Dayton is Undereducated - Proof (Columbus, Cincinnati: school, shop, barber)

[randomparent]

Although I have only one relative left in Dayton, one of my g-grandfathers and his brother settled there with their families in the early 20th century to work for NCR. Another grandfather was a carpenter who built houses all over Belmont. And yet another branch of the family lived down by what is now Miami Valley Hospital in the late 19th century. The patriarch of that family was an ironsmith, and I believe that his work, including a sculpture, is still on display somewhere downtown, although I'd have to ask my Dad for the details. Last time I was in Dayton, I drove by their address, hoping that the house was still standing, but it had been demolished. In college, I lived near the Amber Rose restaurant, and it was very good. Glad to know that it is still open and thriving. I remember being taken by the sleeping porches on the second floors of many houses in that part of town. It's sad to know that the neighborhood has continued its decline. On the other side of the family, my grandparents left the Cumberland area of southern Kentucky during the war years to start anew in Dayton. They eventually settled in Kettering and were decidedly middle class. I can't say that there were any traces of Appalachia in them by the time I was born, although they did square dance. I think they were more than ready to leave the tobacco farm behind. It was a very hard life that they apparently had no desire to revisit.

My childhood was spent in the 'burbs surrounded by WPAFB-types. I think in some ways what has been pointed out is true: many of us left the area to pursue greener pastures after college. But I can't say that I ever had the impression that Dayton was an unfriendly or uneducated place. I had a wonderful childhood, and even now when I visit I feel at home.

[TomJones123]

^^ Amber Rose is still awesome!

[randomparent]

I'll be there next month and make it a priority to have dinner there. Thanks!

[TomJones123]

Your welcome. You won't be disappointed, glad I could be helpful.

[bam989863]

I was born and raised in Dayton and currently live in Houston, Texas. The thing I miss most about Dayton is the people. I never found them to be as described in this thread. I even group up in East Dayton off Smithville road. Living in Texas has made me realize how much humility and work ethic Midwestern people including Daytonians have. I have come to realize that there is much more to life than money and fancy things. Many of the things I covet most I can find in Dayton, Ohio. My wife and I are moving to Columbus this summer and we cannot wait for cookouts with our family at my parents home in East Dayton. I have a master's degree and my wife is a doctor, I would not consider us to be briars nor white trash and we both love east Dayton.

[mortimer]

Originally Posted by TomJones123

If not, I would love to drive you down McClain Street from Henry to Hamilton ....

McLain Street?

I moved from Dayton in 1985, so taking a google street view walk down that street is fascinating.

You can really see why automobile use is up so much. We used to have shops and stores on streecorners
where you could walk and now people demand to live away from businesses as in the first post here:
Shroyer Road? Dayton Public Schools?

Most of the businesses that are left are just local bars.

[TomJones123]

It's a typo. S.B - McLain

[ohio_peasant]

Sorry to be reviving an older thread, but I just joined today and am eager to comment.

I have no data on the comparative surliness or barbarism amongst Daytonians vs. elsewhere in America’s smaller cities and metro areas. But it does seem to me that the Dayton culture celebrates the spunky homespun individual who invents great things in his garage, not bothering to chase book-learning.

Without implying a pejorative connotation, I definitely agree that Dayton is “blue collar”. The official web-site of the town whose name is on my mailing address (somewhat east of Dayton) offers a sobering statistic: amongst adults over 25 years old, the percentage who have a 4-year degree or higher, and the percentage who have not completed high school, are approximately the same.

100 years ago, “engineering” was a mix of mechanical aptitude and can-do gumption. It didn’t require an advanced degree. Today it does. This may at least partially explain how Dayton could have thrived in the early 20th century but declined subsequently and struggles with competing today.

[TomJones123]

Originally Posted by ohio_peasant

But it does seem to me that the Dayton culture celebrates the spunky homespun individual who invents great things in his garage, not bothering to chase book-learning.

That culture, if it ever spurned book learning, is long gone. In it's place is an Appalachian culture that celebrates breaking into garages to get money for drugs.

[Dayton Sux]

I'm suprised I never commented on this thread.

Back to the thread header...the Dayton metro area shows up in some stats as having a relatively high % of technical professionals (which in and of itself is interesting vis a vis that Brookings study mentioned in the NYT article linked in the thread header or earlier posts).

So the (few?) people that do have some college are engineers and scientific types and maybe IT. Which makes sense given that WPAFB draws in a lot of engineering, and has an engineering grad school on base (for the military). It might also account for the somewhat dry and practical local culture.

But it does seem to me that the Dayton culture celebrates the spunky homespun individual who invents great things in his garage, not bothering to chase book-learning.

A good example of an inventor from recent times is Ermal Fraze. The bio from the MIT "Inventor of the Week" website is a good example of how someone who came up in the local machine shop/tool & die industry figured out a better way to do something....but he did ALSO go to engineering school.....

Inventor of the Week: Archive


Also, during my first one or two years living here, someone (who was a writer & poet who relocated to NYC) once told me that "this is a pragmatic town", so don't expect much fluff...(I was complaining how dull Dayton was).

@@@

As for this thread the conversation later devolved into riffing on the character traits of the locals.

I have mixed experience with the locals, and I think it does depend somewhat on their education and the social context. True, people are pretty ignorant here, even the college-educated ones. That being said my experiences in day-to-day interaction is that there is often a sort of "midwest nice" politieness and folksiness. This might not carry-over into that surley/rude f-bomb black/briar ghetto mentality & attitude, but even there one sometimes sees it.