A lovely blend of tomatoes, ice cream, sunsets, stars, and empty highways

BY EILEEN BRADY
​THE NEWS JOURNAL OF WILMINGTON, OHIO

If we’d had a million dollars and a hovercraft, we may have continued living near Washington, D.C., many more years.
There were countless benefits to living in the D.C. suburbs, but the cost of living, the traffic and the distance from our families in Ohio were major downsides. Clinton County has its own perks, of course, and in the season of Thanksgiving, I’m sharing some of what makes my family and I grateful to live here.
*Seeing stars. The night sky is unpolluted at our house, so the sight of billions of stars in cloudless darkness even makes taking the trash to the street an opportunity to stare up at the sky in awe.
*Lack of traffic jams. Sure, we sometimes get stuck behind a tractor or two, but there’s a comfort in knowing that a 20-minute trip away from Wilmington is pretty much always going to be a 20-minute trip -- not an unexpected two-hour exercise in frustration.
*Graeter’s ice cream. I sure did miss Buckeye Blitz.
*Cornfield sunsets. Almost every night, I snap a photo of the sun setting beyond the fields. It’s like ever-changing art. It may not be an oceanfront vista, but dusk here among the rolling hills is pretty darn close.
*Tomatoes. Inexpensive, plentiful tomatoes grown in southwestern Ohio soil taste like

no other tomatoes. A fresh-from-the-garden tomato shared by a generous neighbor is doubly delicious. 

*Great American Ballpark. Along with having the best stadium name in the major leagues, it’s comforting to be among a sea of Cincinnati shirts while watching a baseball game. Our daughter had been endlessly annoyed that the fans at Nationals Park had the gall to root loudly against the Reds.
*Wide parking spaces. Our minivan doesn’t exactly turn on a dime, and the urban lots only offered narrow places to park, with the goal being to pack in as many people as possible. It’s much more relaxing swinging the Swagger Wagon into a space that is wide enough for both it and its doors to open without dinging a neighboring Nissan.
*More modest automobiles. We drive a 16-year-Toyota with 230,000-plus miles. Although it may be just as reliable as the new BMWs, Mercedes sedans and shiny Jaguars, it seemed to be developing a slight inferiority complex in the land of luxury cars. I guess when people spend all that extra time sitting in traffic, they want to be comfortable. A German-made Maybach was often parked near my daughter’s old school. The price of a new Maybach starts at $376,300, which should qualify it for a 30-year mortgage. I cannot imagine parking such an extravagant vehicle next to a building that held 700 elementary school students and their 7,000 grubby fingers. 
*The smell of LaRosa’s pizza inside the gates of Kings Island. Happy childhood memories do have a scent.
*The cost of living. Groceries, housing, dining out: all of these things are a fraction of what we used to have to pay. 
*The Bengals. Stop laughing. It’s hard enough being a Bengals fan when you’re among Bengals fans. Imagine the pain when you’re living in a rabid football city.
*Old friends and family. We get to see people who knew us when we had all our baby teeth. There’s no pretense possible when you’re with those folks.
*Proximity to family and lack of travel at Christmastime. Although we always loved our summer trips to Ohio, the harrowing winter drives we endured sometimes added enormous stress to the holiday season. If you’ve had to do it, you know what I’m talking about.
*Long summer days. Being on the western edge of the Eastern Time Zone makes Ohio summers all that much longer and better.
*An affordable farmers market. Although several farmers markets were held within a few miles of our last house, the prices of some of the fruits and vegetables made me chuckle. At the farmers market in Wilmington, the prices are more than reasonable, but it’s also nice knowing that the people selling stuff are actually the people who picked the produce just mere hours prior.
*Proximity to other places. We still love seeing new places and visiting friends all over the United States, so it’s helpful that 50 percent of the U.S. population lives within a 500-mile radius of Ohio’s capital city. 
*Harvest time. Watching the complete growing cycle of soybeans and corn and other crops is a reminder that food and agriculture is Ohio’s top industry, contributing $93.8 billion to the state’s economy, according to the Ohio Farm Bureau. It’s also good to know that the farmers might be winding down their round-the-clock workdays. 
*The Crave Candy & Nuts. My kid is like a kid in a candy store in that candy store. She is also particularly grateful for a plethora of pizza places, a big back yard, the quaintness of downtown Wilmington, and a school start time that’s an hour later. 
*Ohio’s weather. Ha. Just joking.