Buckeyes

I am a Buckeye through and through.

My first choice was Purdue but I couldn't afford the out of state tuition. Ohio State was my second choice but I ended up earning two degrees there. Wilmington College was my third choice as it was closer to home so I could help dad farm but that good Quaker school was not quite my ticket.

Dad had five siblings graduate from Ohio State. Aunt Florence, Mildred, Ruby, Betty and my dear Uncle Roy.

The Ohio buckeye is the state tree of Ohio and an original term of endearment for the pioneers on the Ohio frontier, with specific association with William Henry Harrison. Capt. Daniel Davis[3] of the "Company of Ohio Associates", under Gen. Rufus Putnam, traversed the wilderness in the spring of 1788, and began the settlement of Ohio. Davis was said to be the second man ashore at Point Harmar, 7 April, 1788, and he declared later that he cut the first tree felled by a settler west of the Ohio River. That tree being a "buckeye", the incident gave the state the nickname which it still retains today. Subsequently, the word was used as the nickname of the Ohio State University sports teams and came to be applied to any graduate of the university.
The buckeye confection, made to resemble the tree's nut, is made by dipping a spoonful of peanut butter fudge in milk chocolate, leaving a circle of the peanut butter exposed. These are a popular treat in Ohio, especially during the Christmas and NCAA college football seasons[citation needed].

In addition to using the tannic acid for leatherworking, Native Americans would roast and peel the nut, and mash the contents into a nutritional meal they called "Hetuck".[4]
The buckeye nuts can also be dried, turning dark as they harden with exposure to the air, and strung onto necklaces. These are particularly popular among OSU fans.

So Ohio State became my school of choice, and the same for my sister and brother and children and nephews.

People would ask me what a buckeye was. I would tell them it was a local tree with a poisinous nut that make you really sick right before you died if you ate it. You have heard my story about the old cow that ate the buckeyes and we found her four legs up one morning.

Definitions of buckeye on the Web:

the inedible nutlike seed of the horse chestnut

horse chestnut: tree having palmate leaves and large clusters of white to red flowers followed by brown shiny inedible seeds

Ohioan: a native or resident of Ohio wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

The Buckeye is also a breed of chicken originating in the U.S. state of Ohio. Created in the late 19th century, Buckeyes are the only breed of American ...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckeye_(chicken) I don't know that I have ever seen one.

For me it was the land of the Ohio State Buckeyes, the Land Grant University where I could expand my education and make something out of myself.

Today it is a powerful football team that is playing rival Michigan in their "Big House."

I really like the 1954 retro uniforms they are wearing today in remembrance of another Ohio State National Champion football team.

Ed