Steven Levinson

Mary, I think the shopping center you're recalling was Swifton.  My mother took me there for my periodic $1.00 burr haircut.  It was near Cincinnati Gardens, where I had my abortive Ice Skating Experience.

Mary Benjamin

Laura and Shari, can't believe you remember the name of the perfume at Gidding's, that's great, and Philip, that they poured it out onto the street! I just remember it being an overwhelming scent/smell when I walked into that store. Also the deep purple glossy boxes and also have a memory of just a lot of purple around that store generally. Have to say i didn't go there that often or buy things there often but it was a truly memorable place, and often kind of intimidating to me. I'm so I glad I finally remembered the name of Pasquale's - it was when pizza was a brand new thing, and yes, Steve, it was Swifton shopping center, one of the original malls. How's that for a claim to fame! There was that other drug store a few doors down from Loretta's that was a haunt as well as Glueck's. Memory lane...

Mary Benjamin

PS Yes we also rode our bikes all over Rose Hill, Beechwood and the neighboring streets - without helmets! And how about the roller skates with the keys? I got a lot of scabby knees from those...

Henry Cohen

Stanleys was another Deli in the Roselawn/Golf Manor area, and conscripting the hill in front of Gibson greeting cards to sled when we had occasional snow was another fun time. Does anyone remember Hirschmans?

Larry Klein

Phil - "island" - isolated body of land surrounded by non-land. Not Webster's, but close. In Mt. Lookout Square in the '50s, where Linwood Ave approached from the east, there were three lanes of traffic. Inbound, outbound, and a center lane for turning left onto Delta Ave. Between the lanes were concrete "islands" dividing the street. That's where I was positioned in the afternoons to throw the Post thru car windows and catch the dimes thrown back at me.

Sorry to have "stumped" the historian.

Laura - Mom's "salon" was above the deli next door to Walt's Hobbys. I think it was 1004 Delta. She was there for about 10 years and claimed Mrs Paul Dixon, Uncle Al's wife, and Jerry Blake's Mom as clients, among many others. While I was at Kilgour, I had many run-ins with that 'other' Ann Sheperd (not the one in our WH class).

Laura Reid (Pease)

Richard, of course I remember Marty McGowan, tall and blond; I drive by his old house almost every day on the corner of Observatory.....yes, every party...I think, as seniors, a lot of us were at his house after senior prom...so right about the Kellers and I had forgotten that they split and went to different schools.  Does anyone know what  Marty is doing now or where he is?

Right Shari, Odalisque....sad that it's no longer around and vintage!!

Stephanie Riger

Pee Wee Valley, Frisch's strawberry pie (a red gelatinous mass), ice skating at Cincinnati Gardens, the perfume wafting out of Giddings, Swifton Shopping Center,,,  What about those blue outfits we had to wear for gym class? Slam books? The picture in the main hall at WHHS in which a woman's eyes seemed to follow you down the hall? Trying (and failing miserably) to sew an apron or make maccaroni and cheese in home ec (I still can't cook)?  Smoking cigarettes in the circle outside the school entrance? Thanks to all of you for bringing back those memories. I haven't been back to Cincinnati in ages and your posts are bringing it all (the good and the bad) back to me.

David Buchholz

Have I been reading this too quickly, or did no one mention the cultural apex of life in Cincinnati—the Gayety Theatre?  My cousin Donald from Champaign, Illinois came to visit every holiday, and we would climb out my bedroom window, shinny down the posts to the porch, head down Ridge Ave and take the bus downtown.  "How old are you boys?" the woman selling tickets would ask.  "18", we would answer in unison, although I think we were probably about 12 or 13.  I remember the nights when Virginia Bell, Blaze Starr, or Naomi, the half-breed Cherokee,  performed, the muscians tucked in below and between the runways, and the comedians— even one joke.  "Do you know the cheer of the girls from Norfolk HS?"  "We don't drink; we don't smoke...Norfolk!

Stephen Collett

Laura. Was the pool over by Wm Howard Taft the Cabana Club?

Henry Cohen

From Crosley Field days the cottage industry that sprung up from 13 year old kids who charged you a dime or a quarter to "watch your car" .

