Sometime this spring marks 24 years since moving to North Texas from southern Ohio. Chillicothe Ohio to be precise. I lived in Chillicothe for a total of 23 years starting in 1968. Counting as I did, several times just to make sure, and counting three years I spent living in Houston, I have lived in Texas for most of my adult life. Still, for some reason, I cannot shake having lived in Chillicothe Ohio.
People I’ve worked with and people I’ve socialized with are quite familiar with stories I’ve told about the years I’ve lived in Chillicothe. Some of them have taken me to task for my repeated mentioning of that certain southern Ohio city.
I’m not the only person aware of Chillicothe Ohio. I about fell off my chair the other night when I ran across a clip from the syndicated television show Fernwood 2-Nite, a lampoon of television talk shows hosted by Ohio comedian Martin Mull. I accessed the clip on You-Tube when I learned that the guest was Harry Shearer. Now, Harry has been around for a while. He was on the pilot for Leave it to Beaver and is best known for providing many of the character voices for The Simpsons. So, Harry comes on and mentions that after doing the show with Martin Mull, he is headed to Dayton (Fernwood is set in the fictional town of Fernwood Ohio) or Chillicothe.
Whoa!
Had that been the only reference to Chillicothe in the wide world of entertainment, it would have been an absolute bombshell! Truth of the matter, Chillicothe Ohio is mentioned in any number of television and motion picture presentations. As an example, several weeks earlier, I was on You-Tube watching what was the first episode of the kid’s cartoon, Roger Ramjet when it was mentioned that one of the places targeted by the villain of the piece was…
Elvis Presley’s love interests in both Blue Hawaii and Viva Las Vegas were from Chillicothe, as was one of the soldiers in the war movie, The Longest Day. Those three I know for certain. Undoubtably there were more.
A newer book featuring a revamp of the old Tom Swift series mentions the city, although from the text, the author more or less picked the place out of a hat.
Several people of note have passed through the town. Bill Clinton, for one. Chillicothe was the first place he visited as President of the United States. He was less than a mile from my living room when he gave a speech at the high school gymnasium. I wisely stayed home – out of the way of the entourage and the many people just wanting to get a glimpse of the President. Bill has been what could be called a “Frequent Flyer,” appearing in at least two campaign appearances in ’96 and 2016 (for Hillary).
Peter Lupus, one of the team on Mission: Impossible came through town and purchased an automobile from one of the local dealers. Seems that the dealer had helped the struggling actor some years before. Lupus was returning the favor.
The best passing through Chillicothe story came about during World War II. A young Stan Lee was on his way east when he had a tire blow on him. A woman with ties to the rationing board hooked him up with a new tire and he was on his way to fame and Spiderman. Supposedly, whenever Mr. Lee needed to mention a small town as part of a story, he has used Chillicothe as his name of choice as an homage to his coming through the town. I don’t know that for certain. My specialty is trash TV, not the comics.
While it is nice to be associated with such a well-known, unknown city between Columbus and the Ohio River, it’s just as nice to know that there are people nearby who are from the same place. A sister to one of my old running buddies lives with her husband in the next town over. A fellow I knew from the church I attended lives a few miles away in Greenville. Another friend lives in nearby (by Texas standards) in Garland. We all have a little bit of Chillicothe in us.
Twenty-Four years. Almost six in what I call my little corner of the DFW Metromess. I like it here. A lot. But I sure am looking forward to visiting Chillicothe early this coming fall.
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