Monday, March 12, 2012



The Lady Of Space Travel
She was the first
The first of many
She was the first lady to orbit the earth
She was the youngest person in space
At that time

During school she seeked other ambitions
Tennis was her game
She was one of the best and could compete with the rest
But she had other ideas

She was one of many that applied
She was one of few that were selected
NASA was who she worked for
She first served on the commander shuttle

She was now astronaut
The traveler of space
An alien of the atmosphere

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Girl Power















Hello My name is Misti Cowburn


I wrote a poem about Betty Friedan because I like how she fought for womens rights


the poem is called Girl Power

















Girl Power

By Misti Cowburn






Women of power
Not a passing hour
She gave up without equality







Founder of Now
Everyone said Wow
She is a leader
No one could defeat her.






She fought like a bull
To achieve her goals
And she pulled through.







She wrote Quotes
Women love
They took a vote
 
She wanted women to be equal
To all the other people
Women have rights
Thanks to her fight
 















Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Delaware Ave. in Buffalo

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Harding Home

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Brooklyn Bridge

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Mt. Rushmore

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Graceland

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Marysville Veterans Memorial

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A short story by Mike Lohre

As I've read a considerable amount of your writing, I thought some of you may be interested in reading some of mine.  I published this short story in The Atlantic magazine a few years ago, and it's still available online.  You can read it here.  http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/04/bullheads/3824/

I wrote it out of respect for the older people I grew up with in southern Minnesota, and my father, who I saw growing old and struggling with his health in profound ways.  I wanted to capture some of that old hope.

My new hope is always that our writing and conversation strikes a chord that will resonate and deepen our experience in this mysterious life.

It's been my honor to be your teacher this quarter.  Hold on to your dreams, my friends.

With respect,

Mike Lohre

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Interview

Ross McDonald is an young and ambitious man striving to reach his great potential in local politics. He puts a great emphasis on his family and values honesty and integrity in the people he surrounds himself with. His work with the Board of Elections in Delaware is promising to further his career. My favorite direct quote from the interview was when he talked about an important life lesson. "You have to work for what you get. Nothing in this life is easy and nothing is going to be easy. When something doesn't work out you cannot be crushed by that fact. When something doesn't go as planned you have to keep a calm collected mind about yourself when you are trying to work through it because if you ready negatively over every small thing that happens to you, life may get the best of you instead of you getting the best of life."

Interview

Jonathan Friedley has been my doctor since I was born. He helped take care of all five of us children. He was my oldest brothers doctor clear down to my youngest brothers doctor. I interviewed Jonathan Friedley due to the fact that he is in the same profession that I am interested in. Dr. Friedley is a pediatrician at Smith Clinic. While interviewing Dr. Friedley, I found out just how important religion is to him and how he grew up in a religious house hold. His father was preacher and his mother was a typical preachers wife. Jonathan told me "I love Marion, but I think that the city itself is lacking a true faith. I mean if you believe in God, you have a sense of right and wrong. If you believe, you will do right and if you love your neighbor as yourself you would never do anything to hurt him. Religion has played a big factor in my life. I grew up with the concrete beliefs and values in the Bible, and is till continue to live by them today". Dr. Friedley has inspired me to continue to striving after my dream of becoming a doctor!

Brad Plotner

(I never took the picture in color)
I interview a small town hardware store owner father of three girls Brad Plotner. I interviewed him because he opened this business when the economy was down and is doing a great job so far with it. One of my favorite thing i learned about brad is his work schedule which is this: My normal work day goes like this I start at Honda at 10:30 pm work there till 7:30 am come here at 8:00 am work till 5:30 pm then go back home. I usually sleep a couple hours in the morning in my bed (pointing to a recliner in his office) then about 3 hours at night. I drink diet mountain dew to keep me awake on the days that I’m really tired. I’ve probably done this for about 15 years now there are times depending on what I am doing that I get more sleep or a lot less sleep than that. There are times I go on a half hour of sleep day to day.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Ohio

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Malabar Farm, Ohio

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Broadway, NYC

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Independence Hall, Philadelphia

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Harding Memorial, Marion, Ohio

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Veterans Memorial, Marion

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Dennis Phillips



I chose to interview Dennis Phillips. He is a World War Two veteran and he is also my grandpa. I've always known him to be a very hard working, kind hearted person. He grew up in Elliott County, Kentucky although he moved back and forth from Ohio to Kentucky many times. He was born in 1927. He grew up with five other brothers and sisters and he was the only one who didn't finish the eighth grade. He stopped after completing his seventh grade year. He worked with his dad up until 1946 when he was drafted into the army. He completed his basic training but he never learned to swim but he did qualify. "I did qualify going across the pool because it wasn't very far across that you had to go, but many others could swim across and back with no problems and I just peddeled underneath like a dog and then once I made it across I would just give out". He was in the infantry and also worked as a dispatcher in the motor pool. After returning from the war, he started right back to working with his dad. He married my grandmother, who is now deceased, in 1949 and together they raised 500 baby chicks to get a little extra money from selling the eggs. He said he regretted not going to school, but no one was there to pressure him. His dad was ready for him to not go so that he could help him work more and his mom never pressured him but she would have rather he went. He also said that his biggest influences were his parents. At 85 years old, he still enjoys being outside and would choose it over being stuck inside anyday. He loves to cut and split wood, work in the garden and mow the lawn and he always enjoyed packing up all thirteen of the grandchildren, including me, in the back of his truck and taking us to the zoo!



I interviewed Gerald Dryfuse, my husband. When I learned about life I found that his childhood was far from normal. He was separated from his 2 older sisters, then reunited and adopted at the age of 7.

My oldest sister lived in Akron with an Aunt and uncle, my middle sister lived with my grandma and grandpa in republic, by the time the 3 of us were together it was rough. Lori was always babied by grandma, Tina was raised to be who she is, and me, I didn’t have anyone growing up around for the first 7yrs of my life, I played in the basement on a battery operated car, that was my doings, I mean I never had any friends or Anything like that and I was thrown into the situation with 2 older sisters always telling me what to do, I mean they literally put A rope around my neck and hung me, I’ve had many of times where it was just rough sometimes. My sisters did teach me a lot growing up, and I do appreciate each ones effort to, you know, keep me safe.

My mother met my dad, they got married, and he took it upon himself to give us his name. I was 7, and I was given a choice it was either get adopted or have 3 females very mad at me. Even at the ripe old age of 7 I knew what I had to do. You met my mother and sisters; I was so outnumbered I figured I had better go with it. I loved my dad then and I love him even more today, I am very happy that he is my father. I wouldn’t have it any other way

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Brent Peacock

I began working with Brent at the Advance Auto Parts warehouse in 2008.  One day on break we had an interesting conversation and became friends.  When the idea of who to interview came up I decide Brent would be a good subject due to the fact that other being from Canada I didn't know much about his past.  So with that being said I' ll let Brent tell you what brought him here and what his version of the American Dream is enjoy.


While I was at the University of British Columbia two professors from the Ohio State University were visiting.  One of the professors was Christine Balleng-Morris, who is my current advisor, and the other was Patricia Stuhr.  After meeting these professors we went for lunch and I got to talking to them and they recruited me to come to OSU to the art education department.  It has been during my pursuit of my PhD. that I realized what my true calling is and that is to be a teacher at the university level.  I have almost eight years’ experience teaching at post-secondary institutions.  I can honestly say that I enjoy it.  The growth of the students, that is what I enjoy and it is also what you learn from your students.  Once you become open to the idea that your students have as much to offer to you as you do to them, than teaching becomes really enjoyable.  It is about the interchange or the exchange of knowledge between student and teacher.  Now after some setbacks; I am refocused on my dissertation and teach at a small liberal arts college.  This is because during my research for my PhD I come to realize that a lot of university professors teach less and research more.  I think that when I finish my PhD. that is why I am inclined to teach at a liberal arts college where I more exclusively teach than research.  Not to say that I don’t like research I just like teaching more than research. 
            I came to America to complete my PhD. at a renowned university and it was here that I realized my dream to teach and this is what I am working toward.  I guess what you would call the American dream.  After, coming to Ohio State I noticed that there seems to be two American Dreams.  One seems to be to graduate from college, get married, and make as much money as possible.  The other is working in the blue collar world, where their dream of what they want to be is probably go to the doctor and go to the dentist, to be able to make enough money to pay for everything and hopeful one day get a house.  Hope that their children go to a better place.  I would have to say that my dream is a combination of both versions of the American Dream.  My goal is to complete my doctorate and to teach full time.  Then it is to have season tickets to the Red Sox games and watch every game in Fenway.  Own a Harley Davidson, and have enough money to live but to have a little extra to do what I want.  Finally, I have thirteen more states to go to and then I will have seen all fifty states of this country.  

