Cortland Ohio

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.