Laura Reid (Pease)

Steve, so enjoyed seeing Catherine on two occasions at the Nat'l Docent Symposium and heard from more than one fellow Taft docent how nice you are!!!  Sorry I missed you; see you in June!

Laura (how do you spell whore) Reid Pease

Philip Spiess

Steve:  Perhaps your parents remembered the old limerick:

"There was an old woman named Kroll

 Who, with humor exceedingly droll,

 Once went to a ball

 Dressed in nothing at all,

 And backed in as a Parker House roll!"

Steven Levinson

Laura (hdysw):  Cathy really enjoyed meeting and chatting with you.  I was hoping that we'd have a chance to catch up at the Freedom Center dinner but then learned that the Cincinnati docents were "barred" for lack of space.  Bummer.  Let's talk next June 17-19.

Phil:  My Dad loved limericks, but he probably didn't know that one, at least as of then.  And besides, they were engaged in serious business!

Philip Spiess

Laura Pease and Cathy Levinson:  I'd love to hear more about what went on at the National Docent Symposium, given that I was in professional museum work for 48 years, but if it's more appropriate to tell me on the personal Message Center rather than on this Forum (if you want to tell me anything at all), feel free to do so.  And what's this about being barred from the Freedom Center dinner?

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Hi everyone. Popping in again for a few minutes.... The threads are so much fun here, I'm not sure what to two cents' worth first.

Dreams. I don't dream about my high school days although the getting-lost-before-a-class dream was a recurrent one for me for many years, but I was at University of Illinois at Chicago in the dream. I did used to have a recurrent dream involving a boy I had a crush on from the class of '63 - which never came back after in the real world I saw his mother who was on the same trip-to-Israel package as other people I knew from Cincy. I was blushing crimson and my heart was pounding so loud that I am sure that she could hear when we exchanged small talk. Ummmm, I forgot to mention that this recurrent dream with her son was exceedingly erotic. 

I ended another recurrent dream  that bothered me a lot right after I had my first baby through pure bullying myself. I was unprepared for her demanding feedings every two hours, like most first-parents. And I guess that some resentment was generated for disturbing my ability to sleep 10 hours straight on days I did not have to work. So I would dream that I was walking outside in heaps of snow with Danielle wrapped in a blanket, like some Dickensian character. Curiously, I was on my way to a football game (curious because, please do not boo me too loud, I never got into football). I put Danielle under a shrub in a pile of snow and went on to the game. In my dream, I was fast-forwarded to after the game when I went to try to find Danielle under that shrub. Of course, I couldn't find her, and always woke up crying with tears running down my cheeks. It got so that I was afraid to go to sleep, so I gave myself a talking-to about stopping to resent my wonderful and beautiful Danielle. And you know what? The dream never came back. 

Nothing interesting really about my conception, just a couple of cute photographs of Dad and Mom hugging, and Mom told me later she had just found out she was pregnant with me. The shocker for my brother and I was when we found Dad's army papers. Although we have their formal wedding pictures dated Decemberr 1945, his official army papers listed him as married. Did they have a civil marriage that was uncomsummated since Dad enlisted long before Pearl Harbor in 1941? Traditionally, Jews do not consider themselves "really married" unless and until they have the ritual under the canopy...... Truly, parents do surprising things!

Bruce Fette

Judith,

Have you researched to see if you can find civil marraige documents. Perhaps a very interesting story here, of a man who was eager to get back to his wife when the war was over. :)

Bruce

Philip Spiess

Judy:  That "wrapped babe carried through the snow" dream sounds more like George Eliot's Silas Marner ("The Weaver of Raveloe") and Little Eppie than it does Charles Dickens.

Jerry Ochs

Judy,

Have you described that dream to Danielle?  Oh, and who won the football game?

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Describe the dream to Danielle??? You must be joking... I am roughly 5'1" and she is 5'8". She could and probably would beat me up for putting her down in the snow. Even in a dream. And confusingly there was no game to remember in my dream. There was only going to and then coming from the game. It was just a dream and I think had a message for me that had nothing to do with the game. Sorry to disappoint you sports fans out there....

Phil, we should probably forget both Eliot and Dickens. Hang our hats on Lil Eliza (?) fleeing the plantation.

Hi Bruce. I'm seeing my brother in a few days. He's the one who dug up the old army papers. I'll ask him what he thinks. However, the ship has long sailed for a sentimental world war 2 enlistment story, since the 50th anniversary of Pearl has long gone. Dad fought at Iwo and Guadalcanal, is there an anniversary there perhaps, you military historians out there? 

