Little Bit of Dayton

Our town is a great place to raise kids.  There are great parks and playgrounds; a good local college that has a variety of opportunities for the community; and we are close to larger cities for the things that the little town doesn't offer.  Our town also has lots of history and one of the most famous historical happenings for our little town is the Scopes Trial, AKA Scopes Monkey Trial, AKA profit making scheme thought up by a bunch of local businessmen after the local coal company failed in the 1920s.  The Scopes Trial still makes the town money as they recreate it every year though Dayton really is a sleepy little town when it comes to economics.  This week I had Mommy dates with my oldest son and oldest daughter.  When I went to town with my son, we went to the courthouse and I talked to him a little about Dayton's history and we walked the sidewalk that has a timeline of Rhea County. 






As my son and I read the timeline, some of the tidbits were personally interesting like:

You see there where Andrew Jackson visits Old W.... in 1801.  That said Old Washington; I live in the heart of Old Washington--actually on the property where the jail for Rhea County once stood.  That was cool for me to see and be able to tell my son.  This next picture just made me smile:

See there, 1879, poor Rhea County had nothing noteworthy but they didn't want to leave that year out.  I'm very curious if that is some sort of inside joke that I don't know and something crazy happened that year that Daytonites would still like to forget but still mention it or something.  

(Better pictures of the sidewalk by someone I don't know: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lewrobbins/sets/72157624538827529/detail/.)  Also I can't write about this without mentioning that Dayton has been on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. 

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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Tonight, my oldest daughter and I went on a date.  We went out to eat and then to feed geese.  Here are pictures from our fun: