So, here I sit in my new house in my new town. After 25 years in Small Town, I'm not sure what to call this new place. Maybe what it is—North Canton. North Canton, which used to be New Berlin, has about 5,000 more people than Small Town, and it's adjacent to Canton, with a population of about 72,000. Combined, that's about as many people as in all of Small Town's county. So, what do you call a town like this? Medium-sized town? I'll stick with North Canton for now.
I suppose I could start referring to it as Hoovertown because it seems to be built around the Hoover name. That's Hoover as in vacuum cleaner, not Hoover as in president. In the 1800s, WH Hoover had a tannery business on a farm here—actually, my new house sits on what used to be that very farm, and the original barn is the neighborhood recreation center. His son, HW Hoover, developed an "electric suction sweeper" and began marketing it, and Hoover vacuums were born.
They aren't made here anymore because the business moved to Mexico—such is the world we live in—but the area is still all about Hoover.
Baxter and I get bored with our neighborhood walks now and then, so we have begun exploring the many trails around here, and there really are many, especially compared to Small Town. The trail we walked to today is—can you guess?—Hoover Trail, Washington Square Loop. The entire trail is about five miles, but this loop is closer to two, with some of it on sidewalk. The loop winds through a neighborhood or two, but while you can occasionally see houses, you also occasionally see what feels like remote woods.
Today, we were the only ones on our end of the trail and never ran into a single person even jogging from the other end of the line. As we walked, I could hear just our steps on the gravel or through the leaves, and when we stopped for a moment, I could hear only birds. Lovely. Here are some of the things we saw:
I suppose I could start referring to it as Hoovertown because it seems to be built around the Hoover name. That's Hoover as in vacuum cleaner, not Hoover as in president. In the 1800s, WH Hoover had a tannery business on a farm here—actually, my new house sits on what used to be that very farm, and the original barn is the neighborhood recreation center. His son, HW Hoover, developed an "electric suction sweeper" and began marketing it, and Hoover vacuums were born.
They aren't made here anymore because the business moved to Mexico—such is the world we live in—but the area is still all about Hoover.
Baxter and I get bored with our neighborhood walks now and then, so we have begun exploring the many trails around here, and there really are many, especially compared to Small Town. The trail we walked to today is—can you guess?—Hoover Trail, Washington Square Loop. The entire trail is about five miles, but this loop is closer to two, with some of it on sidewalk. The loop winds through a neighborhood or two, but while you can occasionally see houses, you also occasionally see what feels like remote woods.
Today, we were the only ones on our end of the trail and never ran into a single person even jogging from the other end of the line. As we walked, I could hear just our steps on the gravel or through the leaves, and when we stopped for a moment, I could hear only birds. Lovely. Here are some of the things we saw:
Comments