Poet and humorist Michael Pollick grew up in the small Midwestern city of Stow, Ohio during the 1960s, 70s and 80s. "A Very Stowbilly Sampler" is a collection of nostalgic essays about his experiences growing up in a proudly blue collar town in the buckle of the Rust Belt. Topics include the 4th of July Parade, Archie the Snowman, favorite Stowbilly foods and local late night TV shows.

Here's a small taste of the essays included in "A Very Stowbilly Sampler":

Archie the Snowman: Pay No Attention To The Man In the Shack

Stow, Ohio during the 1960s and 70s had a pretty solid grip on the strip mall and freestanding store concept, but not so much on the Giant Shopping Mall retail phenomenon. We Stowbillies knew from birth that Akron was the place we ought to be for all of our Orange Julius and matinee movie needs. Akron had several shopping malls at that time, but the one that became the default setting for "going to the mall" was Chapel Hill Mall. This mall was located at the top of an actual hill, near one of the most inane five point intersections ever constructed. One road led directly to the mall parking lot, while the others apparently led to a training camp for Ice Road truckers.

During the Christmas season at Chapel Hill Mall, employees would set up a Winter Wonderland down the center of the main entrance to the mall. A white picket fence separated the mall shoppers from the cotton-snow-lined Village of the Keebler Damned, which was filled in with candy canes, animated see-saws, toy trains and other Christmas effluvia. At the end of this trail stood the holiday Golem we Stowbilly kids both feared and respected: Archie the Snowman. Even now, I feel like I just named the 50-foot Stay Puft marshmallow man sent to destroy us all.

Archie the Snowman stood a mind-boggling 20 feet tall, with a proportional top hat and other winter gear that reminded us all of that other talking snowman. You know the one. Say no more. Archie also had two giant eyes that flashed a bright yellow as he spoke. There was not enough therapy in the world to overcome a 5-year-old's first encounter with Archie, the original Flashy Thing. First off, he was the size and shape of the bouncy Bumble that Yukon Cornelius managed to take down in "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer." Second, Archie's flashing yellow eyes could be seen for hundreds of yards around the mall, so there was a definite intimidation factor to consider.