Moments In Time

My New Floor

2010-10-04T12:07:00.001-04:00

People who want to know have been asking about my new floor, It's more involved than you might think. Here is my experiance. First you have to choose what type of product you want and buy it ahead of time. (two to three days to adjust to room temperature) I chose a wide plank Laminate with a 20yr. finish guarantee at $2.38 sq. ft. . You also have to buy underlayment, I chose the heaveast @ $199.00 a roll (needed 2), also had to buy ($2 sq. ft.) 1/4 round trim, Threshold trim for transition to carpet and to tile at door. There is also a drop charge of $60. I needed to cover 369 Sq. Ft. And my final cost for all materials with tax was $1375.64. Which works out to be $3.73 sq. ft.

The labor to install it will depend on what they have to do. The basic price from everyone is $2 per sq. ft. I checked 4 places and they were all the same. It looks like it would be easy to do, all you have to do is snap the locking pieces together right? Wrong... It took 2 experienced men two 12 hour days to do my one 369 sq. ft. floor with only a 1/2 hr. lunch break.

First they had to take up the carpet and the padding and roll it up and dispose of it. the same is true for the sheet vinyl that was in the kitchen area, they had to remove all the 1/4 round molding around the room and move heavy furniture to one side of the room. They spent the entire 2 days on thier knees. They had to tape the pieces together as they went to keep them aligned. They had to remove 2 door casings to get floor nder them, could not slide it under because of having to tilt them to snap together. They did an excellent job and I would recoment them to anyone.

My total cost from start to finish for labor was $1150.00 or $3.11 sq. ft. (and worth every penny of it, Please don't tell anyone about this amount, the owner doesn't want the workers to know what he got.

Total labor & materials was $2525 or $6.84 sq.ft.

Thete is more to it than meets the eye.

My Catarect Surgery

2010-10-01T21:06:00.001-04:00

I've had a lot of requests about my Cataract Surgery, I'll try to make it short. They told me to be at the hospital at 10am, Surgery at 11:30am. They prept me and I lay on the gurney until 1pm when I asked what's going on, The Doctor didn't come in until 1 pm. and insisted I was scheduled for 1pm until I showed her my paper that read 11:30 am. She was embarrassed. They had screwed up the schedule and I was scheduled for 1pm. They wheeled me into the operating room and gave me some eye drops, and put a large adhesive circle over my face and eye and then cut a slit in the adhesive where my right eye is, then came a clamp that held my eye open wide. The doctor using a microscope slit the cataract into pieces and suctioned them out. She then made a slit into what I believe is the cornea and inserted an artificial lens similar to a contact lens. she told me this lens will remove my prescription need for glasses for distance but will still need reading glasses. She gave me 4 kinds of eye drops to be taken 4 times a day and one of them 8 times a day. On the drive home I was very concerned because my vision in that eye looked like I had 5 layers of cataracts now, all I could make out was a blur of objects. Many eye drops later it is getting better. I can now read the schedule on my TV without glasses. In 2 weeks I am supposed to get the left eye done. IT'S ALL GOOD!

If you want to watch a video of this procedure click on,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sng6uZEt_TQ

Cruising The Ohio River

2010-08-19T19:32:00.002-04:00

In the late 1930's, we lived within sight of the Ohio river on second street in Cincinnati, Ohio. This is approximately where the Cincinnati Reds baseball stadium stands now. There were railroad tracks that ran just 25 feet behind our house, Freight trains rumbled by on a regular basis. These were the big powerful steam engines that chugged and belched steam as a column of smoke arose from it's stack. Also directly behind our house was the storage yard for huge empty steel boilers lined up in rows, some of which were touching each other, some a yard or so apart. These were huge things measuring about 20 feet long and 8 feet high. These became my playground as I loved to jump from one to another like an obstacle course. It's a wonder I didn't break my neck. During the long hot summers we sought relief from the heat in many ways. I remember some nights when we would lay down homemade quilts on the fire escape outside our second floor window in hopes of catching a breeze as it was unbearable inside even at night. One particular hot night the family gathered quilts, blankets and pillows and headed for Eden Park and spent the night sleeping on the grass.

Another escape for us was the "Island Queen" A side wheeler riverboat steamer in the grand style. She made several trips a day from the public landing at the foot of Broadway Street up the river about 20 miles to "Ohio Grove, the Coney Island of the West." as it was originally known. It was formally an apple orchard but the owner realized he could make more money renting his property than raising apples. Shown here is the queen landing at Coney and the people heading up the ramp to the lighthouse entrance to Coney Island. I

I don't remember if the trip cost anything or not, it could not have been much as we never seemed to have any. I think maybe it was free as a way to get you to go to Coney Island and spend some money as this was during the Great Depression. I still remember walking up the long gangplank which was held up by a large steel chain suspended from a mast. I could hear the Calliope playing "In the good old summertime" as I stepped onto the main deck. I am surprised now that my mother allowed me such freedom because I remember exploring all over the boat to see what wonders lie there.On the main deck inside a huge room were the massive piston arms that were attached to the paddle wheels that turned and made the boat move. I still remember how massive and dangerous they looked. There was only a small railing between where I stood and the gigantic steel arm that was covered with rivets that retreated to my right inside a trough about 25 foot long and then rammed an equally large shiny steel piston which powered the paddle wheel, The piston disappeared into a dark cavern and then the process repeated over and over again.

The trip up the river took about 1 hour as I remembered it, we would disembark off the same gangplank and trudge up the blacktop covered hill to the entrance to Coney Island Park that was fashioned like a

small lighthouse. My mother used to pack a lunch and there was a covered picnic area with tables where we would eat. I remember her bringing Fried Chicken which was one of my favorites.

I recall one trip my mother gave my two sisters and I $1.00 each to spend as we pleased. Lord knows where she got the money from as that was a lot of money in those days. Most of the rides were 5c admission, I was very careful of the rides I selected as I tried to make the money last as long as I could.

After a fun day strolling around the park and absorbing all the sights and sounds it was regretfully time to board the Island Queen for a trip once more down the Ohio River in the twilight with all of the boats lights shining brightly like jewels in the Queen's Crown. While the calliope played "My Old Kentucky Home"

Scared to death by a Doctor

2010-08-18T11:11:00.000-04:00

Have you ever been to a doctor for a routine procedure and slowly realize they are concerned about what the examination is revealing? Yesterday I went to the Veterans Hospital for a echo cardiogram. This is very similar to a Mammogram given to pregnant women. It was fascinating to watch on the monitor screen as I could view my heart beating and watch the valves opening and closing while emitting horror movies sounds of growling and groaning. It said thump, thump, thump, thump in a monotonous rhythm. I noticed the male nurse who was operating the machine kept concentrating on a particular area over and over again. he confided he did not like what he was seeing... He said it looked to him like a clot. possibly as big as a dime. (GULP!) He wanted a doctor to look at it. He called in a very young looking doctor who looked to me as fresh out of medical school. He stroked his half grown goatee and with a very serious look said he was not sure and suggested the head cardiologist should be consulted. Since all the hospital computers are linked he could look at the test without coming to the exam room. The head Honcho suggested they start an IV and inject a substance in my vein which would show more clearly the area in concern. All of this involved trips to the waiting room. between these consultations. Another scan was done, The results were analyzed as I made another trip to the waiting room. Any time a situation like this arises the worst part is wondering about the outcome. Your mind conjures up all sorts of scenarios. 15 minutes later, 2 doctors and the Nurse walked into the waiting room. Expecting to hear something that would send me immediately to the emergency room, the main doctor said "The test came out clear, What we were looking at was scar tissue from your first heart attack from many years ago, Sorry to put you through all that but better to be safe than sorry", I concur as I let out a sigh of relief.

Tornados

2010-08-16T11:11:00.000-04:00

My daughter asked me what I remember about tornadoes, I have been through quite a few in my time. One I remember was almost over before I realized what was going on. I was working for a local discount store chain as a department manager trying to make ends meet by working that job and also working as the manager of the Ferguson Hills Drive In Theater at night. I was offered a promotion as an assistant manager of a store, The only problem was it was located in Owensboro, Ky. After discussing it with my wife we decided to risk everything and accept the job.

I traveled alone to Owensboro in the spring of 1961 to find a house to rent and become acquainted with the store and town. I checked out the store and scanned the local newspaper for houses for rent. After checking some of them out and deciding on one I thought was nice, I rented it and decided to take a motel room until I could make arrangements to go home and pack for the trip. There wasn't really that much to pack as we had only been married for two years.

As I settled in I fell asleep watching TV. I awoke sometime during the night to the loudest thunderstorm you have ever heard. It was a continual Boom, Boom, Crack, bright lightning flashing through the window. It then began to hail, the hail must have been large as I could hear it pounding on the roof and on the window of my room of the one story motel. It was then that I heard the distant sound of what I thought was a rumbling thunder in the distance but then it started to get louder and louder in intensity until it grew into the thundering roar of a freight train passing right outside my door, although there were no tracks there. My bed began to shake slightly for just a few seconds as I tried to figure out in my half awake state what was going on. It was then that I heard the sirens blaring and I got out of bed and opened the door. It was very calm outside with no wind at all. There were tree limbs and leaves, paper and the vacancy sign lying right outside my door. My car was just a few feet away but was not damaged. At the time I did not realize that I had just lived through a tornado. I don't remember if there was news on the TV or not, I just remember getting dressed in the morning and going out for breakfast and seeing the damage that the tornado had caused. Within sight of the motel was the huge concrete block screen of the local Drive in Theater laying flat on it's side having been blown over by the wind. There were trees and telephone poles down everywhere, police car and ambulance sirens blaring as they responded to calls. I consider myself lucky as it must have passed very close to where I lay sleeping.

God is Great, God Is Good

Thank God I'm Alive

What Memorial Day Is All About

2010-05-10T16:56:00.000-04:00

Memorial Day is May 31, 2010

It seems every year when Memorial Day rolls around people plan family outings, picnics, vacations and in general having a good time. How many know what Memorial Day is all about. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in the military service. There are 124,900 men & women buried in cemetaries around the world who died that we may enjoy the freedom we now enjoy and countless more who died as a result of injuries suffered while serving. Such as my father who died at the young age of 54 due to injuries suffered in France.

This poem was written by a Canadian doctor shortly after World War 1 which best exemplifies to me that we should not forget what this day is all about. Please read it slowly thinking about what it really means.

Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)

Canadian Army

2010-03-27T13:36:00.000-04:00

Update on My Ancestry

I just found the manifest of the ship my father came to America on in 1910

He is the second name on the list, It shows his first name as Karl. German Anti-semitism during the early 1900's because os WW1 with Germany caused him to change his name to Carl. Would you believe it he was then drafted to fight in France against his own former countrymen.

Arrival in US... August. 1910

Age................. 19, 2 Months

Birth Year........ 1891

Port of Departure... Bremen, Germany

Ship Name Rhein

Port of Arrival... Baltimore, MD.

Friends Name.....Peter Agricola

Last Residence... Henen Nastan

Family Tree

2010-03-27T09:29:00.023-04:00

I can't begin to tell you how excited I am. I signed up for a free 14 day trial of Ancestry.com because I was bored and wondering if I could fill in some of the missing pieces about my Mom & Dad. To me it was a blockbuster. I downloaded an actual Draft Card from 1942 (Shown Below), with his actual signature. Would you believe they required a veteran of 52 years old who had served in WW1 to register for the draft?

I found out........

1. My fathers Birth date. April 3, 1891.
2. His death, June 4, 1944. He was only 53.
3. He was born in Germany in the state of Hessen, and the town of Fritzlar.
4. He was a member of the Ohio National Guard in 1917.
5. He enlisted in the Army April 21. 1917.
6. He was discharged April 19, 1919.
7. The record says "Birth Location" Baltimore Maryland" which is strange because I was always told he was born in Fritzlar, Germany which I am sure he was according to all of his relatives. It may be where he immigrated to when he came to this country.
8. Enlistment county, Lebanon County, Ohio. There is no such County. It probably was Lebanon, Ohio, A City.
9. He served in Company E. Infantry Ohio, (Co. E, 147 Infantry discharge Mechanic 1, Aug. 1919, Defensive Section, American Expeditionary Forces, June 25, 1918 to March 1919.
10. He had Blue eyes
11. He was only 5' 7 1/2 " tall.
12. He was thin, 168 lbs.

My recent Operation and my Diet

2009-04-04T12:17:00.005-04:00

This a before and after picture of my aorta anurism.

I have had an enlarged Aorta for years, This is the large vein that runs from your heart down the center of your body and splits into two veins that continue down both legs. It is common in older men for it’s walls to become weak and enlarge like a balloon. For several years it had remained at 5.2 centimeters, a borderline measurement. If this vein ruptures there would be no time to get to a hospital, you would surely die.

During a checkup for back pain an X-Ray showed that my aorta had grown to 5.7 cm. and the doctor said my heart was too weak to survive surgery but suggested I was a good candidate for implant that would line the walls of the aorta that would prevent rupture. I scheduled an operation for January 12, 2009 to have the procedure done, Although it was major surgery It was suppose to be routine and they would probably only keep me for 1 day.

The surgery went well and there were no complications from the procedure. There was the danger that inserting the implant could dislodge some plaque and form a clot that could stop my heart, another danger that the discharge of plaque could lodge in my kidney, (I only have one, I was born with only one) and cause kidney failure.

While in the recovery room I was doing OK until that night when I started having trouble breathing and I was told later that all my vital signs began dropping rapidly. They inserted a tube down my throat and inserted a ventilator which did my breathing for me , They also inserted a tube down my nose to my stomach in order to provide nutrients to my body. I was told I came very close to not making it. And there are two days missing that I remember nothing about.

My daughters were there for me from the beginning and they took turns staying with me around the clock until I started to feel alive again. What should have been a routine procedure turned into a 10 day ordeal. I am a very lucky man to be able to sit here and document my experience.

My next few entries will describe my stay in the hospital and my decision to rehabilitate my body which was falling apart. I am now seeing 5 different doctors and have started an intensive diet plan. I am on the following diet:
· Low calorie
· Low Sugar
· Low salt
· Low carb
· Low food

2008-09-10T10:17:00.006-04:00

My Niece Robin asked me about my time served during the Korean war, What Korean war? If you research it you will discover there never was a Korean War! Our government refused to call it a war even though 33,600 American died for their cause and more than 100,000 wounded.

It was know as The Korean "conflict" in Washington and also was known as a "Police Action" in the early days as we were only supposed to help the South Koreans in their Civil War. Let me tell you, It was a WAR!. It started when North Korea launched a massive surprise attack against the South on June 25, 1950. It finally ended in July 1953. I served in the Navy aboard the Battleship USS Wisconsin. We patrolled the coast of Korea in late 1952 and early 1953 bombarding coastal targets. No one won this "War"!

On April 11, 1951, President Truman announced the dismissal of Gen. Douglas MacArthur from his duties as Allied Commander of United Nations forces in the Far East. As commander, MacArthur led U.N. forces north to the Chinese border, but was forced to retreat south as China entered the fight with North Korea in November 1950. By late winter of 1951, the U.N. forces had regrouped against communist forces, and fighting continued along the 38Th parallel. President Truman was furious as he felt MacArthur was exceeding his orders. This was a real shock to most of us in the service as he had been the commander in chief under our presidents since WWI. But that's another story.

I spent many nights at "Battle Stations" as we patrolled and bombarded the shoreline refineries and oil depots with our 16" projectiles which weighed more than a ton and could hit a target more than 20 miles away. I have always been thankful that I served in the navy and not had to endure the hardships that the Marines and the Army suffered ashore. We had a comfortable place to sleep and 3 warm meals a day out of harms way.

When the troops came home from WWI there were ticker tape parades and celebrations as we welcomed home the troops from overseas. There were even bigger parades and celebrations as the troops returned from WW2 to our shores. The Viet Nam war was similar to the Korean one in the sense everyone felt we should never been there in the first place, Nevertheless In all three wars there were honors and accolades bestowed on all the returning Vets. There always seemed to be a program to help with education, welfare, health

In those days men of my age were assigned a draft number according to your birth date. In 1951 I was going to be 20 years old in July and I was worried about the draft.

The Mighty Mo

2008-09-03T10:09:00.004-04:00

My daughter asked "Do you know the significance of using the Missouri Battleship to sign Japan's surrender in 1945 for this? I sure do! It is really a very simple answer. At the time Harry S. Truman (Also known as "Old Hairy Ass") was President of the United States. It was he who decided to drop the Atomic bombs on Japan which ended the war, It was tragic for the Japanese people who lost hundreds of thousands of people in the bombings (2) but it would have been much worse if the Allied forces would have to invade the Japanese homeland as the Japanese people had sworn to fight to the last man, woman and child if necessary. There would have been tremendous loss’s on both sides. It must have been a difficult decision for President Truman to make. When it was time to sign the surrender papers President Truman chose the Battleship Missouri as the historic site for the ceremony. The reason, He was from Independence Missouri, Pronounced "Mizoura" in that neck of the woods. It was also a show of force to the rest of the world of the might of the United States, the largest Battleship in the world was anchored in Tokyo Bay and the Japanese Emissaries were forced to come on board and surrender formally to the allied forces. The ceremonies were held on the upper deck next to the #2-16" gun turret, My battle station was #2-16" gun turret on the Wisconsin so I can relate to that. the "Missouri" was one of the Iowa Class battleships of WW Two, There were 4 of them. The Iowa, The New Jersey, The Missouri and the one I served on "The Wisconsin, The largest of the 4 ships.

¿Si Habla Español?

2008-08-14T13:03:00.003-04:00

Most people in my family know I do not care for spicy food. Even mild Salsa burns my tongue. I cannot understand why the majority of the population enjoys this taste sensation. Why would anyone put something in their mouth that will cause a burning sensation? I will never understand it. This feeling was fortified when my daughter Diane and her husband & kids went out to dinner the other day. I wanted to go to Texas Roadhouse but when we pulled up to the lot there were at least 25-30 people waiting outside the entrance and another equal crowd waiting inside. Since I know that Mexican food is their favorite I suggested we go the the Acapulco which was nearby, I figured "what the heck, Surely I could find something on the menu I could eat" So we went, You might know they had Salsa and Tortilla chips on the table, I was told they were mild, To me it was HOT!. Any way I saw they had a small steak on the menu with shrimp on top, It said it had a Chipolata sauce on it so I ordered it plain, NO SAUCE! with fries. When it came It also had on the plate some tan colored rice that was bland tasting and there was also what looked like country gravy but I was told it was re fried beans, it too was tasteless and I did not order either but it came with the meal. My steak as it turned out had a white looking gravy on it and I was told that was because the shrimp that came with it was cooked in a sauce. The steak was thin and did not have a lot of flavor but at least it was not SPICY HOT! Or so I thought!

As I was cutting the meat and eating it I came across what I thought was a small piece of meat so I cut it in half and started chewing on it. After chewing on it for awhile it suddenly became apparent to me my lips, tongue, throat, and all the way to my stomach were suddenly on fire. I jumped to my feet trying to figure out what was going on, I was coughing, gaging, trying to get my breath and jumping up and down trying to calm the pain. Eventually it subsided a little as I gulped down my Iced Tea. Ryan informed me that I had probably eaten a Jalapeno or a Habanaro pepper. I thought I was near death. You cannot tell me people enjoy eating these things. It has to be they are showing off by eating them or they have no taste buds left.

If you want to see how I reacted click on this u-tube link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8ip5oGlMfU

Remembering the old days.

2008-07-10T10:21:00.003-04:00

My niece Robin was reminiscing about yesteryear and asked me a series of questions about what I remember. Her first question was, How did you survive without air conditioning?
For the most part we never missed it because we never had any, we were lucky to have a bed to sleep in. It was important to have a door and window open on each end of the house so you could get a cross breeze, you had to keep the window blinds down on the sunny side of the house to block the sun. We lived on 2nd. street in what was known as the bottoms in Cincinnati. It was where the coliseum is now close to the Cincinnati Reds baseball stadium. It was a low income or as in our case was a no income brick house. we lived on the 2nd, floor in what was known as a cold water flat. No hot water and no toilet, that was an antique that was out in the hall.

We never had any window screens so we had to keep the fly swatters busy plus the fly paper. There were two types of this, one was just a letter size sheet covered with a gooey sweet smelling molasses like coating that once the fly landed there was no way it could get loose. Every once in awhile I would forget it was lying there and touch it and had to scrub my hands with soap & water to get it off. The other type was a round vial that held a curled up piece of fly paper about one inch wide curled inside it. You pulled on a string on one end and it pulled out of the vial about two feet long and then you would hang it up to trap the flies, usually somewhere near the food. I don't remember any neighborhood swimming pools to cool off in I until was about 12 and we lived on Milton street in Mt. Auburn. When I was very little my mom would put buckets of cold water in a wash tub on the sidewalk in front of the house. This was fun for awhile until the water started to heat up and then it became too much like taking a bath. I remember once on a very hot night my Mom put down a quilt on the fire escape outside our window and we lay there to cool off. There was a week that the temperature was above 90 for a week or more and the house and everything in it heated up so much that even at night it did not cool off. It was like trying to sleep in an oven. One night when it was unbearable my Mom & Dad packed up some quilts and all of us went to Eden Park ( A very long walk from our house) and we spread out on the grass and spent the night there. Later in life when I was in the Navy we never had air conditioning there either, When I was stationed in New Orleans We had screens covering the open windows as the mosquito's would have eaten you alive if they did not. They were so bad there that a jeep used to go up and down every street on the base spraying a thick fog of DDT bug killer every night. I used to breath in a lot of that DDT, it's a wonder I'm still alive.

