As you’re planning your shopping this season, consider supporting small businesses that provide a special experience while you shop for things you won’t find anywhere else.
I stopped by Stella’s Mercantile after my hike Saturday and was delighted to see they are decorated for Christmas. Life sized nutcrackers flank the front door that’s always painted a festive red.
Step through those red doors and warm greetings abound in a space that feels like something out of a Hallmark movie. This building operated as Fout’s Store for generations until I was a kid and I have fond memories of the old wood floors and fixtures. They’ve done a great job of holding onto the historic charm of the space while shifting their focus to local artists, candy makers and others who make things.
Here you’ll find paintings, plants, quilts, jewelry, and so much more. There’s fudge and candy, bread and cinnamon rolls. Don’t forget the cinnamon rolls.
There are so many goodies to enjoy and gifts to take home for yourself and for folks on your list.
One of my favorite memories from this place when I was a kid was going there for bulk Christmas candy. They currently have bulk candy in jars on the counter so you can take home a few pieces or a whole bag!
Check out the vintage tinsel tree that belonged to the grandparents of one of the owners.
I like a place that gives me an experience rather than just a thing. You feel something when you walk into a place like Stella’s. You feel the history, the community and charm that have made it what it is today and I think that’s way better than a big box store where no one thinks to greet you and no one cares that you get that special thing that makes you smile.
I bought myself a Christmas gift Saturday and the owner remembered that I had missed out on getting something similar earlier this year. That’s pretty impressive, if you ask me.
They’ll have Santa on Saturday, December 13. What a fun environment it would be to meet Santa!
I have written about Stella’s before. I hope you’ll take a minute to read that story. Also, I wrote about the old Fout’s Store at Christmas. I hope you’ll read that one too.
It’s a special place. Go visit. Support their efforts to give local people a venue to sell their things and to breathe new life into a historic space. I think you’ll like it!
However, if you’re not in Vinton County, Ohio this Christmas, be sure to support local businesses near you!
The first time I saw Heart Mountain, it was a bleak and dreary day. That suited the mood of what we were about to endure – an interpretive center that breathes life into the story of an internment camp where Japanese Americans were held during World War II.
The interpretive center here is one of the very best I’ve ever experienced as they do a wonderful job not just telling the story but making you feel something for strangers.
It’s called empathy and we don’t have enough of this emotion these days.
It is an undeniable fact that Japan was our enemy and an unwaveringly cruel one at that. We were at war and our government argued that Japanese immigrants on this soil could present a threat. Never mind that many of these people had lived here for years and were proud, loyal Americans. Many were young children who should have been attending school with their friends and working on their Boy Scout projects.
Our government drew an arbitrary line down the western part of the United States and said anyone west of the line had to be contained. Never mind those folks living in the entire rest of the country. We were only concerned about the Japanese Americans who lived in that small area.
These camps were in places like Colorado, California, Wyoming and Arizona. About 2/3 of the 120,000 people sent to these camps were American citizens.
Heart Mountain is located near Cody, Wyoming which must have felt like a forsaken place, too cold and windy for west coasters who came without decent clothes, shoes or coats for the cold weather.
They left behind jobs, homes and businesses. They left behind middle class status. They left behind people and places important to them. They were permitted to bring just what they could carry in a suitcase and forced to sell, store or give away the rest of their possessions. They were not permitted to have pets and were forced to leave them behind.
They were assigned small barracks with thin walls, potbelly stoves for heat, and not enough fuel to go around.
Yet, they created a community where their children were educated and where they formed social clubs that made life better in that place. Many remained patriotic, proudly flying their American flags and insisting that their country would not do this to them if it weren’t for the good of the nation.
I read a comment by a man who said that they could have been marched off to their deaths and wouldn’t have known better. They went because they thought it was the right thing to do.
Racism toward Asian American people wasn’t a new concept. White farmers and business people didn’t like the competition from these “lesser” neighbors. It was commonly believed that Asian people were innately inferior and could never be real Americans.
Can you imagine?
But it’s this kind of racism that allows otherwise reasonable people to buy whatever lies and hysteria politicians are selling. It is this kind of racism that justifies ignoring the Constitution of the United States in favor of cruel indifference and a refusal of due process to those who have done nothing wrong.
How do you teach democracy in an internment camp?
That’s one of many questions you’ll explore there.
Heart Mountain is one of the single most important places I have visited and one that every American should experience for themselves. Honestly, I am doing a horrible job telling you this story. That’s due in part because it is such a complicated story to unwind and relate in a blog. Entire books have been written about what we did to those people and about what happened to some of them when they left. It’s also because this is one of the most gut wrenching places I have seen.
