Paul Simons

Thanks all for the reactions and impressions concerning the weather and other matters.

I had other realizations about Cincinnati. We had a West End, we had a Northside, but no East End, no Southside. We had Avondale, Evendale, Glendale, Ivorydale, probably other Dales, and Price Hill, College Hill, Bond Hill, Mount Adams, Mount Storm, Mount Healthy, probably other Hills and Mounts. And Great God Almighty, we had Cincinnati Chili and White Castle!!

Philip Spiess

Um, Paul, as to other Dales, there was Francis Dale and his sons of Clifton (about our ages); in the 1960s, he became owner and publisher of The Cincinnati Enquirer.  At that point, he also became a major financial and political supporter of Richard Nixon's campaign for the Presidency.  My eternal and infuriated gripe with him (though I never met him, to my knowledge, but I knew his sons) is that he engineered the deal which transferred Thomas Cole's series of paintings, "The Voyage of Life," from Clifton in Cincinnati to the National Gallery of Art on the Mall in Washington, D. C.  (As I understood it at the time, there was apparently some money involved which supported the Nixon campaign somehow.)

Now, to the relevance:  (1) Thomas Cole was perhaps the most important American painter of the so-called "Hudson River School" of painting, the first important internationally recognized (Romantic) style of American art.  (2) Cole's "The Voyage of Life," a series of four paintings representing "Childhood," "Youth," "Manhood," and "Old Age," is probably his most famous and important series of paintings, surpassing his series "The Course of Empire" (based on Bishop Berkeley's poem), and his "The Architect's Dream" (for which I wrote the interpretive label in the Toledo Museum of Art in 1986).  (3) The set of Cole's "The Voyage of Life" which Mr. Dale transferred was the larger, original set (1842); the smaller, slightly different set is in the Munson-Williams-Procter Arts Institute in Utica, New York. (4) Why was I so upset at the transfer?  This nationally important work of art had hung in George K. Schoenberger's "Scarlet Oaks" mansion (Schoenberger was an important Cincinnati iron-monger, one of the "Seven Barons of Mount Storm") off of Lafayette Avenue in Clifton, where it had hung for almost one hundred years in a gallery specially designed for it by Cincinnati's distinguished Gothic Revival architect, James Keys Wilson, who also designed the Isaac M. Wise Temple (a.k.a. the Plum Street Temple) and the delightful Dexter Mausoleum in Spring Grove Cemetery.

Now, as a museum professional of long-standing (48 years), I recognize the importance and necessity of having a set of major American artworks in our National Gallery of Art, both for its preservation and for the availability of it to the viewing public.  But as a devout citizen of Cincinnati (and especially Clifton) -- even though I've not lived there since 1973 -- I oppose its removal from the gallery which was designed for it, and where it hung for about one hundred years.  Although "Scarlet Oaks" has been a Methodist home for the aged for many years (now affiliated with Deaconess Hospital), the paintings were always accessible to the public for the asking; I first saw them (and had them described to me) as a teenager, when I boldly went up and asked to see the mansion, because I was interested in Clifton's architecture.  Regrettably, I have since seen the somewhat shabby "reproductions" of the Cole paintings that hang in the "Scarlet Oaks" gallery intended for the originals -- these reproduction paintings being part of the original Francis Dale "deal."

And now, Paul, I must reprimand you, too:  among the dear old hills of Cincinnati, you forgot to mention Walnut Hills!

Paul Simons

Wow!! Whew!! Phil, I had no idea of the depth and detail that go into deciding what goes on the wall at the museum that I used to casually look at while actually concentrating on the winsome lass also contemplating the framed masterpiece. And although I'm nothing when it comes to art and art history I do remember the name you mention.

And I accept the reminder about Walnut Hills, although that's a plural noun, but it does name a section of Cincinnati so I guess in a lawsuit I would be found negligent. However if you are going to apply a looser standard to the entity class included with the name "Dale" then I must reprimand you for not listing Dale Gieringer.

