by Alice Stratman Smith
I enjoyed attending the Dresden Melon Festival on Saturday, August 6th. My umbrella was handy for the sprinkles of rain and the hot sun. I put my name on some things at the silent auction, saw a melon race, the fastest kid watermelon eater, results of the biggest fish and the most weight fish.
On my way back home to Zanesville I enjoyed an ice cream cone down by where I was born and grew up across from the school. My mother, Melba Stratman, enjoyed going to the senior center in that area. She walked everywhere because she never got a driver’s license. Mother and I were sitting on our porch in May, 1957 shortly after my dad died feeling sad, when I suggested we go for a ride in dad’s car. She was surprised that I would suggest that and I was surprised she said yes. I was 16 at that time and never drove a car except in the Birkhimer’s yard a year or two before that did not go well. I remember my foot not reaching the brake and not seeing over the steering wheel.
I played the French Horn in the Jefferson High School Band. In the late 1960’s I borrowed a French Horn to play in an alumni band at the banquet. Years later my husband Larry bought me a used French Horn that I played in the San Saba River Band in Texas. I did not sell the horn in my auction in San Saba, Texas before moving to Zanesville in May, 2021. I did not plan to join a band now, so I did not need my French Horn. I mentioned this to Diana Schaefer at an Alumni report meeting on Thursday, July 28th. On August 4th, Diana brought her great grandson, Derek Griefenstine to my house and I gave him the French Horn and plan on going to a game or concert to ‘visit’ the horn. It has found a great home back in Ohio.
Numbers 6:24-26 NIV…The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