Patrcik Hreachmack

For my project, i chose my moms husband, an model builder who has creates more detailed works that are the size of a quarter then i can create in full scale! After doing my interview and learning more about the art that he takes place in and his love of history, i can honestly admit i would not mind joining him in his model building one day.

Why?” I asked. Pat’s response being, “History,
all about history. Yes they are games; yes they are all about war. But here had
never been a time longer than fifteen years where there has not been a war
going on. What happens in war time creates countries and where they will go. I
think we all need to learn from history, if we learn from these mistakes, we
will make other mistakes, but we will not repeat the same mistakes, and we will
improve.” Pat Hreachmack is a “big kid” with a love of models that has evolved
into a successful passion and allowed him to express his liking of history; an
ideal that we all can learn from.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

For my profile essay I chose to do Dan and Judy Adelsberger, who are my former bosses and former owners of The Old Town Inn a restaurant I still work at. They understand the principles of going after dreams and working hard for what you want in life, and how to run a business. They are friendly people, who are actively involved in the community in which we live and their life is one that many would look up to.

We lived there, we never left. It was very scary at first. It takes a lot of time. We couldn’t leave and then, I don’t know about ten years later we got the spot up at Indian Lake to get away. Working is a lot of fun, but you gotta be there to work all the time and we are just getting old. I’m getting old, no I am old [laughs]. There were sometimes of the year when it was down a lot, but mostly the business was steady. Times like back to school, when it first gets cold and when it first gets hot it slows down. You just have to bear and grin with it. We did well a lot of the years, but when Applebee’s opened that month we lost nine thousand dollars but we survived. We had our customers, our customer base. Their base now is our base. That’s the people we met and we created. Those are the people we developed and you need that. You need the people to survive.That’s the fun part. The talking to people. Yeah and growing older with people. I had funny pants that I wore that people loved, like I’m wearing now for the picture; many of the funny pants came from customers who would buy me more. And I had, the neatest thing, I ever had was that little remote control rat I found at a Cracker Barrel. I put it under the salad bar at work, and then when a wait would come back and get a salad there was a remote, and I hit the button and it would come out and freak the waits out [laughing]. We liked to have fun and work at the same time. Those customers and people were important to us. There are some that you know you haven’t seen for a long time, and kinda can’t remember their names but I always remember their face. And we’ve lost a lot of them too. To death and you know that’s always hard even for us. It becomes a family. It becomes its own little community. Despite that we love our lives here and the community we live in. As well as the community we helped build with the restaurant. We’ll never leave here. I miss working sometimes like we used to. I enjoyed it, I miss it a lot. I miss a lot of the parts of it because it’s who I am, it’s in my blood.



Jeremy Stringfellow






I chose to interview my boss, who happens to be a pharmacist and the pharmacy manager for CVS, because he is always busy into things. He has a lot of goals and dreams he would like to accomplish. I also like the way he wants change with the pharmacy industry.




All of the CVS’s that I’ve worked in are very similar because there’s a family atmosphere. The first CVS I worked in was with my dad so it was a family atmosphere. When I was in Lima we had a lot of close-knit people. I try to make it so everyone gets along and there’s a family aspect.


He takes pride in the CVS that he works in now because he is the manager. He strives for store 6171 to be the best. Every month each CVS gets a “report card”. Because of Jeremy’s organizational and leadership skills, the store usually gets at least a 90% in all of the areas. He told me that any other score was unacceptable. He wants every patient to be satisfied, so that’s what him and all of his employees work for.


I would be very proud if my kids decided to be in the pharmacy. I don’t want them to have to go through the stress that I go through. I’m hoping as the time goes by the pharmacy will be more and more respected as a health industry and less like a food chain like degree. I think if we could get the fast-food chain aspect out of people’s minds then that would make it more respected. People basically treat the pharmacy like McDonalds. People hand you a prescription and expect you to hand their medication right out to them. They don’t understand the whole process of filling prescriptions. All they know is they want their medicine right then and there.




