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.

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.

Evelyn Long

Through my years of going to school in Cardington and participating in many different events throughout the community I came to know Evelyn Long. She was always the local news paper reporter and was always around the town doing different things. Evelyn is that person that everyone knew. I always thought she would be interesting get to know and hear about her life and experiences since she has almost always lived in Cardington and has reported on so many different things so this is why I chose to interview Evelyn. I learned a lot not only about Evelyn her self but the world of reporting and the small town of Cardington too. I chose to share the part of the essay where Evelyn is talking about her life. I believe this really shows how times have changed since she was a young child.

My childhood was growing up on a farm we didn't have any nice privileges, no bathrooms, no running water but we didn't know any difference. Everybody was poor, nobody had a bathroom. My Grandpa didn't have indoor plumbing. Clear up till now, there is still not a bathroom in there. But ya know my kids say, “how'd you live without a bathroom?” Well we didn't know the difference. We had an outhouse and we got our little pan of water we took baths every Saturday night and my mom had to carry all the water in the laundry room, well we pumped it in the house, we had to pump it and then she carried out to what we called the milk house and then we would wash them, we didn't have a dryer, everything was on the line. People think today that they need new cars and all that and new homes and your grandfather and I grew up in the depression and we grew up without all that. Theres more and more people relying on you know federal government to take care of us. But I, I think that's the biggest thing I notice is that people are coming to rely on Washington instead of being self reliant. We would all bail the hay and we all drove the horses and when my Grandfather died, he wouldn't allow tractors, my grandfather would never allow tractors he was old, so when my grandfather died my dad got a Massey Harris. We were the proudest people in the world we owned a tractor. I learned a lot just from having to work, just working, and you didn't play Nintendo and you didn't play all these games you worked. And I know the value of work so I think growing up poor probably shaped me in life.

Evelyn has had many opportunities in her life that many people growing up in her time didn't have. I wanted to know if throughout her life she had any regrets. The only thing I regret and it probably wouldn't have worked is that I didn't complete college. I had a chance to go to college. I was down at Cap (Capital University), only a thousand dollars a year I could have had my degree, but I couldn't make my mind up what I wanted to be. I wanted to be an actress, I wanted to teach, all this stuff I couldn't make my mind up so I just quit. But I had a great social life, Jonda, I was dating a guy every night, going to the movies, I loved my social life at Cap. But if I wouldn't a quit I would have never met Willis [her husband] because I'd a been in college and we would have never crossed paths and he was gonna go a second career in army when he got out he was gonna sign up again and something made him not to if he had we would have never met. So things were supposed to happen. But that's the only biggest regret is that I didn't get my college degree when I had a chance for a thousand dollars a year. My folks hated it when I quit because they borrowed money like they did with everything, they borrowed to send me. If I had to say one thing my big regret is not getting my college degree.

I always dreamed of marrying just the right guy and having kids and because I was told I never could have kids. That was something that I realized was fulfillment and I think when I first dated Willis Long that was the completion. So when I met Willis I knew that was what I always longed for. And then I had a physician that found he could make me where I could have kids so when I had them I was really fulfilled because I never thought I would have kids. Since meeting the right guy was so important to Evelyn I thought I would find out how she came upon this perfect guy. Well we went to school together he was just a little guy that was real quite and you didn't hardly notice him. In school I didn't really pay any attention to Willis until 1953 I was down in the grocery store and ran into him, he had just gotten home from the service, and I didn't even know that. Wow was he good lookin, where has be been? My sister Norita was dating Olen Calbor and Olen was Willis's favorite best friend out there. So I kept telling Norita, “You oughta see Willis Long, he's good looking duh duh duh”. I said well get me a date with him. She came home in May of '55 said we saw Willis Long, he's gonna call for a date. So he called me on May 5 for a date, we went out the next night, and one week later he asked me to marry him. [Giggles] It was '55, we got married in August. You never know, you could go far away looking for someone and here there right in front of your eyes. I miss my husband. I am very unhappy but I just keep plugging. But I wouldn't, well I can't say that I am depressed or any of that stuff it's just that if he were here I would be really happy.

Paper On Charles Tindley

Where do I begin? The man is incredible and i was lucky to have meet him. I would love to share my whole paper with all of you, unfortunately I only have a limited amount of space. Every single story it seemed was an amazing narrative told with remarkable brilliance. I am am going to share with you one of my favorite tales and exerts from my paper about the time that Charles meet Martin Luther King so enjoy.

Continuing on about his teen years and years after graduating high school, one of the many great stories he has to tell was about the time he met Martin Luther King Jr. His mother had been an organist before his father had passed away and Charles opted not to go to college to stay and support his mother who had taken ill. Joel King, Dr. Martin Luther King’s uncle, asked Charles’ mother if she would come down to Mansfield, Ohio and become his organist for his church’s christening. The main speaker of which would be none other than Martin Luther King himself. Charles goes on to describe him and the speech he gave:

“Martin Luther King was escorted in by a phalanx of state troopers and sheriff’s deputies…they surrounded them because they had death threats. I had always envisioned him as stern looking, but he wasn’t stern looking at all. He was a tiny man with almost Asiatic features, slanted eyes, really truly yellowish skin color, and mild looking more than anything else…very determined looking man though. He gave a speech that was very memorable to me because he was talking about person having self awareness, and pride, and dignity in whatever you do in life. He said ‘try and be the best you can be at whatever you do, if you’re a street sweeper, sweep the best you can…’ He also said something that was very memorable to me ‘if people hate you that means they’re down in the ditch of hate, don’t get down in the ditch with them and get dirty. Stay on top, stay upright, because it isn’t going to do you any good to muddy yourself or dirty yourself with these people.’ Joel King brought Martin over to my mother and me after to introduce us and I remember seeing him and looking at him. He was such a smiling, kind guy, and I always say that he had an aura about him that was totally different. I knew I was shaking hands with greatness. He wasn’t a threatening person, he was a kind gentle soul, but there was strength about him that you could just feel. I can’t explain it but he had that demeanor of a man who was wise beyond his years. He had like an ancient wisdom to him, like something way back that had been pulled up and was instilled in him. You know how some people always want to shake the hand of a pop star? Well to me this was more than a pop star; this was history I was shaking hands with.”

Charles continued on for quite some time explaining that they had no idea the events that would follow as this was only 1962 at the time.

Presentation

I believe that the Marion County World War II Veterans Memorial is a place of interest. The memorial was built to represent all the men and women who died to save our lives in World War II. It is one of the largest memorials outside of the nation's capital. The memorial represents our freedom of the American Dream.

Nationally Dexter Avenue King Memorial Church is an important place for the American Dream. We all dream of being free and Martin Lurther King Jr. was a pastor at the church. He held memorials for freedom and expressed his religious beliefs

Presentation Ideas

The first place that pops in my mind locally is the Harding Memorial. I used to go there often as a child and now I pass it every day when I drop my son off and pick my son up from the babysitters. It is a memorial for a great president. He took presidency when the economy was in such decline post war. A year after he took office, the economy was starting to recover. Most people remember him for being involved in sandals and not for the good that he has done. I feel it goes along with the American Dream because people want to be forgiven for their mistakes.


Nationally I think of Times Square in New York. New York is the place that can make you or break you. People who want fame for their American Dream can go there and try to achieve it. There are also so many different kids of jobs in Times Square that people can find something that interests them. There are so many people in Times Square so it is a good place if you want to get noticed because it is an intersection to many cities. Not to mention Times Square has some beautiful architecture. Unfortunately it can break peoples dreams as well, but they can still hold on the idea of the dream.