However while some of us laze about, Scott Suther at the Medway Area Historical Society has been busy. Suther, who is in charge of the group’s Facebook page, has been busy reorganizing the pages ever since Facebook, in its wisdom, redesigned pages worldwide.
When Facebook redid the Medway Historical Society page, all of the hundreds of photos and their descriptions got shuffled, so Scott has been sorting and reorganizing for a couple of weeks now.
Historical photos are being relabeled and reorganized into electronic “albums” so that visitors to the site can sort through the items that interest them. And he is also adding lots of advertisements and menus from local businesses long gone and some still around.
To Suther’s surprise, there has been an unexpected side effect to all of this reorganization.
As he makes the changes, email notices automatically get sent out to people hanging out in their homes from the heat and these folks are taking a closer look at the photographic treasures that Suther has collected over the years. Then these folks tell their friends and they want to join the page, too.
There are more comments than there were before, and the number of members of this Facebook group is growing by leaps and bounds.
People are enjoying this virtual armchair tour through Medway and Bethel Twp.’s history from the comfort of their homes. It is kind of a virtual time machine.
According to Suther, people tell him that the photos are “bringing back the memories.” And a few more people ask to join the group every day. Anyone can look at the site, but only members can comment on the photos.
Some of the new members are former area residents now living out of state.
And the new members are commenting almost as fast as Suther posts new photos in the albums.
“I’m trying to do it as fast as I can,” Suther said. “Next, I’ll be posting Donnelsville photos. Then, I have to go back and put descriptions on the photos.”
Suther is making sure the “who, when and where” is there for each image. Reading the comments also fills out the stories.
So if your mouth waters just thinking about the peach ice cream at Neff’s, or lunch at Wilt’s, or you loved the pasta at Grenat’s Spaghetti House overlooking the Mad River, you might want to take a walk down memory lane on the Medway Area Historical Society Facebook page.
Those photos make me wonder how many tourist cabins and motels were located along U.S. 40 before I-70 took most of the cross-country traffic.
And if you missed the Cypress Garden’s water ski show on Crystal Lake in August 1959 like I did, this is your big chance to catch up.
Just make sure you top off your iced tea before you sit in front of the computer. I think you are going to want to stay awhile.
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