Fifty years ago in 1976, the U.S. celebrated its bicentennial with President Gerald Ford. Most phones were attached to the wall by a cord, we went to the record store to buy music, the microwave was still somewhat of a novelty, we needed paper maps for directions, and there were virtually no computers or recorded movies in homes.

The Reds were the unstoppable Big Red Machine, Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert ruled tennis, and O.J. Simpson was the NFL’s leading rusher. ABBA was a force on the airwaves; Jaws was up for some Oscars and KISS turned concerts into spectacles.

And, in 1976, 50 years ago this week, in a tiny little spot in a tiny little town, Ron and Nancy Hall started up a pizza place just so residents could have local pizza.

“In DeGraff, we had to drive at least 20 minutes to Bellefontaine (Pizza Planet) back then, or 30 minutes to Urbana,” said Nancy Hall, who started Ron’s Pizza with her late husband, Ron. “Then we found out all the restaurants in our region were using the same supplier for pizza raw materials, so we decided to make them ourselves.”

“I learned we needed a vendor’s license. When I went there to apply, the form asked for a company name, and I realized we hadn’t gotten that far,” Nancy reflected. “So, I just wrote in ‘Ron’s Pizza’ to fill in the blank at the time.”…. READ MORE….