Saturday - Ironton, Ohio.... a little bit of my history too.

My mom was born in a town called Ironton Ohio. One thing I wanted to do when we moved here was to take a little road trip there (It's not far from Cincinnati) and see if I could get a peek into my mom and my grandma's past. Especially after losing my grandma last year, I kind of felt like I really wanted to see this place and feel a little connection.

I was thrilled when it had been put of long enough that when my mom said she was coming out here for a visit I asked her if she would be interested in going. I knew it would be a much better experience with somebody who had been there and could tell me stories. I really couldn't get enough of them, and hope to get more from her. It's strange to have heard about this place for as long as I have and actually be there. There were times I could almost feel the past. It was a great experience. I'm so glad that we went... it had to have been one of my favorite days of the entire visit.

Here is downtown Ironton from a lookout on a hill. It is a beautiful little town, and happily is experiencing some renovation.
(below) These are the killer stairs going up to the lookout. Mike and the kids ran right up. My mom and I stopped every few little landing areas to check out the sights. (We couldn't breathe!! Haha! But we made it look like we had a good reason to stop.)

A little history on the area: (for the fam, click on the image to enlarge it)

My mom has a great memory. We drove by several houses that once belonged to people in my family. My favorite - the one below - was my grandma's house. In this house my mom grew up as a little girl. (She said the Ohio river summers were awful here with no a/c at the time.) but the coolest is knowing that at one time my grandma as a new mom, carried my mom up those stairs into her first house after coming home from the hospital.

She told me stories about what was behind the windows that we could see, the blue spruce tree that my grandma had planted to the left of the front porch that had grown so big she had to cut it down one winter and used it as the Christmas tree. She told me about the hours spent rollerskating on the sidewalk and the fruit tree that is still in the back. Along with the garage that is still back there that she couldn't believe was still standing. I look at these pictures and I feel my grandma. I miss her.

I saw the high school that my grandma went to, which was being restored and having an addition built onto the back of it. It's one of those beautiful buildings you see in movies. It was fenced off or I would have LOVED to have gotten closer to it. Maybe even peeked in.

We also stopped at the cemetery and found some relatives. Old town cemeteries are such a story in themselves. Families stayed together even then and weren't scattered about the country like they are now. It was interesting to hear my mom point at a stone and hear her say, "This is my uncle..." etc.

It was a great day, and an experience I'll never forget and I couldn't be happier that I got to see a glimpse of my family history. I know how I feel when I would go back to childhood homes that I grew up in. I made sure to take pictures of them and visit them one more time before I moved out here. I guess it's part of being a family historian. These kinds of stories and things are amazing to me and I love the links to the past.