Dreaming of a Time Capsule
I would like to find a window to the past,
a capsule of evidences of the joys and sorrows,
the ordinary and extraordinary days on this plot of land,
part of the Western Reserve Firelands of Northern Ohio.
We only know Jack’s growing up years from his perspective.
When the Polish professor talked Jack’s Dad into selling Polish candies
in addition to the apples and peaches at the Firelands Country Store,
could the future life of the store be imagined?
The ups (appreciative customers!) of providing candies and wines and cheeses and teas
and downs – how the Midway Mall changed shopping for everyone.
When Mr. Smith was still selling quarry stone everywhere he was sent,
he missed little Jack’s early school morning routine and Jack’s zeal for arrowheads.
So he brought home a cigar box full, and planted a dozen in the field across the street.
Little Jack was happy to go arrowhead hunting with Dad that afternoon.
Dad steered little Jack toward the field, but Jack intuitively found a couple beauties “over here.”
When the owners before the Smith’s built the home
did they imagine the small room at the front of the house–
being an office for homework and other day-dreams?
Did the large living room always hold music, especially classical music,
from the Harpsichord kit put together by two unlike brothers — an engineer and a poet?
When even earlier men and women roamed this wild early land – were they content?
Did apple trees grow abundantly back then, too? Did the wild asparagus grow back then, too?
An Erie village is well known to the local Archeological Society some miles west,
and while several historical reports are convinced that Adenas were further south in Ohio,
this land was a hunting ground for them, as evidenced by arrowheads and other artifacts.
A time capsule? I can only dream — filling in the details around the facts that we know.
By Nancy Ann Smith,
Amherst, Ohio (historically known as the “Firelands of the Western Reserve of Northern Ohio.)