Jack Cantrell for Athens: Glimpses of Home

Of Workers, Wax and Royalty: the tale of a sweetly satisfied local beekeeper
By Jenaye Antonuccio (photo by Sherry DiBari)

A veil. A smoker. A cage for a queen.

These are a few of the many tools needed when Jack Cantrell works with a hairy, four-winged, five-eyed insect that communicates through dance and works itself to death producing gold.

Cantrell, local beekeeper and president of the Athens County Area Beekeeping Association (ACABA), is devoted to all things bee: his license plate reads “HUNEBEE”, the last four digits of his phone number is “BEES”, and he’s comfortable nearly always wearing his plastic beekeeping helmet. His fascination and dedication has spanned over 40 years, save for one, in which he was unhappily hive-less. “I couldn’t stand it anymore,” he says, “so I got started again. All my life all I ever wanted to do was raise honey bees.”

“I carry a hive tool like most people carry a pen,” he says.

Yet the tools he uses most often are his hands, which are usually covered with stings. Most of the time, he pays no mind. But a few weeks ago, when setting up 100 more new hives on his farm, he says his hands swelled so bad he had to remove his wedding ring – a rare occasion.

This doesn’t stop him. “I could be in a beehive all day long and it doesn’t bother me,” he says.

Cantrell sells pure honey and his wife’s beeswax candles at the Farmer’s Market, and honey in select stores around town. He sells bees and queens from his “survivor” stock of a breed known for its cleanliness and non-aggressive characteristics – Italian honeybees of the Minnesota hygienic strain.

But recent population decline and disease surges – varroa and tracheal mites, and nosema spores - have plagued honeybees across the nation. In addition, a phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), affecting mostly larger beekeeping operations, has stumped the industry with unexplainable disappearances of entire colonies of bees from hives. Officials speculate that environment and climate change is the culprit, in addition to superabundance of low-nutrition-value crops.

“My feeling is that without help from the beekeeper, I don’t know if the bees could survive,” says Cantrell. Disease control is constant within his hives, particularly chemical-free methods, like the use latex gloves to prevent disease from spreading, or dusting the bees with powdered sugar, prompting them to clean themselves and dislodge the mites.

Beekeeping, it seems, is more necessary than we realize. Studies have proven that honeybees directly impact the economy and environment. According to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, honeybee pollination, especially of specialty crops, adds $15 billion in annual value to U. S. crop production. More than 90 crops solely depend on pollination by honeybees. If declines of honeybees and beekeepers continued, it could greatly impact fruit and vegetable growers and increase prices of already-expensive produce.

Is there sweetness in our future? “I think the bees will survive this,” Cantrell states. “We have challenges with it, but more people are using the survivor stock.”

Whether as a backyard hobbyist or managing a full-fledged operation, keeping bees is rising in popularity as a beneficial, sustainable, and lucrative venture.

Even the White House has gotten involved. A recent addition of two hives to the newly resurrected White House garden further promotes beekeeping's benefits. “I think that it is great!” says Cantrell. “They are promoting beekeeping, gardening and sustainability for their own family.”

He adds, laughing, “I’d like to see him (Obama) in a veil going through the hive.”

Likewise, the Athens area has seen piqued interest in beekeeping. As president of the ACABA, Cantrell’s phone rings constantly. This year there are 50 members (15 of whom are new), with 32 additional hives started in the area. “Our goal is for people to buy local bees,” he says, “because they survived winter here, and they are used to our winters.”

In December, after 35 years of selling insurance, Cantrell began fulfilling his lifelong dream of keeping bees full-time. “I work harder now than I ever have in my life, but I don’t look at it as work,” he says. “It is fun - I am having the time of my life.”

And it is all for this:

The acres of the farm he and his wife own are occupied by the nucleus yard for starting bees, the “Honey House” which holds a 400 gallon storage tank connected to the extractor, the candle-making shop with more than 70 molds and color chips to add to the golden beeswax, and a barn full of waiting, regulation hand-built “supers” – the hives. He maintains hives scattered on other properties from here to Gallipolis to Johnstown, to save the bees from starving in such close proximity. He’s been spotted many-a-time driving down the highway with his smoker still going full blast from the back of his truck and veil still in place on his head.

And this is the honey season. This June, he’s already begun extracting honey made from the honey locust trees, and will continue extractions throughout the season, depending on current blooms. This includes the buckwheat he will plant in a nearby field, specifically for the unique, dark brew it makes.

Honey, other than serving as an alternative sweetener, has also been touted as easing allergy symptoms, coating a sore throat, and soothing burns. At the Farmer’s Market, where Cantrell has sold honey and candles for nine years, he cheerfully hands out “honey sticks” – sealed straws filled with local bees’ special brew.

Sustaining the “survivor” strength in our local bees sometimes involves the act of caging a queen. Bees reproduce all year round, especially when kept warm and supplied with a food-source over the winter. Eggs are laid regularly, looking like small grains of rice in the bottom of a cell. Queens are grown from larvae stage: the bees eat the wax around her cell, leaving it to hang down, and feed her strict secretions of “royal jelly”. The queen, slightly larger than the rest of the bees, rules the hive, the other bees serving her.

Cantrell cages queens to sell, or to quickly sustain a hive whose queen has died, or to start a new hive. With his bare hands, Cantrell lifts the frame from the “super”. The frame is covered with crawling bees. He spots her, picks her out with his fingers, and deftly places her in the “cage” – a plastic container that fits easily in his shirt pocket.

The cage is then inserted into a hive. The bees, seeking to kill her as an intruder, will take three days to eat the piece of candy blocking her escape from the cage. In that amount of time, they will realize they need her. As soon as the candy is gone, they will have released her, ready for rule.

“They are amazing insects,” Cantrell marvels.

His years of beekeeping have taught him to continue operating in ways that works best for him. “It is a learning experience,” he says. “What works for one beekeeper might not work for someone else - it all depends on your own operation.”

Sometimes, after busy weeks of extracting, he gets tired of looking at honey. But he never grows tired of the taste. His favorites? “Peanut butter and honey!” he exclaims. “And honey on vanilla ice cream.”

