It was only mid-November, and Ohio’s dreary gray side was already rearing its ugly head. The forecast said 40 degrees, but the freezing rain that pelted our faces as we ducked into the Blue Bell Diner in downtown McConnelsville was an unpleasant reminder that our insurgent winter weather doesn’t play by the rules.

We had come to this population-1,700 town in search of dinner and a show — the kind born out of a “simpler time” that, if you’re too young to remember Sputnik, you’ve probably only heard about. We found the former in a slice of homemade peach and blackberry pie worth every bit of the gas money it took to get to this ’50s-style diner on the town square. >>