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This one will be scary…

Looooong ago. I sold a house to a couple relocating to Central Ohio from Cleveland. They wanted a new or newer house in an area where they knew no industry or commercial developments could upset their life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, American Dream, etc.

Schools they wanted smaller… Their kids were coming from a much smaller high school than the majority of Central Ohio school districts offer.   They really liked the Olentangy School District because it was so small… (remember I said this was long, long ago., Olentangy was a dinky school district then, kinda rural.  It did not have the breadth of programs of other schools in the area but that is what they liked. )  We looked at homes in the Westerville and Dublin school districts as well initially but they thought the high schools in Dublin and Westerville were too large for their kids.

They made an offer and went in-contract on a new construction home in Sawmill Woods, in Powell, a lovely neighborhood. Then within days they got cold feet and backed out of the contract. Is Sawmill Woods a scary neighborhood? Something spooked them.

I don’t remember all that much about what it was but I think it was just not knowing what the retail developments on the land west of Sawmill would be… this house was not right on Sawmill so the fear was not having a strip mall right in their backyard.  Remember this was long, long ago… lots of open land with signs for commercial development. There are stores there now. There was a fight about a Walmart not far away… but that was years in the future.   That’s kind of what happens when you buy in an area that is not developed.  They had the option of looking at homes in Upper Arlington, Worthington, where the area is all built up, but they wanted new or newer.  It would get boring if I told you the nitty gritty details and of course there’s confidentiality.. they backed out of an accepted contract with a builder on a drop dead gorgeous home backing to a reserve.

We looked at many more homes. I found them a home in Wedgewood, backing to a ravine. Privacy to the back. No possibility of anything being built behind them. It was an existing home a few years old.

Of course if an alligator or snake escapes from the Columbus Zoo… it would head straight to their house… but no that is not what was scary about the Wedgewood neighborhood.

I went to the courthouse in Delaware to get a copy of the plat to make sure the land behind the Wedgewood house was truly a reserve (we barely had computers at the time, did not have access to all the mapping we have today.) I went to the courthouse and got the plat which showed a reserve. The plat map also showed a small family burial plot on the lot behind the house. Not on the lot they were buying, the itty bitty cemetary was on the land behind.

Long story short… I gave them the plat, it showed the burial plot. Two to three months after closing all hell broke loose with relocation, I had done a bad job for this family because they were very specific how important the surrounding area was to them. They wrote a nasty review of me to the relocation department. I was called on the carpet for not looking out for their interests. I sent the relocation department a copy of the plat map the family had when they wrote the offer on the house, showing there was a historic burial plot on the lot behind.

A few months later he lost his job and they called me to list the home. They were still upset about the burial plot on the lot behind their lot so we had a little screaming match (thus ‘The Scream’ a famous painting from Munch, used here for illustration, thanks to GeekPhilosophercom.) …Not blood curdling screams… but we were using our “outside voices.” When the screaming stopped we went through the papers they had from when they bought the house, including a plat map with the land behind showing the burial plot on the reserve.

The family who bought their house closed just a few days before Halloween (long, long ago.) The buyers said at closing their kids were thrilled about the burial plot on the lot behind the house…  and they all lived happily ever after.  The end.

What is Columbus? Where is Columbus? Who is Columbus?

Is the area north of 270, in the City of Columbus but also in the Worthington School District Columbus to you? Is the Riverside Green area (City of Columbus, Dublin School District) Columbus to you? Is Madison County, Columbus to you? Is Fairfield County Columbus to you? Are parts of Licking, Morrow, and Knox Counties, Columbus to you?

Is Pataskala, Columbus to you?  The Dead Acres Haunted House in Columbus made a national top ten list.  Dead Acres - Haunted Hoochie is in Pataskala.  Is that Columbus to you?

Kenmore Park is a neighborhood in northeast Columbus. I showed a house in Kenmore Park on Weber Road to a buyer a few years ago who was sure it was haunted. It was decorated like a bordello, it was pretty old, it was a VA repossession but I did not know why she thought it was haunted.

As she explained it: “old house someone must have died there sometime…”  I don’t think the house was that old.  She bought a home built in the 1950’s.

German Village? Braumeister ghosts in the big houses? Brewery worker ghosts in the cottages?

Victorian Village? I am not sure who would be haunting those? Victorian Columbus residents? Repressed people in funny fussy clothes?

Davis Estates is a neighborhood on the south end of Worthington that made the news in 2006 when a cheerleader was shot by a recluse. I wrote about it on ActiveRain (a real estate network) at the time:

“I’d never heard the kids in Worthington considered a house on the south end of town as “haunted.” I don’t have children. I wonder how many parents knew of their children’s curiosity about the house at the edge of the cemetery.  When I heard the story in the news I thought “that house isn’t old enough to be haunted.” It’s in a post World War II neighborhood. I think all the homes are cape cods, I showed a house up the street a couple of months ago. There are some great old houses in Worthington…none are haunted as far as I know. There are haunted “places” in Central Ohio… including Thurber House in Columbus.
A carload of high school girls went to the Worthington “haunted house” one night this week and one of the five girls was shot, twice.