Mmmm… how sweet it is.

Athens: Glimpses of Home

On the Home Front: Memorializing the Athens “Magazine Lady”
By Jenaye Antonuccio

In 1971, the National Holiday Act established Memorial Day as a three-day-weekend. Since then, Memorial Day has been celebrated more with barbeques and sporting events than honoring those who have died while in service to our country. The VFW stated, “Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed greatly to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day.”
This story is about a woman who at her time of death in 1974, age 77, did not die in service. Rather, it is about her simple act of giving during World War II that eased the minds of thousands upon thousands of soldiers - many never to return – that passed through Athens aboard troop trains, before their final destination to fight for victory.

The idea came while she paused from the sweeping of her porch.

On December 7, 1941, Mrs. Margaret E. McGraner, age 45 at the time, stood on her porch and watched the first of many troop trains roll into Athens.

Pearl Harbor had just been bombed. Citizens lined up, ready to enlist. The majority wanted to serve; Mrs. McGraner was no exception.

In a recorded oral history at the Athens County Historical Society and Museum, Mrs. McGraner, who would later become famously known as the “Athens Magazine Lady”, said she felt she had to do something. She assessed the resources she had: 75 magazines and an Athens Messenger.

“I’ll give to them,” she said. “That’s what started it.”

She walked from her house to the train station that night, bearing her gifts, and would continue to give to the soldiers for the entire duration of the war, no matter the weather or the hour.

After that night, she relayed her plan to the Athens Messenger owners, hoping the rest of Athens would support her idea with donations of magazines and newspapers to give to the troops. Athens responded. Soon, the gifts offered also included playing cards, testaments, post cards, and song sheets.

Once, she recalled, she and her husband were interrupted from their supper by a delivery of 1,500 magazines. Word was spreading. People heard of her efforts and sent magazines from all over the country. “Magazines came from every state, except South Dakota,” she said.

Throughout the entire war, she never missed a train.

Robert Hedges, 87, a retired U. S. Postal Service employee, recalls what she did for the soldiers. He states, “She put Athens on the map.”

Anna Hedges, wife of Robert, comments, “It became a town project.”

War would change the face of the world, the country and the town. People learned to survive on little, and to reuse what they already had. Soon slogans such as: "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" or “Roses are red, violets are blue. Sugar is sweet. Remember?” would highlight the mood of the country.

President Franklin Roosevelt would make a series of speeches, “fireside chats”, on nighttime radio programs, meant to encourage those on the home front. In April, 1942, he said, "One front and one battle where everyone in the United States - every man, woman, and child - is in action. That front is right here at home, in our daily lives.”

This “action” translated into a new determination, a purpose of life.

In July, 1943, he said, "We shall not settle for less than total victory. That is the determination of every American on the fighting fronts. That must be and will be the determination of every American at home".

Sacrifices at home helped serve the country. Suddenly, the act of growing a garden, rationing or salvaging scraps wasn’t merely to save money. It meant more for soldiers overseas - remaining food supplies provided strength for battle and gathered materials went towards making weapons. The end goal was Victory.

Robert Hedges remembers, “It was a different time back then. People really wanted to help out in community efforts.” He and his wife, Anna, recall the various stations around town where rubber, magazines, newspapers, and tin were collected – even down to foil gum wrappers.

Mrs. McGraner’s idea - the simple law of “demand and supply” – was met creatively utilizing pared-down war-era resources. It appealed to town members in its simplicity and goodwill.

Janice Sapp, 90, who helped by delivering magazines to Mrs. McGraner, recalls, “She was a good woman.” Mrs. Sapp, who also served during the war in a “cage” - a contained secure office - working on the blueprints for the Helldiver dive-bomber, says she believes that what Mrs. McGraner did changed Athens – the community changed “in giving” and ultimately made the soldiers “happy”.

Multitudes of letters from soldiers were received by Mrs. McGraner expressing their gratitude. One such letter from Auburn, Alabama states:

“I thought I would write to you and let you know how much the boys appreciate the magazines and cards that you gave us when we came through your town. You are really helping us keep up our morale…”

When supplies were low, Mrs. McGraner would call up the Messenger, who wrote the appeal:

From the Athens Messenger, Thursday February 17, 1944: “More magazines, playing cards, and money to purchase postcards are needed by Mrs. Earnest McGraner, Athens’ ‘Magazine Lady’… The call for magazines came Wednesday... She is now out of magazines… Unless Athens’ ‘Magazine Lady” is to miss the troop trains, whose officers have come to know her and look for her, magazines must be brought to her at once.”

“Before the war was over,” Mrs. McGraner said in the recording, “I would give the boys 2 million, 500 thousand magazines, besides the decks of cards.”

“I tell you,” she said in the recording, “I was busy.” Yet, she boasts she still kept her house “nice and pretty”.

Nominated and entered into the Congressional Record (78th Congress, Second Session) for her act of service, she would also guest-star on numerous radio shows of the time, and be featured in national publications.

But fame did not stray her from her course. Once, she refused to be interviewed on a California radio show lest traveling made her miss the trains.

183 W. Union Street, the address where Mrs. McGraner’s house once stood, does not exist today. An Ohio University Human Resources building is in its place; across the street is the HDL center. In the 1940s, a junkyard, a lumberyard, two service stations, and numerous factories occupied this area of town. The train station, now on the National Register of Historic Places, would have been in direct line of view from Mrs. McGraner’s porch.

Mrs. Margaret E. McGraner’s 1974 obituary stated she died after a long illness, with no living extended family. Her husband had passed in 1951. She had been a member of her church, and of the local American Legion Auxiliary.

She rests under a tree that shades her grave, in between her husband and brother-in-law, both veterans of the World War I.

Row after row of graves in this and other local cemeteries have stories to tell. Many died while serving our country overseas; many died while serving at home.

According to recent statistics, veterans of World War II are dying at a rate of over 1,000 a day. Their stories, history, and tales of survival through an unprecedented time dies with them.

Today, younger generations face conditions they are unaccustomed to - recession, job eliminations and layoffs, high costs of basic needs. Survivors of rationing, blackouts, and fear could have much to teach to a generation whose “plenty” has been diminished.

