Note: Robert Kreider, now of North Newton, Kansas, has a special place in his heart for Bluffton, Ohio. Here are some of his thoughts at Christmas.

At Christmas time boyhood images of a Bluffton of more than 75 years ago come surging out of my past. In my ripe old age, I savor these scraps of memory. Speaking of "ripe old age," how does one know when he or she has become "ripe"? Relax for this flow of nostalgia:

Both an afternoon and evening performance of the "Messiah" in the hip-roof College Barn. . . . viewing a crew from Hankish candy store cutting ice on the quarry next to the Bluffton Light Plant. . . . standing in awe, viewing those giant generators in the Light Plant. . . . outside breathing the foul sulfur aroma from the aeration pipes of the town's water system. . . .

Page Dairy pouring milky waste water into Riley Creek, contaminating the water for a mile down stream. . . . pawing through the village dump across from Harmon Field looking for wooden staves from touring cars which we could salvage to use as hockey sticks. . . .

the drama across the tracks on College Avenue of watching them saw boards and planks from giant oak logs in Ed Amstutz's saw mill. . . . the oval island of wooded wilderness beside Andy Hauenstein's handsome brick residence. . . . two doors south the Biederman house where we lived for a year, 1927-1928, and in the summer watched the drama of crews tearing up Main Street and laying it with new brick. . . .

Mose Steiner accumulating a mound of brick on his lot at the corner of Jackson and Kibler preparatory to building a handsome brick house (later the residence of the Urichs and today the Boehrs). . . . reading hunting and fishing magazines as I waited for Doc Ludwig to resole my only pair of shoes. . . . next door Bogart's Dodge dealership with a pump out front on Main Street. . . . seeing occasionally a horse and buggy tied up on Church Street alongside the Gratz Dry Goods store. . . .

buying on sale at half price a catcher's mitt at Edgar Hauenstein's Corner Drug Store. . . . at Sidney's Rexall Drug Store buying each September a supply of school books. . . . at noon in the fall Mr. Huser of Steiner and Huser men's clothing coming to watch us play football on the grade school grounds. . . .

enjoying making the rounds at Winter Fair seeing the livestock exhibited in the three livery barns adjoining Cherry Street. . . . going to Hankish's candy store in wintertime to get a pint of fresh oysters dipped from a cooler setting outside in the cold. . . . buying for mother a pound of Hershey milk chocolate chipped by Mr. Hankish from a one foot cube.

. . . . ditto, at Ed Reichenbach's grocery chipping dates from a big block. . . . buying Christmas gifts at Shalley's ten cents store that adjoined Pudd Worthington's Star theater with its forbidden delights. . . . across the street next to a pool hall, getting a haircut for 25 cents (maybe 15 cents) in Dillman's barbershop. . . .

going to the Buckeye for a swim, stopping at the foundry by the Main Street bridge to watch a blacksmith pursue his fiery trade. . . . Saturday nights when downtown Bluffton bustled with crowds, lights, action. . . . and then village residents and characters. . .

On I could go: images of wilderness haunts in the Bluffton countryside. Nostalgic ramblings for the reader but therapy for the writer.

Happy holidays.
Bob Kreider
[email protected]