No one I knew had air conditioning in their cars either, We had what was called a cozy wing, a triangular window in front of the side window that let in plenty of air as long as you were moving. After I married I bought a convertible and I thought I was living High. You had to open both cozy wings and raise the sun visors up to deflect the wind so it didn't mess up your passengers hair. Now that is what I called Air Conditioning. Even in our first house we did not have Air, We had a large fan mounted in the ceiling of the hallway. It was supposed to draw in air through open windows and exhaust it into the attic crawl space. It never did work, it was burnt out when we moved in and I had it repaired once and it burnt out again within a week, I never did get it fixed again, I did not know it then but there was not enough vents in the attic to release the air from the fan and it burnt out from the pressure. Our house we built on Retswood Drive in Loveland was the first time we had air conditioning. I don't remember ever wishing I had it when we didn't. I do remember going to the basement family room in the house on Enyart road whenever I could because it was always cool there as it was below ground level.

2008-06-30T10:01:00.000-04:00

Most of us nowadays take the automobile and it's accessories for granted. When I first started driving, it was very different than it is now. My first car was a 1930 Model A coupe with a rumble seat. an exterior seat which opens out from the rear deck of a pre-World War II car and seats one or more passengers. It was originally designed for servants.

One of the things cars in those days did not have were turn signals. These were invented in 1925 but none of the auto manufacturers were interested in them, the first cars to have them were in 1939. One of the cars I had in the early 1950's did not have them either but they were being sold as an accessory you could install yourself. It consisted of a lever that was strapped to your steering column and boxes with lighted arrows on each side you could attach to your doors. there was a lot of controversy when these first came out, people were running into each other because they did not see the signal or did not understand them, some thought that an arrow pointing to the right meant it was OK to pass on the right. Many cities banned them in favor of hand signals.
Another thing they did not have was an automatic transmission. You had to know how to shift gears in order to drive, The first semi-automatic transmission which was marketed by a major manufacturer was the Chrysler. It was an attempt to compete against rivals', although it still had a clutch, primarily to change range. The main difference was the addition of a fluid coupling between engine and clutch, and the shifting mechanism. In normal driving, the clutch was not used.

Another innovation was Power Steering, Again in 1951 Chrysler was one of the first to have it. If your engine ever quits while you are moving in today's cars you realize how much you need it, especially with a front wheel drive car with all that engine wight and wide tires, It is almost impossible to steer. Can you believe all of the following were introduced in the last 50 Years?

How about leaving a comment on what I have forgotten what we now enjoy.

Seat Belts, I installed my own in 1957. You had to drill a hole in the floor on both sides of the seat, and install a large bolt. you needed a buddy to tighten it from underneath. It was just a lap belt, I don't remember if shoulder belts were available then.

Cozy wing windows.

Air conditioning, You had to open the cozy wing windows yo get some cool air.

Power Steering

Power Brakes

Power Seats

Heated Seats, I never did have these.

Leather seats

4 wheel drive

Tubeless tires

Disk brakes

Remote entry

Fuel injection

Sealed beam headlights

Radios CD/DVD Players

Satellite Radio

GPS Navigation

Varible speed windshield wipers

airbags

Rear view mirrors

Spotlight mounted on drivers side, just like the cops had.

Rear view video camera

CB Radio, "Breaker One Nine" (Talk to the truckers)

Dvd player for the kids

2008-06-29T19:33:00.000-04:00

I saw on TV that what we call margarine is good for you, This particular ad extolled "Everything's better with Blue Bonnet On It" I wondered about that so I retrieved my tub from the fridge. Surprise, Surprise! No where on the product does it say "Margarine".

It says "Fresh Creamy Taste, "Everything's better with Blue Bonnet On It" ""No Cholesterol, "Homestyle" "No Trans Fat" but no where does it say "Margarine" SO!!! Exactly what is it that I am eating? First of all I discovered that if you put it on hot toast, it does not melt. It just lays there until the toast grows cold if you do not eat it. It seems to melt OK on a baked potato. I read on Snopes.com, to me an authority of what is true or not the following.
Margarine is but one molecule from being PLASTIC..... (This fact alone was enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is hydrogenated, this means hydrogen is added changing the molecular structure of the food.)
You can try this for yourself, purchase a tub of margarine and leave it in your garage or shaded area, within a couple of days you will note a couple of things, no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it, (that should tell you something) it does not rot, smell differently... Because it has no nutritional value, nothing will grow on it, even those teeny weeny microorganisms will not find a home to grow... Why?
Because it is nearly plastic. Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?

The ingredients are as follows:

Water, the #1 ingrediant

Liquid Soybean Oil

Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil

Salt

Whey

Vegetable Monoglycerides

Soy Lecithin

Propylene Glycol Monostearate (Elmussifiers)

Sodium Benzoate

Potassium Sorbate

Calcium Disodium

Citric Acid

Artificial Flavor (Even That's not real)

Vitamin A Palmitate

Colored with Beta Caradine

Does any of this scare you when you really have no idea what you are eating? I for one am switching back to Butter! It has no Trans Fat. Margarine, very high in trans fatty acids triple risk of Coronary Heart Disease, Increases LDL ( This is the bad Cholesterol), Lowers HDL cholesterol and this is the good one, Increases the risk of cancers by up to five fold, lowers quality of breast milk, decreases immune response, and decreases insulin response.

I am openn to any comment and would welcome feedback as to what you and your family use.

The Land Of The Rising Sun

2008-04-21T10:53:00.000-04:00

My Granddaughter Lauren just returned from visiting Japan. While there she was part of a concert in which 10 pianists performed playing 10 Grand Pianos all at the same time. We are all very proud of her.

This brings back a few memories of several visits I made to Japan 55 years ago. I can't believe it has been that long. We visited several port cities there during the Korean War. I was mainly in Sasebo and Yokosuka both of which are south of Tokyo. My memories are vague on most things except for a few things I do remember. I awoke one morning and went out on the main deck and realized we were anchored off the coast of Japan. Our ship was so large that we could not tie up to a dock. This was true in most cities we visited throughout the world. The USS Wisconsin, a Battleship of 987 feet long was one of the largest in the world. That's longer than three football fields laid end to end. We had to anchor about 1/2 mile off shore from the port. When we got liberty we had to ride an LCI (Landing Craft Infantry) boat to shore, also know as a Higgins boat. This is a very interesting story you might want to read http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/a8/andrew_j_higgins.htm

You really have to hold on tight as these flat bottom boats ride the top of the waves and constantly slam from the top of one wave to the bottom of the next. I remember thinking how good these boat drivers were, they were also known as Coxswain's in Navy terminology. They would drive the boat at full speed at the dock and you were sure you were going to crash into it but at the last second they would throw it into reverse and stop it instantly just inches from the dock. When we disembarked at Sasebo, immediately to the right is a very large Navy Base, to the left is a road leading into town. Also on the left was a restaurant that most guys stopped at to get a steak that was the size of a dinner plate. I wonder how all of us knew to go there, One of the first things we did was to convert our cash into Yen.

At the time one dollar would get you 360 yen. A very common price for a lot of things was "1000 yen" That seemed to be the price for everything but you soon learned that most prices were negotiable. I'm afraid I never had much money to spend on anything. It was a great place to buy cameras and watches if you could afford it. My monthly pay at the time was $75, Out of this I sent home to my mother an allotment of $20 which the government matched and she received $40 a month. This only left $55. We got paid every 2 weeks, The navy always paid in cash and the bills and coins were always brand new. We had to stand in long lines for everything in the navy and a common term everyone would reiterate was "Hurry Up And Wait" The pay table was no exception. It took 4 people to pay you, one to look up your name and pay amount, another to count out my pay of $26 which is what I got after taxes, another to count it again and another to count it into your hand as a final check. This amount had to last me for 2 weeks.

Another thing about cash is that you were not allowed to carry actual cash on you while you were ashore, You had to buy Military Script which you could use the same as cash. Even the coins were in paper script. I suppose they didn't want American money in the hands of the black marketeers.

I was a very naive young guy from the poor section of town in Cincinnati who had never been anywhere or done anything outside of Cincinnati, Ohio before joining the Navy. I was really excited from the first time I got on the overnight train which took me to the Great Lakes Training Station near Chicago. (Training will have to be another blog) Anyway here I was in Japan with Japanese money about to embark on a self guided tour. The first thing I remember were the girls and the way they dressed. I never saw anything like this back home. Most were young, slim and very pretty. The thing that really caught my eye was the slit in the side of their skirts that went from the hem line almost to the waist leaving most of the leg exposed. The girls I knew back home wore peddle pushers or shorts. I stood on a corner and carefully surveyed the passing scenery. This dress style had not yet caught on back home. One of my biggest surprises was when I had to go to the bathroom at the home of a friend of one of my shipmates. First of all when you enter the home of a Japanese family you have to take off your shoes and put on slippers that they keep at the front door. When you go to the bathroom, Surprise! Surprise! You have to put on "Bathroom Slippers to enter and there is no toilet there. Only a small trough on the floor. One is expected to squat. something I never got used to.

I took a train from Sasabo to the town of Nagasaki which is the town where the second atomic bomb was dropped in August of 1943. There was still evidence of the bomb damage while I there. One thing I thought about at the time was it was 1953, It had only been 10 years since we almost obliterated the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with Nuclear bombs killing hundreds of thousands of people. Yet. all the people I met or interacted with were very cordial, polite and friendly. I stood at this site of a church and wondered if I could forgive the horror the people must have suffered in those days but from what I have read the Japanese culture taught that to surrender during war is a disgrace and death was preferable to save one's honor. To invade Japan and end the war would have involved millions of men from all over the world and would have resulted in many more deaths than the bombs caused.

It wasn't long before the Japanese agreed to a conditional surrender of their country and all of its people with the condition that their emperor Hirohito could remain as Emperor and leader of the Japanese people. The surrender was signed in the deck of the USS Missouri Battleship (A sister ship of the battleship I was on, the USS Wisconsin) in Tokyo bay, My ship arrived 3 days after the signing.

Photo of General Douglas McArthur, Commander in chief of the armed forces and Emperor Hirohito,

You can read about him at http://broadband.zoomtown.net/google/redirect.php?to=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5zcGFydGFjdXMuc2Nob29sbmV0LmNvLnVrLzJXV2hpcm9oaXRvLmh0bQ%3D%3D&context=results.1&count=2&_LT=GRLK_GBARGLBLX_OGRSR

He actually did have a part in the war when he supported the invasion of China prior to WW2. This is one of the events that led to the war. Japan has no natural resources to speak of and when they could not buy or trade for a commodity they needed they felt compelled to invade a country and take it by force. I didn't mean for this to be a history lesson.

While in Japan I traveled to Sasebo, Yokusuka, Nagasaki, Tokyo and a ski resort somewhere up north, I think it was called Kobe. Tokyo was extremely busy with wall to wall people on the sidewalks. I don't remember where we went or what we did but at least I can say I was there. One thing I remember was the tiny Taxi cabs and the bicycle powered Rickshaws which wound in and around the traffic, There didn't seem to be any traffic laws, it was every car for itself. and everyone else stay out of the way.

One thing that needs no explanation I believe is that every sailor who came back on board the ship after a visit to a Japanese city was required to swallow two penicillin pills by a Navy pharmacist who was on hand to meet every LCI which brought sailors back to the ship after their liberty.

Our ship was the flagship of the Pacific 7th. fleet which meant we always had the commanding 4 star admiral on board whenever we were at sea. If any global emergency arose were ready for it. The ship was also a showpiece that impressed people all over the world with it's 16" gun barrels that could hurl a projectile as heavy as a Volkswagen car a distance if 24 miles and hit a target with accuracy. We also carried 20-5" gun turrets, 20-Anti-Aircraft guns. 20-40mm guns, 40-20 mm Twin barrel guns and 49-20mm Single barrel guns. The sides and the deck were 12" thick. It's hard to believe something that big and heavy could float. Not only could it float but it could speed up to 32 miles an hour at sea. I know that's more that you wanted to know but I needed to tell you.

Maybe more later on other countries I have visited.

How many remember this?

2008-03-25T10:43:00.000-04:00

This will be an article about many things I remember in my past which are no longer with us. I was riding and elevator the other day and my thoughts went back to my childhood. In those days there were no shopping centers, If you wanted to "Shop" you had to get on a streetcar and go to downtown Cincinnati. Usually women would make it an all day excursion and hit every department store with a stop at the "Mills Restaurant" on fourth street for lunch. Some of the stores I remember were The John Shillito Co. store on 7th. Street where I once worked and met my future wife there, There was also the H. & S. Pogue Co. on 4th. street where I always considered the upper crust shopped. There was the Mabley & Carew store located at 5th. and Vine in the Carew Tower Skyscraper building. Across the street from there was the Rollmans department store. There was also McAlpins located on 4th. street. A long way from there at Main St. and Central Parkway (known then as the Erie Canal) was the Alms & Doepke store, it was a huge 7 story store. By the turn of the century, Alms & Doepke was the second largest mercantile establishment west of New York City. With the decline of the Over-The-Rhine which was the major source of customers for the store, profits fell and the store closed in 1954. The building now houses local government and court system offices. There were many other stores downtown such as Woolworth's or Kreske's both of which had lunch counters. There were many others I will not bore you with but the original point of this story was not the stores but the fact they were multi floored with each level dedicated to a certain type of product. The only way to get to these floors were the stairs or take an elevator.

AhHa! The whole point of this story, I guess I babel on too much. In those days the elevators were not automatic. Each one had an elevator operator!!! When you got on you had to tell him what floor you wanted or what type of product you were looking for. As you went up or down the operator would announce what could be found on each floor you came to such as " Second floor, Ladies dresses, underwear, millinery, coats and accessories. To operate the elevator there was a large round brass hubcap looking device with a handle on it. To go up he pushed it one way and another to go down. The trouble was stopping the darn thing. When he got to a floor it usually stopped 6 inches too high or too low. He then would have to jiggle it up or down until he got it close enough that he felt you would not trip over it on your way out, it was never exactly even. To open the door he had to manually pull down a handle which opened 2 sliding doors to allow you to exit. There also were no escalators and no shopping carts. everyone used shopping bags.

More to come later, Anyone remember these days?

In the Raw!

2008-03-24T10:27:00.000-04:00

I did something yesterday that my 3 daughters will give me a lecture about but is was something I thoroughly enjoyed. I stopped at the supermarket and bought a pound of freshly ground sirloin and a loaf of German rye bread. I then went home and fixed a sandwich that my father first gave me when I was a small boy. A Raw Hamburger Sandwich! This is a very common sandwich in Germany where he is from.

Recipe:

2 slices German Pumpernickel Bread

1/3 lb. ground sirloin, must be freshly ground and bright red.

Diced Onions

Generous sprinkle of salt.

For those of you who have not tried it you probably never will, I think it's something you had to taste as a small child when your inhibitions were less. There are all kinds of fears spread about salmonella and other germs and toxic substances in our food but I can tell you that when I was growing up the sanitary conditions of where you bought meat were not the best. You only had a choice between the corner grocery store and a butcher shop if you were a city kid like me. In either case the butcher usually was a guy with a mustache and a blood stained apron cutting meat on a huge wood chopping block which probably only got cleaned once a week if that often and then it was not sanitised . Ours had a hand cranked meat grinder that was used to make hamburger and sausage. The sausage by the way was stuffed into the intestines of a hog, tied with string and cut into links. There were usually flies swarming around and I would not be surprised that some found their way into the grinder while it was running. There were sticky fly strips hanging from the ceiling. The reason the butchers apron was so bloody was that he did not wash his hands between customers, Our butcher did not even have a sink available to do so. He did however have a small galvanized bucket which held about a quart of beer which he made sure was always with him. After griding the meat he put it in a tray which he put in a refrigerated meat case with the meats displayed toward you, I often wondered how long some of them lay there before you bought them?

The conditions today are much more sanitary than they were then and the problems you read about with recalls are found it monstrous plants that process millions of pounds of beef with meat usually imported from other countries such as Argentina, between there and your table are many opportunities for contamination.

Anyway, The sandwich was great and I have enough left for one more RAW! sandwich and one grilled on a bun with pickle and onion, another one of my favorites. You are all invited for lunch.

"Gay Cats"

2008-02-29T09:08:00.000-05:00

Some of you know that my daughter Diane and husband Joe and kids deserted me Last Thursday and took off to the sunny shores of Florida where Joe is fishing an FLW tournament. I think they will be gone until Sunday or Monday. They deliberately picked this week to go as starting the day they left we have not had a day that it was not snowing, sleeting or freezing rain. I was marooned for the first few days until Diane called a neighbor to plow the snow off the driveway and free me from my isolation.

Before Diane left she hired a couple of teenagers to come every day and feed and water the big dog "Skeeter" and the chickens and get the mail. I am babysitting the little dog "Cookie" and the two monster cats, I do not know their names, I think they now weigh more than the dog. I also feed the fish every day. I am trying to fatten them up for a fish fry. I have to keep the cats food up on a table because the dog likes it better than her own food. I also need two water bowls. Diane left one that is self filling from a reservoir that releases water when the level gets low. The first day as Cookie was getting a drink it started to refill as she was drinking with a loud gurgling, bubbling sound and Cookie jumped a foot in the air and started barking at it. She would not go near it again. I discovered the next day she was really thirsty when I put down a bowl of fresh water.

The cats are another story, They think that this is their house and I was put on earth to serve their every need. I am the cleaning lady, the food server, the poop cleaner and water boy. They like to lay on top of any high place in the house and any thing lying there is a toy to paw at and of course knock it to the floor. They have knocked 2 plants to the floor and killed the one Diane entrusted to my care, Sorry, Diane. I have cleared off the top of most surfaces. One morning when I came into the living room The Large picture screen which is a three panel wood frame about 5' high by 3' wide which holds 8' X 10' pictures was on it's side leaning on the recliner.

Every time I walk anywhere they think it is big fun to walk in and out between my steps to see if they can trip me. They have not succeeded as I gently kick them out of the way as I walk. They have been on top of every piece of furniture I have no matter how tall it is. They are great fun and keep me company, I just may keep them after Diane & family return.

One thing that really bothered me one morning as I awoke I noticed the tiger cat was astride the rear of the white cat and biting it's neck. I had visions of more cats running around the place. I separated them and locked one of them in the bathroom until I could contact Diane later in the day. It never occurred to me to check their sex before the family left. I then wondered if they might were brother and sister. Would that be incest? Later in the day Diane assured me they were both male. My daughter Cathy thinks they might be Gay!

Tornados of 1974

2008-02-22T11:32:00.000-05:00

In 1974 we were living on Enyart Road in Loveland Ohio. at that time Loveland was a small town about 25 miles from downtown Cincinnati. There were no Interstate Expressways then and we had to travel on what was then called the Mill Creek expressway (Now part of I-75) until it dead ended in Springdale Ohio in front of the General Electric plant that makes Jet Engines. This road was constructed during World War ll to make it easier for workers to get to the "War" plant" as it was located "out in the country". After getting off the expressway in Springdale we would take Kemper road, a two lane Road, East about 10 miles until it dead ended into Loveland Maderia road, turn left and one mile down the road was "Loveland". There were actually two Loveland's and still are. Coming into Loveland you entered the newer part of town where the small shopping center and Becker Discount Drugs where I worked were located. You could cross the bridge and you would be in "Old Loveland" Where all the old time store fronts were located.

On April 3rd. 1974 I was at a meeting at The Becker Drug Company offices along with nine other managers and the owners in Avondale in the heart of the black community. I was always a little apprehensive about going there. Mr Becker owned several businesses on the corner of Woodburn Ave. and Chapel Street including a Drug Store, and a carryout. The carryout manager was the father of Mr. Beckers secretary. One morning as he was opening the store someone followed him into the store, made him open the safe and then shot him in the head, killing him instantly. This was always on my mind when I went there for a meeting, especially when the meeting was over and we had to go to our cars in the dimly lit parking lot late at night. I remember once when the race riots were going on and mobs were roaming the streets breaking out windows and looting stores and setting buildings on fire. Mr. Becker's store was not bothered as he knew everyone in the neighborhood plus he stood guard at the front door with a baseball bat and a shotgun to keep strangers moving who didn't know him.