Haunted house, cheerleader, back to school time, it all makes an interesting story:

“Prank gone awry stuns Worthington“ - Columbus Dispatch

Davis Estates was built post World War II, Old Worthington would be more likely to have haunted homes if you subscribe to the theory that ‘old house someone must have died there sometime…’

I heard on the news that ODNR (Ohio Department of Natural Resources) is urging bow hunters (it must be deer season for bow hunting) to kill wild hogs in the state too.  Ohio has a problem with wild hogs? 

Hunters of all ages need a valid license in Ohio, I believe… and you need permission of the land owner to hunt, of course.

I thought wild hogs were in the deep south… the US south… like Arkansas?  Georgia? Not the midwest, Ohio

“Known in Ohio as “wild boars,” they also are also called free-ranging European wild boar, Russian wild boar, wild pigs, wild hogs, or razorbacks. These “eating machines” damage agricultural crops, degrade wildlife habitat and consume the eggs of ground-nesting birds, as well as, reptiles, amphibians or just about anything else they come across. They also carry diseases that can infect domestic livestock, wildlife and even people.  The rangy-looking non-native members of the domestic swine family are increasing their distribution in Ohio, according to state wildlife biologists. “

Watching the story on the local news I thought they were talking about Central Ohio… The story is from Columbus Ohio (the capital of Ohio) but the article says:

 ”The greatest numbers of hogs are generally reported from southern Ohio counties.”

I guess we still could have some wild hogs in the woods in Central Ohio…. but they are not prevalent here.   I am not going to list the counties because they are not the area I live in or work in and I have been getting emails from FSBO”s about properties all over the state of Ohio… yep that county is in there.  Where the heck is _____ County, Ohio?    To add to their troubles There are wild boars two and a half hours away…

Look at the ODNR story to see what counties have the most wild hogs.

The ODNR site does say they (wild hogs) make good eating as long as you cook them thoroughly.  Not sure if I could eat the meat after reading “They also carry diseases that can infect domestic livestock, wildlife and even people.”

This is the year of the pig in the Chinese calendar, year 4705.  The picture above was used earlier this year to say Happy New Year 4705 Columbus.  Comment spam seems to be attracted to that entry… spam has some hog parts in it I think.

OK first I want to thank Goran Utvic in Chicago for the idea. I enjoyed Goran’s post “If Spiderman decided that he no longer wanted to websling from the Empire State Building…” on ActiveRain

Before moving to Columbus I was told Columbus does not have a skyline… but I distinctly remembered driving by Columbus on my way between Dayton and Pittsburgh and seeing from I-70 what most would call a skyline, kinda sorta

Columbus is not NYC or Chicago or even Cleveland but Columbus does have a pretty skyline now…

If Spiderman moved to Columbus of course he’d have to become part of the downtown Columbus urban living scene.. and he’d be webslinging from the LevequeTower because it is of the correct vintage and has the all important art deco look. I don’t think I saw the last Spiderman movie. Wasn’t part of it shot in downtown Cleveland because of “the look.”

What about other cartoon characters… If they recently read that Columbus was one of the most stable housing markets in the US and decided to pack up their cartoon family and relocate to Central Ohio where would they buy a home?  This is all purely conjecture… don’t start any rumors that Nancy or Calvin and Hobbes are moving to Columbus.

I think Blondie and Dagwood would live in Upper Arlington.

I think ‘The Family Circus’ would move to Westerville or Dublin.

If Classic Peanuts moved from Charles Schultz’ beloved St. Paul… I think they’d be comfortable in the Clintonville area.

Apartment 3G (is that comic panel even still around? I loved it as a kid… we were talking about boy comic stips and girl comic strips a couple of weeks ago… when I was a little girl, I was a girl, so I liked Apartment 3G and Nancy and Family Circle not Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon or even Spiderman… anyway Margo, Tommie and Luann (I think that was their names ) would live in some downtown Columbus trendy rental area…

I had to look it up. Yes the cartoon Apartment 3G is still around. This from King Features explains it all.

“Apartment 3-G was created in 1961 by psychiatrist Dr. Nicholas P. Dallis. Already the originator of two successful soap-opera comic strips, “Rex Morgan, M.D.” and “Judge Parker,” Dr. Dallis wanted to turn his attention to a phenomenon that was sweeping the nation: working women.”

Gee I read “Rex Morgan, M.D.” and “Judge Parker,” as a kid too…. hmmm Rex Morgan MD would live in Upper Arlington, Grandview or Marble Cliff for proximity to Riverside hospital, Grant Hospital and OSU hospitals. Judge Parker would live in German Village…(or is the Judge dead….) Sam Driver and Abbey Spencer would live in Bexley, are they married? Living together? It’s been a long time…

If Hi and Lois moved to Central Ohio, I think they’d be most comfortable in the Worthington area and Lois who is a real estate agent could come work at the Worthington Real Living HER office.

Stay tuned there might be a soap operaish blog cartoon strip in here somewhere…