Nelson Abanto

I have very much been enjoying Phil's challenge and I have come up with three venues that are either not mentioned or mentioned in a different context:

First, the Zoo was mentioned but not in the context of the opera.  We all have our anecdotes of barking seals or flatulent elephants but this was the foundation for my interest in Opera.  My italian aunt, Tina took me a couple of times a year and I will be eternally greatful.

Secondly,  Symphony Hall.  Cincinnati was blessed with a great Orchestra and a great place for them to perform.  At first I regarded this as torture but after a couple of performances I was won over.  I remember that they used to do concerts for young people during the day and we would be bussed down for an entertaining day.

Finally, under the title of theaters, I submit for your consideration the Twin Drive In.  I know that everyone in our class was too busy studying to ever go to a drive in but I am told that they were quite popular back in the day.  Lots of great movies made their artistic debut in drive ins, but I confess I cannot remember the names of any that I saw there.

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

As all of you have fond memories of Coney Island.  I only went to  the REAL one in New York when I was little since CI had not been completely desegregated until 1961.  My first visit to CI,  I broke my tailbone as the third person seated between two guys on a seat with only two seat belts.  I was with two upper classmen, James Thomas and Lonnie Hawkins.

 The zoo, of course, was a favorite, especially the Playland, with rides on the carousel and the dark house. Lunken Airport play field was also a fun place, with miniature golf, an arcade with games, archery and bike rentals.  We went there frequently when I was little.

The Art Museum, Eden Park with ice skating on the frozen Mirror Lake in the winter or visiting the Krohn Conservatory in the spring were all favorites. 

Later, in high school, our hang out was at the Duck Creek Frisch's.

Laura Reid (Pease)

Yes, Steve!  The Cabana Club...what fun we had there....I think that's where  I learned to smoke...so proud of myself! 

larry, I see the other Ann Shepard all the time; she and I live near each other, also her brother Tom....Ann claims she beat me in the 50 yard dash at Kilgour....her memory is failing her....I distinctly remember leaving her in my wake....

Margery Erhardt (Schrader)

Steve is correct. It was the Cabana Club. I usually went up to Torch Lake for the summer but the one summer I stated in Cincy I joined the club and enjoyed it immensely. Fortunately I didn’t smoke there but I remember going “over the hill” during our lunch hour to have a smoke with friends.

I learned a love of music from Dorothy Payne (loved your mom, Becky, and Junior Keyboard) and the Cincinnati Symphony Hall and concerts, we as students, attended. It also provided me with a love for the music halls of Europe when we lived there. I had an uncle who sang at the Hall and have his LP’s. I have been designing our Austin Opera Guild newsletters for several years now and love opera.

Giddings, as a store, is a great memory. I bought many lovey garments there; loved to sit there as they brought out dresses for a yeah or nay. I also bought my Priscilla of Boston wedding dress there. A good friend went to NYC to get her dress and it was a Priscilla too and looked so much like mine. It was so funny as we were married on the same day just two hours apart. It was only discovered when the two guys asked each other to be in the wedding party.

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Gidding's and Jenny's had originally been two stores.  I believe the Odalisque window was at Jenny's. It was one of the lasts stores that kept pneumatic tube system for sales receipts through the 80s. They still had elevator operators at the store too, a nice touch of nostalgia.   I bought a gorgeous NON-mother-of-the-bride looking Joanie Char dress there for my stepdaughter's wedding in 1989. Of course, the purple boxes were keepers as were the gold boxes at Christmas time.

The last time I was in the store was for one of their terrific "attic sales", where you could always find a bargain.  While browsing through a rack of dresses, I noticed a tiny little hand clutching the sleeve of a dress. I slowly backed away from the rack, pressed the button for the elevator, and as soon as the doors opened, I quickly got inside and told the operator, "Down please, I'm in a hurry," I'm sure seconds after I was safely on my way, pandemonium broke out when a bat left its hiding place!! :D

My mother and I found my perfect white graduation dress at Henry Harris, but our favorite place to shop was always Pogue's!!

