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History in the Hills: Sharing mall memories

This week, I was able to spend some time in the Mall at Robinson Christmas shopping. While my wife shopped with my daughter and sons, my son Frankie and I moved from store to store looking for the perfect gift. Walking around the mall this week made me think of all the fun I had as a kid at our local mall, Steubenville’s Fort Steuben Mall. My parents would drop me off, usually by the theater, and I would meet up with my friends to hang out. We would spend hours going from store to store, eating at one of the restaurants and walking around. There was so much to do at the mall in ...

Guest column/Are today’s post-season scholastic events watered down?

I can think of no state high school athletic association that has only one division in sports anymore. The most common rationale is more athletes in smaller schools are given the opportunity to compete against schools their enrollment size at the state championships. But I believe many states have gone too far with the number of divisions they have incorporated in their sports programs. In team sports, I do not feel that any school that has a losing record should qualify for post-season competitions. They didn’t earn such an honor and often get blown away in the first game. ...

Christmas memories I wish would come back

Nostalgia sets in for most of us during the holidays, especially around Christmastime. It includes those memories we all miss. Everybody has some, or at least one. Think about it: There has to be at least one single time in your life that you wish you could go back and relive again. If only for a moment. It could be of a particular Christmas from your childhood, or a Christmas when you were the parent of a child who still believed in the magic of Santa Claus. We all have that one memory for which we just can’t let go. As you may recall, I am someone who chooses to live my ...

Progress in the city

If you haven’t had the chance to take a good look around the city lately, you might not have noticed some of the improvements that have been happening. That’s part of the message City Manager Jim Mavromatis delivered to members of the Steubenville Rotary Club. “This is where I was born and raised,” Mavromatis said while speaking Nov. 6 at the JeffCo Event center. “I left here at 18, and I came back at 57. I’ll tell you, this is the town I was raised in, and I would never change it. “This is a great place to bring kids up in,” he continued. You sit and look at our ...

December is here but at least we have music

Well, I blinked. And now, it is somehow December already. How does that happen? I am seriously still working on September at the moment. December is the one month that I am never ready for, even though I have 11 months in advance to prepare. Yet, somehow it still always sneaks up on you whether you are ready for it or not. I hate that. I mean, the month of December expects a lot out of us. It requires you to have motivation … so you can do your all of your holiday decorating. It requires you to have money … so you can buy presents that cost too much, are items which nobody even ...

Guest column/Was I a bad boy, or was it all just good fun?

Having had a tumultuous childhood and life, both of my daughters asked me to write a book about my life. Write a book? I went to Barnes & Noble and bought a book on “How to write a book.” The lesson was: Don’t write a book, just put your thoughts on paper and then let a professional editor make it come alive. Thus, this time of the year, I thought it would be timely to share with you Chapter 34 of my book in progress (Title: “Sun Rising in the West”) that deals with a 17-year-old boy from Austria, having just arrived in the U.S., being indoctrinated by his new friends and next ...