Middletown, OH
Wednesday, March 14th, 2007This is breaking news. Reportage. My first, perhaps, participatory journalism adventure. Certainly my first real-time blogged adventure.
I am in Middletown, Ohio. Arrived today at noon. J– mentioned that a 62-foot tall Jesus statue is a few miles away. Arms upraised, a pool of water surrounding. Sounded familiar. Reminded me of a New York Times article I read a few years ago.
It’s the same one.
We are driving there at 4 p.m. to see the statue. My plan is to return tonight at 7:15pm. I called the church. It’s a megachurch. 3,000 people attend. I’ve never been to a megachurch. I’m pretty knowledgeable about them. I’ve been wanting to go. Tonight’s the night. I’m thrilled.
We just ate at CrackerBarrel. It was my first time. It was wonderful. Good food, down-home home-style cooking. I got meatloaf with three sides: fried apples, corn and the best-ever macaroni & cheese plus biscuits and free-refills raspberry iced tea. $12.50 including tip and tax. Wonderful.
I love the centerpiece on the table. It’s a multi-panel info-setup. One panel is headlined: “What’s in a name?”
“CrackerBarrel Old Country Store.
Lots of folks ask us how we got our name.
It’s simple — back in the old days, crackers were
shipped in barrels to country stores. When the
barrels were empty, they were used as a place
to hold a checkerboard, a conversation or both.
We’d like to think some things never change.”
Sure nough, the tables are sorta like the crackerbarrels in the picture. And sure nough, we got games to play on the tables while we wait, and conversations aplenty. And surprise, on the way out we see an actual goodness cracker barrel with a big checkerboard on top, with big red and black checkerpieces.
Wonderful.
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