FORMER MONONGAH RESIDENTS MEET AT TALLMADGE, OHIO PASTA RESTAURANT

 

The really, really SMALL world department:

 

I picked up my usual pasta from Danny Boy’s on the Traffice Circle in Tallmadge, Ohio today. The waitress, Rhiannon, saw my WVU T-shirt (I don’t go anywhere without WVU clothing) and said, “Are you from West Virginia”?

 

I replied, as I always do, “Yes, Fairmont” (because it’s the largest city in Marion County).

 

She said, “Me, too.”

 

Then, as I do when someone indicates they lived near Fairmont, I said, “Actually, Monongah.”

 

Rhiannon said, “Me, too.”

 

Tallmadge and Monongah are 195 miles apart but thisclose in our hearts when people from Monongah meet each other, either in Marion County or somewhere else in the world.

So both our faces lit up. My heart perked up, too. I don’t know about Rhiannon.

 

I asked her to name people in Monongah that she knew.

 

She wrote down “Carol VanMeter” and “Kim Kendzior.”

 

Carol Lucille Kendzior Van Meter, Class of 1963, and Kimberly Kay Kindzior, Class of 1976, are sisters who live in Monongah.

 

Their brother is famous golfer and girls softball coach the late Walter Gene Kendzior, Class of 1958, who married Sheila Stotler Kendzior, who passed away in 2013 as Gene’s widow.  

 

Their parents were Walter Kendzior and Virginia Shaver Kendzior.

 

When I checked with Kim she replied:

 

“Rhiannon is my great-niece. She is the daughter of Carol’s son, Jeff, so her last name is Van Meter.”

 

Kim moved from Virginia to Monongah and lives in the old East Monongah home where she grew up.

 

Kim once lived in Reseda and Virginia Beach, Virginia with Paula Harr but moved back to Monongah. She’s a cashier at Circle K. She also learned to drive big 18-wheeler trucks at the Diesel Institute of America in 2000-2001.

 

Carol lives in Monongah with husband David Lee VanMeter, Class of 1962. They have been married 55 years. Both spent their entire lives in Monongah.

 

Jeff Van Meter is Carol and David’s son and Rhiannon is Jeff’s daughter.

 

Gene’s daughter, Jennifer Kendzior, lives in Bloomington, Indiana, with Jason Wright.

 

Gene coached the Monongah girls softball team that won the 1960 Marion County championship.

 

One of the players on the team was Sherry Van Meter, Class of 1965, who had her leg in a cast after sliding into third base.  

 

Sherry married Dorsey Edward Nicholson, who passed away in 2009. Dorsey was an artist for NASCAR auto racing and Ohio State. He worked 30 years for General Motors.

 

My cousin, Irene Fazio Preolitti, also was on that team.

 

Monongah High Alumni Association president Linda Lopez Gandy, Class of 1965, living in Florida with husband Jim Gandy, Class of 1964, also was on that championship team.

 

And later was coached by David Van Meter, Gene’s brother-in-law and Rhiannon’s grandfather.  

 

Gene was a weekly golfing companion for 20 years of the late Fairmont Times Editor John Veasey, who I tried to hire away to the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News sports department when I was #2 in command there.

 

John declined a pay jump from his Fairmont Times job because he was happy staying in Fairmont. I got a 50% pay raise by leaving the Charleston Daily Mail for the Dayton Daily News because of the wide salary gap between West Virginia and Ohio newspapers.

 

Bill Meredith, Class of 1959, who lives in Sarasota, Florida, and Gene attended elementary and Monongah High together. They reunited at Monongah High Alumni Banquets in recent years.

 

Kim attended the 2016 and 2008 Monongah High Alumni Banquets. Bill showed up in 2014, 2011, 2010, 2008, 2007 and 2006 with wife Roleta.

 

Carol showed up at the MHS Banquet in 2013,  2012, 2011, 2008 and 2005 with husband Dave.

 

I attended in 2005 for the 55^th anniversary of my Class of 1950 along with 1950 grads Kathryn Toothman Crim, who lives in Farwell, Michigan; the late Jim Commodore; and the late Jim Wimer.

 

Also with me in 2005 was my sister Jackie Olesky Straight, Class of 1955, and Duane Harbert, Class of 1951, who lives in Marlton, New Jersey and was in the faceitiously named Gang That Terrorized Marion County that I ran around with during my MHS days along with Bob “Satch” Kasper, my friend since we were in first grade 83 years ago who lives in South Lyon, Michigan, just west of Detroit; Tony Eates, who lives in Fairmont with wife Lucy Cann Eates; Frank Franze, who lives in Slidell, Louisiana; Donald Halpenny, who lives in Fairmont; Steven “Bucky” Satterfield, a retired West Virginia Highway Patrolman living in St. Albans; and those who passed away, Lawrence “Sonny” Godby,   Anthony “Plumber” DeMary, Ronnie “Coolie” Delovich, Joe Manzo and Jim “Judge” Starcher.

 

And in 2010 for our 60^th (!!!) class anniversary. And in 2013 and 2017 and 2018. I plan to attend in 2021 over Labor Day weekend, too.

 

I will be co-hosting with my sister, Jackie Olesky Straight, Class of 1955, the J&J&Lions Get-Together July 17 in the Monongah Town Hall. Dinner at 6 p.m., music from 7-9 p.m.

 

If you’re interested, print up the Reservation form on this blog and mail it so that it’s IN MY HANDS no later than June 26 so that I can tell Say-Boy how many people to feed.

 

Monongah Town Councilwoman Susan Staron Sanders, the Angel of Thomas Street married to Ron Sanders, and Shellie Yankie of Susan’s Monongah Christmas Lights Committee will be decorating the Town Hall in red and black streamers (Monongah High’s colors) and I will bringing a 21 x 30 inch framed photo of the Monongah High Lion and a 6 x 6 foot (yes, foot) thin quilt to set the proper atmosphere for a rememberable Monongah High yippee-ki-yay hooting-and-hollering time.

 

In addition to the Say-Boy food, Susan and her army will be bake a cake with a likeness of Monongah High on it and pastries with an “M” for Monongah on them.

 

No one will be allowed to attend unless they have had their COVID vaccine shots. We want it to be a safe and fun time with no one wearing masks because we’ll all be safe with and for each other.

 

Jackie’s family and my family and our Fazio cousins will be there, too.

 

The more the merrier. Join us!

 

This is NOT the annual Monongah High Alumni banquet but a John Olesky attempt to get family and classmates together during the summer as a break from the COVID restrictions.

iHH

 

The annual Monongah High Alumni Banquet will be on Labor Day weekend at the Knights of Columbus in Fairmont. If you have any questions call Donna Davis at 304-534-5636.