Listing Through Life

In Old Deaf School Park near downtown Columbus, a topiary artist has created the scene from Georges Seurat’s famous 1884 pointillism painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Unfortunately, on the day I was there, the pond was dry and undergoing repair.

Here’s the original painting in a photo I took at The Art Institute of Chicago.

When I showed my wife these photos, she wanted to see for herself. So a couple weeks later (on April 26) when the park was in a little better shape, we went back.

President Rutherford B. Hayes was born in Delaware, Ohio, on October 4, 1822. The house he was born in remained standing until 1926, when it was knocked down and replaced by a gas station. There is still a gas station on the site, one owned by the British, interestingly enough. When the house was torn down, a plaque was put up, but it doesn’t really give one a strong sense of history. Here’s what the house looked like.

Bun’s claims to be the oldest continually-operating business in Ohio. I find this claim somewhat dubious since 1) it wasn’t called Bun’s when it opened; 2) it’s had two owners since the last of the original owners’ families sold it; 3) the original building burned down in 2002 and it’s now in another location; 4) it started as a bakery but is now basically a Greek restaurant; and, 5) it was closed for two years after the 2002 fire.

But it does get pretty good reviews, so we thought we’d check it out. It was empty when we arrived but full when we left.

I ordered ham loaf because it was the specialty. It was very good, as was the bread.

The sign, also visible in the top photo, hangs from an arch across the road.

Neil Armstrong was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio. That explains the existence of this small, but surprisingly interesting museum. It’s built to look like a moon base might look — or at least how people thought a moon base might look at the time the museum was built. It tells the history of Armstrong and of space exploration, and while it does so rather sketchily, there are definite highlights.

There is an exact model of Sputnik, a goofy round air hockey table that supposedly demonstrates orbits, the plane in which Neil Armstrong learned to fly (stacked up against a wall as though it crashed), an exhibit on how astronauts go to the bathroom and a smattering of random items from Armstrong’s childhood. But mixed in with all that stuff are some really impressive displays — the actual Gemini VIII spacecraft, Armstrong’s space suits from his Gemini and Apollo flights, and a golf-ball sized moon rock. There’s also a video of the first landing on the moon.

An exact replica of Sputnik, the first satellite, launched by Russia in 1957. It did nothing except emit the occasional beep, but it had the rest of the world quaking in its boots.

The Gemini VIII capsule in which Armstrong traveled with David Scott. The mission was cut short when a malfunction occurred after the capsule docked with the Agena Target Vehicle. The Aeronca Champion airplane in which Armstrong learned to fly can be seen stacked against the wall in the background.

A flag carried on the Apollo 11 mission.

Armstrong’s suit from his Gemini mission, I think.

F5D Skylancer, the only remaining (of 4) example of a plane built to “emulate flight characteristics of the space vehicle planned for use in Project Dyna-Soar, which called for the launch of a winged craft which could reenter the atmosphere and glide to a conventional landing following a mission to space.” Neil Armstrong piloted this plane during the early 1960’s.

Models of the Gemini and Apollo capsules

I’ve never liked peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. Peanut butter is OK. Jelly is good on biscuits and pancakes. But together they make a mouthful of super-sweet mud. But I know my wife likes PB&Js, so, being the great husband that I am, I took her to Krema Nut Company in Columbus, Ohio. I thought, “Who knows? Maybe if it’s a really good peanut butter and jelly sandwich …”

Krema has been making peanut butter since 1898. The small store in the front of the factory building has windows where you can watch the process, but nothing was happening while we were there. We ordered “gourmet peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.” Both of us got the Classic Old Timer with “a thick layer of our crunchy peanut butter, followed by a layer of strawberry preserves, and then topped with fresh sliced strawberries.”

The bread was fresh and good, but otherwise it was just a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. In other words, a cloying, thick mess of sloppy gunk. I sat next to a peanut bag signed by President Jimmy Carter.