Jim Flora grew up not very far from where I did:

Bellefontaine was a town of about nine thousand people, in the center of Ohio. At that time there were no televisions, radios, dishwashers, or jet planes. There were a lot of horses but very few automobiles. A boy could sit on the curb for an hour before an automobile passed by so he could wave at it. My parents were born in the 19th century and Bellefontaine was a typical 19th century midwestern town. It suited them admirably, but by the time I reached boyhood, the town was in transition entering the 20th century. So many things were happening at once: electricity, telephones, socialism, radios, automobiles, bobbed hair, movies, short skirts. It was a yeasty time, but through it all most of the 19th-century values persisted. We learned self-discipline, politeness, good manners, doing one’s chores with a minimum of grumbling, neatness, cleanliness, and all of the other social graces that get one through life with the least amount of abrasion and lost motion.Jim Flora: Back to Bellefontaine