On re-reading your post I am reminded that I have a link to the original home of the Cole painting. I worked for some months, while a student at UC, at Deaconess Hospital. I was an orderly. I had to do things that I don't want to have to do again. But it was a job. As you know, idiots can become lawmakers well on their way to never having to really work again by saying little more than "Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!".

Beyond this I wonder what you, Dale, Bruce and others interested in locations and methods of getting to them think about the current news item concerning a flying object moving in ways that no man-made aeronautical vehicle can move. People are saying things. People are talking about it. An alien spacecraft. Where did it come from? How did it get here, and how long did it take? I'm serious. I'm resistant to believing this stuff, especially when there's just one observation, just 2 observers.

This is interesting, and the image is one of many from the article:

https://www.universetoday.com/15403/how-long-would-it-take-to-travel-to-the-nearest-star/

Larry Klein

Apparently, in the world according to "Paul", I do not exist. Paul says that, in Cincinnati, there was no East End.  Well, for six years I was the only student at WHHS who represented the East End of Cincinnati. This area extended from Leblond along Eastern Ave to the area of Linwood near Lunken Airport. I lived in the East End just off Delta Ave, attended Lincoln School, played baseball at Turkey Ridge, Stanley Field, and Lunken Playfields. I even survived a couple of scuffles with die-hard East Enders. In those days, East End was THE place to be if you wanted to be in a gang (c.f. the well documented chain gang wars at Withrow HS in the mid to late 1950's.

So, Paul, yes there is an East End, and thank goodness I escaped to attend WHHS for 6 years with an amazing group of over-achieving students. And thankfully, I DO still exist.

Bruce Fette

Hello to all yet again (or as they say in Texas Hi Y'all (a wonderfully useful contraction),

First to Phil,

Yes I was probably watching from somewhere as your VW bug tried and tried, and which surely encouraged me to take Gray road up to Hamilton Ave (also the long way around to get to White Castle at the intersection of Winton and North Bend).

As regards Mounts, a few of the members of the ham radio club (D. Ransohoff as club president), will remember that we went to Mount Storm for Ham Radio Field Day, and we set up our station there for a weekend. My Aunt Margaret arranged for Enquirer coverage of the event. Also we picked up Sally Fox there every morning on the school bus. But to add another Mount to the list, there is also Mount St. Joseph. I had an Aunt teaching art there, but the really big deal was my date who was going to school there. So I made the trip to the MOUNT  every weekend.

There is admittedly a great deal of beautiful art here in DC as well (however it found its way here). My favorite here is the "Luncheon of the Boating Party", by Renior at the Phillips collection. I have a copy here in my study, not to mention, I also have it as a mouse pad, as I very much enjoy seeing all those folks enjoying themselves. And there is a wonderful little French restaurant featuring the Ballerinas by Degas, anopther favorite. I just wish I had time to visit the Barnes near Philidelphia, with another superb collection of impressionist art. (You lucky folks in Philly.:)

And then to Paul:

And now to another of my favorite topics. As the math shows, there is high probability of life evolving within our Galaxy. Further, I propose that life evolved much faster somewhat closer to the center of the galaxy due to more abundant foms of energy. And by harnassing many forms of energy that we here on earth are not deeply familiar with, I suspect many things are possible that we dont understand when we see it. Also of high importance to note is that travel at or near the speed of light will cause time to pass very slowly; therefore traveling around the galaxy at sufficient speed may not appear to take a long time to those inside a space craft; just a long time to those not traveling fast. And finally, I posit that life in other planetary systems could quite likely evolve not seeing other people as threats, but rather as team members to cooperate with. I do hope I live long enough to write my novel on this theme, and thus explain why they may keep visiting to see when we stop threatening each other and begin to behave cooperatively. Anyone wish to collaborate with me on a novel?

Philip Spiess

Good golly, Paul!  And all these years I thought one of my best friends' name was "Gale Dieringer!"

I saw a picture in the paper of the outer space detritus that currently is sailing past our little world.  It did not look like the picture you provide; it looked like a piece of built-up gunk that we had removed from the pipes under our sink some years ago.  The plumbing worked better after that, so maybe the Solar System will right itself, and the world with it, now that that "thing" has passed.

