Jeff Daum

First, kudos to Philip for perservering and getting our participation going again!  As to favorite places, most have already been listed, though there are a couple I can add:  the Ice Arena, any high location where you got a vista of  the original 'city of 7 hills,' Lunkin Airport and White House Tavern over in Kentucky (it has burned down, but was where we would go for family special occasions).

David Buchholz

Not all the good places have been taken...the Kenwood Lanes (three games and shoes for $1.00), any Frisch's anywhere, the Rollerama on Reading Road with Tom Smith, the Cincinnati Gardens (where my Uncle was the timekeeper for both the Cincinnati Royals and the hockey team, the Cincinnati Mohawks), and one of my favorite places, again on Readiing Road, the three eighteen hole courses for Putt-Putt golf, where for a short time a Putt-Putt tour was televised.

Henry Cohen

Just went to Frisch's tonight, they are no longer owned by the Maier family you and while the food is still decent, the service is at best spotty. Just witnessed a very upset customer who waited 25 minutes in line for what was really no good reason at all. He became beligerent and profane ( a sign of our times?). I have had a number of restaurant clients ranging from Frisch's ( in the past) to Maisonnette ( also in the past) and it has always amazed me the lack of store awareness on the part of multiple staff members. Normally all it would take is a "I'll be with you in a minute comment " to satisfy restless folks, but that frequently is not a practiced tactic. I always remind myself if management was that easy, I would not have a profession. 

Jeff Daum

Thanks Henry- how could I have forgotten Frisch's BigBoy!

Chuck Cole

I'll take a brawny lad and a piece of strawberry pie, please.   And while we're at it, how about Sugar 'N Spice? And movie theaters with huge (or maybe just very large) screens--The RKO Palace, RKO Paramount, and Keith's.  I think there was a 3rd RKO theater, and on Saturday's, probably when we were effies and e-flats, you could see a triple feature for 60 cents.  I have trouble sitting through much more than a single movie today.  I think there were two "art" theaters--one in Clifton and one in or near Wyoming.

But favorite places--Eden Park for sure, and the Playhouse in the Park, where I used to usher regularly in order to see the play for free, and probably saw the Fantastiks a dozen times.  Cincinnati Music Hall in what was then a rather dangerous part of town, now the trendy place to be with a revitalized Findlay Market.  

Steve Sanger

Crosley Field!  The smell of real grass...and cigar smoke.  The terraces by the outfield walls.  The Sun Deck which became the Moon Deck for night games.  And every seat close to the action.  

Also,  the City View Tavern in Mt. Adams, the Blue Dell and Walt's Hobby Shop, both in. Mt. Lookout Square and the Song Shop on Fountain Square where I would rush to buy the latest new 45 I had heard on WSAI.

Richard Murdock

Steve - sorry to report that Walt's Hobby Shop is no more.  I came out a couple days early for the reunion last year and among other places  I visited Mt. Lookout.   I remember making many trips to Walt's to buy stuff like model trains and kits for either a Navy ship or some jet.  It is still a hobby store, but no long Walt's.

As for memorable places - when I was a kid, a trip  to Coney Island was  "Over the Moon" for me.  I clearly remember the huge pool area which always felt great especially in Cincinnati's hot humid summers and in sharp contrast to my home where we did not have air conditioning until my senior year - as I recall.

Frisch's Big Boy was another big treat.  As was the soda fountain located in the pharmacy that was located in Mt. Lookout.   I also clearly remember Ault Park since it was a relatively short walk from my home.  The view from the top of the Pavilion there was great and I remember the summer dances too.   Happy memories of my old hometown.

David Buchholz

Chuck Cole, you mentioned "Sugar and Spice."  Growing up in Pleasant Ridge my family hardly ever went out to dinner.  The lone exception was the Sugar and Spice in Kennedy Heights.  I always ordered the same dish, chopped beef steak, but it appeared on the menu as "Our Ever Popular Chopped Beef Steak", so I ordered it as such.  I thought I was so funny.

Nancy Messer

I remember going to the Mt. Vernon Frisch's alone many times at an early age and getting a fish sandwich, fries and a coke for $1.15.  I didn't know I could ask for less ice in the coke - it always bothered me that ice was what I was mostly getting.  I also didn't know anything about tips.  I don't remember how I got there and back home.  Maybe I took the bus - the 32??

