Exploring Mansfield, OH

Mansfield is a town of 50,000 people just 10 miles north of Bellville along OH Route 13. It used to be a bustling industry town, and now, like the rest of the rust belt, it's hurting. Apparently there is still at least one steel mill, and some other industry as well. I cannot pretend to know much about Mansfield, but it seems it had a high time.

I found this sign for the City News to be representative of something the city once had along with industry - a downtown and a white collar work force. Seeing this old sign made me nostalgic for something I've only seen in pictures, movies and tv. What comes to mind is a man in a sharp gray suit and fat red tie with a smart hat hustling in to get coffee and a newspaper, then getting off to the bank by nine. He greets passersby with a cheery "Good morning" and a "Sam, did you see what Feller did this weekend against the Yankees? Man, that guy can throw the ball!"

As I stood outside this little place I chatted with an older gentleman who was stopping in the Coney Island Diner, just next door. He told me he was 84 years old, and could recall the City News when he was a kid, and that the Coney Island Diner sold coneys for a nickel. It was great to get to talk with him. He had worked at a steel mill in town, and has been retired for 20+ years. It seemed he would have rather been working on this day, but his body had long ago decided it was done with the mill.