The Park*

Prologue. The Park.

My life began in the Park, in relative isolation. Early life experiences prepare one to deal with many of life's challenges. My early years in the Park where the best. The composite of friends and stories below, illustrate from whence I came. The Park as I define it, was the land my Grandfather developed as a state park adjunct to the city Park. It comprised the land between Greenville to the east and the city Park football stadium, baseball diamonds, city swimming pool to the northwest. In the 1930's Granddad dredged in the levees on both sides of Greenville Creek. On the city side, he built two ponds and the monument to the Greenville Peace Treaty. On the north side, he built three ponds, and the Girl Scout house. To the west to North Broadway were soybean fields. Dad and Mother built our house across from the Girl Scout house in 1939. Dad and our neighbor Bill Browne owned, later developed, all of the five block area (empty fields) from our house to North Broadway. There were five houses, only three families with children. The Brumbaugh's, the Brownes, and the Sayles. Children: Fred, Hilda, Martha, Bill Brown and Meredith. Billy Brown my best friend 14 months my senior. His mother Kay my second mother. Parent's best friends. Meredith Sayle and Fred, classmate throughout school, wonderful friend. Total freedom to roam, to fish, gig frogs, hunt mushrooms, get in trouble. Home for lunch at noon. Home for dinner at 6 o'clock. Be good boys! The good life.. the best education. (No Cover Parents). All six children great success stories. ( Must See "Out of Greenville Experiences")

The Park: The People Rev: 1/8

I). The WD Brumbaugh Family.

II). The William A, Browne Family.

A) Bill Browne. He was the third generation owner of the local newspaper, The Greenville Advocate. They were my parent's best friends. They went to Canada together. Bill was hard-working, very social and loved to hunt and have drinks with Dad.

B) Kay Browne. Her maiden name was Green, came from Indiana. She met Bill while at Miami of Ohio College.

C). William Alexander Browne IV, Billy, my best friend in the early years. By the eighth grade, he started running with an older crowd. What a career. Halfback and Track star in high school. Phi Beta Kappa Miami of Ohio. First in his class in Jefferson Medical School in Philadelphia. He returned to Greenville to spend a life as a country doctor. We retained our friendship all through those years. Upon retirement he became the head doctor for the University Hospital at the Miami University of Ohio.

III) The Dr. Gilbert and Marge Sayle Family. They lived two blocks west. Dr. Sayle, originally from Cleveland was one of the most prominent physicians. They were wonderful neighbors.

A) Meredith Sayle. My classmate and good friend, Meredith, attended Ohio Wesleyan University. There, she married Frank Dove. He became US Attorney for Southern Illinois. Meredith, I believe was a delegate to a Democratic National Convention.

B). John Sayle. John was in Hilda's class. John attended Miami of Ohio, and then earned his MBA from Columbia School of Business. He worked a number of years for Morgan Guaranty

The Park. Other People And Stories.:

A). Uncle Jed Coppock and Aunt Bonnie. Many, many stories. Uncle Jed was my Grandfather Coppock's brother. They were close in age and looked alike. Uncle Jed was an alcoholic some of the time. Aunt Bonnie was a wonderful humorous woman, who was a second cousin of my Grandmother Brumbaugh. They lived across the creek at the top of the hill. Uncle Jed was the caretaker for The Park. He did everything to help Billy Browne and myself. Taught us how to fish. He had secret places for us to catch the fish and put our traps. Couple quick stories.... one time at least, maybe more, he would dress in Granddad's hand-me-down suits and go to Columbus, Ohio, where everybody knew Fred Coppock. He'd pretend to be Granddad, go on a binge and come home. In the doghouse! Granddad gave the beautiful Park to the State of Ohio. The State of Ohio promptly fired Uncle Jed. Granddad immediately stormed over to the State of Ohio, took The Park back, gave Uncle Jed his job back and gave The Park to the City of Greenville. They both helped me with my garden, which was close to their house. They had a wonderful fruit orchard. Their grandsons, Danny Coppock and Jed Coppock were my summer playmates. (Danny went to the Citadel. Jed from birth was a cripple and could barely talk, we protected him from other kids. We, Billy and I, knew that Jed's mind was fine. Later, his mother taught him to type with his toes, and he became a C. P. A. Accountant!)

B). Random Stories.

1). Bill Browne's roommate at Miami University had been Paul Brown, the founder of the Cleveland Browns and later founded and owned the Cincinnati Bengal football team. Met him many times.

2). Ralph and Mary Roach. They built their house behind ours after the war. Ralph was my History teacher in High School, Mary was my English teacher. They both were wonderful. Small world! When Peter and Sam were in pre-school in Bethesda, Maryland, we were looking for a place for them to go to grade school, Landon, Georgetown Prep, etc. I mentioned this to Dad, Mother and Mary. Mary said why don't you send them to Landon. I said we would love to. She said, I'll take care of it. Her cousin was Alf Landon, the founder of the school. He called her up and the boys were in the next day.

3). Fauna and Flora. During the war, many of the casualties of the depression remained. One was a homeless, we call him "Bums". Mother would give him food and old clothes, as would Katie Browne. He was a man of honor and wanted to repay them. Bill and I were probably six or seven. To pay them, he would take us into the woods and teach us about mushrooms and all the different plants. He was a former cook. His name was Noah Good. How many uptight mothers today would let their little blonde sons, six and seven go off into the woods with a Noah Good?

4). Willie Brandt. This was the name of a former Chancellor of Germany. There also was a fellow during the war with the same name. He immigrated here in the 30's. Germans were not very popular in the 1940's. Dad found him a job working on the county highway. He was very grateful and sometimes on Sunday evenings, he would stop by in his car and have a beer and Dad would try to speak German with our Willie Brandt.

5). John, (can't remember his last name). John, about 1950, built the house behind the Brownes. Incredible story. John was a truck driver, very handsome with a new bride. In his earlier days, before the war, he'd inherited a sizable sum of money when his father died. He took the money and moved into the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City for three years. There, he dated showgirls, the Rockettes etc. The great life. Ran out of money and came back to Greenville and became a truck driver. Often wondered if he wasn't the smartest person on the block.

6) Neighbors. In the 1950's Dad sold the lot next to our property to one of his best friends, Mr. George Buchy. My Grandfather and Dad had been the Buchy family lawyer for the slaughterhouse they owned. (It was own the edge of The Park towards town. Back then, every town had one of these.) Their sons were grown when they moved in. One son, Jimmy, was two years behind me in school. He remains to this day a very close friend. For Greenville, he had a remarkable career in the Ohio State Legislature. He was term limited out, but went back in recent years and became the Whip of the Republican Party in the Legislature. Many wonderful stories about Jim.

7). Citation. In the early days, two blocks behind our house was the football field, the city swimming pool, and the softball diamonds. I played softball every summer in grade school. Everybody had a nickname in Greenville. I could hit a double and still be thrown out at first base, I was so slow. My nickname became "Plow Horse". Remember, this is farming country. Citation won the Kentucky Derby. Many of the guys decided I was pretty classy from a wealthy family so they changed my nickname to Citation. Later it became mutated to Cy. At Princeton, some of the elites called me country Cy.


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