Richard Montague

One for Philip,

Sams Confectionary and greenline bus service

Gene Stern

My family emigrated to Cincinati on July 4th 1951. Our second home in Avondale was on Northern Ave. This street runs directly into the Cincinnati Zoo.My Dad, Victor, used to make me read the libretto to operas we used to attend by just walking the short distance to the entrance to the Zoo. As a second grader attending Rockdale Temple public school (yes, it was a part of that synagogue) I was more interested in seeing the seal tanks near the open ended theater rather than listen to the singing. It did, however, get me to appreciate opera and I still enjoy going to the opera today. Thanks Pop!

Mary Benjamin

Yup, Pogue's and Shillito's were the stand-by's for those all-important fall clothes. Boy, I tried hard with all of that!!! And yeah, Nelson, the drive-ins were a rather uh big deal - as was smoking cigarettes all over the place. We used to skip Sunday school at HUC/Wise Temple and we would go to the park across from HUC and smoke. Ahhh youth, nicotine and the Queen City!

Laura Reid (Pease)

Speaking of perfume....how about Canoe and Ambush; what did the guys wear??

Did the guys really used hypodermic needles to put vodka in watermelons; that is a memory or a rumor or maybe a dream?

And line dancing in the lunchroom...

Chuck Cole

Ah, Sam's Confectionary.  When I was at North Avondale, we would walk across the bridge to Newport and buy what Sam had in his back room--a 4th grader's delight--firecrackers.  We'd then head back across the river, our bags of firecrackers held over the railing.  The plan was that if we were stopped by a policeman--we'd let the package go down to the Ohio.  That never happened.  But my mother did catch me once or twice.

I have a memory that someone (wasn't me) flushed a cherry bomb or two (or maybe they were M-80s) down a toilet in the boys' room right next to or very close to Mr. Gallensteen's (sp?) classroom. There was a huge boom and then water started coming under the boys' bathroom door.  

Stephen Collett

Chuck, the firecracker flushed down from the boys´ room on the upper floor of the wing towards the football field was maybe in the fall of 1961? I was also in a classroom nearby. I know who did it. He was not in our class.

Stephen Collett

But was it a cherry-bomb or an M-80? I could ask him, but I wont. What wonderful toys we had in that day that our kids and grands miss. I had throwing knives and steel dart blowgun that I dont think are available today (though you can get an assault rifle). Maybe Im wrong, I havent been to Cabela in a while. I had a bull whip and bow with sharp-tipped arrows ("deer point"). Such an exciting term. The ironic thing it is that deer have actually returned to those woods that I knew, when there was no such thing, the biggest animal a fox or ground hog, most of which are now almost wiped out by coyotes. I am referring to a wood lot on the old Collett farm between Wilmington and Waynesville.

People drove over to Kentucky for fireworks. Were the really good bombs only available there? The cherry-bombs and M-80s, were they available in Ohio?

We used those firecrackers in the neighborhood on Halloween. Stick a lighted cigarette onto the wick (non-filter) and place the bomb inside the steel garbage cans that were used which would blow the lid in the air with a great bang. Corrugated sides and steel bands, they were extremely durable, and garbage collectors would come in behind the houses -for me it was early in the morning and I can remember the clamor on waking- and roll them out to the trucks. 

Stephen Collett

How about snikkng out at night? Did anyone snikk out?

Philip Spiess

Guys, I'm back to respond again (but I'll keep holding more Coney memories in abeyance, so this doesn't get too long!):

I'll start with Larry:  Oh, oh, it was a "traffic" island (duh!); now I get it!  There were many around the city, no less than 13 (I think) at one intersection half way between Jeff Rosen's house on Rose Hill and mine on McAlpin (if I remembered the name of the street -- which I can picture so well -- I'd say it, but I don't feel like looking at a map), which my father called "Howie's Hurdles," after the traffic commissioner who had them installed.  Many had odd red-shaded lamps on short posts at the end of them; I never knew whether these were so you wouldn't hit them or whether they had something to do with streetcar stops.

Mary Benjamin:  The perfume at Giddings-Jenny (yes, Ann, the original store there was just Jenny's) was not poured into the street; its aroma wafted from the basin or trough at the foot of the store window (which may have been, now that I think about it, black glass and not bronze, as I said earlier).  As to skate keys, I still have some in several sizes; do they even make them anymore?  (You could get them when you bought your roller skates, but if you lost them, you could usually get replacements at any hardware store.)