Larry:  I believe the East End that you describe was actually the first, and therefore oldest, part of what eventually became Cincinnati.  And I believe Cincinnati's oldest cemetery (burial-ground) -- Columbia, is it? -- is out there near Lunken Airport.

Bruce:  I honestly do not remember a White Castle stand at the intersection of Winton Road and North Bend Road (at least back in the day).  On the southwest corner was the Finneytown Inn (later torn down after it had suffered a bad fire, and for the new Winton Road to come through at that site); on the northwest corner was a collection of auto mechanics' garages and hardware stores selling lawn mowers out front; near the southeast corner, across from Fred Hoeweler's house, was a Cincinnati Gas & Electric Company's substation, disguised to look like a modest suburban brick house of the period; and on the northeast corner (my foggiest memory) were some open fields, I believe (I'm talking 1954 to about 1964 here).

Mount Storm Park was where we watched "Sputnik" go over (yes, you could actually see it with the naked eye) in October of 1957.  (If you were picking up Sally Fox after traversing College Hill and Finneytown, just how long was your commute, Bruce?)  And my father in his latter years as a public speaker and lay preacher was quite popular with the nuns at Mount St. Joseph; he was invited back many times.

I have Renoir's "The Boating Party" on a t-shirt, with which I surprised my Middle School students when we went on a field trip to the Phillips Gallery with their French teacher.  And I'm sure you've seen one of Degas' actual bronze sculptures of one of his ballerinas, complete with actual attached tulle skirt, in the National Gallery of Art.  The Barnes Collection is another story, which I'll save for another time; suffice it to say that Dr. Barnes was one really nasty man, that the American philosopher John Dewey was involved in the collection's original interpretive exhibit design (Dewey focusing on educational psychology), and that the original museum became embroiled in one of the most complex and extended legal battles in American museum history (not even counting the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston or the J. Paul Getty Museum in California).

Your last paragraph, Bruce, makes me think of Nikola Tesla and his theories, but I'll leave it at that.

Paul Simons

This is solely to apologize to Larry and to acknowledge the exisrence of his Sector in the Cincinnati city limits and his existence as a resident of that Sector. There was no willful intent behind these omissions, only a deficit of information and the passage of some years during which no news reports, which might have mentioned The East End, were seen or heard. Sorry Larry.

https://eastendcincy.org/about/

Paul Simons

Along the same lines as the above - the photo I included was an artist's rendering of one of many hypothetical space vehicle designs, not of anything observed by the Navy pilots.

Thanks Bruce for reminding us of Einstein's finding that time slows down as velocity speeds up. It makes it possible to believe that a vehicle with living beings in it could get from there to here or from here to there before the living beings died out.

I don't want to believe that beings or machines (maybe the Navy pilots saw drones) from another solar system are here, or were here and could come back. Stephen Hawking says "If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn't turn out very well for the American Indians." In my opinion we have enough "existential threats" of our own making. I believe that advanced beings come about through evolution, and part of that is what Darwin called 'natural selection' which means competition to the extinction of one of the competitors, so it seems unlikely that an extra-terrestrial visitor would be non-aggressive. We ourselves have IDEAS of universal peace and harmony but obviously from the news of the day, every day, to these pages right here it's clear that often they remain just ideas.

Paul Simons

One more - Jeff - racing cars around Deeds Carillon Park in Dayton - that must have been a blast! A couple of years after WHHS I had a few motorcycles, did a bit of Scrambles racing at the Beechmont track which had a car track that for bikes included various turns and a jump in the infield, and also at a track somewhere near Dayton I guess called Miamisburg. In fact it was a pretty bad knee injury from coming down wrong after the jump at the Miamisburg Mound Riders track that happened not long before my draft physical that kept me out of Vietnam.

Jeff Daum

Yes Paul, it was a lot of edgy fun back then, and luckily we lived through it unscathed.  In retrospect, pretty dumb, from a lack of responsibility and based on the car mechanics of the day- from the tires, to the brakes.  Also at the time I road motorcycles, and remember several trips to Cincy from Oxford.  Between removing the bugs from your teeth and a few too close slides on loose gravel, cured me forever of wanting to continue riding motorcycles.  Now I just admire some of the stunners from early Indians to Ducatis.  As a matter of fact I am scheduled to cover (photograph) the Mecum Motorcycle auction of 1000 or so cycles when I return from Hawaii next month.

