5 things that make Dayton Geeky
By Amelia Robinson
Welcome home, geeks and nerds.
Dayton is your promised land.
The Miami Valley has tons of direct and indirect connections to geekdom that will appeal to anyone who geeks out on topics ranging from sci-fi and technology to custom cars and creatures from outer space.
Here are some of the geekiest things about Dayton that you may not know.
-
Another dimension
Rod Serling, the creator of the classic horror/fantasy series “The Twilight Zone,” earned his B.A. from Antioch College in Yellow Springs 1950 and taught there in 1963, according to the Dayton Daily News archives.
He worked at WLW Radio in Cincinnati from 1946-48 and later wrote a live TV show called “The Storm” for at WKRC-TV.
The original Twilight Zone series ran from 1959 to 1964. The show also ran 1985 to 1989 and 2002 to 2003. Who can forget 1983’s “Twilight Zone: The Movie”?
(AP Photo/Rod Serling Memorial Foundation) -
Little Green Men
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base - yeah, your Wright-Patt - has been rumored to be the final resting place of the little green (or whatever color they are) men some believe crashed to Earth during the supposed 1947 Roswell, New Mexico crash.
Many fans of Ufology believe Wright-Patt’s Hanger 18 is also where the flying saucer and other crash debris are kept.
-
A witch’s mother
Iconic actress Agnes Moorehead, Samantha Stephen’s say-what-ever-she-wanted mom on the 1960s fantasy sitcom Bewitched, is entombed in the mausoleum at Dayton Memorial Park Cemetery in Butler Twp., Montgomery County.
Moorehead never lived in the Dayton area. Her mother and father, a Presbyterian minister who had his last pastorate in Dayton, were buried at Memorial Park. Moorehead wanted to be buried near them. The 74-year-old died of cancer in 1974.
(Photo: ABC Television publicity photo of Agnes Moorehead as Endora from the television program Bewitched) -
Coded
The barcode - one of the most sci-fi-ish of all codes - made its debut at a Troy supermarket 40 years ago.
Read: Bar code made debut here 40 years ago today
Sharon Buchanan, a Marsh cashier, sold a 10-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum.
(Photo: Wright State University Archives) -
Patent City, USA
Dayton is a city known for its thousands of patents.
Here is a sample of Dayton-area ideas and products approved by the U.S. Patent Office, as listed on the City of Dayton’s website:
Airplane, airplane ejection seat, anti-ram raid plinth, artificial heart, artificial kidney, assisted service travel terminals, backpack parachutes, bar code scanner with tool free tower housing assembly, bicycle parking rack, card reader, cash register, collapsible & portable crib, stimulation for paralyzed muscles, double glass windows, electric cash register, filter cigarettes, frostproof freezer, fuel storage and dispensing system, garment stretcher, glass photographic negatives, heart-lung machine, human-powered bicycles and wheelchairs for quad and paraplegics, ice cube tray, ink jet printer, instant blood-glucose testing, Internet stamp, laser weapons, “Mae West” life preserver, mail chute for buildings, media cassette sensing system, manufacturing system, multiple arrange continuous ink jet, night serial photography, paper sheet handling apparatus, paper skew correcting device, pet food container, plunger with interchangeable handle, pocket closet organizer, railroad boxcar wheels, railroad jack, secure tag validation, security in a database system, self-starter, semi-conductor computer memory, synchronized machine gun fire on airplanes, tactical shotgun grip, using a remote terminal to conduct assisted, wireless security module, yo-yo.
(Source: Shutterstock)
