Venice, Florida(pt 3) The Venice By-Way 1957-58{from a 2008 blog}

The big news this morning is obviously coming out of Boston, where a couple of "punks" from Russia, and wanna be Islamic Terrorists have come under the gun of the FBI for the Boston Marathon Bombings...One punk dead, one police officer at MIT dead, one more cop critically wounded, and the other punk Muzzie Brother on the run....meanwhile our fool of a President and his appointed "Iron Dyke" at Homeland Security continue to prove they are not fit to serve:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/19/gunshots-reported-on-mit-campus/

The media coverage has been a joke....as the lame stream press continues to try to protect their chosen PC Religion of Radical Islam.

Rained out yesterday at Hicksville, my 9th rain out of the season, closing in on a record...this will hit my beer money hard  :(  The 80 degree temperatures of yesterday have dropped by half, after the rain hit again, the wind and cold returned...today's game way north at Cory~Rawson is in doubt...Tomorrow I picked up a JV Double Header at Van Wert, but the conditions don't look pleasant at all.

Today I take a look at part 3 of my blogger posts looking at growing up in Venice...this covers the years, just a bit over 2 years, that we lived on the Venice By-Way and across the road from the Blackburns, part of one of the founding families of the Venice Area.

GROWING UP IN VENICE, FLORIDA....Part #3 1957-58....

Pretty chilly at Spencerville yesterday...seems when Sam and I have worked games together of late, they have been blow-outs....last night was no exception. I did the plate as Fort Jennings traveled to play the Sp'Ville Wildcats.....the home team wins in a 6 inning run rule by the score of 14-4. The result surprised me because Spencerville had had a rough time of late, including last Friday's game that the younger Houseworth and dad did with Spencerville hosting St. Henry, a 21-0 final for the visitors.

Tonight, I travel to the campus of Ohio State-Lima, for a game between Lima Central Catholic and Lima Shawnee....Sam meanwhile has the Junior Varsity game between the same schools at the field in Elida.....sunshine is slated, but still cool.....then warmer, but wet weather comes a calling later in the week.

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Growing up in Venice, Florida
1957-1958/The Venice By-Way
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The summer of 1957 remains one that is pretty vivid in my memory banks. I had just finished 2nd grade at Venice Elementary, dad then decided to load up and move the family back to Ohio for the summer months. I have no idea if the Old Man had planned on a permanent move, or a more temporary set up. Anyway we packed up and headed north at the end of the school year....for the next 2 months we would reside in Scott, Ohio, dad's hometown, and where I had lived for most of my first 5 years on the planet. I remember hanging out at gas stations and walking the railroad tracks with my friend Al Foust...sometimes we would take the corn fields north to Haviland(about 3 miles) or sometimes head south....I know for one thing, we never lacked adventure for those 2 months...in fact, I could have stayed there and lived with Grandma Houseworth, and my 2 divorced(nee Old Maid) aunts forever...at least in my mind.

But that wasn't to be. In August 1957, we packed up, and headed back south. Dad would find a new job, working at Johnson Lumber Company in Venice, Patty Johnson, the owner's daughter, was a classmate of mine at Venice Elementary. This was like starting over, we needed a new place to live...the folks found a old rural home several miles north and east of Venice, located in a wild woods area...the Hatchet Creek ran nearby...another place that I could ply my youthful outdoor lust for life at. At this place on the "By-Way" I would spend my 3rd and 4th grade years at...living there for just over 2 years, before Stan and Peg would buy a house "in town".

Third Grade at Venice Elementary was a pretty good gig, at least for me. There I would have one of my 2 favorite teachers in all my years in school, whether they be Elementary, Jr High, High School, or College. Mrs Clara Hill was my 3rd grade teacher, for some reason her and me with my big mouth would get along...I loved baseball, and see seemed interested how anyone my age could have the knowledge that I had, of the players and teams of those days....Mrs Hill was not an easy teacher, and see wasn't afraid to use the board of education of boys and girls...after the butt whippings I received in 2nd grade, I would skate with none in 3rd. God rest your soul Mrs Hill, who passed away in 1987.

Meanwhile back at the house on the By-Way, I would meet up with the Blackburn boys....a collection of good-ol-boys whose grandad was one of the founders of the Venice area. The Blackburn family owned acres and acres of orange groves, and I suspect they were what we call "rich", however, you could never tell it, they were, like us, simple folks, and for the next 2 years Teddy Blackburn, who was in my class, and I would become inseparable....His passel of younger and 1 older half brother would thrive in the backwater areas of what was then wild territory.

The Blackburn's had coon hounds, we had cur hounds, those old dogs would live, run, die, and be a part of my life that I will cherish until the day I pass on. On more than one occasion, Teddy and me would head back to the swamp area along the creek, I remember one sunny buy rather cool south Florida day in particular he and I and one of the dogs were walking along the water about a mile from the house....we heard a commotion and a "snort" or grunt in a group of bushes and wooded area, the dog heard it as well, and we went to investigate...well that old hound came hauling out of that patch like his behind was on fire...Ted and I didn't wait around to see what it was...we began hauling ourselves, back to the house.

I remember Teddy and I sat on our front porch and discussed what we might have stumbled upon that scared that damn dog so much....it didn't take long to find out, in a few minutes, out of the woods and into the field south of the house, walked a large white(albino?) Wild Bore....I still to this day remember the wind blowing his mane, and the wild, pissed off look in his eyes...didn't take long for the dogs, now numbering a gang of 4 or 5, mostly young pups, to get their "stones" and chase him back into the brush and woods....We never saw him again, nor did I want to, just wish I had a camera at my ready.

More Adventures on the Venice By-Way coming up---back later>>>>>>>

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photos-Top is a 3rd grade spring musical at Venice Elementary, I'm in the middle of the middle(second) row, the good looking kid right below the "sun" hitting the widow in the background....then Al Foust(L) and me with our bullfrogs we had gigged the night before at my Uncle John's pond in the Summer of 1957 in Scott, Ohio. My 3rd grade teacher, Mrs Hill, from Venice...and me and the Blackburn boys celebrating my 9th Birthday at our place on the Venice By-Way...I'm the kid with the new Catcher's Mitt, my friend Teddy Blackburn is on my left, sister Marty was the Tom Boy in the photo...March 16, 1958.--sure wish I had the car in the back, that Chevy is what mom, at the age of 33, learned to drive in.