Fred Hoeweler

Paul - Not only is there an East End as testified by Larry Klein, but there was also a Southside - off River Road across from Sedamsville.

And Philip - how did you know so much detail about the old Winton Rd. area.  Mary Jo Smith lived across the road - we commuted every morning to WHHS with Helen Sayre's father.

Philip Spiess

Fred:  My grandparents moved from Clifton to Finneytown (to Greenfield Village subdivision, which was still being built at the time), north off of North Bend Road just west of Winton Road) in 1954.  So I spent many overnights, weekends, and summers there; we "babysat" my great-grandmother, whom I was very close to, when my grandparents went on vacation.  I'm an observant kind of guy, and was interested in Cincinnati from an early age, and so I took in the scenery every time I rode along in the car.  Later, when I became a Cincinnati historian, I filled in some of the gaps, and when in college I loved riding around Cincinnati checking out landmarks.  I have credited my becoming a professional historian with having a remarkable memory (I still have a vivid mental picture of that corner as it appeared ca. 1960; hence, that was how I described it in my last post).  [P.S.:  My family always claimed to know members of your family, although they said, when using their "Corryville Dutch" or Low German accents, that your family pronounced its name "Haybeller"  or "Hayweller" (accent in both cases on the first syllable), when I knew that you, at WHHS, pronounced it "Ho-weller."]

AND -- I'm familiar with Sedamsville and its historic Springhouse (is it still there?), as well as River Road (one of my favorite travels, down to Fernbank and Saylor Park, particularly to see the Fernbank Indian statue), but I had no idea that there was a Southside down there.  Years ago I compiled a list of all known (well, to me) Cincinnati suburbs, regions, named neighborhoods, etc.  Maybe I should look up this list, put it on this Forum, and see what I'm missing?

Larry:  I believe Bobbi Lawrence, who only arrived in our class at WHHS late in the day, as it were, lived in the East End, as she lived in a farmhouse on the banks of the Ohio River (and which got flooded out when the river flooded in the spring) on Kellogg Avenue just west of the "Singing Bridge" (as we called it in my childhood, because of its open metal strut roadway, which "sang" as the tire treads ran over it) over the Little Miami River, on its way to California and Coney Island.

Stephen (Steve) Dixon

I have really been enjoying all the Cincinnati geography and the memories brought back about DeSales Corner, the 68 bus (thanks Larry) and such.

I was also an East-Ender. I came to Walnut Hills, along with several others, from out beyond the Beechmont Levee and Lunken Airport in quaint little Mt. Washington. We did our sledding at Stanbery Park, with some good long hills that were sweeping enough to handle lots of sledders. Also, California Golf Course when we could get someone's parent to haul us over there in a car. Those were some big hills. And there was a nice hill at the end of Barq Lane, between me and Siemer's house, where you steered through the trees of their apple orchard. I was really zooming down that hill one day when I ran under an old section of collapsed fencing and got a deep cut on the back of my leg. One of my best scars, to this day.

I have also been enjoying Phil's post-graduate course in History. I hope I don't get downgraded for non-participation in class.

Here's wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas.

And sending that same spirit to one-and-all whether your special season is Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Omisoka, Yule...or whatever.

Nancy Messer

Today I received an email from Rockdale Temple telling us that Linda Karpen Nachman's mother, Betsy Karpen passed away on 12/18/17.  She was a WHHS alum also.  Funeral services are private and contributions are to be given to the charity of your choice.  I wanted to post this so everyone would at least know about it.

Larry Klein

Paul - you know I was jesting you for not "remembering" the East End.  Lots of East Enders from those days would like to forget.