Our tour started with a short video that gave an overview of the Heart Mountain story. By the time the lights went up, I knew we were in for a special experience. Everyone should know these stories because we are doomed to repeat our mistakes when we ignore our history. This white washing of American history because it makes people feel bad for things that weren’t their fault is absolutely one of the dumbest things I have heard. Learning from the mistakes of our culture and the people before us is part of being human.
After the video, there are interactive displays, photos, and artifacts to help you learn the stories and understand the challenges these folks faced here.
The last time I saw Heart Mountain was a couple of days later. We returned to walk a short trail at sunset. At the center of this trail is a monument to the approximately 750 young men and women who were Heart Mountain residents who served their nation’s armed forces during World War II. These are the same young people whose liberties were stripped away by that very government.
Fifteen of them gave their lives for that nation.
We were there at the end of a beautiful day as the setting sun began to stripe the sky with colors only found in nature. It felt a little like nature was paying tribute to those who served as well as those who were born and died here, the ones who lost their homes and livelihoods, the ones who started over with a bus ticket and $25 in their pocket along with the silence of their government.
If you ever find yourself in the Cody area, please go visit Heart Mountain and experience it for yourself. If you are so inclined, there are many books written about the internment camps. Perhaps try reading one of them for help grasping why this matters. Visit Heart Mountain online.
When the Twentieth Century Theater opened in 1941, art deco was on the decline. Yet that’s the design style that was used for this Cincinnati movie palace. Today it’s a mixed use facility where you might catch a live stage show or even attend a wedding or corporate event.
Located in the city’s Oakley neighborhood, it fell out of use in the early eighties and suffered decline before its rescue from ruin. The lobby is gorgeous and features a sweeping staircase to the balcony as well as a nice bar. The sidewalk facing ticket booth is still there but not in use.
They did a nice job of transforming the theater into a versatile space where comfortable theater seats can be easily removed to make way for table seating, The stage isn’t huge but it was a great size for the Sean of the South show I saw earlier this month.
But the true marvel of this theater is its exterior appearance. It is a landmark like none other with its awe inspiring marquee and gorgeous larger than life mural paintings of old time cinema greats.
There’s a nice green space across the street and the theater is clearly well loved. My only complaint is that the parking lot is minuscule and there is no parking garage in the neighborhood. There is street parking and it’s a safe neighborhood for walking or you could make it even easier and Uber there.
We are probably lucky that the 20th Century Theater has lived to see the 21st century. Seeing a show here felt like a great gift and I couldn’t help but think about what these walls would say if they could talk.
They have done a great job of marrying the old and new and celebrating the building’s character while making it relevant for a new century.
Go see a show there if you can! You can learn more at their website. Incidentally, this was Cincinnati’s first air conditioned movie theater. I recently told you about the first air conditioned building in Wyoming. Read that story here.
On this Veterans Day, I want to tell you about Lt. Commander Bobbi Hovis, a remarkable woman who enlisted as a Navy Flight Nurse and volunteered for service in Korea and Vietnam. I learned about her at the Hagen History Center in Erie, Pa.
Born in 1925, Bobbi grew up in Erie County, PA and graduated from the Western Pennsylvania Hospital School of Nursing in 1946. During her service in Korea, she flew the Pacific with the 1453rd Medical Evacuation Squadron that evacuated 16,604 injured without any fatalities. In Vietnam, she witnessed at least four coup d’etats. She was shot at once and kept the bullet that narrowly missed her.
Exposed to Agent Orange during her service, she suffered its effects until her death in 2024.
Lt. Commander Bobbi Hovis was tough as nails.
This museum has her flight jacket, her service medals and a Green Beret given to Bobbi by a grateful patient. It was the only thing he had to give and was one of her most prized possessions. They also have a jet helmet that Bobbi wore on a classified mission assisting a flight surgeon on a Douglas F3D Skynight jet. She was the first Navy flight nurse to go on this type of mission.
She authored a book titled Station Hospital Saigon, A Nurse In Vietnam and they have a copy of that book as well.
Lt. Commander Hovis retired in 1967 after twenty years of service. In 2019 she was interviewed for a Vietnam War 50th anniversary oral history project. You can watch that video here if you are so inclined.
I was fascinated by the photo of this pretty lady and did my best to imagine her dodging bullets, wading through blood and muck while she performed whatever heroics earned her all those medals. I could not fathom what that must have been like. She was a pioneer, a hero and one of many women who served who deserve our gratitude.
History is full of incredible stories about real people like Lt. Commander Bobbi Hovis. If you have a veteran in your life, remember to say thanks for their service. They may not get museum displays or tell you their stories but they deserve our thanks.