Chuck Cole

Ah, Crosley Field-what a wonderful baseball palace!  We moved to Cincinnati when I was starting 4th grade. My mom had grown up in Cincinnati and was a diehard Reds fan.  We often went to games on Saturday afternoon because there were several advantages to doing so.  It was ladies' day, so my Mom got in for $5.  Many people with season tickets didn't come to the Sat afternoon games, some because they were playing golf and others because the games were being televised in color, a pretty new thing at the time.  So we would usually sit right behind the Reds' dugout, putting our drinks and food on the roof of the dugout.  If we could, we'd take seats at the left edge of the dugout since you could catch the attention of some of the players and get an autograph.  This was also the era where fans chose the all-star starters and Cincinnati was way over-represented for its size--I remember getting together with folks to send in as many ballots as possible and I think one year, most of the 8 non-pitcher starters were Reds.  And they had a great team then--Big Klu, Johnny Temple, Roy McMillan, Frank Robinson, Joe Nuxhall, Brooks Lawrence, etc.

Henry Cohen

In the mid 50's my dad teamed up with an eye doctor and they put on a skills development program for the Reds where they were trying to improve team members' visual reaction times. They used a tachistoscope to flash images at increasingly fast intervals. I got to watch one of the sessions and it was interesting to see how it worked. By the way, that season the Reds hit the most home runs in their history--not sure the record still stands, but it might. Also Nuxhall was a clubhouse cut up and rather profane! For a ten year old that was a neat experience.

Susan Patterson (Schramm)

Although I don't post often, I'd like to pass this on.  Anyone with children or grandchildren with ADHA will want to check out a new app called " IGotThis.com"  It was developed by my  son, the father of 3 ADHD kids himself.  I think it will make a wonderful difference in a lot of lives.  Those of you who are educators, we'd love your input.  

Bruce Fette

With all the remembrance of Coney Island, I am surprised that no one has mentioned Moonlight Gardens. I spent a particularly heavenly evening there one summer night with a special date.

Anyone else remember dancing the night away?

Philip Spiess

Okay, friends, I've apparently started something big here for all of us, but that's what this site is all about, right?  (And thank you, Dick Winter and Gail Stern, for reminding us.)  Or maybe I've even started this thread for myself (memory-sparking -- I've mentioned before that I was really writing paragraphs of my autobiography here).  Anyway, as Dave Buchholz said (probably two years ago now), I'm a responder on this site, and I'm about to respond now to others' memories:

Coney Island:  One of the great amusement parks of the U. S., as it then was (it slowly declined after Hanna-Barberra Cartoonists bought it to compete with Disneyland, though I never remember it "seedy," as Jon Marks says; later Paramount got ahold of its franchise under a WHHS graduate).  The all-wooden roller coasters were impressive for its day; the biggest and fastest was the "Shooting Star," which ran along the river, had an enclosed "tunnel" near its end, and at the top of the first terrifying drop had a sign, "Hold Onto Your Hats."  (My most memorable ride was in college with out-of-town friends; we attempted to get into the first car, but were shoved aside and into the second car by two muscular young ladies, food workers on break from one of the concession stands, who, in time-honored fashion, raised their arms to cheer and show their bravado as we went down the first big drop.  The air whizzing past their exposed armpits was breath-taking, or rather, took our breath away -- we almost climbed out and walked back!)  The second biggest roller coaster, at the east end of the Mall, was "The Wildcat," pleasantly scary (the first big coaster my grandfather took me on), but tamer than the "Shooting Star."  Then, as Steve mentioned, was the "Lost River," far tamer still -- until that last drop, which always scared the hell out of me -- and then you got wet!  (I think it was that pause at the top of the drop, as the boat slowly tipped, and then suddenly dropped, as you literally flew up out of your seat!)  Later, there was the "Wild Mouse," always delightful, with one or two unnerving drops.  And, in the kiddies' "Land of Oz," there was always the mild "Teddy Bear" coaster, which I rode well through my WHHS years; it actually had a poem that went with it:  "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, turn around; Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, touch the ground; Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, show your 'shoe'; Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, now skidoo!"  My favorites, too, were the Fun Houses of many years:  the Mirror Maze, with its "Laughing Lady" and "Laughing Man" on the upper facade (which scared me as a kid), as well as the air vents on the upper walkway, which was "outside" and which blew ladies' skirts and dresses up for public amusement (at night, they'd drop a lit scrim, so you'd just see the silhouettes of passing people), and its inside tilted room, moving staircases you'd try to climb, rolling drums to try to walk through, curved "distortion" mirrors, and, of course, the mirror maze itself; the other fun house, next door, was the "Laugh in the Dark," with a giant ballooon head on its facade that would inflate and then collapse, and inside, of course, some rather mediocre scary-things that would light up as your car came at them.  (The scariest time was when Dale Gieringer and Dennis Montgomery got out of their car and ran through the interior, scaring the shit out of real riders.)  The fun house, "Noah's Ark," was twice at Cincinnati:  once in my mother's childhood, and once in mine; it was later moved to Cedar Point Amusement Park on Lake Erie at Sandusky (but it's no longer there, either).  I see I could go on and on about my memories of Coney, but I'll save more for another time, just reminding all our WHHS readers that, as was discussed a year or more ago on this site, for most of Coney's years of operation, African-Americans were not permitted in the park.  Other parks were LeSourdsville Amusement Park near Lebanon, Ohio, and Chester Park in Winton Place, of which only the swimming pool remained in our time (which was too deep for my liking); the Lagoon Park, west of Covington, at Ludlow, Kentucky, had disappeared by our time (in a cyclone, I believe).