If Memorial Day is set aside for us to preserve the memory of, to honor, and to celebrate those who sacrificed their lives, then remembering Mrs. Margaret E. McGraner’s story celebrates a uniqueness in its simplicity: everyone has the capacity to serve and make things a little brighter in difficult times – just look around for the need, and fill it with resources at hand.

Special thanks to Anna and Robert Hedges; Nikki Metts at the Lindley Inn; Janice Sapp, Larry Sapp and his wife; Margaret Shafer, manager of Athens Station project; Kelee Riesbeck and the Athens County Historical Society; Joanne Prisley; Todd Bastin at the Athens Public Library; Judy Connick with Ohio University’s Archives and Special Collections.

Defining “mother”: one answer to the call of need
By Jenaye Antonuccio (photo by Sherry DiBari)

How could you spend 10,950 days, 262,800 hours, or 15,768,000 minutes – the equivalent of 30 years? Some examples: Fight a war in central Europe; watch one branch form on the giant, fernlike dioon plant; pay off a mortgage; announce football plays as a sports broadcaster…

Terry Beitzel has gladly invested her thirty years by being a mother to other people’s children – as a foster parent. “It’s been a blessing,” she says. “We’ve gotten to be involved in so many lives.”

“So many” equates to nearly 150 children from age 22 hours to 17 years old, now living in locations from Florida to New York City to 15 miles down the road. In addition, she and her husband have adopted three of their own over their course of service with Athens County Children’s Services.

Growing up within their own respective families’ fostering experiences, Beitzel and her husband, when first married, jointly decided to try their hand at fostering children. Four years later, after an intensive screening process, everything was ready: bedding, clothing, carseats, highchairs, and toys were purchased, and the household was rearranged in order to answer a call for the county’s children-in-need.

“It is our life’s devotion,” says Beitzel. “I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t share myself with the kids.”

Modern day definitions of “mother” have changed – which is especially apparent in Mother’s Day card options. Beyond a biological relationship between woman and child, “mother” can mean any kindly, protective female role-model. Though Beitzel describes a mother as “someone who is nurturing, loving and able to share life completely”, she shies away from being called “mom” out of respect for the child’s birth parent. She leaves the decision of what to be called up to the child (as long as it is appropriate). “Most of the time its ‘mama’, ‘nana’, or our first names for the older kids,” she says.

“My goal,” says Beitzel, “is to provide care for the young, making sure they are safe, secure and loved. Each child is different - you just have to feel out their personality and their needs and go from there.”

Fostering programs seek to strengthen families while providing a stable, temporary home for the child. But the ultimate goal is for the child to be reunified with his or her family. “We try to give what we feel they need to survive and to go out in life,” she says. “It’s always hard when they leave, that’s never an easy time. But just knowing that you were there at a time that they needed someone - it makes a big difference.”

Whether dealing with issues of mental illness or attachment disorder, physical or sexual abuse, fetal alcohol syndrome or drug addictions, Beitzel tries to approach the situation with understanding. “It is very important for the child to work with the parent to successfully get them back where they need to be, if the goal is reunification,” she says. “I’ve learned to be adaptable and not judgmental.”

“Building relationships with the parents I feel is so important,” says Beitzel. Because of this, many children who have passed through the Beitzel home have stayed in contact and asked advice through letters and phone calls and occasional visits.

Beitzel and her husband are currently licensed to take up to three children, with specifications for toddlers and babies. She says, “I’m a big rocker - my babies have never gone to bed without being asleep before they are tucked in.”

“Holding these little guys,” says Beitzel, smiling, “you get that first little touch of their hand on your cheek, and that smile of trust, and it is just overwhelming.”

Balance is key to maintaining a unified family front. She and her husband make sure they have time for dates and one-on-one time with their own children. “Staying on the same page, we usually talk about expectations, our goals,” she says.

Her faith, she says, is a necessary source of strength. Agency-approved babysitters and a support group provide respite. “If we need a break,” she says, “we take each other’s kids, so it is healthy.”

Most days are filled with errands, laundry, meals and playing. Her ideal day? “Getting a shower!” she jokes. “Just being able to accomplish everything that I needed to get done for that day… I don’t usually get everything done, but I just enjoy spending time with the kids and have enough special time.” At the end of the day, when everyone is tucked in, Beitzel takes time for one of her favorite things: reading.

Beitzel urges others to consider fostering. “There is a need,” she says. “There are many children who need a home.”

The couple’s own early decision to foster was made with a 30-year agreement. A recent discussion with her husband regarded their future: “My husband said, ‘Thirty years is up. What do you think?’ And I said, ‘I’m going for another thirty.’

If you would like more information about fostering or adopting in Athens County, please call (740) 592-3061 or visit www.athenschildrenservices.com.

Ed Newman for Athens: Glimpses of Home

One Earth, one town and one man: life on the big blue marble
By Jenaye Antonuccio (photo by Sherry DiBari)

Forty-some years ago, while astronauts explored the moon, they witnessed the earth begin its rise over the moon’s horizon. The astronauts broke protocol and snapped quick photographs. Those images moved us. Margaret Mead observed, “But it was not until we saw the picture of Earth from the moon that we realized how small and helpless this planet is, something that we must hold in our arms and care for.”
A few years later, two Earth Days were established. The first, created by peace activist and scientist John McConnell, took place on March 21, 1970 and was sanctioned by the United Nations to be celebrated on the vernal equinox. The other, founded by Sen. Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin on April 22, 1970, began on college campuses and is now celebrated nationally. The premise of both was to emphasize the need to share responsibility as environmental stewards or trustees of earth.
Since then, we are still faced with frightening environmental conditions. But in Athens, many have strived to preserve our good earth, needing no reminders. Here is one such steward’s story.

“The thing about recycling,” says Ed Newman, “is you gotta use business principles to make it work, even though it is an ecologically, environmentally-based thing to do.” Newman, Ohio University’s refuse and recycling manager, gives a basic example of a recyclable’s journey: collection leads to sorting and processing, then to brokering, marketing, and final transporting to re-manufacturing for re-consumption by the public. “It’s not just the grooviness factor of reducing waste; it is a very politically charged issue,” he says.

