Happy Birthday to the City of Pride
200 years ago today, the State Legislature of Ohio, much to the dismay of Chillicothe and Zanesville (my birthplace) created a new city to be the State Capitol and Columbus was born.
Columbus doesn’t have mountains; in fact it’s hard to find a hill. There is no Ocean front. No mighty rivers like the Hudson or the Mississippi, though smaller scenic ones we have. The weather there isn’t the best nor the worst. But the thing Columbus has that no city in the world can beat, is the pride of its citizens.
Nothing pleases a Columbusite more then to show off his City. Years ago when a business visitor pointed toward the skyline and asked, is that Cincinnati or Cleveland over there? I grinned with pride and said, that is the downtown of Columbus, Ohio’s largest city.
Visitors to Columbus sometimes chuckle at the little tours locals invariably give them, showing them downtown, campus, the short north, german village, and don’t forget the Santa Maria, and we miss showing them the first Wendy’s.
Have you ever heard a local talk about the city of firsts? The first branch bank, first drive thru, first supermarket among a long list of them. How about the fast food capital, home of Wendy’s, White Castle, US headquarters of Tim Horton’s, and so many that have come and gone. (Remember the home of the whirling satellite?)
Whatever you do don’t get us started on the Corporate Headquarters based in our city. We will brag loudly about Volkswagen of America, The Limited, Aberchrombie and Fitch, Bob Evans, Nationwide Insurance, and AEP among so many others.
You know what is fun is taking a frequent shopper to one of our malls. They may not be the biggest but boy do we have everything. I recall showing a visitor Easton once. Just as we drove down the little European like street in front of the theater, she exclaimed, “now this is a mall”
Yes those from other places may mock our pride sometimes. They will never understand the awe some of us felt when we walked into the newly restored Palace Theater in 1980, the euphoria that waved over us when Buster Douglas upset Mike Tyson, the joy we felt when we walked into Nationwide Arena the first time and heard, “Welcome to the NHL, Columbus,” the broad smiles on our faces seeing Jack Hanna representing our Zoo so well on Letterman, or the tears that well up in our eyes simply seeing two lines of drummers silently lead a band out onto the field.
They may chuckle all they want, we will not change. Our pride is real, it is deep and it is never ending. Yes we love our City and we proudly shout out:
HAPPY 200TH COLUMBUS!!
Columbus doesn’t have mountains; in fact it’s hard to find a hill. There is no Ocean front. No mighty rivers like the Hudson or the Mississippi, though smaller scenic ones we have. The weather there isn’t the best nor the worst. But the thing Columbus has that no city in the world can beat, is the pride of its citizens.
Nothing pleases a Columbusite more then to show off his City. Years ago when a business visitor pointed toward the skyline and asked, is that Cincinnati or Cleveland over there? I grinned with pride and said, that is the downtown of Columbus, Ohio’s largest city.
Visitors to Columbus sometimes chuckle at the little tours locals invariably give them, showing them downtown, campus, the short north, german village, and don’t forget the Santa Maria, and we miss showing them the first Wendy’s.
Have you ever heard a local talk about the city of firsts? The first branch bank, first drive thru, first supermarket among a long list of them. How about the fast food capital, home of Wendy’s, White Castle, US headquarters of Tim Horton’s, and so many that have come and gone. (Remember the home of the whirling satellite?)
Whatever you do don’t get us started on the Corporate Headquarters based in our city. We will brag loudly about Volkswagen of America, The Limited, Aberchrombie and Fitch, Bob Evans, Nationwide Insurance, and AEP among so many others.
You know what is fun is taking a frequent shopper to one of our malls. They may not be the biggest but boy do we have everything. I recall showing a visitor Easton once. Just as we drove down the little European like street in front of the theater, she exclaimed, “now this is a mall”
Yes those from other places may mock our pride sometimes. They will never understand the awe some of us felt when we walked into the newly restored Palace Theater in 1980, the euphoria that waved over us when Buster Douglas upset Mike Tyson, the joy we felt when we walked into Nationwide Arena the first time and heard, “Welcome to the NHL, Columbus,” the broad smiles on our faces seeing Jack Hanna representing our Zoo so well on Letterman, or the tears that well up in our eyes simply seeing two lines of drummers silently lead a band out onto the field.
They may chuckle all they want, we will not change. Our pride is real, it is deep and it is never ending. Yes we love our City and we proudly shout out:
HAPPY 200TH COLUMBUS!!
Labels: 2000, bicentenial, Columbus, ohio
posted by Joe R at
9:23 AM
1 Comments:
Great post...refreshing and optimistic...nice change from the heavy, gut wrenching political posts I normally read. Thanks
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home