Philip Spiess

Response [continued -- I hope you don't mind]:

Food:  We've all discussed Skyline Chili, Graeter's Ice Cream, and White Castle hamburgers before, as well as German food at Mecklenberg's, Grammer's, Lenhardt's, and elsewhere, so now I'll add on to reminiscences of Frisch's.  Every Friday night (I think it was Fridays), when those of us on WHHS Stage Crew and Scenery Painters were working for shows, along about 8:00 p.m. or so we'd take orders and send out to Frisch's for food; Don Dahmann and I would usually sort out the money, and somebody with a car would do pick-up.  (I myself usually ordered a Big Boy, onion rings, and a large root beer.)  But aside from Frisch's, for me, my family, and occasionally Don Dahmann (he and I would haunt Acres of Books and the Ohio Book Store, or Ralph Hoffmann's Philatelic and Coin Store downtown on Saturdays), the B/G restaurants, particularly the one on Fountain Square, offered sandwiches (the "B/G" and "the Wiz") with the best mayonnaise I've ever tasted! (and the "Bottomless Cup" of coffee).  Or we'd go to the Temple Delicatessen, across the street from the side of Shillito's (I think Jeff Rosen introduced me to it), for Pastrami sandwiches and Kreplatz soup.  Also, there was a sandwich shop in the Carew Tower Arcade (Mary Lee's originally, I believe; later the name changed) that served great egg salad sandwiches and (maybe) Welsh Rarebit.  As a child, with my family, my favorite restaurant was "The Colony" downtown, just below Fountain Square, I think, on Walnut [?].

Sports:  Miniature Golf:  Yes, David, the three-course Putt-Putt on Reading Road was the best I've ever played;  I used to take dates and friends from college there.  Why the Putt-Putt franchise disappeared, I've never understood.  (If you want challenging miniature golf today, go to Amish country east of Lancaster, Pennsylvania; their steep uphill courses are incredible.)  Ice Hockey:  I, who was never interested in watching sports as a boy, suddenly found ice hockey exciting when I watched a number of the Mohawks' games at Cincinnati Gardens (not knowing at the time that they were in a second-string league).  Little did I know that my son, who had hardly skated in his life, would, in his Freshman year, become the goalie for his high school's ice hockey team (yes, his mother's from New England, and so encouraged the lad in the sport).  He also now drives the Zaboni at various rinks for side-money.  And Chuck:  did you know that much of old Crosley Field is now re-set-up and restored in northern Kentucky?  (And thanks for reminding us of those great Reds stars of the 1950s.)