Phil and Stephen - all true about Bobbi except for the East End part.  Bobbi's home was actually a part of the "California" community.  East Enders never claimed any areas east of Lunken Airport.  Mt Washington had their own WHHS school bus which simulated the route of the old #24 through Mt. Lookout.  Many times I would walk the half-mile up Delta to Mt. Lookout square and flag down the bus to school.  Also enjoyed many rides home on that bus with Susie Lovatt.  We would walk the half-mile together to Kroger Ave, where she lived for one year before moving out of town. (Technically, Kroger Ave marked the boundary of the East End on the north).

Philip Spiess

Larry:  I stand happily corrected on the boundaries of the East End.  I only recalled that the settlement of Cincinnati began at the eastern end of the Symmes Purchase with Benjamin Stites on the Little Miami River, then, slightly later, continued with the settlement at Yeatman's Cove at the foot of Deer Creek, quickly extended westward to the Mill Creek, and then, yet later, was completed with the final settlement at North Bend, on the banks of the Great Miami River.  All this I learned in 8th Grade from Mr. Meredith's Social Studies course, half of which was on Ohio and Cincinnati history, which sparked my still ongoing interest in the subject (I believe we even had a textbook for the Cincinnati history part; I know we did for the Ohio part -- I still have a copy).

And Stephen:  You are "attending class" by reading posts on this Forum and commenting on them.  I do not stand in, I hope, as teacher (though I love teaching), but as a facilitator, sparking memories which we all can share and enjoy.  (I am told this is important for the mental health of people of our age.)  I sometimes worry that I write too much and bore you all, but certainly on some topics (such as sledding and skating, for example) we are creating a potentially valuable archive of direct and personal memories of both our neighborhoods and our time in Cincinnati, and how we lived there, that can be preserved for the future.

Stephen, your running your sled under a fence reminded me of my graduate days in Delaware (1968-1970).  The small group of us graduate students who were on Hagley Fellowships at the Eleutherian Mills - Hagley Foundation (the research library and open-air museum which are part of the original Du Pont Company black powder mills on the Brandywine River), but enrolled in the History Department of the University of Delaware, had access (acknowledged -- or just taken) to a number of the many du Pont family properties that cover northern Delaware outside of Wilmington.  One such was the so-called "du Pont family tobogganing hill" on an estate close to the Pennsylvania border; it was a great hill for tobogganing -- but at the bottom there was a barbed-wire fence!  If you knew about it -- and we went tobogganing at night, so as not to be discovered -- you could stop the sled in time, but if not -- !!  (Not our crew, but another one, went through, and thus on to the emergency ward!) 

Nancy Messer

Whenever there was a heavy snow my 2 older brothers would build a two-story snow fort on the large portion of the driveway behind the house.  I don't recall them having snowball fights with anyone.  They just liked building the fort.  The problem was the snow didn't melt until spring and my parents couldn't put the cars in the garage.

Richard Montague

Larry,

when I was a kid I hung out in the East End. Roy Northern and Carl Alexander had a small garage down there. We were always working on motorcycles and bikes. Mikes Body shop painted one of my cars and a couple bikes.

My parents both grew up there.

What was the restaurant that used to be the police station ?

Another classmate Jack _____ , can't remember his last name I believe was an eastender.

Paul Simons

This will be in no particular or sequential order. First Nancy sorry to hear about Linda’s loss, thanks for informing us all. Larry, Rich, Stephen and other Eastenders  and/or Southsiders - it might not be the restaurant you mean but does the Trolley Tavern ring a bell at all? It was on a road along the river but maybe on the West side. And the Sycamore Shores Yacht Club - a restaurant right at the waterfront. Both had good food and what we now call “ambience”. 

Jeff and Fred and others about bikes - your middle photo is the Triumph 650 Scrambler - notice the high pipes - I was lucky enough to ride one up a hill and at the top was going fast enough that I was also lucky to not go flying off the other side which was a lot more steep. I had bought a Ducati from a WHHS person who had been injured on it but it’s a long time back and I don’t trust my memory as to who it was. They are dangerous machines, especially these days with about half the drivers out there brainwashed into believing they’re fabulous, huge winners, they own the road and everybody has to get out of their way. ‘Nuff said about that.

