Kaleidoscope:
by Ken Lahmers,
Aurora Advocate Editor;
In the past few months I've rediscovered the pleasure of reading books.
Having been in the newspaper business all my life, I've been an avid reader of newspapers and some magazines, but read few books since my high school and college years.
That all changed in 2007, when I decided to read about some of my favorite topics -- the history of Ohio, coal mining, tractors, trains, the Holocaust, and other things.
I particularly enjoy local history, because it's interesting to learn about places I've been, businesses I've known, and structures I've seen.
In the last year, I've read close to 20 books. I'm becoming a non-fiction junkie.
The latest book I finished was written by a former Auroran who many local readers might know -- Joyce Dyer, who now lives in Hudson.
An English professor at Hiram College, she is the wife of retired longtime Harmon School teacher Dan Dyer. Their son, Stephen, is state representative from the 43rd District.
In 2003, Joyce came out with "Gum-Dipped: A Daughter Remembers Rubber Town," which is a fantastic recollection of her years growing up in the Firestone Park neighborhood of Akron.
She recalls when she and her parents moved into a house there in the early 1950s. Her dad, who worked at Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. for 37 years, lived in that house until he died in 1990.
Joyce remembers the years in the 1950s and 1960s when smoke poured out of the massive Firestone plants and the tire industry was thriving in Akron.
Then in the 1970s, the complex shut down, and some of its buildings were razed, the same fate that befell other tire manufacturers in town.
Joyce tells that after more than 25 years as a supervisor at Firestone's Xylos reclaim plant, her dad was demoted because he didn't have a college degree, which Firestone officials wanted plant management to have.
She recalls how her mother lived her final years with Alzheimer's disease and her dad his final few months with lung cancer.
It's a touching story about a blue-collar man whose life was dedicated to Firestone and how he was blocked from climbing up the management ladder.
It was a story I can relate to since my dad spent nearly 30 years as a machinist in a factory in Canton.
"Gum-Dipped" was the second book of Dyer's that I read. In 1996, she wrote "In a Tangled Wood: An Alzheimer's Journey" about her mother's struggle with the disease.
Dyer also has written "The Awakening: A Novel of Beginnings," a companion to Kate Chopin's novel "The Awakening," and "Bloodroot: Reflections on Place by Appalachian Women Writers," as well as essays in many magazines and books.
She told me in a recent e-mail that she's working on a book about the Goosetown area of Akron, where she resided the first five years of her life.
I will add it to my reading list as I continue to enjoy one of my new favorite pastimes: Visiting the Kent Free Library and sitting in the senior citizens reading room for the 55 and older crowd.
E-mail: klahmers@recordpub.com
Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3155