Growing Up in Williamsport, Ohio

Progress in Williamsport, our little, Big Town
 
You are probably thinking that since my siblings and I were growing up that things in Williamsport were also progressing. 
 
We got our first refrigerator while my brother was in the army from 1948 to 1952. He mentioned it in one of his letters. He also mentioned our getting a TV. We got a sink in our kitchen but no running water. Bob was home from the Army when we got that. In other words, we had progress but it was slow….at least at our house.
 
I have always considered Williamsport to be a little, Big Town. We had many of the things that large towns had; it was just on a smaller scale. I mentioned that Bal and Bernice O’Conner were our “wallpaperers”. Cliff Jones was the painter and so on. We had skilled workers who provided whatever we needed. We also had Dr. Sheets and later Dr. Gamble. We had a post office, a bank and beer joint. And we had three churches.
 
There are some advantages in going to a small school. One of my daughters asked me one time if so and so was my friend. My response was that when there are only twenty-two students in your class, everyone is your friend…more or less.
 
The school provided the same things that a big school did, which I think was nothing short of amazing. Every year the school put on plays. Since I was taller than all the other girls, I always got the supporting parts of mother or aunt, etc. That continued even through college.
 
As an adult, I saw “Guys and Dolls” at Vets Memorial. David Birney and Meredith Baxter were the stars but neither one was really a singer. Consequently, their supporting actors made them look bad and got all of the applause. I decided that being a supporting actor wasn’t so bad after all.
 
Since Williamsport provided everything we needed in those days, living there was pretty good!
After all, didn’t a lot of famous people come from small towns?

©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2020
Photography/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck