through a series of other jobs, some good, some bad, some indifferent, and I began working at the National Academies, a really terrific place to work. I had previously seen the statue of Einstein that is their landmark, but hadn't known it was on the grounds of the National Academies until I began working there.

I probably could have quite happily stayed there for the rest of my working life, except for two things. Well, three, actually. My parents, who had never stopped urging me to move back "home" to Ohio, and who were now getting on in years, and a new husband who hated living in the DC area. To be fair, I have to admit I was getting tired of the traffic myself. The peace of a small town was starting to sound good again. So between the pull from Ohio and the push from DC, I got serious about looking for employment in western Ohio and finally, in the summer of 2002, we made the move.

My Second (and most likely final) Small (Well, not all THAT small) Town

I'm now proud to live in Troy, Ohio, population around 25,000. I've decided that this is an ideal size, and Troy is pretty near ideal all around. It's small enough (about 5 miles from one end to the other) that it's easy to get around. My commute from home at the east end of town to work at the west end of town takes me about 15 minutes from front door to my cubicle. But it's big enough that there are things to do. And Troy does a terrific job of providing activities. I'll be adding some of those activities as well as other highlights of Troy as I go along.