Canton native Gary, Manchester's Frank & Tallmadge's John Olesky

3 Ohioans meet on Florida golf course

Today I was the 4th for 7 guys (2 foursomes) who play together weekdays for years, and have lived in The Viillages for five or more years.

During the introductions, I say my usual "John, from Akron, Ohio" (Tallmadge doesn't ring many bells).

One says he's Gary, born in Canton, lived in Minerva, then moved to Columbus where he worked for 30 years as American Electric Power IT (he kept the computers humming).  (Gary has the red shirt in the photo.)
 

Another says he's Frank, and lives in Manchester.

I tell him that Clarence Jones and his family, who own Classic Pools and have their business in Manchester, built my Cuyahoga Falls pool in 1983, which I used for more than two decades before Paula and I sold our homes and bought our condo in Tallmadge in 2006.  (Frank has the blue shirt in the photo.)

Frank says: "They're my neighbors.” The Jones family are quality people, as a business and as human beings.

The other guy was from near College Park, Pennsylvania, where my son-in-law graduated from Penn State. He took the photo of 3 Ohioans meeting in Florida in 70-degree weather (but no sunshine).

Small world, huh?

Tomorrow, I'll play golf with retired Beacon Journal printer Hugh Downing, whose

shoulder has recovered from a tree limb knocking him off his ladder, and Bob Page, former BJ reporter who entered the ministry after hearing Pat Englehart's salty language at Ol' Blue Walls. Bob is an associate pastor in the Villages.

And then hurry home to go out to dinner and play cards at the home of a couple we met in Summit County and visit when we're in The  Villages, the world's largest play sandbox for 114,000 senior citizens.

 With NO pars, I shot a 40 today at Hill Top, 2 above my 2016 Florida average. I id make a 12-foot putt on the longest, 316-yard hole, though. But not for a par.

It was my 14th round of golf in 24 days. It would have been more but I took a week off while Paula and I were in Siesta Key, her 2015 Christmas present to me on my favorite beach in the world.

I was happy that the line of thunderstorms moved beyond The Villages and into the Atlantic while we were scaring the White Ibises on the Hill Top course ponds.

Florida is one giant lake-effect from the Gulf of Mexico, but the storm line blows through and past America’s southernmost peninsula in a few hours.
 

And, unlike Lake Erie, NO snow in January.