During the meeting in the afternoon some one came into the office and told us there was a tornado WARNING! just issued for Hamilton County and it was spotted in Indiana headed East. It was decided to end the meeting so we could all get home before the storm. I remember as I drove North I kept an eye to the west as storm clouds became darker and darker as the wind picked up. And then I spotted it, A funnel in the distance, still pretty far away but it was without a doubt a Tornado. I wasn't sure if it had touched down or not as I sped up the car exceeding the speed limit in an effort to get home as fast as possible.

As I pulled into our driveway my wife Marlene and our 4 kids Cathy, Teresa, Diane, Georgie and our dog Banjo were all in the front yard looking at the ominous sky. They had been following the weather report on television. As the wind picked up I believe the Weather report warned us that the Tornado was headed in our direction. That was enough for us as we all headed for the basement of out split level house. I had aways heard that during a Tornado you should always go to the lowest place in the house which for us was our basement, I remember that if you didn't have one and some of the houses we lived in did not, you should try to get in a bathtub and cover yourself with a mattress or some other protective covering (How do you get 6 people into a bathtub?) . We had a good basement with cinder block walls but in an effort to be even safer we turned the couch over to form a tent and the kids got under it. I remained upstairs keeping an eye on what was going on outside. I opened the front door to an eerie scene outside as the sky became a yellowish orange and the air was suddenly completely still. It was completely devoid of sound and not even a leaf fluttered on the trees. It was as if we were caught in a warp where time and movement ceased. That environment did not last long as the wind started to pick up. The wind was howling and it was raining so hard in a horizontal direction that I could not see the car in the driveway. It continued to get stronger as Marlene and I joined the kids in the basement. I'm sure most of you have heard that when a Tornado passes close by it sounds like a freight train. I have only been in two actual Tornado's, this one and one in Owensboro, KY. where I had gone to find a house for us to live in as I had accepted a job at a discount store located there. I was in a motel when the Tornado passed just a few hundred feet from me and leveled a concrete movie screen at a drive in movie theater within sight of my front window.

It did roar like you would imagine a freight train would sound passing close by. The frightening thing was wondering if it would come crashing over you or pass on by. In both cares I was spared with no damage to me or property. the storm probably took only five minutes to pass by and when we went outside thankful we had suffered no damage or injuries except for the tree in our backyard that suffered a split between the two branches that formed a Y from the main trunk. We later wired these together with cable and the last I heard it was still there. Everywhere you looked twigs and leaves covered the ground.

After the storm passed it headed north towards Dayton Ohio and then veered towards Xenia, Ohio. It's strength increased to an F5 category. It tore right through the heart of town causing catastrophic damage and loss of life. This storm was part of a system that produced a record number of tornado's that day known as Super Outbreak. 148 Tornado's with 34 people killed. The next day we took a sightseeing trip around the Montgomery area and Fields Ertle Road which was not too far away. There were a lot of trees and telephone poles down and a few business's had lost their roofs. That day we gave thanks that like the biblical passover the night of the Tenth Plague, when the Angel of Death saw the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorposts of the houses of Israel and "skipped over" them. Although we weren't Jewish and there was no blood on our door we did have a Red door.

Limerick

2008-02-07T10:26:00.000-05:00

I think it would be fun to create a limerick! Each week or month or whenever I will give you the first four lines and you give me the last one. Get the kids involved. I will then send all our friends and family the results and post them on my blog. I think I will rate them with Stars, 5 being the best.
Here is the first from my daughter Cathy.

There once was a girl from La Grange
with habits exceedingly strange,
she woke up one day
and I heard her say...
I think that my mom is deranged.

There once was a girl from La Grange
with habits exceedingly strange,
she woke up one day
and I heard her say...
I think that my dog has the mange.

There once was a girl from La Grange
with habits exceedingly strange,
she woke up one day
and I heard her say...
My underwear could sure use a change.

There once was a girl from La Grange
with habits exceedingly strange,
she woke up one day
and I heard her say...
You smell - please move downrange.

****************************************
And my neice Robin wrote:

There once was a girl from La Grange
with habits exceedingly strange,
she woke up one day
and I heard her say...
What a mess - I must rearrange!

****************************************
And my daughter Diane wrote:

There once was a girl from La Grange
with habits exceedingly strange,
she woke up one day and I heard her say...
I'll go crazy, if something don't change.

***************************************
Fatcat Paulanne said...

There once was a girl from La Grange
with habits exceedingly strange,
she woke up one day and I heard her say...
I'll cook soup on my new kitchen range!

***************************************
Mark Creamer said:

There once was a girl from La Grange
with habits exceedingly strange,
she woke up one day and I heard her say...
My yen I must now go exchange

***************************************

Say it isn't so!

2008-02-06T11:08:00.000-05:00

As most of you know my daughter Diane and I live side by side in the same house, I Have my own private suite attached to hers. Yesterday, Diane was out on an errand and I went over to her house to get something, I forget what and I noticied 3 books on her counter.

"Before you Conceive"
"What to expect when you're expecting"
and "A child is born"

I felt a certain apprehension and a small knot in my stomach as I knew that her husband Joe had told me "Enough" when it came to kids. Is there something I should know that she hasn.t told me yet? I assumed she had just gotten these books from the Library. I must admit It was on my mind all day until I was able to talk to Diane. I didn't even wait till she got home

"Say it isn't so" I said on the phone, "I wish" was her reply!

It seems these were her own books she had bought when she was expecting and she had loaned them to her friend who was expecting and she had just returned the books befor leaving for Outer Mongolia (No Joke)

Confessions of an addict.

2008-01-19T13:33:00.000-05:00

I am ashamed to admit it but I am a recovering addict. I was hooked on the habit for close to 45 years. When I was about 12 years old I also stole for the first time. My Father used to leave his pack of 20 Grand cigarettes (It was named after a Race Horse), laying around the house. Some of my buddies confided in me that they have tried smoking and assured me it was a really big deal and you were a coward if you didn't try it. A couple of friends and I had tried substitutes such as the cigar shaped bean of the Catalpa tree. It burned and stunk to high heaven but you could not get any smoke out of it, We used to go up and down the street and retrieve old cigarette butts from the gutters until we had enough to "roll our own" We carefully unfolded the paper surrounding the tobacco, cut off the burned end and added the tobacco to our stash. Occasionally we would find a cigar butt but they were usually disgusting and covered with saliva. A favorite tobacco at the time was called "Bull Durham" which came in a small cotton sack with yellow draw strings at the top and cigarette papers on the side. I'm sure you have seen cowboys in the movies who rolled their own and then closed the draw string with their teeth. I'm here to tell you that rolling your own is not as easy as it looks. You hold the cigarette paper curled around one finger and fill the paper trough with tobacco and then try to roll the paper around the tobacco into a cylinder. I Usually made them too big or too small and not enough tobacco at the ends so when I licked the glued edge the ends were usually pointed. I soon tired of this method of getting a smoke so I sneaked a cigarette out of my fathers pack and retreated to a large corrugated metal shack that was located in the back yard next door to ours. This was our unofficial club house and secret meeting place away from the prying eyes of our mothers. This was an all around great place to hang out as there was a patch of clay there perfectly flat where we could draw a circle and play marbles, for keeps. We also like to play Mumbly Peg with our pocket knives. I'm sure you all know what Mumbly Peg is, If not let me know and I will tell you how to play it.

Inside the shed we would take turns tossing baseball cards at a wall and if your card landed on top of another card you got to keep all the cards thrown. I wish I had those cards now, they would be worth a fortune to collectors. Whenever I was able to get a cigarette I would retreat to this shed so no one would know I had it but mostly so no one could see me coughing and wheezing trying to learn to inhale the smoke. I don't remember if I liked it or not, I just remember everyone else I knew was smoking and if it was good enough for them it was good enough for me.

I remember the first time I had a full pack of cigarettes of my own. Before I left the house I purposely put on a white shirt with a pocket because I knew that anyone who saw me could see the pack through the pocket and tell What a big deal I was as I had my own cigarettes. It was like badge of distinction for all to see. Whenever I had some money to spare I used to go to downtown Cincinnati to a tobacco shop on the corner of Sixth and Walnut street. I remember they always had a display of old gold jewelry in an big black kettle in the window with a sign that announced they would pay $35 an ounce for old gold. In those days that was a fortune. I liked to go there because they had cigarettes from all over the world. I liked to experiment with such as brands such as English Ovals that were about three times in diameter the size of a regular cigarette and oval in shape and about six inches long. Each came in a small glass tube with a cork sealing them in. Another one I tried but didn't like was Clove cigarettes which came from Turkey. This was also the time I tried my first cigar, I almost threw up. From these humble beginnings I went on to become "A Smoker!"

The first cigarette which became "My Brand" was Lucky Strike which had a slogan "L.S.M.F.T." This stood for "Lucky Strike means fine tobacco!" It came in a white pack. It used to be in a green pack but they changed it to white in 1942 because of World War Two. It seems the green dye was needed for camouflage and olive drab uniforms. In those days there were no filters on most cigarettes and most brands were of the short variety. Filters were first introduced in 1860 but were mainly used to keep tobacco out of your mouth, the first major brand to use them was Parliament Cigarettes in 1931. Winston Brand was the first Major brand to be successful with a filter in 1954. But to us guys filters were for women and Sissy's. Most of us smoked non filter brands. Even my Mother smoked King size "Pall Mall" brand. She said she smoked them because they were longer and she got more for her money. This also became my brand for many, many years.

Over the years I continued smoking non filters with no seemingly adverse effect. I think I increased my consumption while I was in the Navy and we could get non taxed cigarettes for about 10c a pack. After I became a civilian I continued smoking about 2 packs a day. I had tried to stop smoking many times, This usually lasted just a few hours as the urge overcame me. Once I quit for an entire six months but then started gaining a lot of weight. I used that as an excuse to light up again. Once on a business trip I ran out as I was entering a trade show and there was no where to buy a pack there I got back in my car and drover several miles to a store because I knew I could not last the entire day without a cigarette. Another time I remember I was in bed late at night and reached for a cigarette and realized I had run out. After an hour or two of cravings I got up and dressed an drove to a drive thru at 2 o'clock in the morning. I even started a fire once by dumping what I thought were extinguished butts into a waste can and then leaving for work. My daughter was home and awakened to a house filled with smoke. We had smoke damage throughout the house.

Wouldn't you know it that later in life I started working as a buyer for a Candy & Tobacco wholesaler. One of the perks of working there was that I received FREE cigarettes. This is probably when I noticed I had developed a hacking, rasping chocking cough. I ignored warnings like "Those things are gonna kill you" or people called them "Cancer Sticks or Coffin Nails" I kept coughing and wheezing until 1995 when visiting my daughter at her house I had my first heart attack. While in the hospital I was informed I had a blood clot which had blocked the veins to the right side of my heart and had in effect turned half of my heart into scar tissue. I was now pumping on just half a heart. Quiting smoking now would have to be a "Half Hearted Affair" (Ha Ha!) but quit I must warned the doctor. I assured him I would. Smoking then was permitted in hospitals. Somehow I still had cigarettes with me and once while hooked up to an oxygen tube on my nose I attempted to light a cigarette, A blue flame erupted in front of my face and I suppose I was very lucky the whole place did not explode. After a period of recuperation at home I suppose I quit smoking dozens of times without success. I now know how drug addicts feel when they try to kick their habits because nicotine addiction is as powerful as any drug known to man, the big difference it does not seem to alter the mind like chemical drugs do. But what to do? I had to quit.

I realized that abstinence does not work for me. The first thing I tried was substitution. Hard candy, mints, gum and any thing I could carry and pop in my mouth when the need arose. These had varying degrees of success. I tried a pill that had no effect at all. I bought some nicotine patches at the drug store and about the same time I started chewing Wrigley's Extra Bubble Gum flavor chewing gum along with wearing a nicotine patch. I could tell they were helping some but that old nicotine desire kept raising it's ugly head. There came a day when I said to myself, "Self, this is the day you will quit smoking!!!" I realized that if I chewed a few sticks of gum, not just any gum, it had to be Wrigley's Extra Bubble Gum flavor chewing gum I had tried every other brand and flavor on the market and this one seemed to be the only one that worked. The greatest single thing that helped me to quit was realizing that when I got that overwhelming urge to light up, if I could just hold out for about 15 minutes and not yield the urge would subside. Soon the urge only came about every 20 minutes and then 30 minutes and the an hour. This is the secret to quiting smoking. "Realize the urge will subside if you can only wait it out" When I had gone a week without a cigarette I was really proud of myself, then a month and when I had made it to a whole year my kids gave me a giant greeting card about 3x4 feet that announced "Congratulations" I still have it, framed in a poster frame with my last pack of Pall Mall cigarettes attached to it. I still get the urge to light up again occasionally, of course I never will again as it has been 12 years since that last cigarette but there are still times I have been known to stand close to someone who is smoking to smell the smoke once more.

"Gone Fishing"

2007-07-23T12:08:00.000-04:00

My son-in-law Joe Thomas and my Grandson Ryan are in Mexico filming a TV episode on what is probably the best Bass fishing lake in the world, El Salto. It brought back memories of when I used to go fishing as a teenager. When I was about 13 years old a neighborhood friend named Eddie Nastold who had a very bad Red birthmark over his eye and cheek about the size of Saucer. Eddie is the one who first introduced me to fishing. I did not have a rod or reel or any other fishing equipment. The first time we went he lent me a Rod & Reel. We lived in the middle of the concrete jungle as it was known on Milton Street located in Mt. Auburn. We usually went to a “Pay Lake”. To get there since we has no transportation we went by Streetcar, the old fashioned kind which ran on rails and overhead wires. Our favorite place was an old gravel pit in Elmwood Place someone converted into a “Pay Lake”. After we got there we still had to walk about a mile to the lake. After fishing we would get home the same way we got there with stringers full of catfish. Everyone would stare at us in amazement as we stood in the aisle of the streetcar with the stringers resting against the floor. We were close to a black community and Eddie would take his catch to their community and sell them. It seems fried Catfish was a favorite there. I took mine home and Mom would fry them.

In those days there weren't any push button spinning reels like they have today for beginners. The reels we used were called Level wind reels. They would wind your line from side to side on a spool when you retrieved your line after a cast. I don't think Nylon had been invented yet because the line we used was braided cotton. Casting was another matter altogether. When you cast you would hold your thumb lightly on the spool of line just enough to keep the weight of the sinker from unspooling your line. As you casted you had to hold the spool tight during the cast and release slowly as the line spilled loose towards the water. This was almost an art as if you did any part of this wrong you could wind up with a gigantic “Backlash” with your line so tangled and twisted it was difficult to untangle by repeatedly pulling on the loops till you got it untied and could once again reel it onto the spool. You learned quickly not to do this as you would spend all your time untangling instead of fishing. Usually I fished with 2 Rods & Reels, One I used for Bottom fishing with 2 or 3 hooks and a heavy sinker so I could get to the middle of the lake. The other one was used with a floater which would suspend the hook about three feet below the surface. When you fished with a floater sometimes the wind would move it causing the line to be slack and laying on the surface, Eddie taught me that when you got a bite on the line with the floater to pick up your rod and run about 20 feet away from the lake to take out the slack and set the hook. The first time I tried this I fell flat on my Butt. It took a long time to get out of this habit.

In order to fish you first have to have bait. In those days I don’t know of anyone who actually bought bait. Our favorites were
1. Night Crawlers and/or worms,

In order to catch the very large Night crawlers you have to go at night after it had rained. We used to go to "Eden Park" On hand and knees with a flashlight. You had to creep slowly and silently on the wet grass until you spotted one and clamp your hand down on it. They are always half in their hole and half lying on the grass. You had to gently pull them out of their hole, sometimes massaging their belly to get them to release otherwise they would break in half, OOPS!. Your pants got very wet from the knees down.

2. Giant Black Roaches.
This is one bait I disliked catching or using, It gave you a creepy crawling feeling when you were catching or using them but they were very good bait! These were not the common brown roach that seemed to be in every one's kitchen. Three things everyone seemed to have in our neighborhood were Roaches, Bed Bugs and Head Lice. Mom used to kill the Bed Bugs which hid in the creases of our mattress with Kerosene. In Mt. Auburn just off Liberty Street hill their was a small cobblestone alley which ran between some houses. People in that neighborhood weren't very sanitary. There were overturned trashcans and garbage strewn everywhere but at night this was Roach heaven. YUCK! They were shiny midnight black in color and were about an inch long and 1/2 inch wide. They were pretty easy to catch and put in a half gallon pickle jar we brought with us. I wonder if that alley is still full of Roaches.

3. Fresh Chicken Guts.
This is so disgusting I don't even want to post a picture. Years ago there were poultry shops that sold live chickens or would slaughter one for you. There was one at Findley Market that was within walking distance (A long walk!) and they would give us all the chicken guts we wanted free. Naturally only Black people and us would ever want them. We used these when we fished the Ohio River and it was an old black man who taught us how. We did not use our rod & reels there or our lead sinkers because they were round and would be swept downstream by the swift current. He showed us how to use a Bull Durham Tobacco bag filled with sand as a sinker. Bull Durham was a cigarette Tobacco for old timers who rolled their own cigarettes. When the sack hit the river bottom it stayed there. Two hooks and some freshly cut chicken guts and you were ready to ready to relax on the river bank if you could stand the smell of the chicken guts oozing in the sun. It smelled like an old out house. To cast you coiled the line carefully in a circle at your feet and hold the line in your right hand dangling about 3 feet with the hooks and Bull Durham bag and swing this in a vertical circle as hard as you could and then release it towards the water. The other end was tied to a stick in the ground with a bell tied to the line to signal a bite. Sometimes we used night crawlers and worms at the river also.

Stuffing The Ballot Box

2007-07-10T18:19:00.000-04:00

Stuffing the ballot box

In 1957, I was 26 years old and fresh out from a tour of duty with the US Navy. My friends and I used to meet at the corner of 12th. and Main street in what is now known as the Over The Rhine neighborhood. Over The Rhine was so named because of the German immigrant population which inhabited the area in the early 1900's. It refers to the Rhine river being compared to the Ohio river. There were about 12 breweries just west of Over The Rhine area. They produced more beer than any other area in the United States. The 12th. and Main street area where we hung out was mainly an Italian neighborhood and a lot of my friends were of Italian decent. The evening usually started out with "What do you want to do tonight"? followed by "I Dunno, what do you want to do"? There were 6 to 8 of us hanging on a steel rail that lined and swung around the corner from Main Street to 12th. Street. Sometimes we would drift away from there to a store front about 6 doors down Main street to a store known as Al's Smoke shop. It was a very small business only 12 foot wide by about 50 feet long. There were magazine racks that lined the right wall that held all the latest magazine issues and newspapers. There was no such thing as Playboy or any other dirty magazines. I used to think looking at the underwear pages in the Sears Roebuck catalog was looking at dirty pictures. The left side were glass display cases that had a display area of only about 12" high and they stood about waist high with a hinged window pane with glass panes that opened to reveal boxes of cigars from all over the world. There was always a cigar lighter that somehow always had an open flame like a Bunsen burner ready to light your purchase. These cases covered the entire left wall and led to a small room in the back which we had commandeered for our unofficial clubhouse. We all sat around the perimeter of the room with a table and chairs in the center which was used for the favorite pass time then, A game of Chess. We also played poker and checkers among other things and used coke cases for chairs. There was an ever present cloud of smoke which hung over the whole place.

Al, who was always there was a very pleasant old man with grey/white hair and large mustache to match. He wore a black vest and string tie but no jacket. He always had a smile and a pleasant word to all who came in. Now that I think back on this store I think it must have been a bookie joint because I don't see how it could have ever earned enough to stay in business, I remember my best friend, Bob Boles drove a 1950 ford coupe, kind of a small car when we all piled in to go somewhere. someone else had a car that the floorboard was missing and you could see the ground rushing by as you drove. Another time a friend had a car that had no brakes at all, he needed to get it home to Norwood Ohio but everyone was afraid to drive it without any brakes. I told them I could do it, No big deal! So I drove from 12th. and Main street by shifting gears )It was a stick shift) from high gear to second and then to low gear causing it to slow down when I cam to a stop sign or light I used the emergency brake to stop. The owner followed in another car to bring me back home. I made the trip without incident. While checking out the used car lots on Reading Road one day I spotted a very large 1939 Cadillac Limousine. To me it was a beautiful thing. 4 doors and jump seats in the back that folded down for extra passengers. To me at that time the brand Cadillac was a magic name that meant those who owned one was special. I bought the car for $295 on installments. I really enjoyed chauffeuring the guys around town. Our cars were not always reliable and one evening a tragic thing happened to one of our own. There were several of them pushing one of the cars from the back trying to get it started when out of nowhere a car slammed into the back of the car being pushed and trapped one of the boys between the cars. I'm sad to report that he lost both legs.

It was All Star time in the Baseball World and Cincinnati fans were excited as they really had a good team that year. The fans decided who were the most popular players by filling out a ballot and voting their choice for each position on the team for both the American and the National league. The Cincinnati Enquirer had printed extra ballots besides those found it their paper and were available at different stores around the city. There was a rule that you could enter as many times and you wished. So someone in our group decided we should try to get as many Cincinnati Reds elected as possible. So there were at least 10 or 12 of us who sat around the backroom of Al's smoke shop filling out hundreds of ballots night after night for weeks before the game. You were supposed to select who you thought was the best player at each position from all the teams in the league. We of course thought our Reds were the best, so we continued to fill out ballot after ballot as long as we could.

