Philip Spiess

Okay!  Voila!  So, my full report on the "forks in the ceiling" episode (as I recall it) is at Post #1730 (page 70; 07/01/15).  You can all read it there, because I'm disinclined (just like the city's "Seven Hills" -- dis-Inclined -- get it?) to tell the story all over again.

Also, Paul, I don't know about the "sandwich" part, but we all know why the word "ham" turns up "Phil Spiess," don't we?

Paul Simons

Phil I heard about the illegal hog pen that you had in one of the more out-of-the-way areas of Spring Grove Cemetery. Pretty convenient, just a little way from the foot of Clifton Ave. I have no wish to get you in trouble now, and anyway the fresh bacon at the Toddle House was excellent. ‘Nuff said. And please, people, sometimes an illegal hog pen is just an illegal hog pen, ok?

Philip Spiess

Paul:  Illegal hog pens are what put the pork in "Porkopolis."  [But it was a stock yard, much like stock footage in documentary films.  Oh, do you know why hogs have been considered good writers over history?  Because they deal in pen and oink.  Have I boared you yet?]

And, yes, I did know the out-of-the-way parts of Spring Grove Cemetery:  the Dexter Mausoleum (Gothic cathedral in miniature); where the valve was to turn on the waterfall; the grave of Adolph Strauch on Strauch Island in the middle of a lake (Strauch was the long-time landscape architect of Spring Grove; a German, he also designed Burnet Woods and Mount Storm Parks, among others); the "Unknown Tomb of the Soldier" (predates Arlington); the seated life-size statue of Charles West, founder of the Cincinnati Art Museum; General Hooker's grave (yes, that Hooker, the Civil War general whose camp followers -- hors de combat, if you know your French -- gave the everlasting nickname of "hookers" to, shall we say, "ladies of the evening"); the John Robinson circus family's mausoleum, with a trumpeter atop who looks like he's off a circus wagon; the Egyptian Revival Sphinx monument; the Johnny Appleseed statue; the international family of well-known gypsies, the Williamson clan's (also the Reids') burial ground, where they all meet once a year on Memorial Day to bury their dead of the previous year; the tainted spring which still has a tin cup for you to partake of its waters -- yes, I know them all; need I go on?

Chuck Cole

How about including a Philip Speiss led guided tour of Spring Grove Cemetery at our next reunion?  I had no idea of the treasures that are there.

David Buchholz

Chuck, I, too, have no idea about the treasures at Spring Grove, but...(1) both my mother's family and my father's family members are buried there, and in a bizarre coincidence and no pre-planning, the sites are adjacent. (2) I remember the Spongebob Squarepants episode of years back (you can look it up)

and (3) when my grandmother died in 1967 I was in the car following the hearse.  As we entered the cemetery grounds I saw classmate Tom Smith cutting the grass.  "Hey Smitty!" I yelled in an egregious breach of funereal decorum, and he looked with amazement at his childhood friend.  And that takes us to #4.  Tom Smith went from cutting the grass to the executive in charge of the cemetery (President?), and if anyone should know about a tour of Spring Grove it should be Tom Smith.  I last saw him at my mother's funeral eleven and a half years ago, and I haven't seen or heard from him since.

Larry Klein

Chuck - great idea, but before Phil can guide ANYTHING at one of our reunions, first we have to get him to attend one. I'm beginning to wonder if we aren't dealing with a ghost here. Phil?

And Dave B - I had lunch with Tom Smith about 5 years ago. He has since retired and prefers to remain incognito.

Stephen (Steve) Dixon

Just sayin'...

Jerry Ochs

Nostalgia, anybody?