This dovetails with Phil’s interests in historical preservation. The hill was on the property of the Erlanger, Kentucky Constable. He showed up and arrested the participants in the exercise - 4 of us - and somehow coerced us into following him to the Erlanger jail where we had to stay until a friend brought $200.00 - $50.00 each - bail money. We were treated well, given hamburgers, but a fellow we could hear but couldn’t see, actually locked in a cell, was having a bad time. Did they beat him up? Not sure. Was he white? Black? Not sure. But something not too pleasant was going on.

On another topic - corners - I remember going on a bus to a surplus electronics place called Lapirow Brothers at Knowlton’s Corner. DeSales Corner was mentioned previously. Peeble’s Corner was often named in commercials for stores of one kind or another. Any others?

Anyway let me take this opportunity to echo Stephen’s holiday wishes and to include those observing a Non-Sectarian Winter Solstice Celebration Featuring Decorative Lighting And Seasonal Comestibles Without Necessarily Invoking Any Supernatural Beings Or Events. Or, in normal parlance, Merry Christmas!🎄 

Lee Max

Paul ,

Even at my peak, my dirt riding skills never came close to yours, and choosing to follow 2 friends, who are much better riders is often a bad decision. Especially if it’s on a narrow, rocky, sloping path up the backside of a mountain; 20 miles from civilization. The patch of red at the bottom right of the photo is my 250cc Kawasaki down the ravine and stuck in a tree. This is one of the many reasons why I now only motorcycle on paved roads.

Philip Spiess

Nancy:  Wow! A two-story snow fort!  But what I want to know is how did your brothers not come crashing down through the snow ceiling of the first story?  (Or did they build it on some sort of a frame?)  We tried a couple of times to build a snow fort (one-story), but it never really jelled. 

Paul:  The Trolley Tavern, as I recall, was in the west end, down River Road on the way to Fernbank Dam.  Originally, it was a real trolley car, made into a diner (as so many were in the 1930s and 1940s; what we call in the preservation trade "commercial archeology").  Later, I believe, the trolley itself disappeared and the Tavern was remade into a "trolley-like" structure, then later expanded.  Not to be confused with the Ralegh Tavern in Williamsburg, Virginia (notice the hopefully compatible rhyme).  Sycamore Shores was nice; my first fiancee (not my wife) and I ate there several times, and my father launched his "AmphiCar" (part auto - part boat) from there a number of times, to the vast surprise of those hanging around the launch ramp at the time.

Arrested, hmm?  Anybody else in the class been locked up for any reason?  My father told me the story of when he was a small boy in the late 1920s, his older half-sister and her husband were taking him and his full sister on a weekend trip by automobile (a pretty new feature then) to Lake Erie.  As they passed through a small town in upstate Ohio, the local constabulary noted their out-of-county license plate and pulled them over, claiming that they'd cut through a gas station to avoid the town's red light.  "Fifty bucks fine or a night in jail," was the verdict on them.  My Aunt Louise, a smart cookie (and the long-time chief nutritionist at Deaconess Hospital), said, "We'll take the jail!"  My Uncle John, my Aunt Louise, and two scared kids were herded into said rural jail cell.  As soon as they were locked up, my Aunt Louise started punching my father and his sister.  "Scream, damn you, scream!" she apparently said -- and of course they did.  After ten minutes of this raucous caterwauling, the cop unlocked the cell and irritably said, "You folks all get the hell out of town -- now!"  (They did.)

One more sledding story:  somewhere along the late 1950s, Gary Beck, then a good friend, invited me over to his street to go sled-riding.  This street was Wirham Place in Clifton, where he lived.  Charles Beziot and Hal Miegel (a real psycho, whose dad was a professor at U. C.) also lived over there.  Wirham Place, one block long, which the city did occasionally close off for sled-riding, was actually a very mild down-hill slope, so on this day I discovered I could sled-ride standing up on the sled, using the ropes attached to the steering rudder on the front of the sled to steer it.  It was exhilarating!

And to echo those above me, but most sincerely:  "Merry Christmas; Happy Chanukah; Happy Holidays; Season's Greetings; Weather Your Winter Solstice; Poltice Your Winter Weather; Have a Cool Yule and a Frantic First; and, uh, what was that "Omisoka," Stephen?