When the results were announced fans of the Cincinnati Reds stuffed the ballot box and elected 7 Reds players to start in the All-Star Game. It shocked the baseball world, it seems other Cincinnati fans were busy voting also but I'm sure it was our group who made the biggest impact.

The players were:

Johnny Temple, Second base
Roy McMillan, Shortstop
Don Hoak, Third base
Ed Bailey, Catcher
Frank Robinson, Left field
Gus Bell, Center Field
Wally Post, Right Field

The only non-Red elected to start for the National League was St. Louis Cardinals' first baseman Stan Musial. While the Reds were known to be a great offensive team with many outstanding position players, most baseball observers agreed that they did not deserve seven starters in the All-Star Game. An investigation showed that over half of the ballots cast came from Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Enquirer had printed up pre-marked ballots and distributed them with the Sunday newspaper to make it easy for Reds fans to vote often. There were even stories of bars in Cincinnati not serving alcohol to customers until they filled out a ballot.

Commissioner Ford Frick decided to appoint Willie Mays of the New York Giants and Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves to substitute for Reds players Gus Bell and Wally Post. In addition, Frick decided to strip the fans of their voting rights. Managers, players, and coaches picked the entire team until 1969, when the vote again returned to the fans.

To guard against further ballot stuffing, since 1969, each team has been given the same number of ballots to hand out. In 1998, that number was roughly 400,000 ballots. Since the dawn of the Internet age, online voting has again raised fears of ballot stuffing. Major League Baseball assures its fans that they have taken precautions to guard against this. Similarly, popular players who are injured often garner many votes despite their inability to play in the game.

I am proud to have been a part of making Baseball history from our little group on 12th. and Main street in the Over The Rhine neighborhood.

A streetcar named "Entertainment"

2007-04-26T12:48:00.000-04:00

Most of us move about the city in automobiles, before that we generally rode in transit busses but before that there were the streetcars. Steel street car tracks (Rails) were embedded in the streets; originally these cars were pulled by horses but the routes were short and they mainly operated in the downtown area. The conductor moved the car forward by turning a wheel in front of him which supplied more current to the motor. Notice I did not say he drove the streetcar because he could not steer it, it just went wherever the tracks led him. If a conductor came to a fork in the road he had to stop and change the switch in the street manually to go in a different direction, there were concrete platforms in the middle of wide streets, one car width away from the curb where you could stand and board the streetcar. There was traffic whizzing by on both sides of the platform. The electricity was delivered to the streetcar by long poles at the rear of the car which had small rollers that rode against the overhead wires, Sometimes when a car crossed an intersection that had had wires going in both directions one of the poles would jump off the wire and thrash about wildly with sparks flying everywhere. The conductor would have to stop and go around back and pull on the rope attached to the pole to put the roller back in contact with the wire.

Streetcars ran to all parts of the city and beyond. Sometimes you would have to transfer from one line to another to get to your destination. There were routes along the way that crossed all routes from east to west such as the one called “Cross-town” You could get a small slip of paper called a “Transfer” and get off your car and get on the ‘Cross-town” without paying another fare, sometimes you might transfer several times to get to your destination. When I first started riding them they had woven cane seats and backs, There were advertisement signs about 12” by 24” telling you the wonders of different places and products. These were located near the ceiling in a curved holder that ran the entire length of the car on both sides. There were hand stirrups hanging from the ceiling that you could hold on to in case the seats were all occupied and you had to stand. The streetcar swayed quite a bit when traveling about 30 miles per hour. Can you imagine that people could ride in this manner with today’s seatbelt laws? In later years these hand stirrups were replaced with chrome poles that ran from floor to ceiling. You had to watch your surroundings as you looked out the window to determine when you were close to where you wanted to get off, you would then pull on a cord located just above the windows and it would sound a loud buzzing noise. The conductor would stop at the next corner that was designated as a “Bus Stop” which had an orange ring around a telephone pole. I don’t remember what they called these stops before there were buses. Streetcar stop? If something was in the way the conductor would stomp on a large button rising out of the floor which would emit a loud clang from a bell located from the floor. There was a flip down seat behind the conductor but he usually stood while we were moving. There were no women or African American conductors then. Above the driver was a box that contained a roll with all the routes printed on it, when he started out he would crank it till the rout name showed such as “Price Hill” this way as the street car approached you could tell if it was the one you wanted. There were more cars which passed by on the same street but were going to different destinations. When the streetcar came to the end of the line there were two ways the car was readied for its return trip to the city where they all originated from. Sometimes there were “loops” which were areas where the track looped around a teardrop shape and rejoined itself. On some streetcar routes the tracks the rails just came to an end, on these cars the seat backs were hinged so the conductor would go through the car and flip the seats in the opposite direction, the rear of the car became the front as the car could be operated from either end. The poles leading to the wires were also reversed.

On of the things I remember most from those days was the “Sunday Pass”. For 25c you could buy a pass that would allow you to ride any route from beginning to end for as long as you wanted. You could get on or off as you choose if you wanted to stop at the zoo or the Conservatory or some other point of interest. Me and one of my friends use to ride from morning to night. This was a big deal as we did not have a car or even knew anyone who did.

On of the things we enjoyed most were riding the inclines which was like a giant escalator of ski lift. They ran from the bottom to the top of the hills which surrounded Cincinnati, these hills were too steep for the streetcars to climb. The streetcar drove onto the platform which was level with the tracks at the front but was about 15 foot tall at the rear which made the track surface level. This platform was pulled to the top of the hill with giant cables where it docked and the streetcar was able to drive forward on the level street beyond. To us this was as good as going to Coney Island Amusement park and riding the roller coaster or the carrousel.

In the early 1940’s the transit company bought a fleet of streamline streetcars, I haven’t been able to find a picture of one of these but they were very sleek looking and seemed to glide quietly without the noise of the old streetcars. They only last a couple of years until they switched to Trolley busses, These were also electric and were connected to the overhead wires with poles, the same as the old streetcars. They eventually converted to Gas guzzling busses which were diesel powered. And the magic died when they appeared. There are still streetcar tracks buried under most of the streets where they ran, especially downtown. They simply paved over them.

Your tax dollars at work

2007-04-18T10:09:00.000-04:00

Some of you know that I have an electric scooter that the Veterans administration provided for me because I cannot walk very far without my feet and legs hurting and I get tired very quick if I have to walk. They originally gave me a weird looking thing that attached to a receiver under my rear bumper that was exposed continually. It lifted the scooter and then swung it into the trunk of my Chevy Impala. It was such a tight fit and labor intensive that I only used my scooter 3 times in the past year. Can you imagine standing outside in freezing weather or in the rain trying to get that thing out of the trunk? This limited my excursions and shopping trips to stores which provided electric scooters. Most of these are in pitiful condition, either they are extremely slow or they go dead about half way through your shopping. I told my story to the vets and they told me if I had a van they could install a lift that could pick up the scooter and slide it into the van.

So I went out and traded in my Chevy on a 2006 Chrysler Town & Country van, It has electrically operated rear hatch as well as electric sliding doors on both sides. Yesterday they came and installed my lift. It is a very big sturdy iron piece of machinery that will take it's toll on my car battery and my gas mileage. but it will be worth it. Today I think I will go to a shopping mall and just take in the sights. The only downside is that it is not removeable so I lost the use of my 3rd row of seats so it is now a 4 passenger van instead of 7. Here are a couple of pictures of the lift.

Déjà vu all over again, again

2007-03-25T13:41:00.000-04:00

Déjà vu all over again, again.. A couple of days ago I couldn't find my glasses, AGAIN!. I looked on every surface in the house, no glasses I called in Kristen, Diane's housekeeper and she looked over and under everything in the house. I have 2 spare pair so I dug out one of them and have been using it for 2 days. Short searches turned up nothing, and then it hit me, this scenario occurred about 6 weeks ago so I went to the spot where I found them the last time and sure enough there they were, on the head of my battery operated chicken that plays and dances the chicken dance. For some reason my 3 yr. old Granddaughter Gracelyn believes it is blind and needs my glasses, I should have remembered. Next time I will. You have to look close to see them.

2007-03-06T16:12:00.000-05:00

This past Tuesday I took my final painting class and this time we told "Teach" we were tired of winter scenes so this time we went beneath the waves and painted a Dolphin. This was my final class so the next one you see is one that I will do on my own. Teresa wants me to do a small beach scene for her as she has limited space in her office. Any suggestions how I should sign these? Grandpa Moses?

Wild West Telephone and Remote

2007-02-23T11:45:00.000-05:00

I think I will go shopping for a pair of double gun holsters like they wear in those old wild west movies except I don't want them for guns, I don't have any guns but I would like to have my TV remote and my telephone with me at all times. Many times when the phone rings and the TV is blaring, I can hear it ringing but I can't figure out where the sound is coming from. I usually resort to pushing the speaker phone button on the base after about 4 or 5 rings. So now I have someone on the phone but I can't hear them as the TV is too loud, this requires another search for the remote. When I finally get to the point that I can speak intelligently to the caller I usually find it is someone trying to sell me something, like yesterday there was a guy on the line who was calling from India and I couldn't figure out who he was and what he wanted so due to his thick accent so I told him "I'm sorry, I have no idea what you are talking about" and hung up. I have 3 grand kids who wander in and out of my house during the day and the 2 things they seem to touch are the remote and the telephone. Several times when I tried to find the phone by using the button on it's base that makes the handset beep until you pick it up, I found it was at Diane's house beeping like crazy with no one around. Ryan does this a lot. The remote is used sometimes by the kids, especially Reanna who like to watch cartoons here when I'm not watching anything, after awhile she leaves and forgets to turn off the TV. I usually have to look on every surface in my house and under all the pillows on the couch. If someone could invent a small button you could put on a remote or a phone or your eyeglasses or car keys etc, they would make a fortune. If I had those holsters with a small pocket for my cell. It would save me a lot of trips around the house searching.

The Paintings Continue

2007-02-21T09:32:00.000-05:00

I went to another painting class last night in the pouring rain, It was difficult carrying the frame and my supplies into the classroom without getting them wet. I don't walk all that well anyway and it must have been a sight holding an umbrella and trying to protect my supplies. We had to paint another Winter scene, The four old lady classmates of mine complained we were tired of Winter and also of painting it! So she said next week for our final class we would be painting a Dolphin. I can't imaging that I could do that but I will give it a try I suppose. Here is the one from last night.

The Great Blizzard of 1978

2007-02-12T19:44:00.000-05:00

It all started the morning of Jan 26, 1978, shortly before dawn the snowflakes began falling. Large quarter size flakes that floated gently to the ground. The problem was that they kept on falling, faster and faster and the wind velocity kept increasing to almost gale force which caused huge drifts to form. No one was worried at first as the kids were excited about going outside to play in the snow. As the day wore on the snow continued to fall and pile up deeper and deeper outside. It was like a Christmas card outside with the snow coating everything in sight with a white blanket. I don’t remember when it happened but at some point the lights went out and we all looked at each other as if to say “Now what?” What, turned out to be a widespread power failure throughout the city and county and the start of an experience we will all never forget..

Since we live in an all electric home this meant we had no heat, no electricity and no water. We had a cistern to provide us with water from the rainfall, actually most of the time we had to buy water as our large family used a lot of it. We had no idea how long the power would be off. It was beginning to get very cold in the house. I started a fire in the family room fireplace and we all gathered in front of the fire with our coats on and covered with blankets. The fire was not large enough to heat the family room and we were all very cold. You’ve all heard the song “The weather outside is frightful?” well it was and it was getting worse. I called my assistant manager who was scheduled to open the Becker Drug store in Morrow Ohio. He had somehow managed to make it to the store which also had no power. I told him to lock it up and go home! As the song continues “And the fire is so delightful” It was delightful but not very warm. I remembered I had a large heavy canvas drop cloth in the basement which I retrieved and nailed up over the doorway between the kitchen and the family room (There was no door there) Immediately it ballooned out like a ships sail in the wind as the draft from the chimney tried to suck it into the fire. I had no idea that a fireplace drew that much air as it consumed the logs. I nailed the canvas all around the door frame except for a flap to serve as a door to retrieve more wood. We even had to put some chairs against the canvas as it tried to invade the family room. I had already stacked quite a few logs on the back porch but as time would tell I would have to dig more out of the snow as time went by. After awhile we could remove the blankets but kept our coats on. I was thankful for the battery operated radio which kept us in touch with the outside world. As we listened to the forecasts there was only the promise of more of the same to come.

Since the water pump was electric we had no water to cook or wash and more important to flush the toilet. I rigged up a bucket to a long rope and removed the cistern lid in the garage. I was able to lower the bucket and bring up water as we needed it. We could fill the toilet tank and then flush it. This was when I first heard the poem that was penned by someone who was used to these conditions.

“If it’s Yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown flush it down”

I think we followed this advice during our crises. We turned part of the ordeal into fun as we roasted hotdogs and Marshmallows over the fire. We had lunchmeat and bread so we were not desperate for food. The "Great Blizzard of '78" continued for two days and shut down transportation, schools, and business all across Ohio, for a week in some cases. State Route 48 which passes by our street Retswood drive was closed to all traffic. There were drifts of snow as high as ten foot in some places. According to weather historians it was a storm that Ohioans will never forget, one that will be a legend through the 21st century.

I know our family who lived through the "Great Blizzard of '78" will never forget it. It is engrained as part of each person's "1978 Blizzard Experience", a legend to be told to their children and grandchildren.

The following was taken from a web site.
Rain and fog the previous evening gave little indication of the impending blizzard but forecasters saw the signs. A deepening low pressure center was moving northward toward Ohio from the Gulf of Mexico. Moist tropical air flowed northward along the Atlantic coast and, most importantly, bitterly cold arctic air marched eastward from Iowa and Illinois. Forecasters at the National Weather Service saved many lives as they issued a "Blizzard Warning" for Ohio in the pre-dawn hours. The barometer reading of 28.28 inches at Cleveland early on January 26, 1978, was the lowest pressure ever recorded in Ohio and lower than observed in most hurricanes. The "Great Blizzard of '78" swept across Ohio on winds over 70 mph and heavy snow. Hurricane-force winds drifted the powdery snow to the peaks of houses, totally covering some in drifts 20 feet high. Cars, semi-trucks, and farms buildings disappeared under the drifts. All air, rail, and highway transportation came to a halt. Ohio's major airports closed for two days. The entire length of the Ohio Turnpike was closed for the first time in history. Interstate 75 was closed for three days. Temperatures fell to near zero with the arrival of the arctic air and remained near 10 degrees all day. The death toll rose as motorists were stranded and home heating failed. At least 22 people died outside while struggling through the blizzard. Another 13 people were found dead in stuck cars, and 13 died in unheated homes. A greater tragedy was prevented by the early morning arrival of the blizzard and timely warning by the National Weather Service. The morning forecast caused nearly all Ohio schools to be closed so school children were not trapped in stranded busses or at schools. Governor Rhodes summoned the Ohio National Guard in the disaster. Over 5000 men and women of the Guard were pressed into long hours of operating heavy equipment to clear roads, assisting utility crews in getting to fallen wires, transporting doctors and nurses to hospitals, and rescuing stranded persons in emergencies. Forty-five Ohio National Guard helicopters flew 2,700 missions across Ohio working around the clock for three days. They rescued thousands of stranded persons, many in dire medical emergencies. More assistance arrived after President Carter declared a federal disaster in Ohio and dispatched 300 troops from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to Toledo with arctic gear, bulldozers, and fuel tankers to rescue persons in northwest Ohio. Shortages of bread, milk, and eggs developed quickly. State police escorted food trucks from Michigan into Toledo stores. The Red Cross bought 80,000 loaves of bread in Springfield and Ohio National Guard helicopters delivered them to isolated area communities. U.S. Coast Guard cargo planes flew 30 tons of food into Cincinnati where it was distributed to low income families.
"Generosity of Ohioans poured out during the Blizzard, as it has in every weather disaster." Thousands of volunteers with snowmobiles and four-wheel drive vehicles risked their lives to deliver medicine to homes, take staff to hospitals, deliver Red Cross blood, and carry electric linemen to repair downed lines. Radio stations abandoned regular programming for two days to issue storm information and serve as communication links where electricity and telephone failed and highways were blocked. Restaurants that had electricity stayed open packing food orders for electric utility workers, stranded factory workers, and police and military rescue teams.
Agricultural losses were staggering. Dead livestock, lost production, and property and equipment damage totaled $73 million. More than 12 million pounds of milk was dumped on farms the day after the blizzard when storage and transportation were not available.

Diane remembers........I remember making grilled cheese with one of those sandwich thing a ma gigs over the fire. Also, I remember driving to Morrow OH. and the snow on the sides of the road was taller than our car!

Frank Iacobucci remembers..........

With regard to the Blizzard of '78, my son Marc was in high school and joined a number of other people when they walked across the frozen OhioRiver into Kentucky.

The Blizzard of '07

2007-02-08T09:50:00.000-05:00

I have been marooned here in the house for several days because of the Artic Blizzard that hit our place. We have about six inches on the ground. As some of you know in order to get to our house you have to maneuver a roller coaster driveway to get to our house. It drops down about 50 feet into a valley and crosses a small stream and then climbs up the other side of the Mountain to a plateau where our house sits. I did not dare to try to get out. We had a small snow (about 1 inch) a few days before and a lady who was making a delivery got stuck on the hill approching our house, When we have about 1 inch accumulation or so you can accelerate at the bottom of the hill just enough to coast up the other side. She of course didn't do that and she was slippn n' slidden on the hill. Diane & Ryan went out to help her. Ryan finally hooked up a strong rope to her bumper and the 6 wheel Polaris All Terrain vehicle. He stayed in the grass and the pull was just enough to get her to the top of the hill. She got out alright with a little instruction about how to ride our roller coaster. A friend of Joe & Diane came and plowed the driveway and another friend came and plowed the flat blacktop between the house and the garage. Today it is clear and I might even venture out to the super market as I am out of a few items in the pantry and Fridge. They even called off my oil painting class, it's just as well, I think I will paint a picture of the snow, all I have to do is paint the entire canvas white.

Painting #3

2007-01-31T12:33:00.000-05:00

Last night I went out in the bitter cold (It was 19 degrees, wind chill 0) to my 3rd painting lesson. It went a little better than the first 2. I have learned first if "Teach" is making her rounds, act like you are engrossed in painting something and she will probably pass you by, or if she makes small changes to your masterpiece that you don't like change it back to the way it was before laid her fat little hands on it. When I leave the lesson and head home I always lay the painting flat in my trunk to avoid damage. It was so cold and I was so anxious to get in the car that I forgot about the coffee maker I had just bought at Wal*Mart. It was on the far right of the trunk and I gave it no thought. Well!!! it slid across the trunk and landed on the bottom of my painting making a few marks in 3 or 4 places. When I got home I got out my brushes and paint and attempted repairs. Repairs are difficult unless you scrape away the affected area or paint over the damaged area. I did a little of both so I would up with 2 lakes instead of the original one I started with. Anyway here is the result.

Matthai Van Go Go

2007-01-24T10:46:00.000-05:00

Last night I went to my second oil painting class. I was not satisfied with the results any more than the first night. Why is it that I feel that if I were painting without the supervision of Grandma Moses I would do much better? I go there with grand expectations and as the evening progresses they diminish with each brush stroke. I have 3 more classes and then I'm on my own. I will try some from the step by step books that Bob Ross and Bill Alexander published and also from the Ross website which shows video of the painting step by step. In the photo shown in this blog the strange things in the sky are supposed to be "Northern Lights". I think it would have looked better without them.

2007-01-23T13:24:00.000-05:00

Matthai Van Go

This past Tuesday I took my first lesson of the Bob Ross Wet on Wet on Wet oil painting. I have signed up for 6 Classes. The results were less than desirable. There were 6 students (?) in the class. A guy about 25 next to me and 3 little old grey haired Grandmas on the other side and a cute little girl about 12 years old. I think her painting was the best. I have admired this method for many years starting with the TV program of Bill Alexander, the originator of the Wet on Wet method. It consists of painting your canvas entirely with a coat of special primer before you begin painting. This helps with blending and applying paint that would not work well with a dry canvas. He was a pleasant little old short heavy set guy with a thick German accent. He made it look so easy that you were sure you could paint as well as he could. It's not as easy as it looks. There was a guy who studied with him named Bob Ross. He had his own TV show as well. He had a big Bushy red Affro hairdo and Van Dyke beard to match. He too made it look easy. He died at a very young age of cancer but before he left this old world he set up a company that sold artist supplies and trained people to paint with his method all over the world and they in turn have classes to teach others how to paint. The only thing I have against "Teach" is she has a very domineering personality. She stands in front of the tables and shows us how to apply paint in the proper color and stroke. Things went Ok for awhile and then she started making the rounds. She would go to each person's canvas and without asking she would use her brush to make additions or corrections to your painting. Occasionally she would actually shout at one of the little old ladies, especially one who looked shrunken with age and was probably 80-85 years old. I wondered why she didn't tell her to "Take a leap" There were times I felt the painting was coming along pretty well until "Teach" made her rounds. I think I learned something about the technique which will help on future paintings. I have another class this evening and we will be painting on a black canvas. To the left is what I did on week one!

