Anytown, USA

The photo below was taken a few minutes ago from the webcam in Celina, OH, a small town in northwest Ohio. If you look closely you'll see three very tiny people on the near corner waving at the camera. That's my Dad and sister and my Dad's friend Carl. My Dad and sister are on a very special trip this weekend.

I zoomed in a little. That's Dad on the left, Carl in the middle, and my sister on the right.


They left Friday to fly to Indianapolis, and from there they drove to Muncie, IN where my dad had a chance to visit his younger brother Bob who he hasn't seen since 1984. They spent the evening with Bob and his family.

On Saturday they drove to Troy, OH to visit the grave site of my grandfather, who died when Dad was only 6 years old, and the grave sites of my great grandparents who raised my Dad until he was about 15. I had a chance to meet my great grandfather a couple of times, the last one being in the late 70's when he had his 95th birthday party at my parent's house in Huntington Beach. He lived to 102.

I'll never forget that evening as the family gathered. My great grandfather was asked to speak, and he gave a wonderful sermon to his family that I would pay anything to be able to watch today. Unfortunately, that was before video cameras came into common use so all we have are memories.

After leaving Troy they headed up to Celina where my dad lived with his grandfather who was a Nazarene pastor at the local church. He hasn't been in Celina in 57 years.

They stopped by this same web cam yesterday (though I missed it) and while they were waving to the camera a guy in a beautifully restored 1946 Buick stopped to ask what was going on. They told him about the trip and the guy volunteered to give them a tour of the town in his car. This is the same vintage car that Dad would have seen driving those streets when he last visited Celina.

This morning they visited the Celina Nazarene Church where his grandfather had pastored, and tomorrow they have one more important stop in town. They'll be visiting The Daily Standard, the local newspaper. Sixty-six years ago, at the age of nine, Dad had a job delivering newspapers for The Standard. He wrote ahead and told them he was coming, and tomorrow the current publisher (who is the son of the guy my Dad worked for), along with his kids who also run the paper these days, and some of the news staff will be meeting with him. Hopefully they'll run a story on the trip.

When he gets home he'll be writing the trip up, along with photos, for his blog and I'll link to the posts when he gets them done. It should be fun reading.