Frank and Maxine Owens will retire Dec. 23, and now I'm wondering where I'll get my cider fix.

        The couple operate Owens Orchards on Ohio 177 in Butler County's rural Milford Township.

        Their market looks like something from another time. I imagine that I've been transported to the early 1960s.

        I can take a leisurely drive into the country, “stumble” onto their little white market and look at the produce and artifacts.

        The walls are festooned with two long cross-cut saws and all sorts of old-fashioned metal objects — a sausage grinder, shredder, bee smoker.

        “Most of this stuff goes back generations,” Mrs. Owens said.

        The couple keep many different kinds of candy — not the expensive kind, but then not the usual fare you find in the chain stores. They also sell an assortment of jams, onions, sweet potatoes, popcorn balls, shelled peanuts and, of course, all kinds of apples.

        Mr. Owens started working there full-time in 1974, when his mother and father retired, but has worked part-time since the 1950s.

        “There's been an orchard on this property for 100 years,” Mrs. Owens said. “It's a tradition.”

        Mr. Owens is the cider man of Butler County. He takes special care in making it.

        “I do put a lot of work and pride into it. I enjoy meeting the customers. It has been a good life.”

        He remembers when cider was made in a barrel and people stopped by with big jugs to be filled.

        “The highlight of this work has been the people. They are like an extended family. They've made the long days worth it.”

        Their retirement is one more loss for Butler County's agrarian past.

        HAMILTON — The Hamilton Rotary Club will present The King and I on March 15-17 and 21-23 in the Parrish Auditorium at Miami University Hamilton.

        Auditions will be at 7 p.m. Dec. 16-17 for people 16 and older and 6 p.m. Dec. 19 for 15 and younger. Auditions will be at Garfield Junior High, 250 N. Fair Ave.

        Audition information: producer Dave Schirmer, 863-1145.

        WAYNESVILLE — The Ohio Bicentennial Commission has awarded a grant to erect a historical marker at the John Evans House, 129 N. Main St.

        The preservation board is reviewing information planned for the marker at the 19th-century house.

        Randy McNutt's column appears on Saturday. Contact him at The Enquirer, 7700 Service Center Dr., West Chester, Ohio 45069. Telephone: 755-4158. Fax: 755-4150. E-mail: Rmcnutt@enquirer.com.

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