Happy New Year?

2007-01-01T15:53:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year???? BAH! HUMBUG! Saturday I had an errand to run to Wal*Mart and to Sam's Club to get some stuff for me and for my daughter Diane. According to Expedia it is 11.2 miles away or a 21 minute drive. Well I drove to Wal*Mart Superstore and went in and walked all the way to the rear of the store to the photo department to get some pictures I had ordered on the internet. When I reached for my wallet I realized I had left it at home. GRRRRR!. Nothing to do except go back home. The next day was Sunday and of course I wanted to watch the Bengals on TV blow the game in the last 10 sceonds on a missed fied goal that even I could make. It was a real blow to watch them lose and end the season when they should have been going to the playoffs. So after the game I trudged back to Wal*Mart and did some shopping and got what I wanted. I then drove over to Sam's club which was only 200 yards away. When I got there at 8:30 pm The lights were going out as I discovered they close at 8:30 on Sundays. So back home again I go. Today I head back to Sam's again and drove up to a deserted parking lot. "Closed for New Years" said the sign. They are only closed 3 days out of the entire year. Easter, Christmas and New Years. I have used up a whole tank of gas running over there. I'm not sure if I will ever go back there again. BAH! HUMBUG! I never did like Sam Walton anyway.

I am getting aggravated with modern technology

2006-10-15T12:44:00.000-04:00

I am getting aggravated with modern technology, This is a re-write of what I started earlier when all of a sudden the power went out, this is a common occurrence at my house and it occurs on a regular basis about every 2-3 weeks for no apparent reason. The power stays off for about 1 to 5 minutes and the the lights flash and then comes on again. Of course when this happens I have to reset all the clocks in the house and it causes other problems "Only a Fool" should dare mess with! My satellite and my Television. When the power does come back on the satellite always goes into a "searching for signal" mode. When it finds it then has to download 5 different updates and that takes up to 5 minutes. Meanwhile my TV screen switches to an unknown feature called "TV Guide" which I have never been able to get to work. The only way to get rid of this is to find the TV remote which I never use as my satellite remote does everything else and press the TV guide button on the TV remote, my TV in the bedroom does something similar except it goes to a menu which I can only get rid of with also with the old TV remote.

And then there is the computer, as I stated earlier I had just gotten started when I lost everything due to the power failure. This has happened to me several times when I was working on a project such as the family cookbook or the family calendar. Since then I have learned to save my project every time I make an addition or a change.

I think I have become a computer junkie and I need a fix every day by working on a project or sending or receiving mail. You know the old saying "You never miss it until you don't have it"? With me this is true of email. Yesterday morning when I clicked on the send & receive button I kept getting the message " An unknown error has occurred. Account: 'George', Server: 'smtp.fuse.net', Protocol: SMTP, Server Response: '421 Service not available', Port: 25, Secure(SSL): No, Server Error: 421, Error Number: 0x800CCC67

I called Cincinnati Bell Zoomtown and they spent about an hour trying to solve it, They said to give it a few hours to see if it would start working. no luck, I then checked the internet and there were 8 million hits on this subject. Apparently this is a very common problem but not one of the hits offered a solution. Later that day I called Zoomtown again and talked to a different technician, By the way it is a pleasure to call some one like Cincinnati Bell and to speak to a person without a thick Indian accent (which I cannot understand) This person referred me to several senior technicians who also could not solve the problem until I finally talked to one who said he knew exactly what was wrong and only 24-48 hours would solve it. He said there are some internet sites you can visit that if they determine they think you are a spammer your email address would be put on a "Blocked List" Your email address apparently has an IP address which changes daily for some reason, As soon as my IP address changes again I would be able to send mail again. I looked mine up today on the internet and it is 72.49.251.32. So I spent the day email-less and I actually felt help-less. But this morning it was working OK again and all is well with the world. If this ever happens to you you now know what to do, NOTHING! but wait.

Reporting to The USS Wisconsin

2006-09-15T12:07:00.000-04:00

Since this may turn out to be a large entry, I will post it in installments.

This is installment #1

I took a train from Cincinnati, Ohio to Norfolk, Virginia I was a very naïve 21 year old who had never traveled anywhere before my tour of duty in New Orleans. Norfolk is the home base for hundreds of Naval ships. Each ship has a home port that it always travels back to no matter where it goes in the world. It was late in the evening when I boarded a bus that would take me to the Naval Base where the piers were located. I was directed to a pier about a half mile from the base entrance which I had to walk carrying my sea bag which contained all my worldly possessions. I never thought about it before but at that point in my life I really did not own much of anything, just what I could carry with me. It was pretty heavy even though it only contained my clothing. Here’s a bit of trivia most people are not aware of. When you enter the Navy they give you your first set of uniforms, underwear, shoes, socks etc. Unlike other services from then on you have to buy your own on the grand total salary of $75 dollars a month minus the amount deducted for my allotment which was sent home to my mother, The Navy matched whatever amount I sent. If I remember right I could only afford $25 a month and that left very little to buy anything else.

I remember rounding the corner of the pier which was bathed in a soft orange glow of the lights which were dimmed by the thick fog which was now rolling in from Chesapeake Bay. It was an eerie sight as I walked along the pier past huge cranes that were so big they moved along the pier on railroad wheels. I felt as if I were walking in a giant steel canyon as the sides of super ships pressed in from both sides.

And then I spotted it, A large white 64 on the bow of a ship that must have been at least as tall as a five story building. As I walked along the side of the ship I could hardly believe how large it actually was. I came upon some stairs which led to a platform on which a gangplank was attached to the ship. I was a little apprehensive about boarding but really did not have any choice, At the end of the gangplank I paused and saluted the flag which always hung at the stern of every ship and then turned to salute the “Officer of the Day” and say “Permission to come aboard, Sir.” This is a ritual that every person regardless of rank must perform when leaving or boarding a Navy ship. When leaving you must of course say “Permission to leave the ship, Sir”.

I stepped on board onto a solid teak wood deck, it was so clean you could eat off of it as they say. I was directed to a hatch on the port side of the ship where a very old Chief Petty Officer sat, He must have been all of 40 years old. I presented my orders and after noting I was rated as an Electrician told me I would be in “E” Division. Another sailor showed me the way to my quarters as we descended through several decks through a hatch which had many Dogs (handles) on it. We passed the Galley (Ships kitchen) and descended through a hatch near the GeDunk (Ships version of a convenient store. At the bottom of the ladder (Steps) was a huge corridor which ran the entire length of the ship. It was about 8 foot high and 8 foot wide and went by the name “Broadway” It was dimly lit by the glow of red lights which were turned on every night after the evening chow. No bright lights were permitted above or below decks on a Navy ship. There were many hatches which led off the length of Broadway, most of them led to the engine rooms or boiler rooms. There were many other compartments as well. All compartments on a ship had watertight hatches (Doors) with dogs surrounding the edge of the door, when "General Quarters" was sounded every hatch throught the ship had to be latched. We made our way through several hatches and arrived at a compartment with about 50 bunks stacked three high, I found one that was unoccupied that was in the middle of a stack.
There were also lockers for your gear that were very small. All your clothing had to be rolled before stowing it away to prevent wrinkles, Your dress blues were carefully laid out between your mattress and the canvas supporting it to press it. A bunk consists of a galvanized pipe frame, a 30” X 72” canvas with brass eyelets around the edges was tied to the pipe frame with a rope that resembled a clothesline, it wound completely around the frame and through the eyelets leaving the canvas suspended. On top of that was a mattress about two inches thick which was encased in a white sheet bag tied on one end. This was generally used for one week on one side and then turned over and used another week. Remind me to tell you about Bunking on a submarine.

Every two weeks came the announcement over the loudspeakers. “Now Hear This, all men, air your bedding” Your mattress then had to be carried up to the main deck and tied with a rope to the railing. The mattress cover went into the community laundry bag which was done in the ships laundry. All your clothing, linen and towels were stamped with your name and serial number on it with a kit you could buy and make your own personal stamp. I used to volunteer for the job of laundry sorting. When the laundry came back to our compartment it was in huge bags which contained everyone’s clothes all mixed together. My job was to go through it and look at the name and throw the garment on the bunk to which it belonged. The great thing about volunteering was there were always items that someone had just bought and forgot to stamp before putting it in the laundry. No name meant it belonged to me. I never had to buy any clothing from then on.

My first Computer

2006-09-13T11:28:00.000-04:00

In 1986 or thereabouts I was interested in buying a computer. I knew absolutely nothing about computers and did not really need one especially since I did not know what they could do or not do. But I went shopping anyway. There were not a lot of places you could buy one. I went to Radio Shack which was one of the leaders in the computer infancy. They had one called a TRS computer, also known as the Trash computer. I thought What the heck? so I bought one and took it home and hooked it up expecting miracles to appear on the screen before me. What I saw was nothing. just a blank screen and hitting every key on the keyboard did nothing to change it. I concluded that there must be something wrong with the computer, It couldn't be me. So I took it back and to my surprise they took it back and gave me credit for it, no questions asked. I don't know how long I looked after that but I spotted a sign it the Shopping Mall across the street from Shillito's Department store that said "Computers". I went in and looked around. I don't remember the brand names they had then but they were all more than I was willing to pay. I spotted one on the counter that the salesman said he could give me a deal on as it was a floor model. It was a brand called Amstrad.

I had never heard of it but I later found out it was made in England. If I had known that I probably would not have bought it. I knew nothing about brand names. After a lot of thought I decided to buy it. It was the cheapest I could find and everyone knows I like to buy cheap. I took it home and set it up and you guessed it, I was staring at a blank screen. Unbeknownst (Is that a word) to me this computer did not have a hard drive, what's a hard drive? It also did not have an operating system, What's an operating system? As you can see I knew nothing about a computer. After what seemed like hours reading I learned to make a computer work you had to have an operating system which was stored on a 5 1/4" disk that you had to insert in the drive slot on the left called "A" slot. Then Reboot (Another technical term I had just learned) the computer. I did and it made a lot of noise like it was digesting some food or the disk I had just put in. The screen lit up and I thought now I was getting somewhere. But all I saw in front of me was the letter A:\ blinking off and on. Back to the manual where I learned that if you wanted the computer to actually do something you had to put in a program which was stored on another 5 1/4 disk called a "Floppy" (Another new term) in the drive on the right which was naturally called Slot "B". So I put one in that came with the computer and nothing happened. Back to the manual. It seems you have to type in B:\ and then hit the enter key to switch to the B:\ drive so I did that and "Nothing" a blank screen but this time I had a blinking B:\ staring at me instead of that horrible A:\. Back to the manual. It seems that each program you wish to run comes with a command line you have to type in to run the program. such as Start.exe, That .exe is the important part because that tells the computer to execute the program, at this point I felt like doing it to the computer, If you don't know the command line you can usually find it by typing in B:\Dir. This is known as a DOS command (Disk Operating System) and it will show you all the files on the disk, all you had to do is find one that ended in .exe or .com and then type that in and the program will start. I did not mean for this to be a computer lesson so I'll cut it short and maybe expound on it later. I also learned to install a Modem so I could log on to the internet, and a sound card card so I could hear stuff. I could probably write a book about my computer memories.

Reporting For Duty

2006-09-09T11:42:00.000-04:00

When my tour of duty in New Orleans was up I received orders to report to The USS Wisconsin, The largest Battleship ever built with a proud history spanning three wars. The reason it is the largest is an interesting story. Once while cruising in the Atlantic ocean in a dense fog the Wisconsin ran into another ship, This is a big NO-No in the Navy. We had struck a Destroyer The USS Eaton DDE (Destroyer Escort) 510 which left a gaping hole in the bow of the The USS Eaton likewise received considerable damage. The Eaton had to be towed back to Norfolk Va. While the Wisconsin went to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for repairs. It just so happened when the Wisconsin was built back in 1943 during World War II she had three sister ships, A sister ship is one made from the same plan that are identical to each other. They three ships were the USS Missouri , This is the ship that the surrender of Japan to the United Stated was held on with General Douglas Macarthur. The second was the USS New Jersey and the third was the USS Iowa, The Iowa was the ship that Turret Two blew up and the Navy claimed a sailor committed suicide by setting off a powder bag in the turret which killed some other sailors as well, When these three ships were built there was a forth ship that they had laid the keel and was well under construction when they decided to halt production. It was to be the USS Kentucky, Parts of it were used over the years on other ships, its engines were used to power two other

ships.

They were able to remove the bow of the Kentucky and tow it by barge to Norfolk Va. Where the Wisconsin was docked and waiting for it. It just so happened that when the bow was removed they cut off the Kentucky 18” more than they should have and when this bow was welded to the USS Wisconsin the ship became 18” longer than it previously was and could now boast it was the largest Battleship un the US Navy. It was now 905’ 3". Three football fields long

Ringgold Street

2006-09-01T12:18:00.000-04:00

There came a time just before my father died in 1944 that we moved from Milton Street

Our house was the one on the left of this duplex.

to about 3 streets away to Ringgold Street.

It was a big step up for us as it was a two story house sandwiched in between two other houses as they did in those days. We had never had a house before. always an apartment and not very nice ones at that. My uncle George Agricola, Actually he was my fathers uncle, owned a bakery on the corner of Highland & Ringgold St. about a block away. It was a family affair as his sons and wife & daughter did all the baking and ran the store. I remember how heavenly the store used to smell. Sometimes when I went with my father I could go in the back room where they did all the mixing and baking. It was fascinating to see all the giant mixers and preparation tables in action, I always wondered how they could possibly bake enough stuff to sell in only one night (They baked at night and slept in the day) They sold bread, buns, doughnuts, pies, cookies and anything that could be baked. I think they must have been tight fisted Germans, they are famous for that, because I don’t ever remember them even offering me a cookie. I do remember however that on Christmas day each year my dad & I went to see them and they always gave me the same thing, UNDERWEAR!, Just what a little boy hoped for. They lived upstairs from the bakery and I only remember going up there once. All of their furniture seemed to be very large oak pieces, I suppose now they would be antiques. They had a large parrot who could talk in German and whistle loudly. I was told it was 80 years old.
Across the street from our house was the God’s Bible School campus. It was a pretty big deal in those days. I heard people came from all over the world to study there. There was always a lot of excitement every year at Thanksgiving. They would serve a complete Thanksgiving meal to any and all who came, naturally I came. I remember they were serving vegetables and mashed potatoes out of 20 gallon galvanized garbage cans, clean of course, I suppose that was the only thing big enough to hold it all. There were well dressed people as well as bums, all were welcomed.
There was also a sad period living on Ringgold street. We were living there when my father died of lung cancer. He was not laid out at a funeral parlor but in our living room, this was a common practice in those days. The funeral parlor prepared him and brought him in a casket to our home and then transported him afterward to the gravesite. I remember it was hard to sleep that night knowing my father was there in a coffin in the living room below my room.

Dad is buried in the military section of The Old St. Joseph’s cemetery on west 8th st. in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and members of his post came to the gravesite and gave him a 21 gun salute and presented the American Flag that was on his coffin to me. I of course still have it. (With only 48 stars)

Dad Veterans of Foreign Wars Cap.

Memories of Grade School

2006-08-31T10:57:00.000-04:00

One of my earliest memories was my first day of school. My mother took me that first day to St. Xavier catholic parochial school on Sycamore street between fifth and sixth street in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. This site is now occupied by the main offices of the Proctor & Gamble Company. I remember that when she left the room I threw a fit. I wanted no part of school and I let the Nun principal know it by kicking and screaming as loud and hard as I could, I don’t know if Mom ever made it off the school grounds but my next memory is the Nun, my Mother and I sitting on the steps in the school stairwell trying to comfort me. I don’t know If they calmed me down or not. I don’t remember much after that. I guess I got over it as the memories of years after that are kind of blurred.

They knew I was from a poor family and at lunchtime (I never brought a lunch), myself and a few other kids were marched to St. Xavier Church which was 1/2 block away. Next to the church was a small room where they served us some lunch. I swear that every single day they served the food I hated most in life. Green Split Pea soup, They probably didn’t but it seemed like they served it 5 days a week. I simply could not eat it and to this day I cannot stand the taste or smell of it.
We lived on 2nd. Street about 100 yards from the river and we had to walk from there about 3 blocks west and then up Sycamore street to above 5th. Street to get to the school. That was a really long walk twice a day but It didn’t seem to bother us. In those days if something in life required a little effort because of the circumstances we just did it without thinking if it was hard to do or not.
About 1/2 way to school we had to pass through a park called Lytle park where a statue of Abraham Lincoln was. I have had several pictures taken in front of it, the one at the right was taken when I took my first Holy Communion, Florence Strickley stood next to me. I never understood why they were always taking pictures of the two of us together, I think she was older than I and I had absolutely no interest in girls, UGH! That park had other memories too. In the spring and summer there were pathways that wound through the park under many shade trees. In the evening sometimes our whole family and friends would gather in front of the Gazebo Bandstand for a concert. Usually it was a German band that was well known in the Cincinnati area called Smitty’s Band. That band marched in all the local parades as well as other appearances throughout the city. It was a typical OOM-PA-PA German band that played a lot of marches. I fell in love with that kind of music and so did my father. He used to sit at the kitchen table and hum one of the marches loudly while he held a table knife in each hand and pretended he was a drummer tapping out the beat on the table. I used to like sitting with him and sometimes hum along. I would still to this day rather hear the John Phillip Sousa band play his marches than any other music. I’ve seen the movie by his name at least a dozen times and sit mesmerized whenever I see it. My father used to march in all the parades in front of a military band while carrying the American flag.
Another school memory is when I attended St. Paul’s school on Spring Street in the Over The Rhine area of the city. I was in the 7th. Or 8th. Grade and I must have looked older because on at least 3 occasions I was called to the church’s sacristy To be the God Father to a kid I did not know and never heard from since, I don’t know what was up with that but I just did as I was told. Other memories were that the teacher made me and another kid named Ed Beckman go to the nearest library and return and pick up books for her. It was a very long walk but that was OK as we got out of school all afternoon. The library was about 4 miles away, on the corner of McMicken and Vine. I didn’t mind the walk but Ed was a real pain in the you know what. He was bigger than me and loved to show it. He was constantly teasing me and hitting me in the arm or chasing me. He didn’t hurt me but as I said he was a real pain in the you know what. Once when I was in the eighth grade Sister Mary Edwards called me outside the classroom and told me that the 6th. Grade was putting on a play and needed me to play Santa Claus. She gave me all of five minutes to learn the 2 or 3 lines I had to say. I still remember them. In a scene when children were gathered in a circle arguing about something, I was to enter and say “HO! HO! HO!, Merry Christmas! And then noticing the disagreement between the kids had to say “Come on children, Lets not have any bickering. It’s Christmas time” I felt really foolish doing it as I was just a kid myself,

We attended Mass every morning before school. I remember that every Mass was a Requiem Mass, which was a mass for the dead. We sang the entire Mass in Latin. I knew the words well and our class sang the entire Mass from start to finish. One day while singing I suppose I felt in especially good voice and was singing rather loudly in a high pitched alto voice when I felt a WHACK! On the back of my head. It was Sister Mary Edwards letting me know in her own way to quiet down. She carried a small wood Clapper thing that had a handle and a small shaft about 6” long, attached to this was a spring lever that when pressed down and let go made a loud clicking noise. Usually all she had to do was click this thing once or twice and we all settled down. This time she chose to use it as a small club. It worked. From that day forward you could never distinguish my voice above the rest. Funny thing, we sang that Mass so many times the to this day I remember most of the words, In Latin, as well as the melody.

Another memory of St. Paul’s era. We lived on Milton street in Mt. Auburn. Sometimes in the morning when everyone was in the mood for doughnuts or rolls, it seems I was always elected to go to the bakery to get some. The bakery was located at the corner of 13th. And Pendleton street, just a block from my school. I think I only made this trip in the summer when school was out, My favorite things to buy were Coconut Rolls which nobody else cared for very much or crème horns, a hollow pastry filled with whipped crème. Of course I also liked Jelly Rolls a lot, actually I like everything. Every one in the family ate these treats in the same way. Dunking them in coffee before taking a bite, except my sister Loraine who did not like coffee, she drank Milk. Our fortunes must have improved a bit because for some reason I started eating lunch around the corner from St. Paul’s school at a little restaurant on Reading Rd. I remember it was always crowded and they served Home Style food cafeteria style at a low price, one of the things I loved to get with a meal was homemade Custard pie. One day I opted to forgo lunch and bought a whole Custard pie, I think it was only 50c, probably a lot for those days. I still remember sitting there enjoying every morsel.