“Managing waste makes a lot of sense,” says Newman. “It is a way to democratize the flow of materials and energy so that it benefits the community and the environment." He adds, “If this is done closer to home, then money stays closer to home, is circulated through the community, and generates a tax base to cover things like road maintenance.”

In 1975, five years after the first Earth day, Newman began his life in Athens by observing the city and the outskirts. As an environmental biology major, he says a few things bothered him: First, Earth Day’s founding had sparked the community’s initial recycling efforts, organized at the ATCO sheltered workshop, but a dispute over funding for a needed new roof inevitably left the program to fall through the cracks. Second, a large amount of out-of-state trash was being trucked to fast-filling area landfills, none of which were publicly owned. Third, illegal dumping was clogging rivers and marring the landscape.

Newman recalls, “I met other like-minded people and we ended up starting to get together to try to think this thing through, to see what could be done to provide better opportunities.” The volunteers’ cleanup and recycling efforts through and alongside the Arbor Day Committee lead to the development of Southeastern Ohio Recycling Terminal (SORT).

“Appalachia is not necessarily thought of as being the leader in solid waste and consumption, but we were making a lot of impact,” Newman recalls.

In February 1983, Newman acquired a job description. “Trash narc” is what he calls it; the Athens City County Health Department’s official title was “nuisance control officer” - one who enforces laws against illegal dumping.

He recounts his task the first day on the job: “A cleanup of 35 dump truck loads of trash, dumped over the side of the road into a hollow that was actually damming the stream, next to Desonier Wildlife Area.” Numerous similar tasks followed, while he also organized dumpsite and litter cleanups, developed recycling opportunities, and promoted sound solid waste management.

Eight years passed. Newman says 1990’s 20th anniversary of Earth Day was stirring renewal of earth-minded awareness. The county’s then-free recycling pickup, including OU’s campus, was restructured and required a user-fee contract. Because the university wouldn’t pay, he says, they were cut off from services. Trash piled up; recyclables went unclaimed. Everyone was told to simply throw it away. But rising costs of trash disposal and environmental concerns forced the university to put together a recycling budget and search for a manager. Newman interviewed along with others, and was offered the job.

Whether salvaging reusables from pre-renovation halls, championing composting, picking up 1,800 pizza boxes from behind the Convocation Center, or delivering unused food to local food banks, Newman’s days are full.

One of his best-known accomplishments during his tenure is the co-founding of RecycleMania, a nationwide college campus recycling competition. The idea was simply to motivate students to recycle. “It’s a really good tool to get people engaged in this activity,” says Newman. “It’s better than what I call ‘speaking from the pulpit of the recycling church’ about how to save the planet - that’s not what gets people’s attention. But people love to kick each other’s ass on anything.”

This year’s competition just came to a close. From the 510 schools participating in the U.S. and Canada, 69.4 million pounds of waste was recycled over a 10 week period.

Whether it is the year 1975 or 2009, Newman looks at his role this way: “As part of this community, I try to make a positive impact. I like working with others to do that.” He adds, “We all revel in doing this and celebrating it together. There is nothing better than accomplishing something and everyone says, ‘We did a good job’”.

He claims it boils down to this: “Would you rather be an environmentalist, or an isolationist, or a destructionist? We all are environmentalists - we are all a part of it. It is not something that becomes a few people's responsibility.”

Within four years, at age 55, he’d like to retire. “I work a lot and my body is beat from overuse,” says Newman. “People say, ‘You can’t retire!’ and I say, ‘Sure I can, I have to! There are a lot of things I want to do yet other than just working all the time.’” He adds, “I’ve always chosen to work in the public sector and that has been rewarding, but there comes a time when you have to pass it on for others to do.”

Until then, he’ll continue to aim for his original goal: zero waste for the institution.

He says he won’t miss racing against time with multiple things that require his focus. Something he will consider a luxury: “Just being able to get absorbed in something and see it through, playing more music, more bricking, hanging out with family and friends, having more of my own time.”

Newman has played hammer dulcimer with the popular local traditional Irish dance music group, Boys of the Hock, for countless years and says he thoroughly enjoys the social entertainment – whether playing at Jackie O’s, for weddings, festivals, or in bigger cities. The band put out a CD this year.

Ohio is a hot spot for bricks, according to Newman. As a member of the International Brick Collectors Association, Newman can share his extensive brick collection and knowledge at national brick swaps. He has found most bricks while walking through the rural woods with his wife and friends, no matter what the weather. “Weather,” says Newman, “doesn’t dictate my mood. I’ve had my best luck on rainy, cold, nasty days by far.”

He likes Athens because, “Not everything costs money or is assigning value to your life.” And wildlife, according to Newman, is what helps our landscape more than we give credit: the geese repopulating along the river make it less sterile; beaver dams that cause flooding help restore damaged landscape.

No matter what fills Newman’s days, his central drive has always been: “Love for a better world, have fun doing good work, and enjoying other people's company.”

Atira Parker for Athens: Glimpses of Home

Recipe for success: build your own business
by Jenaye Antonuccio (photo by Sherry DiBari)


A year and a half ago, Atira Parker had an idea.

As she was pursuing a restaurant management degree, her bills still needed to be paid. “I started to think,” she says, “‘I should just market myself for what I have learned through work experience and start to make a living at it.’”

Parker enlisted friend and local Web design freelancer, Kate Erlewine, to launch a site featuring Parker's skills in catering, cake-making, and licensed massage therapy.

“I basically was trying to see what would pick up, see what I could meet a demand for and go with that,” says Parker.

After she sent a link to most everyone she knew, and posted business cards around town, the response was immediate for catering and cakes.

Today, she works about 45 hours per week, with two vocations stemming from her Website, www.atiraparker.com. She is a cake-maker: she takes word-of-mouth and website referrals for wedding and special-occasion cakes through her own business, Atira’s Cakes, and also bakes for the Village Bakery. She is a massage therapist: she gives in-home massages and recently joined forces as one of four massage therapists at WellWorks, Ohio University’s wellness center.

