FROM OUR INBOX
too have a connection to NWOhio, in a way.
Re: Our Newest Readers Weigh In
I grew up in a tiny lumber town in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Northern California. After the lumber was cut and dried at the mill it would be loaded on flat rail cars and hauled down the Feather River canyon to Oroville, and then to lumber yards through the west coast. The steam engine that pulled these big loads was built in the nineteen-teens in Lima, Ohio by the Shay Co. From the WWII years until the rail line was inundated in the 1970s with the construction of the Oroville dam, these trains went down that metal track several times weekly. For some of its path the train track ran parallel to the windy, two-lane highway, and you could see the dark smoke coming out of the stack. We loved that train. A fewyears ago I tried to find out what had happened to that old Shay engine. I tracked it down to, of all places, San Diego, California where it had been housed in a railroad museum. Then I found out that it had been moved to the hills of West Virginia where it was being happily used on a short tourism route. Once again, our Shay steam engine was up in the mountains amongst the trees doing its thing. No, Toledo and NWOhio are not and were never a failure. The Midwest factories produced machines that worked, that hauled grain, cattle and people. Those machines enabled America to grow and put food on the table and money in the pocket. And some of those machines are still running a century later. Thank you, Ohio! – DonaldW.
What do I think of your magazine? In the simplest, simplest way possible all I can say it is fantastic. – John P. P.J. O’Rourke comment: John, that’s simple enough that even we can understand it! I truly enjoyed the articles from PJ O’Rourke. Americans have become so spoiled they can’t seem to appreciate anything anymore. Being a Senior Citizen I can easily remember a time of a much lesser affluent society with much harder work required to achieve even that! President Trump may rub many the wrong way, but give credit where credit is due! Not one of us is perfect or always right on either side of the fence! – Sandy B. P.J. O’Rourke comment: Right on, Sandy. And while you and I are appreciating things, let’s not forget to appreciate how much fun it is rubbing it in with young people about how much less affluent and harder-working the past was. One of my two high school age kids is off on a foreign exchange program and the other is taking tennis, golf, and sailing lessons. When I was their age, my summer job was working in an un-air conditioned appliance warehouse with no forklift for $1.10 an hour. Re: Toledo, Ohio P.J., thanks for your long and informative article about your hometown, Toledo, Ohio. I
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July 2019
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