I hate to admit this but I had to repeat the 7th. Grade. I missed a lot of school that year due to illness, at least I remember my Mother saying that. It wasn’t so bad, I already knew a lot of the stuff. One other memory from that time, we were all required to make a large poster and all of them were to be hung in the Cincinnati Art Museum as a class exhibit. I tried and I tried and I could not come up with a subject for a poster. I pleaded with my sister Loraine to help me. At first she refused but eventually not only did she help me but she drew the whole thing which I turned in as my own creation. I don’t remember if it was any good or not but I do remember going to the museum with the class to look at it. I think it was a scene from Venice. Just think, I had art hanging in the
Cincinnati Art Museum and it wasn’t even mine.

World Champion Boxer?

2006-08-20T14:07:00.000-04:00

When I was about 10 years old we had a catholic church close to us located on Third street with an entrance also on second street. That's me behind the boy with the bow & arrow in the yard of St. Philomena Church. The church had a youth program in the basement of the church. There were lots of physical things to do there. There was an exercise machine attached to one wall that had weights which were attached to ropes and then over pullys to grips that looked like saddle stirrups. You stood in front of it and pulled on the ropes which raised the weights up and down. I suppose this was one of the first exercise machines in use. They also had a rowing machine and pommel horses as well as rings suspended from the ceiling. All of these were fun to fool around with. In the very center of the room stood a regulation boxing ring. I never went near it as I was very timid at the time and I would never dream of getting into a fight or hitting anyone. There came a day though when a kid who looked like he was one of the Bowery Boys from New York approached me and asked "Hey! kid, wanna go a few rounds with me? Of course I said no and began to walk away from him. He persisted. "Aw come on" he said, "We'll just spar around and I promise not to hurt you" (He was bigger than I was) I kept saying no and he kept saying "Come on, you will have fun. " At some point I agreed to get in the ring with him and they tied some boxing gloves to my hands. Someone rang a bell and we met at the center of the ring and shook hands. Then he began hitting me with the ferosity of a mixmaster. This is not what I had in mind. This was not fun at all. I survived that first round by ducking a lot and running around the ring with him in hot pursuit. The bell finally rang and when I went to the corner the guy who was in the corner agreed that I was not a boxer and never would be. He stopped the slaughter, you couldn't call it a fight or a boxing match either because clearly it was neither. I don't remember ever going back to the St. Philomena basement.

The Silent Killer

2006-08-14T09:14:00.000-04:00

I used to take several trips per year to trade shows in New York and Chicago and on one such trip after we parked the car and were walking towards McCormick Place convention center. It just so happened that coming towards our group of ten men was a Beautiful shapely girl who I think must have been one of the models who the manufacturers hire to show off their wares while she showed off hers. My eyes just naturally followed her walking past us and as she was well past our group and then, BOINNGG! The sound echoed as my face crashed against a sign that read "Keep to the right". It was most embarrassing as everyone in my group howled with laughter. The rest of the day as we walked the aisles one of the show someone would shout out "Watch out for the sign" whenever we approached a booth with a model in it. During that same show I was walking the show with Bob Taggart, the son-in-law of the owner Ed Becker. We would stop at one booth and then another as we looked at the merchandise. all of a sudden I didn't see Bob next to me anymore. Then I spotted him about two booths ahead of me doubled over and hanging on to a guard rail. As I approached him he look as if he was in great Pain but when I bent over to comfort him I realized he wasn't in pain at all but was actually laughing. He was laughing so hard he was actually crying holding his glasses in his hand while tears streamed down his cheek. I asked him what was wrong and all he could do was point to one of the booths a few feet away that we had stopped at. There stood a group of men who were looking at each other suspiciously and wrinkling their noses and each taking a step backward. Each suspected the one next to him as the guilty party. It seems Bob who had visited the booth a minute or two before had left behind a bomb of "The Silent Killer" as he referred to them. He was a very large man who liked to eat, unfortunately it sometimes reacted and left him with a very powerful weapon that you don't want to be around when he sets one off.

It was a story told many times on other trips.

Aren't you proud of me? I told that whole story whihout having to use the word Fart. OOOPS!

Taking Care Of Business

2006-08-13T11:09:00.000-04:00

I had never been to Loveland, Ohio before and I figured that if I were going to take over the Becker Discount Drug store I had better take a drive to the country. that's exactly where Loveland was, in the country. There were no expressways in those days. We did have one though, it was called the Millcreek Expressway and it went from downtown Cincinnati to The General Electric Jet Engine plant and it stopped dead there. It was built during World War II so thousands of workers could get to the plant without too much back road driving. I had to take this road till it ended and then take Kemper road east, a 2 lane highway, about 10 miles to Loveland, Ohio. At the corner of Montgomery Road and Kemper road there was a dairy farm on the corner with many cows roaming the field. I found the store without trouble and went in and introduced myself to the store manager, Ray Edwards. Ray was a lot like me having grown up in a poor neighborhood where no one had much money. I made arrangements to start the next Monday and started to look for a place to live. The last two places we had lived in Kentucky were single family homes and I was looking for something similar to that. It was a little difficult for me as Marlene an our two girls were still in Owensboro while I looked. I looked at a lot of houses but really wasn't impressed with them. Then I heard about a subdivision that had new houses and was having trouble selling them. I was able to Rent one of the new houses rather than buying one, and our new home was going to be on Heidleberg Dr. in Loveland, Ohio. It was only about a 10 minute drive to the store. I hoped Marlene would like it as she hadn't seen it yet. It was a typical ranch house with a living room dining room combinition, small kitchen and 3 small bedrooms, no basement. All the houses in that subdivison had one car garages as well as this one.
I went back to Owensboro and Marlene and I started packing. We were really excited about moving back to Cincinnati as both of our families were there. We were also excited about my new salary, I really thought I was in the big time earning $10,000 a year. Remember this was when we were paying the girls in the store 75c an hour and there was no union. We moved to Loveland in the spring of 1964. One of the first things on the agenda was to get another car, our old 1957 Plymouth Convertable was on it's last legs.

I stopped in the dealership, which is no longer there and saw a really classy brand new Chevy Super Sport model loaded with chrome. We had never owned a brand new car before and I decided now was the time to take the plunge. It was a beautiful dark maroon color and had black upholstery. It had a lot of chrome inside as well as outside. how could I refuse. I paid $2500 for it and drove home leaving my old faithful 1957 Plymouth sitting there on the lot. It looked so forlorn with it's big hole in the drivers side seat filled with a couch cushion and it's rather ragged vinyl top which had seen better days. It was almost like losing a friend. It probably ended up at a junk yard.

Working for a living.

2006-08-08T16:20:00.000-04:00

This is a picture of me at work in my office at the Becker Discount Drugs in Morrow Ohio in 1970. I first started working for Ed Becker in 1964. Before then I was working for a discount store in Madisonville Ky. I was the assistant manager of that store. It was owned by 2 men who shouldn't have been in business in the first place. One of them was a Dentist and the other was the owner of the local Coca-Cola bottling plant and they knew absolutely nothing about running a business. As assistant manager I was responsible for the newspaper advertising and was the buyer for all the hard lines in the store. In 1964 I attended the National Housewares in Chicago on a buying trip to purchase merchandise for all the departments in the store. I was there for a week and had placed quite a few orders and gathered information for other merchandise. While in Chicago I ran into a guy I knew from my days at Fashion Fair, a store I had worked at before moving to Kentucky. His name was Lee Dreyfuss, a very likeable Jewish guy I always got along with. He asked me if I wanted to come and work with him at a drug store chain in Cincinnati. I told him I couldn't decide right then as I had to discuss it with Marlene and decide if it was a good move financially. It had taken me 5 years to work my way up to earning about $7000 year. God has a plan for every person, every place and every time. The next day after the trip when I went to the store all excited about the neat stuff I had bought in Chicago, I was confronted at the front door by Doug Mckay the store manager, We had worked together at Fashion Fair store in Owensboro, KY. before coming to Madisonville. I never did like him as a person. He was a sort of a wishey washy guy and him and his wife always tried to give off the idea they were part of the elite or upper crust. In other words boring self centered people. He dropped the bomb on me as I entered the front office that the store had been sold, and we were given 2 weeks notice. He and I were out of a job and I had to get on the phone and cancel all the orders I had just placed. I don't remember if the store was sold to someone else or they were just closing it. I do remember on Sunday when we were closed I had to go in to work to do something and both partners and their wives and kids were stacking merchandise in their cars. I don't know how many trips the made to the store that day. The store was sold and included the building and all of the merchandise. There was no inventory taken so no one knew if there was anything missing or not. I did not take a single item from that store when it closed and I am proud because I could have taken anything I wanted. I wasted no time in calling my friend Lee Drefuss in Cincinnati and arranging an interview with Ed. Becker. A week later I was in his office at the corner of Woodburn Ave & Chapel street in Walnut Hills. At that time he only had 3 stores. The one below the office on Woodburn, one on North Bend Road and one in Loveland OH. He asked me questions about Merchandise, companies I had dealt with, My concept on running a store and a lot of small talk. After an hour we all went to lunch and while eating he looked up and said "when can you start?" "Tomorrow" I said without trying to sound too eager. "Good, and when you get here I want you to take over the Loveland store." There was a man there named Ray Edwards who was going to a new store being built in Mt. Carmel, OH. When I asked about my salary, he totaly surprised me when he said we can start you out at $10,000. I was spechless but tried not to react too excited although I was. That was about a 30% increase of what I was making plus I got to move back home to Cincinnati, well Loveland at least.

Next - Taking care of business

2006-08-01T09:45:00.000-04:00

My daughter Cathy asked me some questions about some of the events in my life which I hadn't written before. Some may be better left untold. She Asked:

"How and when did you start smoking? What brands? Quitting?. "
I had my first cigarette when I was about 12 years old when I sneaked one from my fathers pack which was laying on the kitchen table. It was a brand called "20 Grand" named after a famous race horse of the time who won the Kentucky Derby in the year I was born, 1931. In those days cigarettes were a very short length compared to today's brands and none of them had any filters of any kind. I don't know when they started putting filters on them. I remember I had acquired a cigarette holder somewhere that came apart and you could insert a filter in it that looked like a miniature cigarette. It probable did a good job as it was a gooey brown mess when you removed it to replace it. That should have clued me in that that gook was entering my lungs. I just had an occasional cigarette the next few years whenever I could sneak one. I remember the day when I had the first pack of my own. Wow!, I felt like a big shot walking down the street with a full pack in my shirt pocket hopeing someone would notice as I felt very grown up now that I had my own pack. I switched to the Camel brand about then because I had seen some of my friends smoking them. This was during the world war years of 1941-1945 and no one knew or suspected that cigarettes could cause cancer. My father died of lung cancer but it was never attributed to smoking. He was wounded in the leg while fighting in France in World War 1 but he was also exposed to Mustard Gas while in the trenches. He developed cancer in later years and he had open sores on his leg that would not heal and they blamed the cancer on the mustard gas. One thing I always wondered about my mother told me that while in the Veterens Hospital in Indianapolis IN. He had a chance to live a few more years if they removed one of his lungs, I don't know why he chose not to but he was dead within a few months. I remember thinking for a very long time after he died that maybe he was not really dead at all and maybe one day he would just walk into the house and everything would be as before. Anyway back to the cigarettes, When I was about 16 years old I used to go to a tobacco shop on the corner of 6th. & Main street in downtown Cincinnati that sold cigarettes from all over the world. Some were packaged singularly so you could buy only one of them to try them. One day I felt like experimenting and bought several types that I still remember after all these years. One was an English Oval. Is was as though someone has mashed it into a football shape and it was very long, about 3 times longer that a regular cigarette and as thick as a small cigar. It was packaged in a glass tube with a stopper on one end which I thought was really neat. I also bought some clove cigarettes that were made in India, I didn't like them at all. And I also experimented with some from England and other countries. In those days a pack of cigarettes cost 20-25c, even I could afford that. Up until that time I bought them a pack at a time and they seemed to last a long time. The next big change came when I joined the navy. On board ship there were no taxes of any kind on cigarettes and they were very cheap, around 15-20c per pack. There was not a lot of leisure activity in the middle of the ocean except to read, eat and smoke and I did a lot of each. I changed my brand then to Lucky Strike which was also a cigarette without a filter, They advertised L.S.M.F.T. Which meant "Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco" Shortly thereafter I switched to Pall Mall's. A cigarette that was much longer than my Camel's. I suppose it should have clued me in that The habit had bit me and I wanted each cigarette to last longer. After I got out of the navy I was smoking about a pack a day. After I started working in an environment that allowed me to smoke while I worked, like at the Becker Drug chain, I soon rose to 2 packs a day, although many of those cigarettes lay in the ashtray and burned up unattended. I was also starting to develop a cough, It really didn't bother me very much as I cleared my throat when I coughed and then everything was fine. This went on for years and everyone kept saying "How can you smoke those things without filters?" To be honest when I tried to smoke a filtered cigarette there was something lacking in the taste, I realize now it was the lack of nicotine. I wasn't getting a high from them. To make matters worse I got a job at The Dittman-Adams Co. A tobacco and candy distributor and one of the perks was I received free cigarettes. I think I started to smoke just a little more at that point. There were times when I would wake up in the middle of the night and reach for a cigarette and much to my disdain I discovered I was out of them. What to do? I got dressed and made a trip to the local convenient store. I had my cigarette and went back to bed, The same thing happened in Chicago one morning at a buying show, I had to walk about 4 blocks to find a store before I could start my buying at the show. There were also times when I would go around the house checking ashtrays and lighting the longest stubs to get a few puffs. When times were tough I bought a cigarette rolling machine made by Bugler, The best selling roll your own brand. You could roll a pack for about 10c. I used to gather up all the butts in the house, open them and recycle the tobacco. That should tell you how poor I was at the time for you could buy a package of Bugler for abouy 10c. All of these bad habits stayed with me for many years until a day in 1992. That's when I had a heart attack. They put a stent in one of the veins of my heart and I was informed that the attack turned 1/2 of my heart into scar tissue. I was told I had to stop smoking immediately and loose some weight. I promised to do both, SURE! In 1992 you were permitted to smoke in your room and in your bed. I had a pack of cigarettes with me and when no one was around I sneaked a smoke. You might not believe this but it happened. I was put on oxygen with a plastic supply tube under my nose. I lit up a cigarette while this thing was on and a small ball of fire shot out in front of my face. I suppose I was really lucky, the whole thing could have blown up. For the next year or so I quit smoking at least once a week. It usually lasted no more than a few days. I had a hacking cough that sometimes was so strong that I actually threw up. One day at a getogether with my 3 daughters they cornered me and I promised them I would quit. I pasted an unopened pack of Pall Mall on the refrigerator door and swore never to open it and I didn't. Quitting was hell, I ate instead of smoking and gained 40 pounds. I tried all sorts of Substitutes including fruit, candy, all sorts of snacks and nothing seemed help until I discovered "Wrigley's sugarfree bubble gum flavor" gum. Whenever I felt the urge to light up I chewed a stick of this gum and the urge temporarily went away. I discovered it had to be this brand and this flavor or it didn't work. I still have that pack of Pall Mall's attached to a poster that one of my girls gave me that said "YOU DID IT!

Next, My Dream Car...............................

2006-06-02T11:14:00.000-04:00

It was 1960 and my old 48 Plymouth was on it’s last legs. I started looking around for a replacement and happened to stop by Columbia Oldsmobile on the corner of 5th. And Sycamore streets in Cincinnati, OH. This dealer was located across the street from St. Xavier parochial where I went to grade school. I looked around their used car lot for a car that was in my price range and noticed a 1956 Oldsmobile dark green with wide sidewall tires and a sun visor which fit over the top of the windshield and it had wheel covers over the rear tires a really “Snazzy” car. After some haggling over the price I told the salesman I would take it and he told me he would need one day to get it ready and do the paperwork. I suspect he was really checking my credit which at this stage in life I had none, Good or bad. The next day he called and fortunately for me said that he was sorry but when checking the car they found there was a problem with the transmission and asked if I could stop in and pick out another car. Could this really be?. An honest car salesman? I was really disappointed as I had my heart set on that car. The next day I went to see him and I never got to the car lot as he asked me to look in their garage area and asked me if I would be interested in the car sitting there. It was the most beautiful car I had ever seen. It was a fire engine red 1957 Plymouth Fury convertible, It had a white leather interior and a white boot cap that fit over the top at the back seat when the top was down. It had a push button transmission to the left of the steering wheel, something brand new in the auto industry. It had large tail fins which were the rage at the time. He told me they had just taken it in on trade and had not even cleaned it up to place on the lot. With my mouth drooling over the prospect I told them I doubted that I could afford it and he shocked me be telling me it was the same price as the Olds I had picked out previously. I jumped at the offer and was told again they needed a day to clean it up and do the paperwork. The next day I went to pick it up and it sat there gleaming in the sun with the top down, I felt like a king as I drove it away. It looked and felt like a new car and I couldn’t be happier. I remember going home and parking it in the driveway but my memory is clouded by time as to what Marlene’s reaction was. One memory I have is that while I was the manager of the Ferguson Hills Drive-in theater. (This is another story) I was aware of the jealous looks of people as they entered the theater and saw it parked by the ticket office. We kept this car until 1964 and after returning from my job in Madisonville KY. We realized it was time to move on to another car. By then the convertible had seen it’s better days. There was a hole in the drivers side seat that was big enough to stuff a sofa pillow in and we did to make the seat level. We traded it in on a 1964 Chevy Super Sport 2 door, The first NEW! Car I had ever bought, which also turned out to be a great car.

July 4th, 1959, Independence day.

2006-06-01T12:26:00.000-04:00

July 4th, 1959, Independence day. Independence cuts both ways, for that was the day I married Marlene Marie Niceley. We had dated for about 18 months and had saved every dime we could lay our hands on for the past year to pay for the wedding as both of our families could not afford to pay for it. I cannot imagine how we expected to survive on hers and my small salary, they say love is blind. We had a very nice wedding at St. George's church in Clifton, with a reception that evening. We could not afford the expense of a long trip for a Honeymoon so we decided to go to Chicago. That was a really big deal then because neither of us had ever been very far from home, the problem was that my car would never make the trip. I had a 1947 Plymouth Coupe that had bald tires, bad battery and had a broken door lock on the driver's side. It would not stay closed. I took some coat hanger wire and wired the door handle to the steering wheel. The trouble with that is I had to scoot across the seat and emerge on the passenger side to get out. Marlene's Cousin Jo Jo as he was known to family members only offered his 1958 Chevrolet for the trip and he would use ours while we were gone. It was only a year old. I jumped at the chance.

After the honeymoon we moved into a small apartment close to Marlene's Aunt's and Uncle's grocery store. We had rented this apartment in an old house on Considine Ave. two weeks before our marriage. We went there evenings and weekends to fix it up as it was pretty dreary. It was the first floor of what had been a single family home. There two huge sliding doors on the right that were locked but our living room was to be on the other side of them, we had a living room (Behind the doors) a bedroom and a huge kitchen as big as the bedroom. We cleaned and painted every room, the kitchen was dark so we painted it light gray like a wainscoting at the bottom of the wall , and painted the walls above it a bright yellow with a 2" band of dark gray plastic tape all aroundbetween the colors. It really looked good. We had picked out all our furniture from where we both worked, The John Shillito Co. We did that because we got 10% off and could charge it. I remember we bought it on the BCA plan (Budget Charge Account) . We bought all we needed to fill our small three room apartment and had it delivered and set up before we moved in. The next morning I had my first breakfast in our new home, Steak & Eggs. I had told Marlene how much I enjoyed this meal I used to get while in the Navy in Japan. I was really proud of that apartment until the Creepy Crawler Things attacked. I suppose it was the middle of the night when I walked into the kitchen and turned on the light and there they were, Thousands of creepy crawly, dirty, ugly cockroaches everywhere. They did not come out during the day or when we were there but they were out in force at night. The next day I bought some spray and sprayed every nook and cranny I could find. The next morning our landlady came running down the stairs screaming at us for running the roaches upstairs. Whatever she had she now had double. She was a scraggly looking Portuguese woman who just barely spoke English. She also had a grown son who was living with her who dressed all in black and looked like a member of the Mafia. I felt uneasy leaving the house with Marlene at home when he was there. We couldn't stay at this house any longer and started looking. We found an apartment even closer to her relative's grocery store. We could walk to the store which was very small by today's standards. Vince Iacobucci and his wife Mary ran the front of the store and ordered the stock to fill the shelves and operated the register. Louie Iacobucci and his wife Nita (I never knew what her real name was) was the butcher and took care of the rear of the store, his wife Nita also helped in the store. They gave us 10% off on our groceries which was very generous as the profit on groceries is very low. You could always find Louie in the back of the store drinking beer out of his metal beer pail. I once told Marlene I did not care much for Italian food but the truth was I had never had any, my mother was Irish/ German and her version of spaghetti was butter and bread crumbs sprinkled over the top. Marlene must have told her relatives because when I went to dinner at their house they all had spaghetti & meatballs and they had fixed me a steak. I soon got over that and now of course I love Italian food. We only lived in that house for a short time

Next, My Dream Car...............................