Paul Simons

First off - Lee - I had next to zero skill at dirt riding. I always came in last or close to last at races; like I mentioned in a different post, I came down after a jump very, very wrong - on the front wheel, not the back wheel, jamming my knee into the fuel valve under the gas tank, (which did wreck my knee enough to keep me out of Vietnam); and I never got into the kind of physical shape that the sport demands. But it was fun, adrenaline-producing. Funny thing - in the dead of winter, when the ground was frozen, hard, even that was exhilirating, thanks to a pair of leather mittens that even by current standards were well insulated and warm.

It looks like, even though your bike took a spill, you were OK. That kind of thing happened to me too. Going up a hill that was just too steep, and so the only way out was to push the bike by the handlebars one way and dive off the other way and roll down the hill and then hope the machine could still be ridden home. This happened on some open, undeveloped land out off Westwood-Northern Boulevard possibly near Boudinot St.

Phil - it sounds like your relatives had a combination of skill and luck with their jailer. In my case, we did have to appear in court but there was no paperwork or specifically named infraction or charge tht I can remember. Disturbing the peace? We were miles from the nearest home or person. Trespassing? Maybe. I think that Constable was either out driving or maybe had binoculars by his kitchen window and one way or another noticed us. It appears that the Erlanger Kentucky cops and judge setup at the time was close to 100% improv. We just had to let them keep the $50.00 each bail money and that was it.

I can say this about the Trolley Tavern, Sycamore Shores, the many Cincinnati Chili emporia, White Castle, Jack and Klu's steak house, the Hitching Post, and other places: Cincinnati had the finest food on earth.

About the holiday - I've been hearing/reading about something called Festivus. So I looked it up or I should say Googled it. It's defined thusly: "A secular holiday celebrated on December 23 as an alternative to the pressures and commercialism of the Christmas season." And..."The non-commercial holiday's celebration, as depicted on Seinfeld, occurs on December 23 and includes a Festivus dinner, an unadorned aluminum Festivus pole, practices such as the "Airing of Grievances" and "Feats of Strength", and the labeling of easily explainable events as "Festivus miracles"." And...""The Strike" is the 166th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the tenth episode of the ninth and final season. It aired on December 18, 1997. This episode featured and popularized the holiday of Festivus." So, a congenial, rational, and non-commercial Festivus to all.

Nancy Messer

Phil - I called my brother and asked him your question.  They put wood across it between the 2 floors so they wouldn't fall through.  They left a space between the wood to make a hole big enough to climb through to get to the second floor.

This started him telling me other stories.  When my father was a young kid the family lived on Rockdale.  He and his older brother were sledding.  The front yard had a slope to it and my uncle let my dad sled ride off the roof of the house thinking he would continue the ride down the front lawn.  Obviously this didn't happen and it was my uncle who got in trouble about it.

Bruce Fette

Larry and Lee,

First of all, Lapirow Brothers. Lapirow Bros was a 15 minute walk from Knowlton's corner, a bus stop on the way home every day. I went there at least once a week, usually bought tubes or resistors or relays to build circuits. One year Mr. Lapirow gave me a ride home to College Hill as he was closing, and it was snowing. I was amazed that he could do morse code while driving on his 10 meter rig.

Now for Dirt Bikes. I loved it, since I bought my first in Dallas and 3 in Arizona. I bought one for my wife too, but she didnt ride it very much, and neither did the kids. My favorite ride was up on the Muggollon Rim, as there were so many dirt trails to explore, and some very challenging. I also enjoyed Bloddy Basin ride north from Carefree.  While I did 4 peaks and the ride to Roosevelt Lake, the crazy 4 wheelers made those way too dangerous. Anyway, the bikes have gone off for sale now.

But Lee, I really want to hear more about how you didnt end up in the tree too!

Larry Klein

The old East End police station that became a restaurant is aptly named "The Precinct". It's at the corner of Delta and Columbia, owned by Jeff Ruby, and has been frequented by many high profile Cincinnatians (including ME 25 yrs ago - LOL). Arguably, they have the best steaks and prime rib in town.