With economic unsteadiness and the nation’s workforce enduring budget cuts, layoffs and unemployment, a wide majority of Americans have been challenged to be creative in job pursuits. Recent stories in the New York Times and CNN.com highlighted the growing U.S. trend to generate employment from lifetime skills or hobbies. One featured man even started a business to build and sell jellyfish tanks.

Parker notes that Athens isn’t immune to this trend. “I think it is typical of people in Athens to have multiple things going,” she says. “If you can’t find a job, you just kind of make something for yourself.” Many of her friends and family pay the bills through similar situations. Her own home serves as double-duty residence and workplace: the kitchen - up to cleanly standards - is filled with acquired products from restaurant equippers to produce her cakes; the basement is outfitted for her husband’s side venture of designing and constructing furniture from used bike parts.

Parker’s days are far from typical: massage some mornings, a few hours at the bakery, then some evenings shopping for fresh cake supplies is offset by another entire day’s worth of cake-baking and delivery. “There are parts of my personality that really like (working like this), because I like to have flexibility to make my own schedule,” she says.

Weighing out the amount of time for cake prepping - such as cutting out parchment paper, cardboard rounds, and decorating - are all taken into account in cake pricing. Wedding season is approaching– sometimes two to three cakes will be on the agenda for the weekend.

Parker believes what she offers is comparable and reasonable. Entering her third wedding season as a cake-maker, she states, “I am confident in getting the price I ask for because I know I can deliver it.”

“I've done a lot to find my niche here in Athens,” she adds. “And I am proud of what I do. It has paid off, because community, word of mouth, and knowing people is what has made this possible for me.”

Though making cakes has more artistic license, Parker believes both massage and basics of baking and cooking are crafts she has mastered. “A craft is something that you learn and execute well. That is what I do – I learned it and I execute it well.”

Looking back, Parker says her current pursuits make sense to her.

Watching “Great Chefs of the World” as a kid, and reading cookbooks for entertainment, Parker recalls she always loved any aspect of cooking. After her family relocated to Athens when she was 15, she was employed at Purple Chopstix for many years and landed subsequent jobs within restaurants.

Obtaining a massage therapy license from Hocking College at age 18 was influenced by her mother’s example to care for people, accept everybody, and focus on good health. “People all have the same tension, always in the same places,” says Parker, “and I am there to help that. I really believe in what I am doing. It is definitely a beneficial service.” Parker specializes in Swedish massage, utilizing trigger point and deep tissue therapy when necessary.

For some, Athens may lack in employment options, but it remains home for Parker. “Sometimes I think,” says Parker, ‘Why don’t I just pick up and move to a bigger city and get a job?’ But I don’t - I own a house here, my family is here. I’m here right now.”

After leaving Athens to live briefly in both West Virginia and Hawaii, Parker realized she missed Athens. “I just kept thinking of Athens,” she says. “It made me realize I wanted to live here. I think it is a well-rounded town.” She appreciates Athens’ community and outdoor beauty – especially places to ride and race mountain bikes.

From her experience and success in building a business from scratch, her advice is this: “Do what you know you are good at, focus on your skills, know what you do well. And if it doesn’t fit exactly into a job that you are trying to get - find a niche or a market where there is something that you can do that can be sold, and go for it.”

Jeremy Wright for Athens: Glimpses of Home

By hand: how one man shapes vessels and notes
By Jenaye Antonuccio (photo by Sherry DiBari)

Jeremy Wright tells a story -- with his hands.

“I tell my story through music and clay and art,” explains Wright, an artist and musician. “There is not just one medium to say it through.”

Whether manipulating the physics of clay or playing out songs by ear, he has an idea what he’d like to convey, observes what he sees and hears in the world around him, and then adds his own story.

“Molecules of clay are all connected – it is like pulling a chain to circulate those molecules to add strength to your pot,” he says. “Musicians listen and hear emotion in their song and harness it, making a sound sculpture. But it is all connected to a huger world of the person -- where that person has been, where that person has collected all their information and brought it into this.”

He recall that as a child, he was often drawing and engaged in mechanically-minded tasks. Discovering the potter’s wheel and the blues, he eagerly learned more about both through hands-on, old-fashioned methods – observation and experimentation.

Wright remembers, “I would go for it, because I was having fun experimenting.” He notes, “If you hold yourself back, you are not going to learn.”

His natural propensity forged a path of creating that, through many turns, would eventually lead him to Athens.

While living in Maryland, his uncanny abilities caught attention of master pottery teachers, which lead to apprenticeships. Coupled with that were several invitations to play with blues greats. One such example: Wright’s playing impressed harmonica teacher Walt Linager (the class was playing A harps, and Wright only had a C – yet somehow he duplicated the notes) to such an extent that he invited Wright onstage while performing with legendary Piedmont-blues style guitarist, Etta Baker, who died in 2006.

“She played like a 16 year old with her hair on fire - her fingers were going crazy,” remembers Wright. “I was standing there, playing the harmonica, chugging along. When I came offstage, I felt like I wasn’t even touching the ground. Later, she shook my hand, gave me a hug, said I was good and hoped I kept up with it.”

That he did, but he also kept up with his other love.

For three plus years in Athens, he has chosen to hone his craft in ceramics – as a student and a teacher. He earned an associate arts degree in art marketing and design from Hocking College last June. His senior show featured combined techniques - Iroquois jugs with manipulated clay false facemasks rising out of the form.

Currently enrolled in the general art program at Ohio University, he is ready to apply for inclusion into ceramics specialization this spring. “School has taken me out of the norm – my own norm,” says Wright. “I’ve done things for so long in my art world, that I need this break from my traditional settings and solitude to be with other artists.”

Wright espouses the idea that his secrets and techniques aren’t meant to be kept. Having taught numerous workshops and classes, most recently at the Dairy Barn this winter, he says he enjoys teaching. “I want to show and share what I know - I am always more than happy to help people get to that next level.”

According to Wright, teaching kids means being ready with the next step before their short attention spans are lost. Adults need to be reminded of possibility. “When you see the little epiphany in their head as they learn a new technique,” explains Wright, “It is in that instant where art lives - in that infinite possibility. It is very exciting to help them to get to that point.”