Movie Theatres:  Chuck:  There were even more RKO theatres than you mention.  In addition to the RKO Paramount, Palace, and Keith's, there was the RKO Capitol (which became the Cincinnati venue for the first Cinerama movies), and the RKO Albee on Fountain Square (which I've mentioned in the past on this site as where the great Hollywood theatre organist Gaylord "Flicker-Fingers" Carter arose with the organ console on the moving orchestra pit, surrounded by potted palms, to accompany silent movies with their original scores -- this was in the late 1960s and early 1970s -- thanks to the munificence of Jack Strader, heir to one of Cincinnati's steamboat / railroad tycoons, who added a room on his house on Clifton Avenue in Clifton to accommodate the RKO Paramount theatre organ when the theatre itself was demolished.)  (The history of RKO is, itself, quite interesting; ask, and I'll tell it.)  There was also, in our early days, the Lyric, but I'm not sure whether it was an RKO theatre or not.

Other Items:  Dale and Mr. Catterall:  Apparently drafting for him meant drafting "forged checks" (and does anybody realize that George Washington was never under suspicion for his Valley forge?  And he also "falsified" his teeth!).  Steve Dixon:  The "Great Migration" was beautifully interpreted a number of years ago (1980s?) at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in an exhibit entitled "From Field to Factory," curated by Dr. Spencer Crew (first director of Cincinnati's Underground Railroad Museum).  The most dramatic part of the exhibit was the actual wall of a former southern railroad station, where there were separate entrances for "White" and "Colored"; as a visitor to the exhibit, you had to make a decision which doorway you went through to view the rest of the exhibit.

Okay; enough for now.  Doubtless, more later.  Onward!

Linda Karpen (Nachman)

Fond memories: Valerio's, the Italian restaurant with the best hot, red raspberry pie with melted cheddar. Walking on the cobblestones in Mt. Adams. The summer outdoor Zoo Opera when the sea lions always managed to bark during the most tragic scenes (Butterfly, Mimi). Ushering at the Schubert Theater Saturday matinees with Sally Fox - we saw every performance, for free! ! Kiddieland, just north of some rr tracks on Reading Road well before I-75 was constructed...is that the same as Pee Wee Valley? Ice skating at Cincinnati Gardens in our poodle skirts. Bowling was big in 6th grade! WSAI "School bus riders' special". Fun to reminisce!

Henry Cohen

Yes that is the same Pee Wee Valley. How about Mr Softee and the Popsicle Man who had to be 85 and the prototype for the dirty old man casting.

Laura Reid (Pease)

What was the name of the public swimming pool near the corner of Victory Parkway and Wm. Howard Taft?  I think it was part of the Alms Hotel....I spent many summer afternoons there with  Sandy Steele and Dougie and Judy Bosken, Churchill, Barb Bertsch, Sandy Elbert, Sharon McAllister....great memories!

Larry Klein

WOW!  Did I really grow up in the same town with all you guys?  I led a really sheltered youth.  While I did get a few trips to Coney (we lived a bike's ride away in the East End), and I sat through three straight showings of "Solomon and Sheba" at the RKO Palace one Saturday afternoon, most of these other places you all enjoyed escaped me.  Most of my teen years were spent on golf courses (playing or caddying), on the knothole lots at Turkey Ridge off Kellogg Ave and Lunken Playfields, selling dime newspapers on the island at the east end of Mt Lookout.  In grade school at Kilgour, I "commuted" to and from Mom's beauty salon in Mt. Lookout Square, getting to see a few Saturday matinees at Mt. Lookout Theater ("The Blob' and "Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" come to mind.)  I also frequented Walt's Hobby Shop with wishful window shopping, and had many a burger at The Blue Dell and Million's Cafe. I rode my red and black Schwinn all over town - the aforementioned ball fields and Hyde Park Country Club, Ault and Alms Park, Losantiville CC where I "bussed" the dining room and ran the poolside "Shack" in summer.

So - where was I when Laura and all those other gorgeous ladies were swimming at the pool, or Phil and the guys were hobnobbing downtown at Shillitos and the deli, or Hank was putt-putting in Roselawn?  It was a great time to be a kid in Cincy, but I guess we all missed out on lots of activities enjoyed by others.  We were (and still are) a truly diverse group.  I raise my putter in tribute to Walnut Hills HS!!