Two is not always better than one

2006-05-31T11:02:00.000-04:00

In the summer of 1952, while stationed on the Naval Base in New Orleans with the temperature hovering in the 90’s I came down with a terrible cold. I checked in to Sickbay to have it checked out. They told me they thought it was pneumonia and checked me into the base hospital. I suspect they really didn’t think I had pneumonia but wanted someone to fill the empty beds. There were only 4 other guys in there and it turned out all I had was a cold which was I suspected in the first place. Nevertheless I had to stay over the weekend for observation. It was pretty boring laying around with nothing to do but read and listen to the radio. Since I worked in the base film shop where we fixed films and checked them out to ships in the area I had access to a projector, screen and the latest movies. I went and got them and that evening I sat up the screen at one end of the ward and started the movie.

I had been dating a girl name Rita from Gretna La., a small town about 5 miles west of the base. She was part Creole and part French and part hillbilly. Country music is really big in New Orleans. She found out I was in the hospital and decided to visit. She walked in as I was showing the movie and sat down in a chair next to my bed. We chatted for awhile when disaster struck. You see I had also been dating another girl who lived in New Orleans; actually I was dating two other girls. This girl though was a redhead named Ginger. I used to double date with Ginger and another guy from the base and his girlfriend. Ginger had not only fiery red hair but a temper to match. My buddy had the bright idea to bring Ginger and his friend to visit me. Their timing was devastating. All three walked into the ward and came to my bed where Rita was sitting on one side. I wasn’t quite sure what to do but I managed a weak introduction to everyone there. Ginger sat down and exchanged dagger stares with Rita. No one had very much to say and you could see the wide grins on the faces of all the guys in the ward. After a brief length of time Rita got up to leave and I muttered something like “See you!” I heard her faint reply as she opened the door and left. “Not if I see you first” I heard as the door slammed.

By now Ginger was laughing and inquired “Who was that?”, “Just a friend” I lied but it was obvious she too was jumping ship as they say in the navy. She and my buddy got up to leave and all I managed to say was “Thanks a lot Buddy” I never saw either girl again.

2006-05-29T09:47:00.000-04:00

The year was 1951, I was 19 years old, (Boy! Was I skinny?) and in July I would be 20. There was a lot of talk going around about the Military draft and the army had already drafted some of my friends and sent them off to Korea. I have tell you I was pretty scared, the news on television everyday was pretty grim and I was of prime age like fresh meat and I didn't want to go to the market. It just so happened I knew a girl who knew another girl who was dating a guy who worked in the draft office in Norwood, Ohio where I was registered. In those days you were assigned a Draft Number based on your birthday and age and some other factors and anyone with that group number would be drafted. I asked her if there was anyway she could check the list of who would be called up next. She did and when she told me my number was on the list of those who would be called up in four to six weeks I knew what it felt like to have a chill run up and down your spine. I now had to do some serious soul searching. When I thought about lying in dirty wet foxholes and trying to survive the bitter cold Winter in Korea, I knew I needed to act now before it was too late. I thought of joining the Gung Ho Marines because all the girls really went for the gyrenes in their fancy dress blue uniform but I also know how tough it was to become one with their rigorous training and some of them were also going to Korea. So the navy seemed the only cowardly choice which made any sense. I talked it over with my Mom and she was very sad that I had to go but understood the situation. I went down to the Navy recruiter to check it out and he made all kinds of promises to me that I really didn't understand at all. but I signed on the line anyway. It wasn't a week later that I got the "Greetings" letter from the Selective Services Commission that I was being drafted, Sorry Uncle Sam, I already signed up! God bless that friend of a friend of a friend

Within a week I was on a train in an overnight Pullman sleeper car headed for The Great Lakes Naval Training Center just Northeast of Chicago, Illinois. You can now drive to Chicago in a little over 4 hours but I was on that train all afternoon and all night arriving there early the next morning. I'll try to shorten the story a little now. I went through 13 weeks of extensive training during which time I had to spend 2 weeks in the hospital for a hernia operation. I also spent time in the dentist chair as they pulled all my front teeth and one on each side of my mouth and fitted me with a partial upper plate. SMILE!
While there we all had to take an aptitude test to find out what kind of duty we were suited for. My test said I had an aptitude for Electrical and Mechanics, so after a week's leave at home where I paraded and strutted around in my Navy uniform as If I were in a fashion show. I headed right back to Great Lakes to attend "Electricians School". The classes came easy to me and I did very well, after 13 weeks I graduated 2nd. highest in my class, I wonder who the SOB was that finished ahead of me. Then we had to select a duty station. The way this works is, they list all available duty stations on a blackboard, these were mainly ships but a few shore stations were available. The guy first in line had "Glory Eyes" as he selected a Destroyer ship which is not a big ship by any means and it rides like a truck when at sea. It was now my turn to choose.
I glanced over the list and N.O.L.A. caught my eye. I asked apprehensively what that was. It stands for New Orleans, Louisiana was the reply, I countered with a loud "I'll Take It". After another week at home on leave I was headed by train for New Orleans. I had never been anywhere outside of Cincinnati so this was very exciting for me. The train station was on Canal Street which is the main street in downtown New Orleans. The Naval base was located across the Mississippi river in a little town known as Algiers, La. The only way to get to the base was by taxi cab which crossed the river by ferry. There were no bridges in New Orleans in those days due to the fact the city was located below sea level, this is also why no one is buried in the ground there, They are all in vaults above the ground, they would hit water if they dug deeper than 3 feet in the soil.

The next day I reported to the "Officer of the Day", Navy talk for the guy in charge. He read my papers and said I was perfectly suited for Special Services. This is the division that is responsible for Entertainment for everyone on the base. I was assigned to the department that loaned 16mm Movies to ships that pulled up to our base. There was a Chief Petty Officer and another skinhead like myself working there. We were housed in a little 25' X 30' brick house close to where the ships docked. The ships crew brought the movies to us in the morning and picked up a new one to be shown on the fantail of their ship at night. It was our job to rewind the movies, When it slipped through our fingers as we rewound it we could feel damaged areas and broken sprocket holes. We would then cut out the bad area, repair it and put it back in the rack to be checked out again. The room was ideally laid out, there were rewinding tables on both sides and a large projection screen at one end. At the other end by the front door were 3 large overstuffed chairs which the 3 of us would sit when we reviewed the movies. You see, every afternoon after lunch we were required to watch one of the movies and write a short review on it. Now I ask you, is this Tough Duty or what? One morning I was called to the Commanders Office, They needed a motion picture projectionist for the base theater. but I had no training for the large theater machines, which used Carbon arc rods sparked by electricity to provide the light to project the picture. These are similar to what are used in giant searchlights. "No Problem!" he said and once again I was on a train headed for Great Lakes Naval Station again.
This school was only 8 weeks long and then back to N.O.L.A. again where I was then put in charge of the base theater which seated 500 and had a balcony. No enlisted men were allowed to sit in the balcony, Officers Only!

One of my duties was to pick up a jeep from the motor pool and drive into New Orleans to pick up the movie we were showing that night and drop off the previous one we had already shown. They treated the Navy really good because we usually got movies to see that still were not being shown in town yet. Now when I was told to go get a jeep and I was asked for my drivers license, before I could check it out, I had to admit I did not have one. Someone (I don't remember who) got in the jeep with me and asked me to drive around the base. After a couple of blocks he told me to pull over at an office. He went inside and came out with my driver's license. I felt 10 feet tall, I HAD A DRIVERS LINCENSE!, WOW!. In those days they typed on the back of the license what you were qualified to drive.

I signed up for and played for the Naval Base Baseball team, I was a pitcher. I was pretty good too. I remember once when we played a team from Texas and in the first 3 innings,I struck out the side all three innings. I must say I had a wicked curve ball. When I pitched I would throw straight at the batters head, They usually fell down to avoid getting hit while the ball curved over the plate for a strike. I could tell the guy was embarrassed lying there on the ground and I couldn't keep a large grin off my face. Another one of these curves for strike 2 and I usually threw a fast ball right down the middle for strike 3.
The manager for the team had signed us up to play teams from other Navy Bases such as Pensacola, Fl. and a team some where in Texas. The only trouble was we had no one to drive the bus to get there. So I said "How hard can that be?" I was scheduled to take a test with a bus and the guy who issues licenses. I drove the bus around the base a few times and then about 5 miles outside the base. When we got back he went in his office and returned with my license with "Authorized to drive Jeeps, cars and Busses" typed on the back. I was really big stuff now, I could drive a 40 passenger bus. I drove it all over the south with the team as we played different Navy Bases.

One weekend while on the baseball practice field the manager noticed how rutted and rocky the field had become, almost unplayable. He called someone to get help but no one could come till Monday and this was Saturday and we needed to practice. There was a place on the base that I knew about that had a dump truck and a bulldozer loader. Does anyone here know how to drive one of these, said the Chief? I held up my hand and said "How hard can that be?" So I got up on the dozer and started the engine. It turned out be be surprisingly simple. It had tank like treads on it. To go left you pressed the left brake and gave it the gas and the opposite to go right. The bucket raised and lowered with 1 lever and dumped with another. I filled the dump truck that was there with a mixture of sand and topsoil, Strictly unauthorized of course. Now I had to get the dump truck to the ball field, "How hard can that be?" I said to myself. I turned out to be no harder than driving a car. Off to the field we went. When there I opened the tailgate and started raising the dump body while I drove around the infield depositing a smooth layer over the field. To smooth this further I drug a large piece of chain link fencing around the infield with the dump truck. We now had a first class playing field. The following week I applied for and passed my license for "Authorized To Drive Jeeps, Cars, Busses, Heavy Trucks and Bulldozers and Loaders" I was really proud as no one else had a license like mine. Maybe someday I will get a licence to drive a ship.

In the Navy, they give you 30 days leave per year. I decided to take 2 weeks off in December of 1951 to be with my family at Christmas. While I was home I found out that my brother-in-law, Johnny Roach was selling his 1941 Oldsmobile. It was a pretty neat looking old car with large whitewall tires. I talked him into selling it to me or was it the other way around. On December 31, It was time to leave for New Orleans. I remember my Mom crying and telling me to be careful as I drove away. I had to be back on the base in 24 hours and I knew it was about an 18 hour drive, There were no expressways in 1951, It was 2 lane roads all the way with an occasional 4 lane boulevard to ease the stress. As luck would have it' It started to snow as soon as I left, It got heavier as I got further south, Not many cars on the road. Some where in Kentucky the snow turned to sleet and freezing rain and continued through Tennessee where it was time to fill the gas tank @ .19c a gallon. The only trouble was I could not open my door. There was so much ice all over the car the doors were frozen shut. The guy at the station

(In those days they came out to your car and checked your oil, water and anything else you might need) pounded on the door till he cracked the ice and the door opened. Now that I think about it I must have been driving on icy roads without realizing it. The only other thing I remember is that somewhere in Georgia as I was driving about 3 in the morning, (I had been driving for about 18 hours straight) I remember looking up and realized I was driving on the wrong side of the road. I have no Idea how long I had been doing this and all kinds of things raced through my mind, I wondered if any other car had to swerve to avoid hitting me. I managed to stay awake the rest of the trip. I got to the base with only an hour to spare. I had been driving for 24 hours straight without stopping, Now that was really dumb! There were no expressways in those days.

The Olds was a pretty good car considering it's age and condition. Except for the time that 3 buddies and I decided to go on a weekend trip to a beach in Pensacola, Fl. Getting there was not a problem and we hung out at the beach all day flirting with the girls. However on the way back to the base I felt exhausted and one of the guys wanted to drive so I let him and I got in the back seat and soon I was sound asleep. I awoke to hear the loudest metal clashing and clanging sound I have ever heard and smoke was rising from under the hood. I knew that the car burned some oil but I just added a quart every so often and it ran just fine. Apparently the guy driving did not notice the oil pressure gauge that had fallen to zero and the car was running without any oil for who knows how long. A car will only do that for a short distance before disaster strikes and it struck with a force that exploded a piston inside one of the cylinders. We were about 100 miles from the base and the car wouldn't run. We had to get back to the base so we left the car by the side of the road and hitchhiked back to the base. About a week later Me and another guy borrowed a car from one of the civilian guard that manned the base entrance, I went in and out all day so he knew me pretty well. we drove back to the abandoned car only to discover someone had stolen the battery and one of the tires. Can It get any worse? we had a bald spare in the trunk which we put on and we didn't need a battery because it wouldn't run anyway. We had brought along a very heavy duty rope which was called a "Hawser" in the Navy. It was about 1 inch in diameter and was used to tie up ships to the pier. We tied it between the bumpers of the 2 cars. He got in the lead car and I in my car and off we went. It was kind of scary because if he had to stop suddenly I would have to also, if I stopped to soon and he kept going forward it could have torn off one of the bumpers. We limped along like this for the 100 miles back to the base. I don't think we ever reached a speed of more than 10-15 miles per hour. I remember at one point as we were going up a hill and the other car was struggling to get to the top pulling a load like it was I began to smell something like burning rubber. I signaled for him to pull over to the side of the road. The smell was coming from the clutch in the borrowed car. We let it cool off and I cautioned him that whenever he came to a hill he had to put the car in low gear. We finally made it back to the base late in the day. I never did tell the guy we almost burned out his clutch, I always felt guilty for not telling him but what the heck I had more problems than I knew how to deal with already.

I was definitely not an auto mechanic but I had to do something, which leads to another part of this story. Located in the building that I was in charge of was the base Chaplain on one end and the base library on the other. I went to the library to see what I could find on auto repair. I not only found the book I needed, (Chilton's Auto Repair manual) but I couldn't help noticing that the librarian was one of the prettiest girls I had seen in a long time. I spent more time there than I needed to, pretending to browse and read books on auto repair. I discovered she was going steady with a very tall skinny sailor whom I did not know. In those days most girls and guys I knew went "Steady" Most of us made commitments to someone and didn't date anyone else. I must have been very persistent for it wasn't long before we had a date. Soon after I never saw the tall skinny kid anymore. More about her later.

I had never done anything more than change a spark plug in a car before but I needed wheels so I dove right in. I removed the head of the engine, it was a straight 6 cylinder engine so that wasn't too hard. Next I had to get under the car and drop the oil pan I discovered that the piston had exploded as I thought but the connecting rod which was attached to the piston on one end and to the crankshaft on the other had wrapped itself around the crankshaft. I had to cut it off with a hacksaw. This was starting to be more than I wanted to tackle and I almost gave up. My next step was to go to an auto graveyard where I found another car with an engine like mine. I was able to extract a piston, connecting rod, bearings and piston rings from it. Nowadays I wouldn't even think about attempting anything as major as this. I started putting it back together and if you have never put a piston in an engine block you can't imagine how hard it is if you don't have a compression ring to hold the oil rings compressed as you lower the piston into the block. after several hours and many failed attempts I finally got all the parts put back together, installed new gaskets where needed, put in new oil and a used battery from the junkyard and turned the key.GLORY BE! The engine ran, I couldn't say it purred smoothly at this point but I was overjoyed that I had done it. Further tinkering got it running pretty good.
Now back to the librarian. As I said she was a very pretty girl,.She was only 17 years old and a senior in high school. Her name was Dorothy. I asked her if she was from Kansas or somewhere over the rainbow? She said she was from Andover Massachusetts, her father was a professor in a college there. He was in the Naval Reserves and was serving a tour of duty at the base. I found it hard to believe she was actually interested in me. What complicated the relationship was that her father was the base commander, HOLY MOLEY! He was in charge of the whole Navy base. I was scared to death. He could send me to Siberia if he wanted to. We dated steadily for about a year. One memorable date was when we went on a moonlight cruise on the Mississippi River on a steamship called "The President". They had a great Dixieland jazz band and I don't think we sat down once the whole evening as we danced almost every song. Since you might never hear it unless I tell you right here, I was a pretty good dancer if I must say so myself, and I must say so myself. When The boat docked and we made our way to my car it began to rain very hard, in fact it was storming. We got to the car and I reached for my keys, No keys, I peered through the rain soaked window only to find the keys were in the ignition and the doors were locked. As we continued to get soaked I tried everything I could think of to get into the car with no success. Finally I took off my shoe and pounded on the cozy wing. In those days the side windows of cars had a little triangle window just forward of the main window that could be opened for air without rolling down the main window, It finally broke and I was able to open the door. I'll never forget the two of us standing there in the rain looking into a locked car.
I had of course taken her home many nights and left her at her doorstep but never went in. After one of our dates as we were talking about our future together apparently I must have asked her to marry me although I don't remember doing it. Maybe she asked me? I do remember going into town and picking out a diamond engagement ring which I couldn't afford and putting a down payment on it and assuming the balance on monthly payments. She seemed really thrilled when I gave it to her but I doubt if it was a very big stone. I think it was a half caret. In those days my Navy pay was $75 a month and part of that was sent home to my Mom in what was called an allotment, The Navy matched whatever I sent.

Soon after giving her the ring, I was invited to her house for a formal dinner with her family, I already knew her father but I met her mother and sister for the first time. All I remember about the evening was after dinner her father and I sat in the living room while Dot and her mother went to the kitchen to do the dishes. There was a curtain hanging in the doorway to the kitchen for privacy as there was no door there. I could see that she and her mother were hiding behind the curtain as the commander spoke. "I understand you want to marry my daughter" he bellowed". "Yes Sir" I replied. And how do you expect to provide her with the lifestyle she is accustomed to?" I'm not sure exactly what I replied, something about going back to school or training. I assured him that with all the training I was getting in the Navy it shouldn't be a problem.

About 2 weeks later I learned that his tour of duty was up and he was leaving to return to teaching in Massachusetts and of course was taking his family with him. It just so happened My duty was also up and I was informed that I would be going on board the largest battleship the Navy had. The U.S.S. Wisconsin. It was docked in Norfolk VA. I remember a tearful goodbye by the base entrance as she drove off, We promised each other we would write every day until we could be together again.

When it was time to leave the base and go home on leave before reporting to my new duty assignment. I had serious misgivings about my 1941 Oldsmobile. I never did run like it did when I got it after blowing up the engine. I was afraid to risk driving it home as I did not want to get stuck in the middle of nowhere with a broken down car. On the day I was to leave I drove the car off the base and parked it at the curb about 50 feet from the base entrance, this is where some of the guys parked their cars. I locked it up and kept telling myself somehow I will come back and get it. That was the last I ever saw of that car. I have wondered ever since what happened to it?

Dating?

2006-05-28T11:26:00.000-04:00

There were several other girls I used to “Date” but another memorable one was “Rosie” She lived just outside the English Woods complex on a large cone shaped hill. There was a road that led to the house which looked like the “Munster’s Mansion” on TV. but there was a sheer drop off on the other 3 sides. A bunch of us would gather at her house and play cards or spin the bottle or charades. We went to the movies a few times, but in the afternoon as it was cheaper than at night. We used to walk about 3 miles to get to the theater and really enjoyed the time getting there talking and fooling around. We also would organize bicycle field trips. Sometimes as many as 20-25 friends on bikes. We were like a un-motorized motorcycle gang. One time we biked all the way to Mt. Airy forest which was close to 10 miles away.

I remember the first time in my life I got drunk. We were at a Christmas party at Rosie’s grandmothers house. It was a beautiful winter evening with snow falling as large as quarters gently floating to the ground. Her Grandma asked if I would like a drink. I was only 17 at the time but no one had ever offered me alcohol before so what the heck, why not? She gave me a water glass with about 3 “ of Sloe Gin, I don’t know if she diluted it or if it was a mixed drink. It tasted really good to me, something like a spicy Kool-Aid. I don’t know how many I had, quite a few I think but if was not affecting me at all. When it came time for us to leave and we stepped out into the cold winter air it started to hit me. We had only gone a few steps when everything started spinning. I was finding it difficult to walk. We managed to get to where a few other friends had gathered. My mother and sister had moved from English woods a day or two prior to this and the only thing they knew was to take me to the empty apartment as it was still heated, I still had the key. I remember them setting me down on the floor on an old quilt. I can’t remember what happened after that, I must have passed out. I have often wondered if my mother ever found out or when and how I got home.

