Waverly Couple Shapes Local Dulcimer Culture

by Jill Dickert

Gary and Toni Sager, co-owners of Prussia Valley Dulcimers: Acoustic Music Shop, indubitably have expanded the folk music culture in Waverly, Ohio. By pursuing their passion, they have surpassed being a mere music shop and instead have extended the store into part of Pike County’s local culture.

How it all began:

Sager built his first mountain dulcimer, a uniquely shaped, carved and plucked musical instrument that is a big component of the Appalachian folk music scene, in 1991 after seeing David Schnaufer's music video for "Fischer's Hornpipe" on CMT. He had always been a country and folk music enthusiast. After seeing the video, he wanted to know more about dulcimer instruments.

At the time, Gary was an electrician at the RCA/Thomson plant in Circleville, Ohio where he had been working since April of 1971. A co-worker gave Gary a book that contained instructions for making mountain dulcimers after Gary expressed his interest in the instrument. With the help of the book and determination, Gary constructed his first dulcimer. “It wasn't the best sample of my work for sure, but the instruments gradually improved,” says Gary.

Prussia Valley Dulcimers: The Early Years

Gary had been building mountain dulcimers for a few years and his interest in folk music only increased throughout the years. Gary’s wife Toni is also passionate about folk music. After seeing a woman playing an autoharp at the Fraley Mountain Music Festival in Kentucky, she became enthralled with the stringed instrument that has a series of chord bars attached to dampers which, when depressed, mute all the strings other than those that form the desired chord. The autoharp is a flat instrument that does not really resemble a harp at all.

Gary and Toni started to attend some local dulcimer festivals such as Fort New Salem Dulcimer Festival, Dulcimer Doin's in Dayton, Ohio, and Buckeye Dulcimer Festival in Ashley, Ohio. The couple quickly learned that the attendants of these festivals were also interested in dulcimer cases, picks, tuners, CDs and tablature books. Soon Gary and Toni decided to sell some of those items in addition to the dulcimer instruments that Gary made at the festivals. “After achieving success with these festivals, it just seemed logical to open a store in 2001,” says Gary.

Prussia Valley Dulcimers, nine years later:

The shop has seen a great many changes since its inception in 2001. A re-location has occurred and it has since expanded from a mere music store. Gary and Toni made the executive decision to make the store more than a dulcimer-selling entity and now sell several other acoustic instruments such as guitars, harps, fiddles, banjos and autoharps. There is a freestanding Web site to place online orders, workshops and lessons, CDs available for purchase and even a publication titled Dulcimer Players News. Gary and Toni continue to brainstorm and implement initiatives to extend the Prussia Valley Dulcimers presence in Pike County. They have recently developed a program with Bristol Village, the new senior citizen center in Waverly. Gary is going to offer free group workshops on playing the mountain dulcimer for the seniors. “It should be fun and we hope to help generate more local interest in the mountain dulcimer,” says Gary.

M&M Dairy Bell's Owner Keeps Up Timeless Traditions

By Jessa Moser

Sandy Bellville is a very busy woman. She spends time with her four grandchildren, takes trips to Myrtle Beach every year, attends church regularly and learns how to play piano. While this seems like enough things for any one person to do, it is not enough for Sandy. On top of all this, she is the owner of the M&M Dairy Bell, a staple restaurant in Chesapeake, Ohio, since 1951.

Ruth Brown originally opened the Dairy Bell, and her original spicy hot dog recipe that is served to this day. Sandy is now the proud owner of something that has almost become a family business. She acquired the business from her daughter, and her husband often works there a few days a week. It is Sandy and her staff who work to keep the place timeless.

Sandy has been working in diners like the Dairy Bell for more than 30 years. Before acquiring the Dairy Bell, Sandy owned the Dairy Boy in Crown City, just north of Chesapeake, from 1978 to 1988. It had a similar menu to the M&M Dairy Bell, but she claims the, “hotdog sauce at the Dairy Boy wasn’t as spicy as the sauce at the M&M Dairy Bell.”

While she mostly stays busy with the hiring and firing, discipline, paperwork and banking duties, Sandy also works to keep the business classic yet modern. The menu items range from old-fashioned cheeseburgers and corn dogs, to homemade chili fries, BLTs and even salads for the vegetarians. In keeping up with the spirit of the restaurant, a customer can order a half-slush, half-float treat called the Deep Purple (not to be confused with the band) in honor of the store’s colors. She has also added variety to the menu with the addition of pizza burgers, popcorn chicken, burger baskets and a kid’s menu, and also offers homemade pies on Thursdays and Fridays.

While she has made these changes, Sandy’s commitment to the old is also visible. She enters Ruth’s infamous hotdog sauce in the yearly West Virginian Hotdog Festival in Huntington, West Virginia. Though the Dairy Bell is technically not from the state, it won an award in 2008 for the Best Hotdog Sauce.

She’s also kept a long-standing tradition with the nearby elementary school. The students walk to the Dairy Bell for free ice cream at the end of every school year. It is not uncommon for customers to reminisce to Sandy about when they themselves participated in that yearly event.

Sandy offers the Chesapeake community some character and a little bit of color with the M&M Dairy Bell that will never go out of style.