When he centers clay on the potter’s wheel, Wright says anything can be made from that foundation – all forms open up the same way. Pulling up the walls, Wright asks himself, “What kind of vessel am I making?” Take, for example, a mug. “What are people really looking for when they reach for their favorite mug? If it is not there, you look for the next best one, or the next best one.” He continues, “So, it becomes a ritual in your life - the beginning and the ending of your day. You take that first sip from your favorite mug, and somehow you feel just a little bit better.”

Spring’s warmth means that most Saturdays, Wright explores his love for music at the Athens County Farmer’s Market. Amid abundant produce and bustling shoppers, Wright plays guitar, Native American flute, harmonica, and is also skilled with a set of “rhythm bones”. Bones were originally fashioned out of animal rib bones to produce a clackity-clicking rhythm. Wright, after witnessing their effect at a blues concert, crafted his own out of red oak and cherry wood. Then, he learned to play them while taking long, long walks, meting out new rhythms along with his footsteps.

“The farmers market is a wonderful atmosphere,” he says. “People park their strollers in front of me, a few parents hang out. I try to keep variety in my repertoire so that I can sit there for three hours and not play the same song.”

Wright sells his wares and his CD of original Native American flute compositions, called “Breath for Creator”. But for him, selling is not the end goal. “Sure, it is good to make money and be comfortable,” he says, “but if you are not comfortable in your heart and your soul, it’s not worth it. You have to follow what you love.”
Wright, with ancestry of Northwest Plains Cree, says he sees his creations as expressing his roots, being a vessel through which tradition is summoned and cast forth into the pieces. “I lead with my heart,” he notes, “and try to figure out what it is I want. And that is art, that is what I followed - making things.”

Berry Dilley for Athens: Glimpses of Home

Taking the next cue: one local woman's life script
by Jenaye Antonuccio (photo by Sherry DiBari)

Berry Dilley, at age 75, is ready to begin again.

“If I live as long as my mom did,” she says, “I’ve got 25 more years to go. And I’d like to do it well. I’d like to have a rich, full life.”

Taken in context, Dilley’s hopes are spurred by the lifting of a 10-year pause: she has been devoted to caring for her loved ones as they approached death – first her sister, mother, then husband.

Coming up on the one-year mark after her husband’s passing, she says, “I am in transition, in the process of grieving losses, and discovering who I am now.” She continues, “But I feel like it’s a new beginning. I look in the mirror and say, ‘Well, I may look 75, but I don’t feel 75.’”

Many of Dilley’s previous roles and talents have core values of looking inwardly, outwardly, and at the deeper connection with the world. She has run the Athens Center for Mindfulness Practice out of her State Street home since the mid-90s, armed with certification in Community Dharma Leadership from Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California. She holds a master’s degree in dance and a degree in counseling, has taught theater movement at Ohio University, and has been house-host and mentor to numerous international students over the decades.

Now she feels as if she is picking up the pieces of herself and her life. “I woke up one morning and the word that came to me is ORDER. I want to shape my life - not defined by somebody else, not chaos anymore.”

Dilley says she is motivated by a lifelong interest in community, which she defines as interactive and participatory - figuring out things together.

“Human beings are affected and (then) effect their community and their culture,” says Dilley. “We are both independent individuals and interdependent members of family. The balance changes in response to need and circumstance.”

Dilley demonstrated this balance when she was overseeing care of her sister, Clarissa, who was blind. At the time, Athens did not have much in the way of housing and amenities for those who were disabled. Dilley advocated with then-Mayor Rick Abel for the city to institute the Athens City Commission on Disabilities. Since then, the commission has become an established governmental agency committed to providing a means for those with disabilities to be heard, to advocate for changes in public policy, and to be ensured quality of life and opportunities for community education and participation.

Recently, Dilley helped pick out 6 book-holding carts to further ensure the public library’s handicap accessibility. Two types of carts each – one with a seat, one without - are at Athens, Plains and Nelsonville public libraries, dedicated in her sister’s name.

Due to her trials and experiences in caring for her loved ones, Dilley also emphasizes to the public the importance of advocating for hospice and clearly stating a loved one’s known needs. “Be insistent, because it could make all the difference.”

Bodily awareness is one of the aspects of life that she continues to find important, and teaches it during sessions of mindful meditation.

“Thoughts shape bodily experience, bodily experience shapes emotions, emotions shape the body and thoughts,” Dilley notes. “Notice what’s going on with your breathing, notice how much energy you use, notice how you tense up when something happens. These habits of movement shape your body, and your body shapes your thinking and feelings.”

Dilley believes this needs to be accompanied by a sense of balance and awareness of other’s boundaries. “We need to learn a little more about give and take - people don’t really respect each other’s space. A boundary has to have some mobility, to change as the situation needs to change. But know what your boundary line is, and know when it is crossed.”

Dilley believes all of this contributes to being an interactive member of the community. In turn, community members are needed for support. “When you make changes with who you are, you can only grow and change and develop with support around you.”

As for her own future, she is uncertain which direction she should take, but she senses it is time, and is undaunted by age. “I am a work in progress, continually learning and growing as I interact with the world, and within myself,” she says.

“This is the first time I would say that I am ALONE,” she states. “It is not lonely but being alone. We are all alone – we enter the world alone, and we leave it alone.” She continues, “But now it is a truth. I had to recognize that and really experience it to be ready to move on to a different relationship to (my) community.”

Phil Berry and Jo Merkle for Athens: Glimpses of Home

My beaded valentine: one couple’s story
By Jenaye Antonuccio (photo by Sherry DiBari)


Jo Merkle and Phil Berry just left their homestead to head west, seeking treasure.

This isn’t the first time. The couple plans such trips each year.

Leaving behind their off-the-grid, self-built, country cabin and in-town business in an older home situated near the ghost of railroad tracks (which once brought bustling activity to the west side of Athens), the good-natured duo will return with a temporarily-satiated travel bug. The round trip to warm, sunny Tucson, Arizona and the 2009 Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Showcase provides Merkle and Berry with necessary revitalization and stock, readying them for the beginning of a busy season at their co-owned 8 N. Shafer Street shop, Beads and Things.