Philip Spiess

David:  Funny you should mention the name "Smitty."  Before our Tom Smith at Spring Grove, there were the several generations of German band leaders known fondly in the city as "Smitty."  During our years at Walnut Hills, the band director at Withrow High School was George Smith, better known as "Smitty," as had his father and grandfather before him.  He was also the leader of "Smitty's Band," which played concerts in the summer in the city parks (under the endowed Schmidlapp fund), Thursday nights in Burnet Woods, Sunday afternoons in Eden Park, etc.  He was a very charismatic director, and his family of band leaders (and, I assume, him by now) are buried in a family plot in Spring Grove, their monument being a large granite musical lyre, with the name (if memory serves), "Smith" on one side and "Smittie" on the other.

Larry:  A ghost?  Well, you know how fond I am of spirits!  If I'm a ghost, you may call me "Hans" in future (yes, I did spend many a sleepover during my WHHS years with my best friend, Donald Dahmann, at his home in Vine Street Hill Cemetery -- his father was superintendent -- and we did spend one night sleeping in the Victorian morgue).  I had planned to attend our 50th Reunion, but you know how Fate sticks in its lurid hand -- that year my mother-in-law, as well as her two sisters (my wife's beloved aunts) died (speaking of ghosts), I had a mini-stroke and retired for a week to Tilghman Island on Chesapeake Bay to recoup, and my son entered firefighter training, a rigorous schedule which required us to cook for him and do his daily laundry for three months (I remember discussing this at length by phone with Rick Steiner).  In short, events conspired to keep me from that reunion.  Since you're a card player, I will tell you that it is in my cards (whether in Fate's or not, we don't know -- see Act III of the opera Carmen) to attend our next reunion in 2021.  No matter what Fate may plot -- oh, wait, that word plot brings us back to Spring Grove Cemetery again. . . .

Jerry Ochs

Do not watch until Sunday.

Philip Spiess

And now for something not at all completely different:

What are your favorite movies (of yore)?

Mine, for example, in the category of Comedy:

Shoulder Arms (Charlie Chaplin, 1918); The Gold Rush (Charlie Chaplin, 1924); The General (Buster Keaton, 1926); Fra Diavolo (Laurel & Hardy, 1933); Babes in Toyland (a.k.a. The March of the Wooden Soldiers, Laurel & Hardy, 1934); Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin, 1936); Way Out West (Laurel & Hardy, 1936); The Great Dictator (Charlie Chaplin. 1940); The Court Jester (Danny Kaye, 1956); The Mouse That Roared (Peter Sellers, 1959); Revenge of the Pink Panther (Peter Sellers, 1978); The Prisoner of Zenda (Peter Sellers, 1979); Without a Clue (Michael Caine, 1988).

Mine in the category of Historical Epic:

The Birth of a Nation (D. W. Griffith, 1915); Intolerance (D. W. Griffith, 1916); The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. De Mille, 1923); King of Kings (Cecil B. De Mille, 1927); Unconquered (Cecil B. De Mille, Gary Cooper, 1947); Quo Vadis? (Peter Ustinov, 1951); Julius Caesar (Marlon Brando, 1953); The Robe (Richard Burton, 1953); Demetrius and the Gladiators (Victure Mature, 1954); The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. De Mille, Charlton Heston, 1956); The Vikings (Kirk Douglas, 1958); Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston, 1959); Spartacus (Kirk Douglas, 1960).

These are just two categories of notable films.  We can include others later (Horror, Adventure, Mystery/Suspense, Science Fiction, Drama, Animation, Westerns, Documentaries, Nature, etc.).  But for now I'd like to leave it open for your thoughts.  

Paul Simons

Thanks for an interesting topic Phil. I’m glad you mentioned “Birth Of A Nation” - that allows the discussion to not be limited to happy vanilla movies. So I’d say those that have and still do resonate with me are the Clint Eastwood crime movies including the Dirty Harry series and others like “Absolute Power”, I guess the category would be drama. “The Abyss” in SciFi - it is also a love story and a reflection on the difference between humanism and militarism. Also in SciFi the recent movie “Interstellar” is what they call edge-of-the-seat, a nail-biter. In the area of history “Schindler’s List” and “Twelve Years A Slave” are necessary experiences and in my opinion should be part of the high school curriculum, and some means should be implemented to make sure that high school dropouts see them as well. That’s it for me, a very Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Blanket Joyful Kwanza And Other Celebrations, and Thoroughly Enjoyable Atheism to all, and many thanks Jerry for the holiday video!

