Flat Stanley goes to Camp!

Ok, firstly let me say oophs, this post for Friday Fun with Flat Stanley was suppose to focus on Art, due to some technical difficulties that's not happening. Sorry folks, please though do check back next Friday June 4th when Stanley hopes to share some fun art with you. And remember click on all photo's to enlarge them.

This is Flat Stanley in front of a Franklin County Historical Sign marking the location of Camp Willis. The sign indicates The National Guard was trained here in 1916 in order to go into service against Pancho Villa on The Mexican Boarder. Some 8,000 men trained here. Pancho Villa was a cold blooded killer, though loved by many. He had the reputation of a Robin Hood, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor; but he forced 18 American miners off a train and shot them in cold blood in 1916. He was ruthless many times over.

The men who trained here served under General Pershing. The camp was short lived and was dismantled in September of 1916. The need for this camp to train men interrupted the plan The Thompson brothers had for a "Garden Club Community". They had purchased land from Mr. Miller.
These historical markers are placed in a mall area in front of Jones (now middle school) High School. Upper Arlington is the birthplace of notables like Jack Nicklaus and Bev D'Angelo.
This fabulous old photo was published back in 1941, in The Norwester's publication was prior to Upper Arlington becoming a city. If you click to enlarge you'll see the high school, to the right where the arrow is you see the pool. Both exist to this day. The white oval in the bottom left marks where the current mall area is, the location of the historical markers noting the interruption in the planned community with the building of Camp Willis.

As always, Flat Stanley suggest word puzzles, maps, math, coloring activities to make these stories come alive. History is not dead, it is more then dates and facts of long ago, it is stories of people who lived, and loved their families just as we do. They made mistakes along the way, just as we do. Much of history teaches us what mistakes not to repeat. Remember some lessons from Upper Arlington's early history?

Til next time, Flat Stanley out.
Please check back for a Special Memorial Day with Flat Stanley and again on Friday June 4th for the Friday Fun with Flat Stanley Series.
Did you miss Stanley's previous Friday Adventures?

• April 23, 2010 Books and Parks (Upper Arlington, Ohio)
• April 30, 2010 Traitor or Hero (Worthington, Ohio)
• May 7, 2010 Flat Stanley and his friend Captain Pinney (Worthington, Ohio)
• May 14, 2010 First Flight and Flat Stanley (Worthington, Ohio)
• May 21, 2010 Up The Indian Mound with Flat Stanley (Columbus, Ohio)

River Street, Savannah, Georgia

*remember to click to enlarge pictures
Historic River Street in Savannah Georgia is fun even on a cloudy, rainy day. You can walk the coastline of The Savannah River and enjoy watching the boats and ships come and go. You can see pleasure boats, cruise boats/ships, and cargo ships coming and going from this busy seaport. You can sign up for a fun filled Pirate Ship Tour. This is a particularly good activity for families, the small children love it.
This quaint slippery, steep cobblestone street is closed off. We're at the waters edge looking back up the hill.
Can you begin to see how steep this hill is? How old and uneven the cobblestone is? I was glad I had tennis shoes on for walking; everyone we saw with sandals and less sturdy shoes was having a time of it. It had rained and these aged and very worn stones were treacherous.
Looking down the row of old businesses, you can see how narrow the street is. Savannah you might know is one of the cities saved when Sherman's troops marched through Georgia. It was deemed to pretty to destroy, so the city has many historic streets, houses, and businesses. This would have been the original main street when the port was busy transporting cotton and other trade goods.
We're on a bridge of the now main street looking down watching the old meet the new. This narrow, slippery cobblestone street and parking lot present quite a challenge for today's modern vehicles. Note the Budweiser truck and what little space he has to turn. Note the sawdust. He had made his deliveries and could not keep up the ramp due to the steepness and how slippery the roadbed was. They had quite a team working to get parked cars out of the way in case the truck flipped, slipped, and or needed more space. They had been working on this for over an hour we were told by other interested visitors.
The 2nd truck driver is also watching closely, assuming he'll have the same trouble. Another reminder if you haven't already done so; click on these 2 truck pictures so you can see the situation.
We spent a couple of hours walking this area, stopped for lunch, hit a few shops. A fun way to spent time in Savannah. I do hope we're able to return for a longer visit. We had driven over from Hilton Head and the weather was getting bad, fog rollin in and we felt it best to get back. The road to and from is narrow and curvy; not the best place to be in the low country when the fog moves in.

Recommendations wear comfortable supportive shoes, if you have small children use a stroller; there's too much difficult walking for them. Do a child friendly activity like the Pirate's Cruise.