On TIME.com/video this week.
At a small town auction and in the local cafe in Kinsman township (about ten miles from where I grew up), rural Ohioans worry about the economy and ponder their choice for president.
When I was a kid, I went to the Kinsman auctions with my grandparents. When I started thinking of a way to show the economy of my rural roots, I immediately thought of the auctions — run by a rural restaurateur named Virgil — in the old theater building in Kinsman. It was Saturday night entertainment, and Grandma would always buy me a fifty cent grab bag – a paper sack full of small toys and candy.
The old theater is gone, but I discovered there was another auction happening in a building a couple of miles north of the township square. Dan and Joe Autrey run the operation now, and we were there for the big Halloween sale. Mom came with me when I shot and reported this story.
What we discovered when we got there was that the building where the auction is held was a former dance hall, and it’s where my parents first met.
I really enjoyed your reporting about Youngstown and showed the stories to some of my classes at Youngstown State University. I talked with John Russo and Sherry Linkon at the Center for Working Class Studies and we wanted to see if you might be interested in coming to YSU for a few days to lead some multi-media reporting workshops for our journalism students.
We’re not Egypt and we’re certainly not Princeton.
But we have enthusiastic students eager to learn. I am going to look for your e-mail address and send you more information about what we may have in mind.
Alyssa Lenhoff (director of journalism, YSU)