Marge Hazelett


I interviewed Marge Hazelett is a very caring professor, she has been a nurse, teacher, and she is now a licensed Psychologist and the Coordinator of Disability Services. Mrs. Margaret C. Hazelett, a native of Tiffin, Ohio, graduated from the Riverside School of Nursing and taught nursing at the Riverside School of Nursing, Toledo, Ohio. She graduated from Mary Manse College with a B.A. in Education, and a B.S. in Nursing. She also received an M.A in education. and an M.S. in Psychology from the Ohio State University. I interviewed her because I see her as an American dreamer, and an achiver of what she believes.

As I drove home the night after the interview, I thought to myself I love her to death, she is so sweet, I knew she cared about her student but this interview made me look at Marge Hazelett as more than just a professor, but like a grandmother. She is one Hell of a woman and she deserves all that she has accomplished.



I am a very self determined individual. I love animals, and as some of you will see in the picture with me, that I have a beautiful cat named Cale. Everyone who knows me knows that she is very spoiled and she is really a precious cat to me. I got her late in life when my husband was quite ill; she has been a real comfort to me. Sometimes she was a comfort to Hal and sometimes she wasn’t. I believe in goals and I try my best to follow my goals exclusively as much as I possibly can. Secondly, I have always had a real love for people especially those who need help. I try to take time in my life to help who ever I can.
I love to go out to dinner, I really enjoy that a lot. I like classical music, and I have some favorite T.V shows I can barely wait to get home to watch which are Jeopardy, and Wheel of fortune. I am working with the Junior Service Guild, and we called our dinner "The Misfortune" it’s a takeoff of wheel of fortune.
My American Dream was I wanted to become a nurse, get married and have a beautiful home. I have worked very hard all my life; I worked 3-4 jobs. I am now down to only 2. I wanted to succeed in whatever I did, which was to become a nurse, and I never wanted to be a teacher, but now I am very happy I have had the opportunity to become one, and help all my students.
When I was a child I always wanted to be a nurse, and I set my mind to doing that. Anytime, that I could find a cat or a dog or anything else that I thought needed to have attention. I was great at bandaging up the animals. [Laughs] I had a cat Named Tom; I used to take him to the grocery store with me. When I was about four years old, my mother would stand and watch me go down about four blocks to the store. Laughs… I don’t know what she could have done if something happened to me because she was too far away. When Tom was with me I was never afraid. He was always in the baby buggy, and on the way back he was covered with groceries. [Laughs]. I always wanted to be a nurse when I was a child after my grandmother died in my arms I knew I wanted to be a nurse, and nothing more. I owned my very own little red cross hat, that I wore everywhere I went. I felt as if I were able to get to the corner by the window in my third grade class every day. I’d get there by poking the boy in front of me. He always tattled on me and my teacher would put me in the corner. I could see the soldiers go by; I would wave to the soldiers going by on the train every day, who were injured in WWII. I felt as if I was doing my part being a nurse, even though the soldiers never seen me I could see them and I was very happy with the outcome.



My dream for future generations is I hope that the children start taking more responsibility, and develop values, and give and not be taken. Yes, but I don’t like these teens and others texting or being on the phone while driving, I have to take back roads so I get home safely. I hope for more involvement in the families. Parents allow their children to grow up and be responsible for themselves, and their actions and not blame others for their short comings. I hope they seek help if they need it. Make their life with their family and have them in the center of their life like it should be. [Marge smiles and a tear runs down her cheek]

Justin Robertson

     I chose to do my profile on Justin Robertson because he is an inspiration to me. He is following his dreams and teaching me how to follow mine. He is still in school and is currently working at Sears. He wants to be an actor and graduate with a theater degree because acting is what he really loves to do. He doesn't care if he acts on famous movies or just a small school play, as long as he is doing it and having a good time.
     "Performing on stage in front of hundreds of people is what I love to do. I have done several shows here in Marion and it was a real accomplishment to have people cheer for you when you walk onto the stage and take a bow. Applause is an addiction once you get it all you want is more it makes you feel like a superhero."

