This is my Grandpa Harned (Al to everyone) at the 1959 Cortland Street Fair. He moved to Cortland from Conneaut Lake PA. He was born August 2, 1903, as I recall, was married to my Grandma Gen until her death, & lived to age 93. They are buried in the cemetery by Mosquito Lake at the foot of W. Main St. This is how I remembered him as a kid (going on 9). My birthday is August 21. I am 63 today.
Grandpa Al was Mayor of Cortland Village & superintendent of Richard’s Milling [W. Main @ Mecca St.], and later owned the Atlantic station @SR5 &SR46. (Dad, Bob, & Ornetta all graduated from Cortland HS [Park Ave. @ Pearl St.], where I attended Cortland Elementary & junior high through 7th grade.
CORTLAND OHIO 44410, where I grew up, didn’t have ZIP codes then. The first phone number I remember is NEStor 72722. (We dialed 637 for the NES before push button phones.) We shared a party line with my Uncle Bob (who still lives on SR 46 near SR 305.)
Now I can hardly remember my cell number or anyone else’s. I just tell my phone, “Call Dad.”
I grew up on E. Main St @ Willow, just down the street from my grandfather’s little 2 acre farm in the village where my Dad grew up [@ Stahl] & my Grandma Gen had the last horses & ponies in Cortland, which pulled floats in the Cortland Street Fair parade every year.
We attended Cortland Methodist Church every week. I practically grew up on skates at Cortland Roller Rink [S. High] when my dad managed it & mom sometimes played the organ (before 45rpm records & D.J.’s changed the landscape of America).
I took organ lessons from Wilhemena Viets on N. High St. [now Viets Library]. Dad & Bob built some of the houses in Cortland & part of the Sparkle Market on S High over an old movie theater. Dad was also Cortland Volunteer Fire Department Chief & later Lakeview High School Board President. [Bill Harned is still an active resident of Bazetta Township & God willing will turn 90, September 15, 2013.]
After I left Cortland, my mom, Marie [d.2007] took up her saxophone again to play in the Cortland Community Band, in which my wife Becky [d.1999] had played bass drum & I was the first director. Becky was first physical therapist at Lakeview and was instrumental in early accessibility for Trumbull County’s physically handicapped students, including the handicapped playground at the then-new Lakeview Middle School & a wheelchair sports program at Lakeview HS.
The Cortland Community Band will perform a 30th anniversary concert on Sunday, November 3, 2013, 3:00 p.m., at Lakeview High School Auditorium.