Mary Benjamin

Club sandwiches at Loretta's in North Avondale, the perfume inside Gidding Jenny's and the way they sent the bills downstairs through a tube, ice skating outdoors in Eden Park, horseback riding at Winton Woods (fell off my horse and it stepped on my ankle, most memorably!), what was the name of that very first pizza place - the one at that shopping center (also one of the first) out Reading Road? Pasquale's? I can still taste it! Driving around Xavier with Julie W, one would whistle at the boys and duck, the other of us was stuck exposed and driving. Miss Shramm at North Avondale, used to take us to Frisch's in her convertible during lunch.Glueck's in North Avondale. Pecan pie at Frisch's. The drive-in movies! Memory lane is very fun!

Philip Spiess

I know you'll all thank me for confining my responses to Larry and Mary -- for the moment.

Larry:  I know we're all glad, on behalf of WHHS, that you spent your youth playing golf.  But what, exactly (and here is where I guess I missed out in my youth), is the "island" at the east end of Mount Lookout?

Mary:  Thank you for reminding me of the perfume "inside" Gidding Jenny's (I don't think I was ever inside) -- but what I do remember of their store (on the north side, I believe, of the western sector of Fourth Street, somewhat across from McAlpin's) is the outside central store window, which was bowed, both up and down, from the middle, in order (it was said) to avoid glare; it was there, from a bronze basin that stretched across the foot of the window, that perfume did indeed emanate -- for years!  And, yes, though I mostly ice-skated at Burnet Woods (being from Clifton), I did periodically skate at Eden Park as well.  (The twin lakes were near the bronze copy of the Capitoline Wolf statue of Romulus and Remus being suckled by "La Lupa," a gift to "our sister 'City on Seven Hills'" from Benito Mussolini.)  Oh, and I think you're right on Pasquale's Pizza; it was the first in Clifton, too (on Ludlow Avenue, circa 1955).

Laura Reid (Pease)

Mary, wasn't the perfume at Gidding Jenny called Odalisque?  I DO remember that!!  Larry, I spent a lot of time on Mt. Loukout Square also walking up and down those steps next to Brackes Market, going to the movies and just hanging out!!  Where on the square was your Mom's beauty shop?  AND, I spent many hours at Turkey Foot down on Eastern Ave. watching my brother play knothole.....I lived on Royal Place and my neighborhood friends were Claudia Eby and Mary Ruth Davis (Withrow) and Elizabeth Pearson who went to WHHS and lived on Herschel; also Tom Derringer and John and Jeff Keller.  We rode our bikes everywhere, back in the days when it was safe to do so.....I had a lot of freedom during those late grade school and junior high years on the weekends AFTER my chores.....

Richard Montague

I will bet Laura remembers Marty McGowen from Kilgour, his dad owned ABC Popcorn Co and Marty was always invited to every party. Can't remember what high school he attended. The Keller twins split up and went to different schools. Those two had the best study habits because their parents wouldn't let them play until their homework was completed. I used them as an example for my step boys.

I don't think any one mentioned the Conseratory. Great gardens and a fun place to visit.

How about John White working at Mahogany Hall in Mt Adams or the great deli up there where some of us went for lunch

Chuck Cole

Mary's mention of North Avondale locales brings back some wonderful memories.  In particular, I fondly remember sled riding at Avon Fields golf course on snow days and then going to Loretta's for hot chocolate and cinnamon toast.   Gleuck's drugstore---it was next door to a sandwich shop called, I think, Mike's, and they had what seemed to be the world's best french fries.  In elementary school, when lunch was 26 cents, some of us would go the back way to Gleuck's and Mikes and get french fries, 20 cents, a candy bar, 5 cents, and a piece of bubble gum for 1 cent.  Those fries in the brown paper bag, which turned greasy, still rank high in my gustatory memory.   Among long-gone Cincinnati locales, how about the Wheel Restaurant, I think it was on Walnut, where my stepfather talked about going with his grandfather long ago.  We moved to Roselawn when I was in 11th grade, and shopping at Bilker's became a regular thing, kindling my deep love of smoked salmon.  

Sharon Baum (Covitz)

Laura, it was Odalisque and that was my mom's perfume. When I married I used it too and then my daughters.  Unfortunately no one makes it anymore.  I did buy it on Ebay, but it's now called "vintage."  That could be said about us too.