Samples

Portsmouth, Ohio in the 1940s and early '50s awakened each weekday to the sound of factory whistles, the rumble and clatter of freight and passenger trains. It was a place of lunch pails and coal buckets. Front porch swings and backyard clothes lines. Iceboxes and wringer washers. Neighborhood shoe repair shops and mom & pop groceries. It was a time of the eagerly awaited mailman and the evening newspaper. Eight-party telephones. Of gathering around the family radio to listen to the Lone Ranger, Amos & Andy, Lum & Abner, Jack Benny, Fibber McGee & Molly and the Great Gildersleeve. Of nickel bus fares and dime movies. When dogs ran free. When boys played touch football in the brick streets, basketball in the alley. When girls chalked hopscotch squares and jumped rope on the sidewalks and on hot summer evenings, they all ran barefooted across the front lawn catching fireflies in a jar. It was a time to remember because it was worth remembering and although they attended different schools and lived in different neighborhoods all over town, nearly 100 randomly selected residents and former residents all agree: It was a great time, a great place, to grow up.