Worthington Memory  
http://www.worthingtonmemory.org
Contributor: Worthington Libraries
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[Martin Jenkins]

Well, I was President of the Arts Council for three years, and consequently my most
poignant recollection of the Folk Fest is about thirty-five feet away from where we
are sitting now cooking bratwursts all day, from about ten o'clock in the morning
until six o'clock in the evening, and going home and spending the next two days 
trying to get the grease off your glasses.

And, those were the days when only volunteers were used on the food concession
stands so that was part of the fun was gettin' people in the community to come
together to work hard for a day in the interest of the Arts Council and the interest
of the community.

And, from that, it is interesting to see how far the event's come and how more
sophisticated it has become, but also appreciated the fact back in those days that
more of it was done by volunteers, and I am encouraged to see the library using a
lot of volunteers and collecting a lot of information about how things were done.
Maybe we can encourage people to act more like neighbors and in neighborhoods.

The other things I remember about this location is right back of us is the former
library.  When we first came to town in 1970, that was the library, and we spent many
hours with our son roaming those two floors and little cubbyholes that were all
around the place, and probably as a result of that experience and some other life
experiences, our son is a librarian today, and we have enjoyed watching the progress
of the Old Worthington Library and then the Northwestern Branch.  It has been fun to
see that institution grow with the community and become even more capable of meeting
the needs of the growing community.

The third thing that might be useful is how we got to Worthington initially.  We
moved back to central Ohio after spending some time out in the rest of the state, 
and in preparing to come back, I asked the superintendent of schools in the
community where we were how he decided what school district to live in when he was
completing his PhD at Ohio State, and he said he went to each of the school
superintendents that he knew in this area and said, "Assuming that I can't live in
your district, where should I locate?", and the unanimous pick was Worthington, and
so it is good to see the schools continue to be that kind of draw, but we are also
interested in again the community rallying around the schools and being helpful to
keep the quality of the schools.

So, those are three recollections I have of the Folklife Festival, the library and of how
we got to Worthington.