Dateline Dayton —Last Friday evening, Pauline and I attended Dayton History’s annual meeting and the special preview of the Heritage Center of Dayton Manufacturing and Entrepreneurship.

I was fortunate to have served on the board of Dayton History its inaugural year, after serving on the board of the Montgomery County Historical Societ, the year it merged with Carillon Historical Park to form Dayton History.

The new center has an extensive collection of cash registers while highlighting inventions and inventors of Dayton, such as:

The Wright Brothers and Charles Kettering.

Various leading companies that are or were in Dayton, were spotlighted, including NCR, DELCO, General Motors, Price Brothers, Mike-Sell’s. Many other persons and products are honored in the building exhibits.

The Center also has the original Deeds barn, a Dayton toy collection and what has to be the highlight, an operating carousel on which you can ride in a cash register, on a streetcar, an Imas Dog Food bag and others. Yes, there are also horses.

If you are ever in Dayton, you will want to visit Carillon Park, as well as the Air Force Museum planning to spend at least a day at each location to take in everything they have offer. In addition, you will want to visit other interesting sites in and around Dayton. Make sure you have a few days to take in everything. Although struggling, Dayton is alive and well!

For some time, Pauline and I have been trying to get away for a few days. We finally decided that the past weekend would be the perfect time.

Since we did this on the spur of the moment, there wasn’t much time to make arrangements. I did call my sister to see if she and her husband might be interested in going on an overnight. They were, but they couldn’t find anyone to care for their dogs. If they were going, we were heading to a casino in West Virginia that Willie has been talking about. Since they couldn’t go, we’re going to save that trip for when they’re available.

In last week’s issue of my “Antique Week,” I saw a story on an ice cream parlor in Columbus, Indiana. After taking our dog Jake to the kennel and stopping for breakfast, we finally were on our way to Indiana. I took the back roads. We had a pleasant drive since we were in no hurry and it was a beautiful day.

We arrived at Zaharakos at 2:30. I got a sandwich, Pauline had soup and then came the ice cream. A hot fudge sundae was Pauline’s choice and I had a caramel sundae, two scoops, of course.

The ice cream parlor has been beautifully restored by its owner Tony Moravec. The items in the museum are outstandingm and Tony has a great cash register on display.

It’s well worth a trip to Columbus, Indiana, to see this establishment that has been a fixture in the city for 106 years.

Mr. Hennessey may be contacted at pmhenn@sbcglobal.net