…Ohio isn’t famous for a whole lot, but it’s pretty, quaint, and a “great place to raise children”.

It’s the home of Emily over at MomminitUP, but it is best known for it’s Covered Bridge, the only inverted bow bridge in existance in the world, Miss USA 1981, Kim Seelebrede, the Pretzel Festival, the Germantown Dam,  three State Football Championships, beautiful Victorian Homes, the By Jo theater, Camp Miami,and a couple of nasty murders. It lies in the heart of Montgomery County, Ohio, and is considered “The Jewel of The Twin Valley”.  Twin Valley meaning Twin Creek, an off shoot of the Great Miami River which runs through nearby Dayton.

The Covered Bridge…

…has fallen in a couple of times due to idiotic drivers in delivery trucks trying to miss all the “busy in-town traffic”.   After all, there are over 4,000 people living there!  And was nearly destroyed in the 1960s.  It was restored some time about the time I was twelve.  I remember being an  historic conservationist at an early age and helped to “campaign” for it’s salvation.

Kim Seelebrede…

…left Germantown after becoming Miss Ohio and then Miss USA, and is now a Life Coach and Licensed Therapist in New York City.  She has a great website…you should check it out.

The Pretzel Festival is fairly new, they never did that when I was a kid. 

We had homecoming parades, Memorial Day and Fourth of July Parades, and Founder’s Day.  But not much else.

Speaking of Founders, Germantown was founded by Philip Gunkle back in 1804, only one  year after Ohio became a state.  Phil hailed from Germantown, PA, and brought his German work ethic, Lutheranism, and a great town plan with him…along with a large family and following.  The German names abound, and there were at one time nearly as many Zs in the phone book as Bs…all forty pages of it.

The Germantown Dam is part of the Miami Conservancy District and was built after the Great Dayton Flood happened back in the early 1900s.  I’m not so sure what was so great about it.

There is a beautiful park there, and many a church picnic,  high school party, date, and conception have taken place UP there.

The park is beautiful.

The By Jo was big doings when I was a kid, but now, not so much.  They still show movies though. 

The football Championships were back in the 1990s, and after 80 years of lethargy, Germantown became Football Crazy.  When I was in school, the football games were a social event.  We rarely won many games, and we never won the fight after!

…But we were the first class to graduate from the new High School…back in 1970!

The old Victorian Italianate Homes are stunning and well preserved.  People in Germantown for the most part take pride in what they have and what they’ve worked to accomplish.  It’s a pretty place.

Camp Miami was a military school at one time; when I was a kid, it was a Methodist Camp.  After the Baptist Church, where my dad was pastor, and the Lutheran Church, the Methodists had the biggest crowd.

And of course, there’s the Fish, er Florentine Hotel. 

Someone famous stayed there, but I never knew who!  It was too late for George Washington, though some claim it was he.

Germantown, it’s a pretty place, you should check it out! 

The murders I’ll leave alone.  I don’t like to gossip and all!