Another Post With the Help of Two Guests

I'm going to leave the Ordways for this post and go back to the Delph family...just for now.

It was again my lucky day when another shirt-tail Delph/Ordway relative contacted me and surprised me with some great photos, too.  (Thanks, Sarah!)  They were just what was needed to enhance this next story from guest writer, Jim Delph.  Jim had written in an earlier post about some of his experiences with my great grandpa, Lem Ordway, and Lem’s son, Philip Ordway.  Here is a short continuation of that story:

Jim writes…

My Time With Phil Ordway and the Silo

Around 1949 or 1950, my dad hired the Malinta Silo Company to build a silo on the farm.  Phil Ordway, my first cousin, worked for the silo company.  I was about 14 and Phil was about 50.  It took several days to build the silo, and I was around the project a lot.  All the workers put up with me, especially Phil.  All the equipment, including a dump truck, would stay on our farm, and the workers would ride to work together.  This was again a ride to Malinta.

Phil Ordway and one of the Malinta silos

At least once, I stayed at Uncle George’s home (George Delph) to hang out with George Jr.  I liked to talk to Phil, too.  He had a lot of funny stories, some life lessons, and he talked about politics freely.  Phil Ordway was a Democrat to the core.  Remember, my Grandma Delph did not like Lincoln, and Aunt Sue liked Roosevelt. The New Deal had put electricity on remote farms like theirs.  Therefore, I was a Democrat also.  What does a 14 year old know?  What I didn’t tell Phil was that one time I took the company dump truck to see my friend, Jack McPherson.  It was a weekend and I was home alone.  I was lucky that no police saw me or other parents reported me. 

I didn’t get to see Phil much after the silo was built, but another job of his brought us together years later.  As a high school senior in 1954, I thought I wanted to be a teacher, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to pay for college.  An article in U.S. News & World Report said seniors would be drafted by the time they were 22 or 23.  The advice in the article was to get the military service out of the way and then go to school on the G.I. bill.  So when I turned 18, I told the draft board I was ready to be drafted and my brother Bob did the same.  We served in the Army from 1954-1956… In September of 1957, I started at BGSU, married and we had a son, all wonderful happenings, but the G.I. bill pay

of $120.00 a month fell short.  I picked up part time work where I could…

Some Wood County Democrats helped me get a job with the Ohio Highway Department.  My job was to deliver items from the Bowling Green headquarters to area county highway garages.  Phil Ordway worked at the Henry County Garage.  Michael Disalle was Ohio’s governor, so it paid to be a Democrat at that time.  I would get to see Phil most every day.  I even told him then about borrowing the Malinta Silo Company dump truck.  However, after that job ended, I didn’t see him much.  The last time was when his daughter, Phyllis, brought him to my sister’s home.