Shirks Candies, Sansotta's Italian Restaurant, Cardinals (Marion Road Trip part II)

Shirks Candies!  Home made candy since 1932.  Located at 1235 South Prospect Street, Marion Ohio.  Closed on Sunday and Monday, opened 10 am til 5:30 pm Tuesday through Friday, and 9:30 am til 4 pm on Sat.  A must when you visit Marion.  You can order on line through their website.  They have a facebook page as well.

Lots of variety, you won't leave dissapointed.

An area showing family members, news articles with some history of the family.  Elwood "Bert" Shirk purchased The Carmel Crisp Shop which was in downtown Marion back in 1932.  He made his Carmel Corn often as the theaters were letting out.  The aroma tempting the movie goers to purchase.  In 1940 he owned a sandwich shop were he also sold his goodies.  In 1965 his son Dick and wife Joan took over the business and grew it.  In 1999 their son Rick took over the business.  

Me with my bag of goodies on the way out of the store.

My purchases:  Cashews, Turtles, Peanut Butter Cups, and dark chocolate and sea salt covered carmel.  All were fantastic.

Another family owned buisness to visit is Sansotta's located at 1292 Delaware Avenue, Marion Ohio.  Hours are 10:45 am til 8 pm Monday through Sat, and 10:45 am til 5pm on Sunday.  It's a small non frills restaurant with good homemade food.  Pasta Bowls, Salads, Sandwiches, and daily specials.  All very resonably priced.

Small amount of tables, but it appeared they do a large carryout business when we were there for lunch.

You order at the counter and seat yourself.  

Hubby and I had 2 Torpedoes a piece.  I had ham and cheese (pictured above) and he had  meatball Torpedoes.  

You can walk or ride around downtown Marion and see beautifully painted Cardinals.  There are 17 to find.  Ohio was the 17th state in the Union, and the Cardinal is the state bird.  Each bird is painted by local artists and represents history.  The plaques on the bottom tell you who the artists were, which businesses sponsored the Cardinal.

Look at the details, so pretty.

This one reprents the histoic Palace Theater.

The historic Palace Theater built in 1928 has served Marion for many years from Vaudeville and Silent Films to todays concerts and other activities.

The Beautiful Palace is also available for weedings and other special events.

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit.

St. Mary's Cemetery in Marion, Ohio

Look at this beautiful sculpture of Jesus on the Cross.  It's taken in St. Mary's Cemetery in Marion, Ohio.  When I was a child we lived in Marion and would cut through this beautiful cemetery to get to The Park and to Harding's Memorial.  I don't think as a child I paid much attention to the beauty there.  Now, I enjoy traveling to cemeteries and find them interesting both for the artistic older stones, the history you can learn while there.  Sometimes the names you see will match those you see on street signs, sometimes other things jump out at me.

 Look at the dates here, born in 1844, Domenico Sansotta.  This jumped out at me for two reasons, the date and the name reminded me of what I thought I heard a woman I work with say was her maiden name.

 This jumped out, as it was nearby and is the same name, but look carefully...this is a Bronze Star Medal World War II Veteran.  I always love to honor our Veterans.  And certainly with the name of Dominic and the above Domenico there are related.

 Goodness this family truly served our country.  Joseph here was in The Navy, while above Dominic was in The Army; both in World War II.

And another beautiful Sansotta stone.  As it turns out, this is indeed family to my co=worker, so I was so pleased I had photographed these stones.  Makes me feel closer to her, honoring her family.  I was visiting this cemetery with a childhood friend who also remarked about how beautiful the cemetery was and how differently we feel about it now as adults vs a cut through when we were children.

When hubby and I travel, I almost always visit an interesting cemetery.  You learn so much about differently areas of the country, or other cultures if not in the U.S.

Did a little research and found Domenico immigrated here in September of 1921 on the San Giorgio ship from Naples Italy to the port in New York before settling in Marion, Ohio.  His parents were Diego and Pellonia (Pisane) Sansotta.  He was born in Cimina, Italy.  He lived to be 86.  I have his last address noted and hope to be able to photograph the house this interesting Italian Immigrant lived in.  He was an American Citizen.  I think I would like to have known this interesting man.

Related some of this to people who live in Marion, I also learned that Marion had a very strong and rich Italian history...I didn't know that before I took these photographs in St. Mary's Cemetery.

Pop in Often, remember Menu Mondays for dining tips, Traveling Tips on Thursday, and any day for vacation destinations.