There are gentle giants in Amish land

I have now completed 22 years of my Amish Country picture taking odyssey. More than 600 round trips to nearby Wilmington, Pa., and about 6,000 photographs later, it is still a once in a lifetime experience, and on many occasions I learn and see something new.

I have made friends of many of the Amish farmers and gained their confidence over these years. Eli is the first farmer I met in 1989 and photographed his horses then and many times afterwards. Each Spring when I arrive, he greets me with “It must be spring.” His farm is generally my first stop and has beautiful rolling hills. I get some of my best photos at the bottom of those hills as Eli reaches the crest with his team of three matched sorrel colored Belgian draft work horses, “The Gentle Giants.”

Some of the farmers have Percheron work horses, which are generally white, black or dapple gray. The bulk of my two, three, four, five, and six horse teams in action are the Belgians.

As a bonus, each round- trip routes me through my old Great Depression stomping grounds on Youngstown’s East Side. I traverse Oak Street to Rt. 422 heading east to Pennsylvania. Oak Street from the intersection of Himrod heading west to Loveless was the major portion of my Vindicator newspaper Route 302 from 1940 through 1942. About half of the octogenarian homes are gone. There is a modern appurtenance added to some of the remaining homes, a satellite TV dish perched on porch roof tops.

Vanishing businesses

Five customers and thriving businesses have vanished, Christman Bakery, O.W. Cameron Moving and Transfer, Panza’s Corner Grocery, Caldrone’s Barber Shop, and Papagana’s Soft Drink Bottling Company.

According to public library records it was “Crema Cola Gazzosa Bottling Works,” the Italian word “gazzosa” meaning “fizzy drink.” The bottling company was in its heyday in the 1930s, height of the Great Depression. I didn’t have two cents to rub together or a plugged nickel then and therefore don’t remember drinking a “Gazzosa.”

Michael J. Lacivita is a Youngstown retiree and an inductee into the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame and Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame.