Doc Lehman

  • By Tami Lange
  • July 13, 2013
  • 1056
                        
HED: “Boomer” Book to Benefit Orrville Class of ’76 Scholarship Fund SUMMARY: Doc Lehman starts with memories, move to blog and now a book about life in 1960s-70s Orrville. By Tami Lange It started out as a project suggested by his son – to put down in writing his memories of growing up in a small town. Someday, Doc Lehman’s son said, the five grandsons might want to read about how life was “back in the day.” Like most of the projects he’s undertaken, Doc Lehman’s nostalgic jottings have now turned into a full-blown project, with two widely read blogs, two Facebook pages and soon – a book, “Boomer: Growing Up as a Small Town Baby Boomer.” If you’ve ever lived in Orrville, that book is going to bring back some memories. Aside from being a generally nostalgic family- type of guy, Lehman has given a good chunk of his life over to two pursuits – rock n’ roll and racing. His uncle, Wellman Lehman, was one of the founders of the Wayne County Speedway back in the mid-1960s. Doc Lehman literally grew up at the track and in his teens, took over public relations duties at the Speedway from Ron Amstutz, who went on to become mayor of Orrville before his election to the Ohio Legislature. It helped, Lehman said, that he wanted to write. “It was all I ever wanted to do since I was in second grade,” when he got an A+ on a story he wrote about the Pony Express. His love of racing and writing led him to a career in racing media all of types and his eventual induction into the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame in 2006. He retired in 2007, due in part to health issues and also to spend more time with his grandsons. And then there’s rock ‘n roll. He admittedly has no musical talent – “I know how to play the jukebox,” he said – but he was an avid concertgoer back in the day when a ticket to see the Rolling Stones cost $5.50 and when he and a friend had enough money to buy four rows of seats at the Richfield Coliseum to see an up-and-coming group called KISS. They gave away tickets to friends at Orrville High School. “There were,” he recalled, “a lot of girls who didn’t talk to me all year who talked to me then.” He started his own magazine, Bangagong, which now is the title of one of his blogs, the other being Buckeye Baby Boomer. Bangagong is getting visits in the six figures each year, Lehman said, with people from all over the world chiming with their memories of concerts, bands, venues and all things musical. The Buckeye Baby Boomer site is more personal, more local – a heartfelt look back to a time when your neighbor became your best friend and when BB gun fights in a field behind the cemetery were all the rage. There was the time, Lehman said, when his mom and her friends were in the studio audience for The Mike Douglas Show, and another time when he helped lead a high school walk-out in protest of the OHS dress code. The boys wanted to wear their hair longer, he said, and the girls wanted to have the option to wear pants – not just dresses and skirts. So, he said, 60 to 70 students staged the protest. “We got suspended for three days,” he said. “But the dress code got changed.” Lehman, ironically now bald, once had hair down his back. His father, a minister, called him by girls’ names all that summer. Now, he said, his grandsons like their hair as short as possible. He laughed. But those were the days he details in his book, which will be released Aug. 5, with the proceeds going to the The Class of ’76 Memorial Scholarship Fund, which will present a scholarship to a member of the Class of 2016 in honor of several member of the Class of ’76 who have passed away. “Some Orrville student is going to benefit from it,” Lehman said, “and that’s what we want.” As for Lehman (real name Mark – though he legally had “Doc” added to his full name), he is happy to help others remember and relive the good old days in words and pictures. “I’ve got piles and piles of documents and it drives my wife crazy,” he said. “That’s the only room in the house that nobody goes to.” So far, he said, all of his reminiscing seems to lost on the five grandsons, who these days are more intereste in Xbox, zombies and girls. Someday, he said, he hopes they’ll learn a little about Grandpa and the very happy life he loved. “We were all in it together back then,” Lehman said. “we just didn’t know it then. “Now we do.” Doc Lehman’s blogs can be found at http://buckeyebabyboomer.wordpress.com and http://doclehman.wordpress.com/. “Boomer: Growing Up As a Small Town Baby Boomer,” can be pre-ordered for $13 ($10 for the book and $3 for shipping and handling) via mail to Doc Lehman, 307 S. Walnut St., Orrville.


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