The Flag Lady’s Flag Store

Mary Leavitt acquired the "Flag Lady" nickname when the Chicago Sun Times wrote an article about her in the early-1980s.

Iran was in crisis. Americans were being held hostage. The whole world was tense. In 1979, Mary Leavitt’s son was deployed with the US Navy in the Mediterranean.

“There was a disc jockey saying, ‘Fly your flag. Put a candle in your window and a yellow ribbon around the tree,’” she remembers.

They were just the symbols the nation needed at that moment. She decided to make it happen for her house in, appropriately enough, Libertyville, Illinois.

“We had moved from our apartment to our house and I couldn’t find my flag,” Mary says. “And I went out to buy a flag and there were no flags. It wasn’t flag season.” She was as surprised as anyone to discover that flags have a season.

She searched high and low. Finally, 40 miles away, she found a guy with flags. But it was a Saturday. He was closed. He was only in the shop to do some paperwork. Besides, he explained to her, his sales were wholesale only.

“Would you give me some flags and I’ll go door to door and sell them retail for you?,” she asked. “And he said, ‘Who do you think I am, the Avon lady of the flag world?’”

The Winemaker’s Shop

“Winemaker’s Shop,” says Nina Hawranick, picking up the phone for the gajillionth time only a few minutes after opening the store, ready to answer more questions. “Sure. That’s the basic equipment,” she tells a curious home brew hobbyist. Must be a newbie. After a few minutes, he has most of the answers he needs but you can still sense a bit of apprehension on his end of the phone.

“C’mon in,” Nina says. “We have a good handout. I’ll walk through the procedure with you.”

The questions just keep coming all day by phone and in person. Home brew. Fermentation. Grape varieties. This yeast. That yeast. Equipment. Recipes.

Must Eat: Wittich’s Candy Shop

The nation’s oldest confectionary is right here in Central Ohio. The Wittich Candy Shop has been making sweets for four generations, since 1840. Some of the recipes have been handed down and handed down since then.

The shop is lined with case after case each with boxes full of chocolates and candies. Some of the cases have been with the business from the beginning. The shop itself, even in its newest location, has a retro feel, especially with the 1950s-era soda fountain lining nearly an entire wall.

South Drive-In Movie Theatre

The image is straight out of “Grease:” giggling girls in poodle skirts and bobbie socks swooning over guys with slicked-back hair wearing their high school letter jackets, throngs of muscle car convertibles and the occasional slurping sound of a straw finding the bottom of an empty, paper soda cup.

Segway Tours of Columbus

Your humble author learning to ride a Segway. If he can do it, YOU can do it! And, yes, the helmet is required.

If you’ve never ridden on a Segway, don’t worry. They give you lessons. And it only takes a few minutes to get the hang of it. No, really. It’s easy. I promise.

Lean forward. Lean back. Lean forward. Lean back. Lean to your left. Lean to your right. That’s it. You’re off and scooting.

Must Eat: G&R Tavern

The G&R Tavern in Waldo is famous for its Fried Bologna Sandwich. Yum!

If you live in Central Ohio for long, you’re likely to run into someone who’ll rave about the Fried Bologna Sandwiches in Waldo. They are the stuff of legend.

The G&R Tavern is an unassuming building at the corner of Marion and Main Streets, the main crossroads in Waldo. It’s the white-panel building with red awning, the corner entrance and all the cars parked near it. If you want to snag a table, get there before the noon lunch rush, otherwise, you’ll have to belly up to the bar on stool. The service is just as good at either seat.

Mirror Lake

At Ohio State, when they tell you to go take a jump in the lake, they mean it. And they have a very specific lake in mind. And you probably won’t be alone when you make the leap.

Mirror Lake sits on the western edge of the The Oval, in the heart of the main campus. It’s a beautifully-landscaped, bricked-bottomed affair with a big fountain in the center. In the beginning, it was reportedly fed by a natural spring but the University Engineer’s Office says the spring was nearly destroyed in 1891 by a poorly-constructed city sewer in the nearby ravine. The sewer was rebuilt to bring the spring back to life but so much other construction was done later that the spring permanently dried up in the 1920s. So, the lake’s been filled with 91,000 cubic feet of city water ever since.

Orton Hall and Geological Museum

Orton Hall is the oldest building on the OSU Campus and is home to the Orton Geological Museum.

While you’re wandering across the Oval, checking out all the college kids bathing in the warm, early-autumn sunlight, pretending like they’re studying, look up to the tree line. On the south side of the greenery, you’ll see a bell tower with a conical top, looking like something out of a Grimms’ fairy tale. That’s Orton Hall, built in 1893 and named for the university’s very first president, Edward Orton, Sr. He also happened to be one heck of a geologist.

Orton Hall is on the National Register of Historic Places.

It’s haunted.

And it also happens to be the home of the Orton Geological Museum.

Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

There really is a cartoon library. And it’s no laughing matter!

The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at the Ohio State University already has millions of comic strip clippings, original cartoons, manuscripts, graphic novels and books. And the collection is growing every day.

The library was founded in 1977 and “is now the largest and most comprehensive academic research facility documenting printed cartoon art.”

Must Eat: Buckeye Donuts

Buckeye Donuts is an OSU Campus institution. All day. All night. All year.

Jimmy Barouxis is stuck in the family business. That’s why he works out at the gym so often. It’s the only way to survive. The temptation to snack constantly is nearly unbearable.

Jimmy’s Greek-immigrant grandparents opened Buckeye Donuts in 1969. His dad ran the shop for decades. And that makes Jimmy a third-generation baker in this 24-seat campus institution.