I know this time of year some of ya might regret living here. Watching the summer end is hard for our kind. Knowing that soon you’ll be puttin’ the scoots away for the winter might make ya think of moving. Of living that endless summer in warmer latitudes.

I was listening to a young lady who recently moved to New York talk about how wonderful it is to be there. To be in the center of civilization. And how coming home to Ohio is like stepping back in time and how Ohio is so provincal, so quaint. I felt like chewin’ some tobacco, spittin’ on the floor and replying,”Well shucks m’am! We country folk might not have class, but we sure do appreciate fancy city folk like yerself tellin’ us how things are supposed to be!”

I’ve traveled most of these United States, but believe it or not....I like Ohio! I like the changing seasons...I like the roads [usually!] ...I like to call my soda “pop”....I like not getting eaten alive by mosquitos, alligators, palmettos, scorpions or rattlesnakes.....I like resting pretty sure that a bunch of terrorists aren’ t gonna blow me up......or a hurricane might blow me away....or an earthquake might smash me up....and I like the fact that if I need to go socializing, there’s plenty of things to do.

I even like the way the bugs taste here! I once gobbled something in Montana that still makes me wanna ralph when I think of it.

I get sick of people saying that Ohio is a hick state. That we’re a state “Out in the sticks!” How absurd! Some idiots actually believe that unless yer from New Skanky York or sunny Californicate, yer in a backwoods.....a socially deprived swampland or something. It’s time for those people to realize that with mass media our social and cultural interaction is immediate. The days of hearing about something days or weeks after the event are long past. Even someone living in a swamp can be as informed and enlightened as anyone else, thanks to the miracles of modern communication.

{note: Here is where the patriotic music starts}

An old joke says,”If ya don’t like the weather in Ohio, just stick around a bit. It’ll change!” Well, what’s wrong with that? I’ve been in California and I don’t care to spend day after day lookin’ at the same sky and the same beautiful people wishin’ they were richer, or thinner, or more tanned or more successful.

Sometimes the most fun I’ve had was riding in a rainstorm. It makes ya feel so damned ALIVE! And coming into a warm home from a cold ride is indescribable.

When the leaves change, as they will shortly, it seems that the trees are puting on a show just for you. The vivid reds and golds and yellows are a pageant of color. Even a whiff of smoke from a pile of burning leaves seems homey.

Our citizens are not known to be snotty and rude like New Yorkers nor phoney and upwardly mobile like some Californians. We’re REAL people. We’re factory workers and truckers, office workers and salespeople. Musicians and artists. Poets and mechanics. We have a history of doing and creating.

We’re third in the country for registered motorcyclists. The American Motorcyclists Association is based here and this organization, ABATE of Ohio Inc. is nationally known and respected by MROs [Motorcyclist Rights Organizations} world wide. If ya look at our new state pin the word Ohio even looks like a motorcycle!

Whenever I travel I might enjoy the change of scene or the countryside, {except Kansas}, but it sure feels good to come back to here. This is my home.

And like anything else, whether yer talkin’ about a marriage, a job, yer bike or yes, yer home, it’s what ya make of it.

This state is where two brothers named Wright first dreamed of flying, and went on to actually do it! John Glenn, the first man to orbit the earth is from here, as is Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon. Where more presidents were born than any other state..Where Thomas Edison dreamed of electric light and ended up conquering the dark!!

The phrase “Rock and Roll” was first uttered in this state and many local bands went on to have hit records and have major influences on music as we know it. That’s why we have the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.

This state was the original home of numerous native American tribes some of whom were later forced west: Shawnee, Iraquois, Miami and Ottowa among them. Hell, the Mound Builders were partyin’ down when europeans were just startin’ to get their act together!

Speakin’ of American Indians, this is where George Armstrong Custer is from....Also Annie Oakley and movie cowboys like Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy.

This is the home of the Rockefellers. The Warner brothers began here before establishing one of the great movie empires. Stephen Speilberg, Paul Newman, Larry Flint, Dean Martin, Clark Gable, Jerry Springer, David Allen Coe, Father Guido Sarducci, Marilyn Manson, Drew Carey, and an endless list of other native sons and daughters too numerous to mention were raised and taught here.

People came here because they wanted to, not because they got off the boat and decided to put down roots where they landed. And certainly not because they traveled west and couldn’t go any further ‘cause they ran into an ocean: They stayed because they liked it.

We’re living in a land of forests and farm fields. Of lakes and rivers. Of diverse ethnic cultures and metropolitan grandeur. Our museums rank with the best and our cultural artists are known throughout the world.

Ohio roadways are well maintained and reasonably efficient, {Have ya ever ridden in Pennsylvania? Sheesh!}. Usually if ya get lost it’s yer own damn fault, not the map’s or the road dept.