Buds Brew Chillicothe Institution

by Natalie DeBruin

It’s hard to define the Crosskeys Tavern, Dale Perry says. It’s a combination of a neighborhood bar, a downtown restaurant and an Irish pub. But if there’s one thing that it is, it’s an institution.

Dale and his longtime friend, Tom Burke, opened the Chillicothe tavern in 1972. Tom’s father—Tom Sr.—told them that they could sell it in a few years and make money, or they could “create an institution.”

“You have your choice, right now,” Dale remembers his saying.

An institution, Tom Sr. said, is a place “where the help comes on their night off.” Dale has another definition: a place where a woman can meet her husband after work. She can wait for him and feel safe, and he can know she’s waiting without worrying about “some jackass hitting on his wife.”

The idea for the bar was born—as so many great ideas are—at a bar.

Tom and Dale had had a few drinks (“or ten,” Dale says) when Tom turned to his friend with a proclamation.

“You know what? We oughta open a bar. We could make a million dollars,” he said.

The two are still waiting on that fortune, but the bar is a reality. Dale and Tom stocked the bar not only with whiskey, but with reference books—atlases, dictionaries, the Guinness Book of World Records—in order to settle “discussions.” (“ ‘Argument’ is not a good word in a saloon,” Dale says.)

The Crosskeys is full of personal touches. The “Rogue’s Gallery” is a wall covered in the photos of “friends of the house,” and those who have died are memorialized with black ribbons. The antique bar—from the 1860s—is made from a single piece of wood. The tavern hosts meetings for local organizations as diverse as the Chillicothe Dart League and the St. Anne’s Society of the Episcopal Church. The clientele ranges in age from 21 to 85, from all income groups and lines of work.

“It’s a very informal place,” Tom says.

Even the name of the Tavern is steeped in personal history.

Tom’s father was born and raised in Ireland, where the crosskeys symbol on the sign of a tavern has long meant that travelers can room there. Even today, one sees the crosskeys all over Ireland, Scotland and Wales, Dale says.

In addition, one of the original bars in the Northwest Territory was the Crosskeys in Chillicothe, and the Crosskeys Tavern was meant, in some ways, to resurrect that, Tom says.

“I like to take care of people, make them happy, have a good time,” Tom says.

Tom runs the bar for the most part, now, though he no longer does the late nights (“I can no longer hoot with the owls and soar with the eagles,” he says). Dale lives in Florida, but he comes up several times a year to visit and talk business — appropriately, he’ll be at the Crosskeys for St. Patrick’s Day.

The Crosskeys Tavern is, after all, an institution.

Muskingum Couple Utilizes Trash as Treasure

by Jennifer Kessler

To Annie and Jay Warmke, the sizeable Muskingum County farm they’ve built and currently dwell in with their granddaughter is more than just a home.

Rather, Blue Rock Station is the product of a carefully tended collection of sustainable sensibilities, nurtured by the Warmkes for years and meant to be shared among all who venture through the front gates. From yearlong workshops to tours of various buildings constructed with recycled materials, the Warmkes spend day after day teaching people to live sustainably.

THE SPARK
Though Annie and Jay had already purchased the 38 acres and started construction on what would become their farm–which was purchased the week their granddaughter was born, in fact–Blue Rock Station as it stands today was but a glint in the Warmkes’ eyes when they decided to move to Europe for a few years in 2001. It was there, flitting between France and England and experiencing a vastly family-centric, consumption-conscious way of life that the couple really began to hatch a plan for the Station.

“It was a great learning time, and it really laid the foundation for this place,” Annie says. “We had the opportunity to eat really fabulous, locally grown food. We always lived in market towns, where you could walk and buy fresh food two or three times a week.”

Annie also cites a deep-seated European appreciation for family and community as having been very influential in the business plan. “In France, everything is structured around the family, including how people work,” she says. “They don’t live to work, they work to live.”

THE STATION
When Annie and Jay returned in 2004, they decided to move to Blue Rock and begin to implement their ideas concerning community and sustainability. Construction on the main house had begun years ago in the late ‘90s after Annie heard architect Michael Reynolds on the radio. Reynolds was talking about a new kind of home, called an Earthship, constructed entirely from old tires and reclaimed wood. The Warmkes decided to go for it, eager to take on such an exciting project to occupy their summers.

Once they made it back stateside, the Warmkes first priority was finishing up the Earthship so that it could become the center of the farm. Other sustainable buildings, like the straw bale chicken chalet that houses rare breed chickens, have since popped up around it.

THE SHARING
Soon, people began to trickle into Muskingum to see the Earthship. It wasn’t long before the trickle turned into a full-fledged flood, and Annie and Jay really began catering to the community. Now, visitors have the opportunity to tour the farm, trek through the woods with the Warmkes’ llamas, eat fabulous homegrown, homemade meals or attend workshops on topics that range from “Marketing Your Green Business” to “Goat Keeping and Cheese Making.”

According to Annie, choosing which topics to cover in workshops is a simple enough task – if the topic interests the Warmkes, they’ll speak on it.

“We decided that our walk in life was going to be the personal one, and if people wanted to walk with us, well, that was great,” says Annie. The idea is to foster a sense of community among those folks who show up and to focus on what they have in common: the desire to learn to “rethink” and to live sustainably.