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From Marietta, Ohio

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I am in Marietta, Ohio 45750 where I went to college, where I met and married the Mullings Director of Standards & Practices, where I was elected to the City Council, and where The Lad was born.

It is homecoming at Marietta College and I am here to convive with people I went to school with and many of whom I haven't seen in over four decades.

For those who have followed my adventures, you have seen photos of me in my Marietta College sweatshirt in Babylon, Iraq on the stone platform where King Nebuchadnezzar's thrown sat; and in Bamiyan, Afghanistan standing in front of the holes in the mountain where the Taliban blew up the giant statues of Bhuddah.

There are Marietta, Ohio's throughout America.

These are the small cities where everyone may not know everyone, but everyone recognizes everyone enough to say "hello" when they pass on the main street.

These are small cities which have suffered population losses as the kids have left to go to college and found employment in Philadelphia, Columbus, Tulsa, Atlanta, Denver, or Sacramento.

And, that's too bad. The Marietta, Ohio's of America, to a great extent, define "community."

That is not to say that every Friday afternoon the townspeople march down Main Street to the strains of "76 Trombones" but it is a place where, if you have a real problem, someone will come by your house to see if they can help.

Marietta, Ohio is the kind of place were an elderly gentleman - whose driver's license had been taken away - fired up his riding lawn mower and drove it to the grocery store. Sort of makes sense, when you think about it.

This is the place where, when I was a young reporter at WMOA, the local radio station, wandered into the police station to ask the police chief why he didn't shut down the local bookie joint which was - this is true - in the back room of the only pool hall in town.

The Chief told me a story about how just that afternoon he had gotten a call from a woman whose husband had bet, and lost, the grocery money on some football games the previous weekend.

He called the bookie, told him to give the man his money back, and to ban him from the pool hall until further notice.

"Practical justice," he said. "I can keep track of what's going on and keep it from getting out of hand."

Marietta College was founded in 1835 and is a major addition to the city. Marietta is not a small college town, it is a small town with a college.

Unlike some communities which are overwhelmed by a university, Marietta is a town where the college provides diversity and culture which, otherwise, would be absent to the culture, but does not define the city.

I drove over for homecoming. Last night there was a "pork roast" sponsored by the Lamda Chi Alphas. I was a TKE when I was at school, but at a small school - long about the second semester of your junior year - those distinctions disappear.

My long-time friend and ally Ross Lenhart (an Alpha Sigma Phi and a Democrat) and I laughed via Facebook last week that a TKE and a Sig were going to meet at a party thrown by the Lamda Chi's.

We did.

Sounds like a small thing, but in an era when too many people, spend too much time, being too ugly to each other, over too many things, its nice to know that in a place named Marietta, Ohio old friends can cast aside old enmities and buy each other a beer 40 years on.

Seventy six trombones led the big parade …

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On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Links to the Marietta College website, also to Bamiyan and Babylon. A reprise of the Mullfotos of me in my Marietta College sweatshirt and a Catchy Caption of the Day.