But, as their travels have taken them all over the world, they say they always happily gravitate back to Athens, a place that, for them, suits who they are best: as a couple, business partners, and individuals.

For Merkle, the reason is simple: “The magic of Athens and living here is that when you are doing something that you are meant to be doing, it just comes together.”

The result of that “magic” is revealed in gained respect as a business, highlighted by earning Ohio Magazine’s vote as the best bead store in Ohio in 2006 and 2007.

Watching her own mother’s lifelong talent as a beader, Merkle picked up the trait herself in childhood. “I love beads. They are little treasures, beautiful pieces. Each bead is a little piece of art from everywhere in the world,” she says.

In 1990, after years of traveling to acquire beads and lamenting the lack of nearby vendors, Merkle opened Beads and Things with an agreeable Berry.

The store is lined with row after row of such treasure: colorful variations of beads – seed beads, Rudraksha tree prayer beads, Czech glass, Japanese delicas, lampwork, bone, wood, and metal beads - fill glass cups, racks, and shelving alongside tools, decorative rocks, and beaded wall-hangings and accessories.

After filling a tray with beads and supplies, the customer is urged to sit at one of the ready antique wooden tables to test the depths of his or her learned creative genes. With genuine mirth, the couple says their patient instruction is aimed to put a customer at ease.

Berry comments, “It’s a place where people come and will often spend a lot of time - they might spend hours here. We tend to make relationships with our customers.” He continues, “The best part is seeing what kind of creative things they are doing. Many people get in here say, ‘Oh, I’m not that creative, I can’t do that.’” He jokes, “So, we kind of bully them into being creative, ‘Yes! You can! Sit down!’”

Merkle, laughing, explains further, “No, we help to facilitate the creative process, because everybody is creative. They get to imbibe it with their energy. It’s not really expensive - under five dollars. To provide the space and having the supplies here is a good thing to be able to do, and let them be creative.”

But it is the final product that brings the most satisfaction. Says Merkle, “As they try it on looking in the mirror, you watch their eyes and their face and they are illuminated!”

The current economic recession has slowed spending worldwide, but Berry says it hasn’t affected their business. “When money is tight, people can make things for a lot less and get a lot more value,” he notes.

As if the couple’s life and pursuits together could be explained as coming together one bead at a time on a string, Berry says, smiling, “It’s just evolved into what it is.” Merkle agrees, saying, “Everything just fell together.”

Berry began visiting Athens in the early 1970’s, and he “fell in love with the place.” Merkle, separately arriving in 1971 as a student, then felt the urge to move to the country, and began to farm organically. Though they had met, they would not start dating until years later, in the mid-eighties. “We both take things pretty much a day at a time; we don’t make long term plans,” she says.

They had only been dating for a short time before Merkle was offered to purchase nearby property. Because she was familiar with the land and adored the location, she felt she couldn’t pass up the opportunity. She asked Berry if he’d like to go in on it with her. He agreed. “We didn’t know it would manifest into being a long-term relationship,” says Merkle.

Though they have often had to live hand to mouth, and for much of the time slept in evolving-sized tents on their property, it is a lifestyle they have chosen. They have built their cabin – complete with a shower that pumps water from their pond – by periodically affording one board at a time for nearly ten years. “People who say they have to wait until they have money to do something,” says Merkle, “will be waiting forever. You never end up having enough. You don’t wait.”

They consider themselves to have everything they need, especially each other.

“I love working with Phil.” Merkle says. “I always wanted a partner that I could work with, build with and have a lot of fun with.”

He agrees, “I couldn’t imagine not working together in some fashion or other.”

Merkle relates a story of when she first knew Berry was “the one”. On a trip out west, she had seen a strand of black tourmalated quartz and debated purchasing it. As they drove away, she kept musing out loud that she would like to have it, but resisted when he offered to drive back. Finally, at least one hundred miles away, she announced she’d decided: she wanted the beads. With no hesitation, he turned round. “He didn’t skip a beat,” she remembers. “I knew how much I liked him before, but then I knew.”

In all the years together, the duration of the 18 they have been able to keep their store open surprises them. They attribute it to the community. “The community support is just fabulous,” Berry says.

Merkle agrees, “That’s why we are in business.”

Sandy Plunkett for Athens: Glimpses of Home

Local comic artist sketches a life outside of the box
By Jenaye Antonuccio (photo by Sherry DiBari)

ON A QUIET ATHENS STREET, BETWEEN MODEST HOUSES AND FRIENDLY NEIGHBORS, A MAN SITS ALONE AT HIS TIDY DESK, WORKING. IT IS EARLY MORNING. THE LARGE WINDOW COVERING SHIELDS HIM FROM THE COMING DAY’S OVER-ABUNDANT LIGHT AND INEVITABLE DISTRACTION. THOUGH OCCASIONALLY RISING, STRETCHING, AND FEEDING THE WOOD STOVE WITH SELF-HEWN KINDLING, HE IS FOCUSED, TRAINED TO MASTER THE MOMENTS SO THE DEADLINE CANNOT ATTACK!!!
LATER, MOUNTING HIS TRUSTY BIKE (HIS SOLE MODE OF TRANSPORTATION), HE SHAKES OFF CABIN FEVER WHILE TACKLING ERRANDS. BUT HE WILL NOT BE CAUGHT EMPTY-HANDED!!! ALWAYS, ALWAYS, HE CARRIES HIS PACK OF NECESSARY TOOLS. INSIDE THE PACK, A WATER-RESISTANT CASE CLEVERLY SEALS INSIDE ONE SKETCHBOOK AND A ZIPPERED POCKET WITH PENCILS, PENS, ERASERS, SHARPENERS, ETC. HE DEFIES WET WEATHER, THE MORTAL ENEMY OF THIS OUTFITTED AND CRAFTY ARTIST!!!

Born and raised by two artist parents in bustling Manhattan, Sandy Plunkett, well-known comics writer and artist, suggests, “I'm pretty convinced that my artistic inclinations are partly inherited.” As he grew older, he discovered his dyslexia as typical children do, while learning to read. “To try to get me to read,” he remembers, “my mother brought home comics.”