2006-05-28T11:10:00.000-04:00

In order to tell you about my time spent in the navy I will have to take you back to before I enlisted. In 1949 We were living in a government low rent housing development called “English Woods” At the time I thought it was a very nice place, I didnt know we were poor, no one ever told me. It has since deteriorated to a level that attracts drug dealers, welfare recipients or very low income people because the rent was and still is based on how much you earn and what you can afford to pay. I really enjoyed living there. I knew most of the people who lived within 1/2 mile of our apartment. In those days I was “dating” a girl named Lois who I remember as being well endowed, It wasn’t really dating because we never went anywhere that cost money. We just hung out together and smooched on the park bench behind my apartment. A strange thing I remember about that was Lois had a best friend that was rather plain looking and they were inseparable. She always sat on the steps next to us as though we were invisible. There came a time one summer that a traveling carnival came to the neighborhood. It set up everything on the baseball field area. The ball field was set in a deep ravine type of landscape that was surrounded on three sides by the apartment buildings which were about 50 feet above the field. Sometimes the guys I hung out with used to go to the field at night and pitch a tent and spend the night there. In those days that was a big deal. I remember my mother standing on the hill above the field shouting for me to come home and spend the night at home. I realize now what a worry that must have caused her and I would never have let any of my kids do that. It was also a big deal to stay awake all night. We used to walk to the White Castle restaurant which was at least 2 or 3 miles away. To get a couple of 10c “sliders” and a 5c cup of coffee.

On the night of the carnival it was the custom to spread blankets around the perimeter of the ball field and relax and talk. I had had a few beers and was relaxing when Lois’s best friend “Donna’ came by and sat beside me, I have to admit she was a very attractive girl who was very well built but a little short. She was engaged to a Marine who was in Korea. We talked for awhile as dozens of people milled around us so it was not very private but nevertheless she reached over and planted a big kiss on me just as Lois walked up to us. Talk about fireworks!!! There was some scheduled for that night. But Lois set off a few of her own. My memory is fuzzy about what happened after that but I knew our relationship was over.

More to follow...........

2006-05-28T11:08:00.000-04:00

After I got out of the Navy, I was looking around for a car when my brother-in-law offered to sell me a 1948 Hudson Hornet. I thought it was a really neat car.......... WOW! a Hornet, That suggested to me a real powerhouse of a car and I thought it was real "Snazzy" to use some slang from that era. It even had a windshield visor and rear fender skirts just like the photo above. After I bought it some of my friends were snickering behind my back. "Here comes the Turtle" Or "The Hunchback for Old Dames" and the upside down bathtub were among the names I remember, but those who did not have cars were quick to hitch a ride whenever we went somewhere. This was one of the first cars produced after World War II which featured modern styling. The Auto industry suspended auto production from 1942 through 1946 so most of the cars on the road when WWII ended were old and ready for the scrap heap. I had not even finished High School even though I studied in the Navy all the courses and completed my GED tests and passed them which entitled me to a diploma although I never really got one. I wish someone would have grabbed me by the neck and told me That the government would pay the tuition if I wanted to go to college. I really don't know why I made no effort to go. All my family and the friends I hung out with were people who worked 9 to 5 and lived from one paycheck to the next. I was no different. The closest thing we had to a college graduate were my 2 sisters Lillian and Loraine who took a 2 year Office & Secterial school at St. Xavier called "Commercial School". I landed a couple of menial jobs I was not satisfied with and quit each after a few weeks. I remember one where I was a Truck unloader and stock clerk for a company called General Sales, a wholesaler located on Court St. in Cincinnati Ohio who sold stuff to Mom and Pop stores. I hated that job so much I don't think I even called in and told them I was quitting, I just didn't show up for work one day, I never even went back for my check.I worked in a Hamburger Joint for awhile and then a transformer company winding electric coils. I must have been crazy to take that job as the hours were 11 pm to 7 am. I was really good at what they asked me to do. There was a union there and I learned to run a coil winding machine that would wind about 20 coils at a time on a long tube. I wont bore you with all the steps of manufacture but it was a quite extensive procedure. When I get involved in most things I usually concentrate so intensely that I don't notice anything else except the job at hand. Well it seems I was doing my job too well! The shop Forman said that all jobs in the plant had a time study which we had to match. He said if I set a new standard then all other workers would have to match it. He took me off the coil winding machine. The next job he gave me was on a spot welder, I had to take a metal housing (Which fit over the coils) attach it to a small mounting bar and then slip it on the spot welder which then welded the two parts together, it only took 1 minute to learn this job. WHAT HAS THIS TO DO WITH THE HUDSON?HOLD ON I'M GETTING THERE! I did each weld so fast that the bin I threw them in was filling fast. The shop foreman noticed this and warned me again, "Slow Down!" he said "Are you trying to set a record?" He reminded me of the time study again. Well! I tell you, I gave my notice within a week and returned to the world of people who slept at night. My next job was learning to repair calculating machines. The Marchant Calculating Machine Co, was a big deal in those days. They offered me on the job training which was great for them because the government paid half of my salary and Marchant paid the other half. I didn't know any better, I thought I was getting a good deal, at least it was more money than I had been making. They sent me away to a school in Pittsburgh for 3 months to learn to repair the machines. The car went with me. When I got out of there I could disassemble and rebuild a very complicated machine which had hundreds of moving parts. In those days there were no computers or electronic devices of any kind. This mechanical machine could add, subtract, divide and multiply and do diverse calculations such as square roots and other stuff I knew nothing about, I just knew how to fix them. Actually I rarely had to fix one of them. The closest office machine to one of these was called a comptometer machine which was a glorified Abacus. The Marchant Machines were like giant adding machines which sat on desks in most business's all over the world. At that time they were very essential to daily business. Most firms had contracts which called for maintenance and tune-up on a regular basis. That is what I did mostly. I would go to large companies such as P&G or General Electric and clean and oil the machines. It might take a week at each place because they had so many machines. Back to the car or should I say the end of the car? One day as I was going home from work I had to stop at a railroad crossing to let a freight train pass. While waiting I noticed a petite little redhead walking her dog on the side of the road, I will never forget that woman for the rest of my life even though I only saw her for seconds. She had on a white dress with red polka dots and a red straw hat which she was holding on with one hand while the dog was pulling her other one. The train passed and I accelerated across the tracks at the same time I was checking out the polka dot scenery to my right. I should have been looking where I was going because directly on the other side of the tracks were a line of cars stopped for a red light. What a stupid place for a traffic light, It was only 100 feet on the other side of the tracks. I expected to have a clear road ahead after the train passed, NOT SO! I plowed into the back of an Old Big Heavy Buick sedan. Wham! Bam! Thank You Mam!. My hood flew up bent in half from the crash, the engine quit, water was squirting up on the windshield from the radiator and one of the tires was flat and the rim was bent. This is the only accident I have had in my entire life that was my fault (I've only had 2 total) Here's the weird part of this scene, There was a policeman standing by the side of the road right near the accident. I had to groan when I saw him. He asked "Need a tow truck" I answered in the affirmative and he helped me to push my car to the side of the road. The amazing thing about this was that he never even gave me a ticket for the accident. "You already have enough problems!" was his only reply. In a few minutes the tow truck showed up and delivered me and my car to the sidewalk of my house located in Northside (Suburb of Cincinnati, Oh.) on Apple street. It sat there for a few days while I decided what to do next, Next was to find another car so I called the Auto Graveyard on Spring Grove avenue and they came to haul the old lady away. I suppose I should have shed a tear or said a prayer as she went to her final resting place.

Memories of time served on the USS Wisconsin BB64

2006-05-28T10:56:00.000-04:00

November 13th, 2005 I went to my first reunion of former shipmates September 14-17, 2000. Our 7th Biennial Reunion Was Held At Mobile Alabama. Each day was filled with so much activity that my body was still recovering. a week later after I returned home.I suppose I felt as young as I did when I walked the decks of the Wisconsin and that I still had the same energy and stamina that I had back in 1953 on the U.S.S. Wisconsin. NOT SO! The first day we boarded busses for Pensacola Fl. to visit the National Museum of Naval Avaition. It was quite a sight to see all of the old planes from the earliest models that were like the Wright Brothers planes, up to the latest supersonic jets. We enjoyed a deluxe deli buffet lunch at the Mustin Beach officers club and then re-boarded our buses to return to the hotel around 3 pm for a much deserved rest. Many of the crew and thier wives attended a Mardi Gras Party Friday evening and danced to the music of “JAZZAMATAZZ”. Mobile Alabama is proud of the fact that they were was the city that hosted the first Mardi Gras celebration, I never knew that. I was stationed for two years at Algiers Naval Station just across the Mississippi River from New Orleans (But that’s another story.) I’m sorry to say I have no pictures to show of this party as I was at the reunion solo, and I noticed everyone else were couples, so I did not attend the party. I couldn’t tell who anyone else was anyway as they all had masks on. Saturday September 16, 2000 We boarded the busses early in eager anticipation for the short trip to Battleship Memorial Park where the U.S.S Alabama is berthed at a dock on Mobile Bay. as we approached I could almost envision the U.S.S. Wisconsin once again as I gazed at the monster 16″ guns and all the other armament on the ship. the Alabama is not quite as big as the Wisconsin as it is the longest and biggest and BADDEST Battleship in the world, but it was almost like seeing her again. We assembled on the fantail for a memorial service for our deceased crewmembers who have passed on. We assembled on the fantail as we had so many mornings at quarters on the U.S.S. Wisconsin, only this time we could all sit down.The United States Marines Color Guard retired the colors for the Memorial service on board the U.S.S. Alabama. A Twenty One gun volley was fired off the starboard side of the fantail by the marine guard in honor of all shipmates who have passed away. Many people believe that when rifles are fired at a funeral or memorial it is called a 21 gun salute. This is not always true. Today the national salute of 21 guns is fired in honor of a national flag, the sovereign or chief of state of a foreign nation, a member of a reigning royal family, and the President, ex-President and President-elect of the United States. It is also fired at noon of the day of the funeral of a President, ex-President, or President-elect. Gun salutes are also rendered to other military and civilian leaders of this and other nations or occasions. The number of guns is based on their protocol rank. These salutes are always in odd numbers. A flower was added to a memorial wreath and a ships bell rung once as each crewman’s name was announced. A second wreath was provided for unknown deceased crewmembers. A missing man formation flyover was executed by US Navy and Marine pilots from The 86th Squadron from Pensacola Naval Air Station in honor of deceased crewmen as Taps was heard from a buglers horn. A second flyover in honor of all crewmwn present was a special surprise as we were led to believe this was not Permitted. The memorial wreath was then cast over the port side in tribute as Taps was sounded on a distant Bugle. A benediction was read by Robert C. Simpson, Assistant Chaplain. The ceremonies were closed with the playing of The Navy Hymn and The Marine Hymn. We paused for lunch at the aircraft pavilion which is dedicated to the twenty eight Medal of Honor recipients from the state of Alabama. It features many historic aircraft that saw service from WWII through Desert Storm. After our visit to The Battleship Memorial Park we rested before gathering in the Alabama Ballroom at 7 pm. For an evening of fun, tall sea stories and dancing to the sounds of the “Tribute” band. There were awards presented by George Miller and the installation of officers by Jack Kavanaugh, RAdm, USN, Ret. We all dined to a superb meal.

My first Automobile

2006-05-28T10:50:00.000-04:00

I suppose that cars are a lot like girls you have known throughout your life. Some were very beautiful and satisfying. Some were temporary until something better came along. Some cars were more memorable than others and some of the girls were very memorable as well! But that's another story!
I spotted my first car when I was coming home from Central Vocational High School in 1948 on Reading Road in Cincinnati, Ohio. I was only 17 years old and did not have a driver’s license; In fact I had never driven a car up to that day. But I had ridden in lots of them, how hard it can be. It had a 4 cylinder engine which doesn't provide a lot of power. It was a 2 door Model a Coup with a single seat up front and a rumble seat that opened to provide room for 2 more people (outside exposed to the weather) on a nice day. I looked at that car for weeks until I decided I had to have it. They wanted a hundred dollars for it which of course I didn't have but I had been saving for it for weeks. There was a little office on one of the side streets near the school and I used to go to after school and sweep and empty all the ashtrays and wastebaskets, If I did anything else I don't remember it, my pay was one dollar for about 2 hours work. I also cut grass the hard way, I did not own a lawn mower, and there was no grass where I lived, just concrete sidewalks. There was this one neighborhood that all the houses had a grass yard in front of their house and some even had grass in back but not all. AH! I remember it well; it was on Highland Avenue just below McMillan Street. I used to walk up and down the street and knock on doors and ask if I could cut their grass. Some laughed when they found out I did not have a mower. Lawns were few and far between and most of the ones I did get the people had the old fashioned reel type that cut the grass with spinning blade on a drum arrangement that was a hard earned 50c. I saved to the point which I had scraped up $25. (A small fortune in those days.) I went to the short little guy with a cigar stub stuck in his mouth and offered him a deal. I would give him $25 and get the rest to him within a month or so. I think I was a little surprised when he said OK. We drew up the papers and he never asked if I had a license or not. I told him I would get a license plate before I drove it anywhere but straight home. I was scared to death as I got behind the wheel and turned the key to start the engine. The motor sprang to life with a really pleasant chug-chug-chug sound and black smoke pouring out the exhaust. A toot on the horn bellowed out a loud ahh-ogg-ga! And off I went down the hill and heading for home about 25 miles away. We lived in English Woods which was a government housing project with subsidized rent. About two thirds of the way home I started to feel a loss of power as I was chugging up a hill until it was obvious to me I was not going to make it. I found a phone and called home and explained the situation and my brother-in-law agreed to come and help me. I think he had to take a bus as I don't think he owned a car at the time, I was a little scared to go any further alone. He was probably about 25 years old at the time and knew more about cars than I did. By the time he got there the car had cooled off and it started right up. It was very slow going even for him for the 2 or 3 miles to the house. I think the clutch was bad. I don't remember explaining to my Mom how come I had a car parked outside in the lot next to our house. But I think it must have been OK for the moment as I remember going out to work on the engine and was soon joined by 3 or 4 of my friends. I remember one of them telling me the timing must be off so we loosened the distributor cap and advanced the spark. I don't know what we did but it now sounded like a V8 racing engine. VROOOM-VROOOM it roared and we all piled in to go for a spin, it sounded powerful but it didn't drive that way. We had 3 guys inside and one on each running board, we would drive for about 100 feet and it would quit, every body got in back and pushed until we got it started again and we would go another 100 feet, We kept this up all day and never did figure out what was wrong. Once while going the street I had to stop suddenly and the two guys who were on the running boards went flying across the pavement. Unfortunately one of them cut his arm very bad on the fender as he sailed over it, he had to get stitches. I supposed we fooled around with it for a week or two and by then I wasn't sure what to do. My mother did though. She got on the phone the next morning and talked to the guy who sold it to me. She informed him that I was a minor and could not sign a legal contract to purchase, not only that he would have to explain to the police how come he let a 17 year old unlicensed kid drive away from his lot? She threatened to sue the pants off him if he did not come and get the car right away. He came that afternoon with a wrecker, not only that I got a $25 refund, I think it was hush money. Well, that was the only car I ever owned until after I got out of the Navy. The Navy was where I really learned to drive, (Self Taught) that’s my next story.

The cold, cold Winter!

2006-05-28T10:49:00.000-04:00

The cold, cold Winter! I doubt kids today could imagine what it was like in the wintertime in the mid to late 1930’s. The flat we lived in on the 2nd. Floor had no electricity; we used what we called coal oil lamps, now called kerosene lamps for light. There was no furnace, we had a wood burning/coal stove in the kitchen which we used for heat as well as cooking. There was a small potbelly stove in the combination living room/bedroom. When we could afford it we had a ton of coal delivered and they dumped it on the sidewalk in front of the house, it then had to be shoveled through a low window which led into the basement. Every time we needed coal for the stove which was often, we had to carry it from the basement to the second floor. The windows in our flat were single pane which offered almost no insulation from the cold, frigid air blew in from around the edges and ice crystals completely covered the glass. My mom used to hang an old blanket over the window to help keep out the cold. Many a time we all sat in the kitchen in a circle around the oven door which was left open to provide more heat. This is where we did our homework, by the light of the coal oil lamp with a blanket over our backs as we felt the warmth from the coal stoves but our backs were cold. Sometimes when we were low on coal we used to walk the railroad tracks that passed right by our house with a bucket picking up small pieces of coal that dropped from the coal cars as they passed. We also did not have a bathroom or toilet in the flat. In the hall was a community toilet which was not much better than an outhouse, as a matter of fact it was an outhouse since it was in a hall that was open to the outside, I’m not sure if it flushed or not but I suppose it did. The alternative to using this toilet was is what every family used in the winter, A Slop Jar, or a Thunder Mug were several names for this Pot that usually resided under the bed; I think it was also a commode. When you had to use it you just slid it out and did your business and then return it. I remember that sometimes the odor was very strong. I think this is where the term “going to the potty” came from. Since we did not have a refrigerator, what we used to keep or food from spoiling was a window box. This was a galvanized metal box about 3 ft wide 2ft. high and 2ft. deep. This sat on a window ledge just outside a window. The side that faced the window was on hinges and when you raised the window you could lower this side for access to put in or take out food. This worked fine most days in the winter unless it dipped to below zero. The food of course would then freeze, One odd thing was if you put a bottle (They were glass in those days) of milk in it and it froze, the cream in the milk which always rose to the top of the bottle would ooze out of the top about 2 or 3 inches with the paper bottle cap still attached to it, This frozen cream tasted just like ice cream. In those days when you went to pour a glass of milk you would have to shake it before you poured it to mix the cream with the milk. I remember one summer we got an icebox somewhere; this was an insulated wooden affair that resembled a refrigerator but had a compartment which held a 25 to 50 lb. block of ice. This kept food cold in the other compartments and when you wanted ice for a drink you could chisel a piece from the block of ice. We had a sign that we could hang in the front window that had 4 weights on it 25lbs on the top and the other 3 sides were 50-75-100 lbs. When the ice man came down the street in his horse drawn wagon he would look for these signs, which ever number was at the top of the sign you hung in your window was what he would bring to your flat, I remember these guys always had a burlap bag over one shoulder and they would dig the ice tongs into a block of ice and heft it up to his shoulder and carry it into the house. In the wagon were huge blocks of ice covered with burlap and covered with straw. They were probably about 200 lbs but had serrated lines in the ice that indicated the size of a 25lb. block, all he had to do was chip along these lines with an ice pick to separate a 25lb. block, if he wanted 50lbs he chipped on the 2nd line. We kids would always run to the cart because there were always chips of ice in the bed of the cart where he had chipped off a block. Next….Our furniture and clothing.

Collecting Scrap Metal

2006-05-27T11:47:00.000-04:00

Collecting Scrap Metal

I was probably about 8 or 9 years old if I remember correctly, I did not go with Dad all the time just a few times I think. It was around 1938-39 or so and we lived on 2nd st. about 100 yds from the river. This site is now occupied by the Riverfront Coliseum. His pushcart as they called it, "but he actually pulled it" was made of wood slats similar to a flat that they stack cases on in a warehouse. It was about 4' wide by 8' long and 5' high. It had large iron wheels with iron spokes about 3' high. And protruding from the cart on each side were 2x4's lumbar about 4' long and another 2x4 streched across them which served as a handle. He would get behind this handle and pull the cart. I remember in order to stop the cart as he was going down a hill he would raise the handle so that the rear end of the cart would drag on the ground where he had attached pieces of an old rubber tire at each corner which then made contact with the ground. I think he had sort of a regular route that he went on where he knew he could find 'Treasures" I know he went to several buildings on 4th. street next to Lytle park and Guilford school, both of which are still there. One of them was a women’s hotel for young women called Anna something or other, I forget the name but it is still there, I heard a piece on the news a few months ago about how run down it was now. Anyway they had a trash room which he would go to while I waited with the cart. People who lived there would throw away all sorts of things including a "Derby" hat; some people call them English Bowlers, which gave to me. I remember I would strut around the neighborhood wearing that hat, I thought I was really a big shot. He collected every thing that a local junkyard would buy from him. Papers (any kind including magazines), clothing (Rags) Metal, Iron Brass, Copper, aluminum, I remember we would sit on the sidewalk in front of our house and sort the metals, he had an old magnet and it of course would only stick to iron or steel. Copper and brass could be identified by its color and aluminum by its weight. Copper and brass brought the most money from the junk dealer. I remember one time he brought home an “Irish Mail” It was a 4 wheel go cart affair that you propelled it forward by pumping the handle back and forth and you steered it with your feet. I remember one time he brought home a small church organ that you pumped with your feet for the air to make a sound, and that’s about all I got out of it was sound, no music. We also used to salvage wood and nails from fruit crates we got from the Fruit & Vegetable market on 3rd. St. We would carefully pry off the wood slats and remover the nails, It was my job to lay the nails on the sidewalk and by gently tapping them with a hammer I could straighten the bent ones. I them put them in a glass pickle jar. Plastic hadn't been invented yet so we used jars for all sorts of things. Speaking about the Fruit and Vegetable market market, I think they only operated on Friday and Saturday. and on Saturday night. (Note: Almost all busineses were closed on Sunday, There was a law called "The Blue Law" for which you could be arrested and jailed if you opened a business on Sunday, There were exceptions such as Pharmacys and food stores etc. ) My whole family would go to the market in the evening when the people would take thier stalls down and put thier leftovers in the trash as well as some fresh things they did not want to cart back home to the farm. We would rummage through it and gather usable food, even an orange with a bad spot in it could be eaten after the bad spot was cut off. These were really tough times and I will tell you more about heating the flat in the winter next time......