Dino On The Front Page

Hey pallies, likes today's Dino-reflections comes courtesy of one of our most delightful Dino-devotees, Miss AOW (Always On Watch). Miss AOW was johnny-on-the-Dino-spot to sends off the followin' Dino-epistle to ilovedinomartin after she was most pleasantly surprised to open up her Sunday home edition of the "Washington Post" and seein' a picture of that very homagin' mural of our Dino in Stu-ville..

Below is Miss AOW's special edition report exclusively for all us Dino-dudes gathered 'round ilovedinomartin. I'm sure all youse pallies are gonna enjoys Miss AOW's Dino-thoughts as much as I am, and we say our deepest of deepest Dino-thanks to her for sharin' her passion for our most beloved Dino in this very cool way..

Likes I found this 'specially interestin' folks as the Dino-mural is part of politico pontification on the part of the Post, and indeed our Miss AOW is so so politico herself. Keeps lovin' our Dino pallies, and likes why not leave Miss AOW a bit of patter expressin' your appreciato for her special efforts in the cause of Dino! Dino-always, ever, and only, DMP.

By Always On Watch

Imagine my delight when I opened up my home edition of the Sunday, September 23, 2012 edition of the Washington Post to see above the fold a photograph of the Steubenville mural honoring our Dino! The caption under the WaPo's photo (All the photos are available HERE in this WaPo slideshow) reads as follows:

Famed entertainer Dean Martin was from Steubenville, Ohio, and a large mural painted on a grocery store honors him and his career..... Michael S. Williamson / The Washington Post

Of course, the Washington Post being the kind of newspaper that it is, particularly during a Presidential Election season, the photo of the Steubenville mural honoring our Dino accompanies a highly-political article, the online title of which is "In Ohio county, electorate is hardened and fractured." The article is quite morose in that it deals primarily with the terrible economic problems in steel country:

This was once a place that seemed geographically blessed, growing prosperous on a 1,000-foot-wide navigable river that led downstream to the Mississippi, the Gulf of Mexico and the world beyond. Steubenville had four railroad lines leading to all points of the compass. Founded in 1797, the city became a jumping-off point to the vast Ohio Country and the seemingly limitless continental interior. [..] [J]obs are [now] scarce, the steel mills are hollowed out and many of the smokestacks spew nothing into a clean and clear post-industrial sky. This place on the bank of the Ohio River is a vintage working-class community. Longtime residents have a memory of the steel mill’s whistle, of crowds on downtown sidewalks and plenty of jobs that could let a person with only a high school diploma raise a family and own a home.... [...] Retired millworker John Meatris, 62, spent 41 years dealing with molten steel. He remembers how, when he was a child, downtown Steubenville was so crowded you could barely walk down the sidewalk on a Monday morning. He also remembers the soot falling out of the sky, coating everything to the point that you could write your name on a car windshield.

One of the picture captions points out this sad news about Steubenville, once such a bustling town:

The main mill in town has been shut down and sold for scrap.

According to some biographies, our Dino worked in that very mill, as did most of the Steubenville youth back in the day. The body of the online print option of the article and the body of the hard copy newspaper offer only one mention of our Dino:

[Steubenville, Ohio] was a good place to grow up and get a job, as Dino Crocetti, born in 1917 on South Sixth Street in Steubenville, the son of a barber, discovered when he went off to work at the mill in nearby Weirton — though his honeyed voice led him to riches and fame under the name of Dean Martin.

According to Wikipedia, the steel mill in Weirton has also greatly scaled back:

[T]he Weirton Steel Corporation...was once a fully integrated steel mill employing over 12,000 people. It was the largest private employer and the largest taxpayer in West Virginia. This is no longer true. Due to reorganization of the steel industry, not only within the United States but worldwide, the Weirton plant, now part of the international giant Arcelor Mittal, currently operates only the tin-plating section of the mill (though still one of the country's largest tin-plate makers), with only 1,200 workers. During the early 1980s the employees of Weirton Steel endeavored to purchase the mill from National Steel Corporation as the largest ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Program) in the nation, saving the mill from bankruptcy.

Hard times. Still, in 2012, nearly 17 years after the King of Cool left us on December 25, 1995, even a single mention of our Dino on the front page of a national newspaper is welcome!  A mention of our Dino brightens up every day!