Being introduced to his first superhero comic in the third grade, he was hooked, and began a lifelong tendency to render his own superhero drawings. But pressure in sixth grade about the then-unpopular kid’s medium (“Are you still reading comics?”), he says, led to involuntary repression of comic-character sketching till near-completion of high school. “I don’t think the interest had completely gone away,” he says. “Inspiration kicked in again.”

Of his one year of college studying fine arts, Plunkett remembers, “It was a wonderful year, but what I wanted to be doing was at such odds with what they were offering.” He then pursued a career as a comic book artist, which soon expanded to contracts with Marvel, DC and Gold Key comics.

Throughout the 70s and 80s, as he aged and competition standards stiffened, he says the appeal of living in the city soured. “Growing up in New York, I felt perfectly at home. But as an adult, I was pretty unhappy.” He adds, “I was getting hit both ways: in emotion; and in terms of career and finances, it was starting to affect me.”

The decision to relocate became appealing. “When you are depressed it is hard to create,” he states. “The more you can eliminate that from your inner life, the freer you are to really do your work.” He knew he could continue comic work anywhere due to telephones, Internet, and overnight delivery services, with occasional contact-maintenance trips.

Through a “circuitous turn of events”, the curative destination became Athens, Ohio. The year was 1990.

Plunkett cites the writer David Foster Wallace, who penned in the novel Infinite Jest: “You compete with your own limits to transcend the self in imagination and execution.” Plunkett thinks this summarizes the challenge for growing in his craft. “The drawing I do provides me with the pleasure and satisfaction of making things (hopefully beautiful, interesting things) and that desire could be fulfilled through other artistic expressions,” he explains. “But the drawings I do also provide me with the chance to become completely engaged in an endeavor so huge and so thoroughly consuming that an in entire lifetime, one can never hope to reach it's conclusion. And in the process, what your really grappling with is yourself.”

When he arrived in Athens, ready to begin afresh, his plan was to continue along the path of his already-successful career. But the excited buzz about his move here had rapidly spread from ear to ear, as mysteriously happens only in small towns. “Other opportunities presented themselves, and none of them were things that I had anticipated,” says Plunkett. “It has been wonderful.”

Drawing for political cartoons, CD covers, posters, business logos, tee-shirts, or commissions gained from fans who contacted him through his website (www.plunkettart.com) – such endeavors began taking up his time. Soon, comic book work was less needed for a source of income -- perfect timing for avoiding the comic book industry’s crash in the mid-90s. Today, he works only occasionally for the slow-recovering field.

Finding work as an artist is a constant worry. But even in today’s shipwrecked market, by comparison, Athens’ smaller competition pool and alternative-embracing nature supports Plunkett’s efforts, signified in the fact that currently he has more commissioned work than before.

“I know some artists who begin with a very clear mental image of what they're about to draw,” says Plunkett, about his approach to drawing. “That rarely happens with me. Most often I start out with a feeling I want to convey, but only the vaguest visualization. That develops on the paper (if I'm lucky).”

He approaches assignments with understanding of his personal capabilities, he says, and paces the time he knows he will need. Wanting to avoid the notorious stigma that artists always miss deadlines, in the end, whether he is personally satisfied or not, he strives for one thing: “What I’m looking for most of the time is not to embarrass myself.” He adds, “I give myself a little pat on the back, not because the work itself is great, (but) because I did it efficiently.”

His biggest investment of self and time went into a graphic novel of his own initiative. Through his self-created guidelines and focus for a number of years, the project is now complete.

But it is the publication process that tires him. “It is one of the most masochistic things I’ve ever gone through,” he says.

Three different publishing companies have expressed interest, but have backed out at the point of contract-signing.

The difficulty, he explains, is in taking the chance. “If you are writing a novel, imagine you can show an early draft, then you rewrite it. In one comic book page, no one will really understand the impact you are going for. When it is all together, if someone says, ‘I think your pacing is wrong,’ and you have twenty pages, then you really can’t do anything at that point.”

Though discouraged by what seemed like a job in itself to get the publication wheels turning, he says, “For the time being I’m tired of it, but I don’t know if I’ve given up on it.”

Other projects keep him busy. As does exercising his craft. One of the three running sketchbooks he keeps (he calls it his exercise book) has been the most enjoyable as of late. “When I sketch, its all just a big flurry of lines at first. Often those extraneous lines are gestural lines, though they are kind of abstract. Working in this notebook allowed me to say, ‘Okay, those lines aren’t right, but I like what they look like. Just don’t erase, don’t keep revising, don’t have an absolute idea in your mind on what it should be - that type of space where initial gestural lines can be explored.’” In other mediums, he feels he has gained facility with watercolor painting, and would especially enjoy more experimentation with oils.

Plunkett also tries different perspectives, like turning his piece upside down, or looking at it in half-light: “Sometimes,” he says, “when you are seeing less precisely, you are seeing more truly. Like a hidden structure behind the visual world which we are distracted from. Because we see so clearly, if you see it in the half light, I think you can be more sensitive to the underlying structures.”

Plunkett is not invulnerable to life’s banalities. Plumbing problems, appointments, and housework are not sensitive to artist’s deadlines, just like in everyone’s life. He states, “If you have too many things going on, its hard to get that sense of quiet.” His solution? “I think I’m always trying to return to that place of stillness where everything else seems like it is distant, so I can just focus on what is there.”


THE SINGLE-MINDED AND MEDITATIVE ARTIST ALWAYS CARRIES IN HIS MIND AN IMAGINARY AUDIENCE FOR HIS WORK. HE CAN BE FOUND BASKING IN THE ENERGY OF A SUMMER NIGHT, COLLECTING INSPIRATION IN THE NEW WARMTH OF SPRING WHEN BIKING OUT ON COUNTRY ROADS, OR DILIGENTLY WORKING SNUG INSIDE ON A WINTER’S DAY. HE EXPLORES INSIDE, OUTSIDE, AND IN BETWEEN THE LINES. IT IS ALL IN A DAY’S WORK IN THE PLACE HE CALLS HOME.