Coco

Dear Arianna,

   I arrived safely in Gahanna Ohio, the home of our cousin’s the Clarks. Gahanna is a very funny sounding name for a town. Our cousins Reagan and Caedmon explained that Gahanna is an old Shawnee Indian word meaning “where 3 become one”. It is what the Shawnee use to call this area of Ohio.  The Alum Creek, Big Walnut Creek and the Blacklick Creek, all come together here and merge with the Scioto River. This area was a Shawnee Indian hunting ground because herds of animals would come here for the natural salt licks. The Shawnee hunted the animals as they migrated to and from the salt.

 Today Gahanna is a suburb of Columbus Ohio, the state capitol and the home of The Ohio State University. Caedmon and Reagan brought me down to see the famous Horseshoe shaped stadium on the Ohio State campus. This is where the Ohio State Buckeyes football team plays! Wow it was very exciting! The stadium was beautiful and is open at the south end. So from the sky it looks like a horseshoe. This stadium is also where Jesse Owens set some world records in track and trained for the 1936 Olympics and showed the world how great American athletes were.

     I went to Conrad’s Buckeye gifts to find some souvenirs. In the store I met a new friend, Buckeye Bear. He showed me around campus and we became great friends. I told him about my trip and he asked if he could come too and then travel back to Boston to meet Arianna and the rest of the Vieira family.  We took this “selfy” in front of the Fischer College of Business on the OSU campus.

We walked around campus and picked up some Buckeyes, which are big brown nuts with a light circle mark on them. The Indians said the nuts look like the eye of a buck dear and so that is how they got their name. These nuts are the symbol of Ohio and the mascot of the Ohio State University. In the fall Buckeyes football fans use the nuts to make necklaces to wear while rooting for the Buckeyes football team.  We took our buckeyes home to Gahanna and made Buckeye Necklaces ourselves! It was so much fun! Here is a picture of me and Buckeye Bear making a necklace for you Arianna. We will bring it home to you.