Richard Winter

Jerry,

Thanks for your posting of the song (and tap dance) "Last Christmas" in #4431.   The recreation of the Andrews Sisters style was really nice, as was the tap dance and the intrumental accompaniment, especially the clarinet.

Richard

Jerry Ochs

Although I am not fishing for birthday wishes, I would like to know if I am the oldest surviving member of the class of '64.  Because I was born on December 28, 1945, my Japanese pension is augmented to make up for the fact that we war babies are expected to lose at least five years from our lives due to the hardships and deprivation suffered by the civilian population.  I tried to explain to the government official that I suffered very little hardship in Ohio, but his reply was, "Rules are rules."

Paul Simons

Happy Birthday Jerry. You've got me beat - mine is in '46. I think it would be worth searching on items used by hackers - I have a suspicion that birthdays are what's called PII - Personally Identifiable Information - items that can be used by the nefarious to hack into credit cards, bank accounts etc.Less of a concern here because one has to be logged onto this website to view birthdays. We all have the option though to allow birthdays to be displayed, or not.

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Jerry, if I'm not mistaken, Larry Klein has you beat. His birthday is December 4, 1945. Laura Pease is our youngest with a birthday July 3, 1947. 
 

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Jerry, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Larry Klein

Mr Ochs - not even close Jerry.  You are in fact the 9th oldest member of the class, based on only the 203 members who have posted their birthdate on the website (136 classmates have left their birthdate blank or incomplete).  Here are the 1945 babies of the class, eldest first:

Gordon Fankhauser 1/21 (not a typo)

Robert Altbaier 2/8

Kevan Langner 9/25

Erik Nord 11/17 dec'd

Larry Klein 12/4

Becky Payne 12/4

James Johnson 12/8

Paul Youngs 12/23

Jerry Ochs 12/28

Ann is correct that Laura Reid Pease is the baby of the class at 7/3/47, six days after Mary Vore Iwamoto. Nine others were born in '47.

And to Steve's question - we have 29 sets of b'day twins and 8 sets of b'day triplets, though two of these were different years.

MERRY CHRISTMAS and a very HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!

Gene Stern

I thought I recalled that Gary Beck's birthdate is November 45

Steven Levinson

Holy moly, Larry, 37 sets of twins and triplets is a lot!  I remember the old saw that, out of a class of 30 kids, the probabliity of two sharing the same birthday was very great.  But we're talking about one eighth of the class here!

Philip Spiess

I'm sure that Gordon Fankhauser's date is not a typo, because he started out, 'way down in the grades, in my sister Barbara's class (she is a year older than me, WHHS Class of '63).

Jerry Ochs

When Phil asked "What are your favorite movies (of yore)?", I assumed "yore" was before WWII, which then caused me to make a mental leap to the post-war baby boom, which sparked my question. 

New question: are those of us born in 1945 Boomers or just plain Old Folks?

Philip Spiess

My sister, born in 1945, insists that she is not a "Baby Boomer," even though she was born as a result of our father returning from overseas (the South Pacific) near the end of World War II.  Most of us "Class of '64ers" are certainly in the very first ranks of the so-called "Baby Boomers," a group which ended -- when?

As to you, Ochs, "yore" just old!

Becky Payne (Shockley)

Hi, Everyone. I was surprised to learn that Larry Klein was born on Dec. 4, 1945, which is also MY birthday! I thought I was the oldest - but maybe not...?  FYI, my mom said I was born early that day - before breakfast. Larry: What time was your birth? (Maybe I am still the oldest!)  Becky

Gail Weintraub (Stern)

Phil, Baby Boomer years are 1946-1964.

As we approach a new decade, I wish you all a Happy and Healthy New Year. And, I hope to see you at our 75th Birthday Reunion June 11-12, 2021.