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What is the significance of the Golden Hill? It's the name of the farm near Bellevue, Ohio, where I grew up.

Toward the south end of the farm was a huge sand hill that my Dad knocked down before planting peach and nectarine trees. It was too steep for an orchard before he leveled it. The other significant things about the hill are: 1) there were scads of sand burrs, so it was nearly impossible to walk the hill barefoot; 2) as a kid, I had nightmares about the sand swirling and sucking me into the ground, a la "Invaders from Mars"; and 3) the hill is now the site of the Gerhardstein Cemetery, where my Dad, my sister-in-law Debbie, and my brother Rodger Jr. are buried. I suppose I'll end up there too, someday. Then the invaders from Mars will have won.