Dublin, Ohio

I've written many things about Iowa but not a word about our now home in Dublin, Ohio. In a few short words it is a wonderful community; our all-time favorite. Dublin was first settled in 1810 by a couple of men from guess where--Dublin, Ireland silly. It is a northwest suburb of Columbus located on the other side of the Outerbelt. The neat thing about Dublin is I can drive to downtown Columbus in 15 minutes. Since Columbus is the 15th largest City in the US that suits me just fine.
There are two things that fascinate me about Dublin. Old Dublin has a series of flatstone walls throughout the community. They were put in place by two guys in the late 1800's. This would have been hard work and very boring work, too, but it surely adds to the beauty of the community. Downtown Dublin has maintained it's charm and there are many stone buildings reminiscent of days gone by. The second thing that flabbergasts me is our growth. In 1970 the population of Dublin was 400 hearty souls. The 2010 population is guesstimated at 41,000 but that has to be on the low side. There are two reasons for this spurt in population: (1) the growth of Columbus due to a large professional base and (2) Jack Nicklaus. Muirfield Village, the home of the Memorial Golf Tournament has been considered the 5th Major tournament on the PGA Tour. I am so fortunate. My next door neighbor, Robert Hoag, along with Jack, Iver Young and Pandal Savic built the course and established the tournament in 1976. I love the 82-year old Mr. Hoag to death. He's a golfing legend, a playing partner of Jack's in his younger days and is a teacher of the game. He has offered his expertise to me often. Too bad my skull is so thick. I always forget his methods. (His hero was Ernest Jones from the twenties and his book is, 'Swing The Clubhead') Anyway, people being the 'wannabes' that they are want to be around golf so
with the course being here I think it makes them feel more important to live in Dublin. Yours truly excluded, naturally. One day Mr. Hoag took me across the street to the Muirfield driving range and another bucket list item was complete. My favorite Hoag story was when he asked me to join Muirfield. I about fell over with joy. I said, "Mr. Hoag, I'm honored but don't I have to go before the Board for approval"? His answer was, "Honey, I am the Board". In the same breath he said, "Now, it's only $100,000 initiation fee but you get $80,000 back when you leave". For the one and only time in my life I was speechless. I finally told him I'd have to rob more banks than Bonnie and Clyde to get that kind of money. I shouldn't have said that. I embarrassed him. I felt bad. He thought I was well to do instead of just being an Iowa boy.
So, there you have it. Dublin is a very, very nice town. Come visit y'all. We'll all go down to Wendy's for lunch and you can tell the features of your town. Truth be told, if Iowa didn't have 100 degree range summers with humidity of 100% and winters averaging 2,000 inches of snow and -40 degree temps I might considering moving back.
P.S. One reader thought the house pictured was our home. Not so. It's a typical old town Dublin home. Sorry for the confusion.