Richard Montague:  Yes, Krohn Conservatory, still one of my all-time favorites!  Ever since I was a small child, I have had a ritual, which I still follow, as to the way in which I go around the several rooms (I never vary).  A highlight was when I was in college and had brought a friend to tour Cincinnati; we got to the Conservatory so early that it had just opened for the day and the waterfall in the main room was not yet turned on.  So I asked that they turn it on, and they did -- there was the sound of gushing water building and building until suddenly the deluge shot over the top of the rocks in front of us and plummeted into the stream below!  (I had a similar experience several years later in Spring Grove Cemetery with the waterfall just north of the McCook Family monument and the John Robinson Family mausoleum -- a family nationally famous for the circus they ran, with winter quarters in Terrace Park.)  And Richard, I don't know Sam's Confectionery (apparently others do); my confectionery of choice was the Greek Christos & Drivakos [sp.?] candy shop on a back street in Winton Place; their chocolates were divine!  There was also a major licorice factory (not store) for many years on the western side of Western Avenue just north of Union Terminal; you could always smell the licorice being made for a block or more as you passed by.  (And wasn't one of the prominent delis in Mount Adams called Pia's?)

Linda, Nelson, and Gene:  Needless to say, the Zoo Opera was one of my places; I even "supered" for Samson and Delilah and Tosca.  Throughout my college years, my summers were halcyon:  I worked a paid and interesting job during the day in the air-conditioned comfort of the Cincinnati Historical Society in Eden Park; then I'd go for a swim at Clifton Meadows Swim Club; then go home for the cocktail hour with my parents and dinner; and complete the day with ushering nightly at the Zoo Opera and hearing some of my favorite music.  One night, as a manager of the ushers, I was stationed in the low aisle that crossed the opera pavilion from side to side, thereby being able to see the stage over the box seats in front of me without blocking the view of anyone behind.  A stranger was standing next to me, watching as well; we were seeing the late, great soprano Beverly Sills in (perhaps) Manon.  At the Act II curtain call, Miss Sills, a very well-endowed lady wearing a rather low-cut dress, bowed low to the audience's applause, showing a deal of skin in the process, and I turned to the stranger who was next to me and muttered, "My God!  She's going to fall out of that dress!"  He gave me a certain look and responded curtly, "She'd better not!  That's my wife!"  I think I'll leave it there, except to say that I've never talked to strangers since!

Jonathan Marks

The proprietor of the Wheel Cafe was Walt Bachrach, who for a while doubled as Mayor.

Speaking of proprietors, maybe Pasquale's was the first pizza parlor, but the most notable for me was Berconi's, because it was run by Bert Cohn.

As for the RKO theatres, I was a privileged patron; my dad had done some legal work for them, so I had access to a pass that got me into any of them for 25 cents.  Boy, did I take advantage of that whenever I could.  (I couldn't persuade the Gayety, though, that it was an RKO theatre.)

I remember specifically that Sunlite Pool at Coney was segregated, and was probably aware that the entire park was, so I am mortified that in memory I found it so idyllic, apparently undeterred by its unconscionable policy.  What a world we grew up in!  And, to some extent at least, accepted.

I'm sure I was the champion super of our class at the Opera, as i did it for so many years.  One experience pops into mind: a performance of  La Forza del Destino when i was in my civvies, either finished with my role or there only as a spectator.  It was one of those hot, muggy summer evenings we all no doubt recall so fondly, and I was backstage during the second intermission.  One of the ladies who paged the curtains collapsed due to the weather and exertion, and I ducked out under the flimsy bridge that connected the scenery truck to the stage to find out if there was a doctor in the house.  Not surprisingly, the place was lousy with them, and as I came back under the bridge, doctor in tow, the third-act battle scene commenced, the sound effects of which were provided by two stage hands on either side of the bridge punping shotgun rounds into the air.  The shock of my life, and I went scrambling as if that life depended on it.  I watched the rest of the act without my glasses, which had somehow disappeared, and so went back and asked one of the stagehands if he had seen it.  "Ask the ducks," he said, pointing at the pond behind the dressing rooms.  I clamberd over the fence, scattering geese and ducks and swans, and found them at the water's edge...though I had no recollection at all of vaulting the fence to seek refuge from the battle in the avian sanctuary.

Thenceforth I had a new name among the stagehands; they called me Boomboom.