A READER WRITES FROM CHICAGO

It is hard for this writer to imagine any writer who could care less if anyone responds to what a writer publishes. My tutoring for such a theory comes from my wife who has told me more than once, “He (she) who writes gets letters.” Of course my wife had in mind the occasion for my writing my father while we were in college. My wife, not I, got mail from my father.
In October 2003, my wife and I co-authored a history of a county children’s home here in Lancaster, Ohio in which thousands of young boys and girls lived. That county home was typical of many county homes in Ohio as well as many states in our country and the purpose was basic: Children sometimes get separated from parents and need a place to call home. Such county homes dotted the landscape of our state and looked very much the same, ornate brick structures with “fancy” ornamentation around the roofs and a large white house nearby for the superintendent with a small playground near by. Not too far away was a large white barn with smaller out buildings where farm machinery or tools were stored, or livestock was sheltered. Naturally large areas of fields nearby where crops were grown and harvested by the built-in workers (the children) to put “food on the tables”.
This history we published was said to have been the first written of the Fairfield County Children’s Home. The publication circulation of this book was not phenomenal in that only a few hundred copies were printed and sold throughout fourteen states and readers stretched from Connecticut to California. However, the lives of those thousands of young boys and girls, and the people who made those county homes possible were a part of our country’s life-style when homes were torn apart by accident or broken marriages and just plain hardships of life. It has been eight years since that book was published and it was a pleasant surprise to get an e-mail from a man in Chicago, Illinois, who lived there in the last days of that children’s home.
After the small quantity of books were sold we received spasmodic responses and inquiries about the book. Would it be reprinted? And when would it be reprinted? The answer to both queries was the same – no plans or funds were planned for reprinting. Then the idea of “reprinting” the book by publishing the book as a Computer CD became the vehicle for publishing a reprint. January 25, 2009 we sold the first CD Edition of A Place to Call Home and since have made fourteen more “CD books”. Again, nothing phenomenal but that depends on who is judging the importance of that history.
Melvin Oiler, in Chicago, read about the CD and was happy to learn the CD Edition was available and he ordered a copy.
The sad and unfortunate times a child often lived before being taken to the county children’s home can make a scar on their lives. Because of that scar or stigma many children had little use for such a place and yet other children saw their lives beginning to blossom with that experience. Mel was one of those kids and he recently wrote: “…being a kid that was unwanted, shuffled around and beaten by grandmother, school principal…and big kids..the times I spent there were the BEST PARTS OF MY CHILDHOOD.”
Here’s some of what Melvin wrote March 12, 2011:
“I received the CD Edition today and have read up to and through the last superintendent.  When I was originally placed in the home, Mr. and Mrs. Swinehart were the Superintendent and Matron.  I remember several incidents revolving around them, especially when Mrs. Swinehart was kicked by “Elsie” one of the cows that the kids really liked.  Elsie had just given birth and both she and her calf were stalled in the big barn.  A couple of the Barn Boys, as we referred to them, had warned her not to go into the stall but she had to see the calf.  When she got too close, Elsie turned around and kicked her.  She ended up in an upper body cast for what seemed like forever to us kids. 
“I was there when Mr and Mrs Rutherford became the Superintendent and Matron.  Wow did things change quickly.  I was one of the kids who called out the bus numbers at East Grade school when everyone sat in the gym/cafeteria to wait for the buses.  I used to hate to call out, “Children’s Home.”  But when Mr. Rutherford gave the bus a number, I think it was #71, we were all glad.  He stopped the marching into the dining room where everyone had an assigned seat at an assigned table.  The tables were changed around and we could sit almost anywhere we wanted.  I remember him walking throughout the floors in his stocking feet every night checking to see if everything was secure and we were all OK. 
 
“When I looked through the CD Edition [Pg 187 of A PLACE TO CALL HOME] I actually gasped when I saw the picture of Melvin and Billy Friend and Alvis with the horse  When Deeds Dairy gave the Home the pony and I thought it was huge. One day I dropped the reins and he ran away with them dragging on the ground and Melvin and Richard Hiller yelling at me.   They had to run and catch him.”

Mel sent us some pictures he has been saving since 1956. The pictures include some of the adults who helped care for the children: Both the boy’s and girl’s matrons are shown–between these ladies are the cooks. Mel is the boy sitting comfortably in front of the TV (really this picture was taken at his grandmother’s house, not at the home). The other pictures are simply an assortment of various activities and their size doesn’t enable sufficient identification but it is obvious the activities and daily routine were just about as normal as any home. A Christmas tree is shown; a girl with a bike (kids took turns getting to ride the bikes) and the pony Mel mentions in his letter. GOOD MEMORIES FOR MEL

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 Well, that should make any author feel good to have someone write after reading their work. If anyone is reading this and lived at the Fairfield County Children’s Home, drop us a line or an e-mail:(with this link) “A PLACE TO CALL HOME” and we will send more information about the CD Edition of the book, with price information. Melvin had it right when he said Ed & Maxine Rutherford made life a lot different when they took over as superintendent & matron. They were sensitive about the stigma home-less children had and tried to make life as normal as they could.