Friday, March 2, 2012

Doctor Herschel Rhodes MD

I choose my grandpa Doctor Herschel Rhodes MD because he is a visionary and he still wants to help people even though he is retired as a doctor. He has been retired since August of 1997, but when he was a doctor he was a great doctor even through the struggles that he had with his career:



The biggest struggle in my career was that there were some people that would not pay their bills or could not pay their bills. One time during the blizzard in 1978 I was the only doctor that was able to come into the hospital other than the one other doctor that never left the hospital from his shift. There was a teenage boy that was trudging through the snow from the blizzard to get his appendix out. Also, there was a woman that went into labor and I delivered her baby; and she said that she would not pay me because I am not her doctor so she never did pay me. The biggest accomplishment in life for me was that I delivered almost 1,500 babies. I enjoyed it and the parents were real happy to have a good doctor, because I never lost a baby or a mother. So if some people could not pay me or if they did not want to pay me it did not bother me. I still want to continue to minister to people as well as I can. I cannot expect to be a family doctor all my life, but I can help people in other ways. Especially since my health had deteriorated in the past year from falling.

JC Church

I chose my pastor JC Church because I felt like he was a visionary in my community. I already knew a lot about him but I still learned a lot from his childhood that I didn't know. He was very interesting to listen to because he had many stories to tell. He had a rough childhood and it didn't get easier once he was first married either. Here's a few paragraphs from my essay:

I didn’t want to go into the ministry. I got the vision about the church and I prayed that it wouldn’t work. I said these words, “I pray that it goes over like a lead balloon.” I didn’t want to pastor. One out of one hundred pastors will still be pastoring at 65. The vision of the church was a multi-cultural church, multi-racial church, and very contemporary. I think visionaries needs to have that one person that sees something in them before they see it in themselves. I met Jessie Scott in 1986 and when I started going to church and she became my spiritual mentor and she is the one who saw something in me that I didn’t see.

I named the church Victory in Truth Ministries because I didn’t want to call it a church. A church if we’re not careful can bring the focus just on the inside but a ministry is to raise the idea that people’s focus is on the outside so we want to serve the community as a body.

Another thing besides the church that means a lot to me is running. I ran in high school and college. I got a scholarship to run in college or I wouldn’t have been able to go to college because my mom didn’t have money for me to go to college. I married my wife while we were still in college and I lost my scholarship so I didn’t finish school after we got married because I didn’t have the money to pay for it since I lost my scholarship. One of the people that had a great impact on my life was my high school coach, Coach Myers. “Honest to goodness, I would change my schedule and meet him every morning at 6 A.M. I would run, I would do whatever. My respect for him is so great.” He pushed me harder than any of the other runners because he knew I had it in me.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Ron Wilson


My first time into the Marion Christian Center the first person to say anything to me as soon as I walked in was Ron Wilson and we have been good friends ever since. The man is amazing but to tell the truth before this I did not know too much about his past but his dreams for the future are just as exciting. The best part I found when interviewing him came with his faith and after hurting his back. All he ever did was work on the farm but also had a part time job, I will let Ron tell you the rest:
Well after that my job was just farming since all we had was farmland. Of course, this is just a seasonal job so during the winter and summer I had a lot more free time so I started to work at Bank One in Marion. I worked in their agricultural lending department which fit really
nice with what I did. Then with a year going down the road I hurt my back
really bad and had to end up getting back surgery. I will tell you this story
that happen during that time because it important. This was about 20 years ago
when I had the surgery and I was slowly getting better and stronger. I mean
things were not done as well as they are done now but anyways the surgeon said
“Ron you farm part time and work at a bank part time?” I go “yes sir I do.” He
then says “Well you should never lift anything over ten pounds for the rest of
your life. So if you ever have the chance to work at a bank and be a full time banker
then you should take that chance.” Well that was at 11:30 whatever day that was
and Barb drives me home because I was not released to drive yet. We get home
and we are sitting there having lunch when my boss calls me from the bank
around noon and says “Ron I have some paper work for you to fill out and would
like to visit with you.” So I said “Yeah just come on over.” His name was Dan.
He drives out to the house and gets there around 1:00 or 1:30 in the afternoon.
Sits down and gives me the paper work to fill out. He then says “Well what I
really came for Ron is this morning we were having a meeting. The bank is
really growing and expanding and you are doing a good job. We really have the
space for a full time job. Would you consider working full time for the bank?”
This was just after two hours the doctor had told me to take a full time job
and the bank because I would not be able to life over ten pounds again. So I
took the job. From then on out I slowly started climbing the corporate latter
because I was so driven. We then moved into Marion because of me moving up I
had to travel a lot more and we decided to move closer to Route 23, so we did.