Gene Stern

Thanks for your Birthday wishes Paul! I drove that Ford station wagon every day until we graduated when I bought a 1964 1/2 Mustang. The car had a three speed on the floor with a 260 V8. The only options I bought: driver's side mirror, backup lights, AM Radio!! Total cost $2100

Jon Singer

Si, If I recall, that '57 of yours was called "The Black Beauty".  When you couldn't consistently ascend the Paddock Rd. hill from Tennesse Avenue to reach Stillpass Motors on Reading Rd, you had to have mechanics insert a new motor.  I believe it was a rehabbed motor from '56.

While I spent much of my local traveling on the 3 speed Schwin that Schloss permantly left at our house and never reclaimed, I did inherit our family's 54 Plymouth.  It had fluid drive (whatever that was) such that you could use it as a stick or as an automatic.  That car, if in pristine condition would bring a price of $200 at a current Mechum Car Auction.  My next vehicle, acquired fom Uncle Will Goodman in '65 with 9,000 miles was a '64 Plymouth.  With the exception of a shotgun door that sparked when first opened, it served me well until '72. My bride sold her old, wobbly steering and smoking Corvair.  My Plymouth went to everlasting on a barracaded lot by Lunken on Eastern Avenue.  We bought a brand new hatch back Vega stick($2,500).  I taught my wife to shift in the empty parking lot at U.C. I did such a good job as a student driver educator that we had to have the transmission rebuilt within the first month of ownership.  

Thanks for stirring up memories on a New Year's Day.  Wishing you all well, Jon

Paul Simons

Jon you have some of the history just as I remember it. Some a bit different. My dad had a green Rambler that I drove at times, which Bill Waxman named "The Green Goose." Besides being one of the acknowledged leaders of our class Bill was good at coming up with names. I know he lives in that area of land between Louisiana and New Mexico known as the Lone Star State, about the same size as and lately very similar to Afghanistan. Anyway I remember one of the names Bill made up that contained your Schwinn bike too.
 

I don't know if my black Plymouth had a name but it did throw a rod and needed a new motor. I was negligent replacing oil it burned. Remember oil cans and the metal spout which had a sharp bottom cutting blade that you had to push through the top of the can? I didn't do that often enough. The new motor was put in by our classmate Fred Jones' father who had a garage in Avondale, maybe it was on Harvey Avenue. He charged me $100.00. Mr. Jones was a saint. That car didn't deserve to get worked on by Mr. Jones. It also broke a torsion bar - I had nothing to do with that - they were suspension parts Chrysler used instead of springs which they had to stop using. I bought the car from a lot on Reading Rd. owned by a stereotype-confirming used car salesman named Sandy Leach. A pure coincidence of name and vocation. 

Philip Spiess

I'm so happy:  my son gave me a t-shirt from "Skyline Chili Parlor -- Clifton" for Christmas, issued in a limited edition when then President Obama visited there (location:  northeast corner of Clifton and Ludlow Avenues).  As I've noted earlier on this Forum, in my childhood I sometimes had chocolate Cokes or nectar ice cream sodas at the soda fountain there when it was still Stier's Pharmacy.  (And it's next to what was formerly Virginia Bakery, of immortal fame.)

David Buchholz

Phil, I spent three years living in Clifton, a short walk to Skyline.  I had only begun to use a camera in 1968, and I began by taking photographs of people I knew then.  Here are Pete and John, the four-starred Michelin chefs who nightly prepared the most elegant and delicious fare.

Philip Spiess

Just down the street from Clifton's Skyline Chili Parlor there is (or was -- is it still there?) the Sohio Gasoline Station (southwest corner of Clifton and Howell Avenues).  It is what we call, in the "historic preservation trade," an example of "commercial archeology" (a.k.a. "roadside architecture").  This little gem of a gas station, designed in the "English cottage style" ("Anne Hathaway" -- though this way ain't it!) in 1930, was the inspiration of the president of Standard Oil of Ohio (i.e., "Sohio"), who at the time was trying to establish the company as a top retailer of gasoline throughout the state (despite the fact that the Rockefellers of Standard Oil came from Cleveland), and who thought that having on outstanding building, an American flag, and an updated uniform for attendants (yes, gasoline service station attendants wore their products' uniforms well into the mid-1950s) would be a great first step in creating a favorable public image.  The architect of the station was Roy Heaton, who was recruited by Sohio's president from a group that designed religious structures.  Evidently Heaton was a freelance designer, and there is some question as to whether he was a registered architect.  Nevertheless, the building is a charming example of "commercial archeology" (unless it's disappeared or been severely altered -- I haven't been by it in years), and particularly noteworthy are its features of the appearance of a thatched roof and its nameplate, "SOHIO," let into the gable-ends of the station in pierced woodwork (again, if this hasn't been altered).

Paul Simons

Phil's note reminds me of the different names that oil company has used. Besides Sohio there are Boron, Enron, Chevron, and probably more I guess.

It also reminds me of the Toddle House restaurant chain. There was one near the gas station on Clifton Ave. Really good hamburgers. I have heard it said that hamburgers these days don't taste as good, something about the way cattle are being raised, fed, the whole factory-farm thing. I find myself agreeing.

Philip Spiess

Paul:  Don't forget Esso and Exxon.  The Toddle House was right between the Sohio station and the Texaco station further south (at Terrace Avenue).  There was also a Toddle House in Walnut Hills (on Victory Parkway, across from the Hotel Alms?)  at which my mother and I would eat lunch after my Saturday mornings at Williams YMCA around the corner.  I always ordered the hamburgers (with yellow mustard).

Paul Simons

Thanks for the information Phil, which opened another door - on I think Calhoun Street. Across that street from the University of Cincinnati campus were two bookstores, DuBois and Lance's, with a Toddle House in between if I remember right. It seems that there are a number of things that are memorable about Cincinnati and these restaurants are pretty good points of reference. I guess people left that town at different points in time, and from different neighborhoods, but some of these late-night joints can bring it all back home. And then there are things that just don't change at all, for example the bronze sculpture of the wolf nursing Romulus and Remus in Eden Park, a gift to the city from Benito Mussolini. 

Bruce Fette

Phil and Paul,

Using Google Maps I have just cruised the area of Clifton Avenue in question. What I see now is Shell Oil, United Dairy Farmers (no fuel pumps), and Bruggers Bagels. Looks like Skyline is still at Clifton & Ludlow.

I do remember the tasty burgers at Toddle House though.

Philip Spiess

"O tempora!  O mores!"  So passeth all into dust!  However, if you go on your search engine to "Ohio History Connection Selections > Sohio Station photograph", you will either get a picture of a too modern Sohio station, a row of photos listed as "Images for Sohio Stations," in which case the first image on the left should be the image you want, or an image of the actual station style in question will come up.  In any case, the gabled, un-modern Sohio station image you may find (courtesy of the Ohio Historical Society, or whatever it's called these days -- all of the historical organizations I worked with over 48 years seem to have changed their names, for no obvious reason) is like the one I mention in Clifton (the one pictured is one in Columbus, Ohio), though its positioning on the site may be a mirror-image of what it was in Clifton.

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Well shucks! 

David Buchholz

As we're finding out that our cloth masks are useful only in preventing us from breathing, that a rising trend in infections keeps even those of us who are double-jabbed and boosted hunkering down,I think that postponing the reunion for another year is a cautious and sound choice.  Thank you to those who had to make what was a difficult decision.  Si, keep your fingers limber.  I'm planning to join you in celebrating the sixty-second anniversary of the Ventures' "Walk, Don't Run."

Paul Simons

We're going to need help Dave - it'll take more than just the gee-tars. Look at the second half of this video - in the Class of '64 are the talent, the ability, the drive, the motivation still there? Hell yes!!

Laura Reid (Pease)

Aw shucks is right!  But it is the right decision considering....sorry the committee had to come to this difficult decision, but thank you for being prudent....we are, indeed, at risk, at our age!!

Best to all my wonderful classmates!

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

I love you guys!!

See you on the flip side!!

Becky Payne (Shockley)

Ditto to Laura's comment!  A smart move in these times. And I expect that John and I will find our first ever trip to Scandinavia (scheduled for a few days after the reunion) cancelled for the 3rd time! Sad but necessary. I hope everyone stays well!

Richard Winter (Winter)

I agree about the cancellation.  We just cancelled a long planned family trip to the West Coast on which we were supposed to leave today, because of Omicron.   I hope the Omicron wave wlll have passed by June, but people need to be able to plan reunion trips some time ahead and we can't count on better conditions far enough ahead of time, at this point, to put together a safe and sound reunion.   Meanwhile, in an effort to spread cheer,  here is my latest take on "Sursum ad Summum":

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Philip Spiess

Obviously, Becky, after three cancellations there's nor way you're going to get to Scandinavia!

Kathy Ann Jentelson (Cole)

I'm writing a book about the things that I've learned from school, from Google, and from my personal experiences. It will be available as a free ebook. I'll announce here how to access it, after it's finished.

Richard Murdock

Can I add another "aw nuts" to the cancellation of our June 2022 reunion - which was a postponement from our June 2021 reunion.  I was definitely looking forward to seeing my classmates this June. And get a chance to drive by the house I grew up in  - in Hyde Park.  The only thing I was not looking forward to was experiencing the humidity that I remember so vividly back when I was growing up in Cincinnati.  PS:  my house in Hyde Park (built in 1922) was not air conditioned. 

My best wishes to all of you - and here's hoping that the reunion will actually be held in 2023 !

Becky Payne (Shockley)

Phil, you are correct! And we are not expecting to go - at least not this year...

Bonnie Altman (Templeton)

The right choice considering omicron. We just canceled our trip to Israel. 

Paul Simons

Well ok but for every fail there's always a workaround, in this case a completely OUTDOOR reunion at Coney Island's beautiful Sunlite Pool

Laura Reid (Pease)

CONGRATS TO CINCINNATI AND THE BENGALS ON THEIR BIG WIN LAST NIGHT!!