Ready Steady Yeti

On second thought, technically, I shouldn't call Clyde a "small town" because it is classified as a city now, so "small city" is more appropriate.

I'm preparing to write a nonfiction book with this name (I'm pretty sure) about Clyde, Sandusky County, Ohio, which will include extensive information about the town's history, institutions, notable people, etc. Clyde is known for being the setting of Sherwood Anderson's famous novel Winesburg, Ohio, and that in itself is a huge story to tell. The Whirlpool manufacturing plant there is a pretty big deal. General James B. McPherson is from Clyde, so that's another big deal. There are lots of really cool things about the town that I am dying to write about. Basically, the book will be a compilation of "articles" that will in essence cover everything someone would ever want to know about Clyde. My book will also talk about some geographical information about Clyde, such as bodies of water, the Clyde borders, and will include a map of the city, its location in the county, the state, the country, and then the world. There will be some demographics, such as population, census data, voting information, etc. Among many other things... There are several ways I will compile this information. I've already created several Wikipedia articles on various elements of the town, such as Thaddeus B. Hurd, and quite frankly, some of my work may be converted into Wikipedia articles. To do that, I had to find both primary and secondary written sources, such as newspapers, books, (rarely) magazines, and individual webpages. Some information is scarcely documented, though, so I may have to ask around when I go to Clyde this summer to give certain people interviews about a subject. Anyway, I'll keep you guys informed. I hope it's okay if I upload drafts of my book's content here. Each article will be an individual topic, and you can voice your opinions on what I write and give me some positive criticism. Eventually, this project can be complete, and the first nonfiction book ever to be just written about Clyde, especially with this much information, will be published! Pretty exciting!

Hi. I am an young, amateur "web historian" who seems to have an apparently quite rare obsession with Ohio. I have some really good, laid-back, and loving family who lives in Northwest Ohio that I only get to see once a year. Unfortunately, I actually live in South Carolina, because I feel obliged to live there and that's where my "support network" is (even though I really wish it wasn't). It's always been my dream to LIVE in the absolutely free and beautiful Ohio life, because that's the only life I've ever lived that's given me pretty much complete happiness. When most people think of SC, they think mostly of the country, but this was not my experience with SC at all. I grew up in a fairly suburban portion of it. I'll be straight-up honest with you, and this is gonna sound kind of far-fetched or mean to some of you, but most of the people who live in my area of SC mostly think of Ohio as this fairly primitive place with nothing to do or see and where success in life is virtually impossible. So therefore, I'm surrounded by these stuck-up egotists, and the most frustrating thing about it is that a lot of these egotists are my family that live here. See, they could never understand why I need the Ohio life, and frankly, maybe I won't either, but I just feel like I do. Something about SC just doesn't feel right to me, and OH just feels like it fits me exactly. It's always been a dream of mine to actually live in Ohio where everything seems to be so much easier for me. It's a much more laid-back environment, and in my town I don't even have to drive to get to a lot of the places I want to go, and there isn't much traffic at all, so crossing roads is no problem at all. Ohio is my happy place, and it has been ever since I first went there. I don't know why, but I see so much beauty in it. I'm absolutely fascinated with Ohio. I literally couldn't think of a better place for me to be. (Before you ask, yes, I've been in Ohio during the winter, and I know about the snow and have experienced it. That didn't change my mind.) Here's a typical conversation with someone from South Carolina about moving to Ohio. Person B: "Oh, it's always been my dream to move to Colorado!" Me: "Well, personally, my dream place to live is Ohio! Everything is so nice and laid back there and there's so much to do and see." Person B: *looks at me like I have something wrong with me* "Ohio??? As in that place full of just farmland, that I have to drive all the way through just to get to New York (or wherever) ???" Me: :-( But... I find the farmland to be so beautiful. I'm not a person who'd live on a farm, but every time I drive through Ohio through all the farms and farmland and small towns and downtown areas, it's like driving through some kind of fantasy land. I still don't know why I see so much beauty and uniqueness in it, but really nothing could ever replace those experiences. I'm actually writing a book about the town at which I stay. I'll be running around going to museums, interviewing people, reading books, and researching on the web to compile all the information about the town possible into this nonfiction book I'm writing. I've heard of people going to Ohio and begging to leave as soon as possible, when I'm literally begging to be able to stay for longer! Forever would be even better. I've never gone to a place where I had so much freedom to do basically whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and have a whole county and more to explore at my own free will on my bike (and I might also rent a car this summer there, who knows, so then possibly more than that even!). So I want to ask you, community, why is it that I see so much beauty and everybody else here just thinks it's boring or like any other place? I'm sure a lot of you feel the same way about Ohio as I do, since you are enthusiastic enough about the state to come to this forum. What is the beauty of Ohio? Why is it the best place for me to be? Why am I the only person in existence here in my state at least who actually thinks of Ohio as the ideal living location, or anything even remotely close to "cool"? How can I better explain it to people? How would you?