David Buchholz

My bad...a brief photographic interlude.  These are not dreams.  7:57 pm last night.  The moon emerged just in time from a cloud bank.  And stars, we got stars...Before the moon emerged, there were hundreds of us who had climbed to the top of a rise in the East Bay hills, part of Tilden Park, overlooking San Francisco.  While everyone was searching for the moon I thought, oh well, I'm here.  Maybe a shot of SF could be fun, too.

Bruce Fette

I guess we already have several "Hello Honey Im Home" stories.

I couldn't remember the names long enough to type this message, so I wrote them down :)

Phil Spiess, Steve Collett, Judith Holtzer, Richard Murdock, Steve Levinson.

I bet there are more stories and plenty of interesting stories out there.

Love to hear from all of you.  No wonder they called us Baby Boomers!

Philip Spiess

Dave:  Great shots!  I missed seeing the eclipse, because it was too dark out (and do you all know about "the rabbit in the moon," which I think I mentioned in these pages about a year ago?).  (Equinox sounds like a sleep-inducing drug, doesn't it?)  And I recognize the TransAmerica tower and the high transmission tower in the middle background, but I'm mystified by the bridge in the foreground:  which bridge has that causeway connected to it?  Is that the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, crossing Treasure Island?

Judy:  Good shot!  You tell 'em Simon, and I'll Legree!  I have an 1870's-1880s poster of "Jay Riall's Real Uncle Tom's Cabin" show, featuring Eliza crossing the Ohio ice flows, pursued by the bloodhounds (published by Cincinnati's own Strobridge Lithograph Co., the world's greatest producer of 19th-century circus and theatrical posters, augmented by Cincinnati's Ault & Wiborg Printing Ink Co., at the time the world's largest printing ink company).  A real melodrama!  Although the post-Civil War melodramas of Uncle Tom's Cabin set Eliza's crossing the ice as the climax of the show, in Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel it appears in chapter 5, pretty close to the beginning of the story.

And the story is real, as documented in Mrs. Stowe's own publication, Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, which was written to rebutt the idea, put about by Southern plantation owners of slaves, that  she'd made it all up.  (She collected these true slave and Underground Railroad stories when resident in Cincinnati at Lane Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Walnut Hills, where her father, Lyman Beecher, was president and her husband, Calvin Stowe, was a faculty member.)  You can visit the Reverend John Rankin's house (long an Ohio State Historic Site), on the hill above Ripley, Ohio, where the actual Eliza did cross the ice and was hidden by the Rev. Rankin, an active member of the Underground Railroad, who signalled by lantern to Kentucky across the river, and see the two secret hiding places for runaway slaves (one in the well!).

Jeff Daum

Great photograph of San Francisco Dave!  Thanks for sharing.

Jean Snapp (Miller)

The red moon picture is great!  I also saw the eclipse but not nearly so red here in WI.  A magnificent sight!

Mary Vore (Iwamoto)

Beautiful picture of the eclipse Dave - it was too cloudy to find the moon here.  And a nice picture of San Francisco - with the Bay Bridge and the Mt. Sutro tower - will they ever finish the Bridge? 

My husband and I were in Cincinnati over Labor Day week-end, and were able to visit the Taft Museum.  I was very glad for the early postings here regarding the history of the house and the Robert S. Duncanson murals in the foyer - these and the entire collection were very impressive.  There was also an outstanding exhibit at the Taft - Enduring Spirit - Edward Curtis and the North American Indians.  The black and white photographs are moving and the exhibit was well done.  If you ever have a chance to see it, it is well worth the effort - especially for those of you who are such good photographers. 

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati has an excellent movie, narrated by Oprah Winfrey - of the crossing of the Ohio River by slaves escaping to freedom - and being welcomed by Reverend John Rankin and his sons and hidden in their home.  Our next visit to Cincinnati will include Harriet Beecher Stowe's home.  Thanks for this good background Phil!

Rick Steiner

My brother Corky was born Feb 9,. My mother explained that I came to be because my brother asked on his third birthday if he could have a little brother .  I was born nine months later. Thank you , Corky!

I would be interested to read  when other classmates parents/grandparents  were born I always knew that my parents were older than those of my classmates.  .My paternal grandfather was born in 1856, and my dad in 1901.  My father married a younger woman; my mother Desiree was born in 1911 . 

David Buchholz

Thanks for the Blood Moon comments.  Phil, the causeway that leads to Treasure Island is the new Bay Bridge.  I guess like Boston's Big Dig, the bridge has gone way over cost, and there are a number of construction issues that plague the new bridge, beautiful as it appears.  Some rods that weren't supposed to see water are rusting.  No quick fix.  The dark lines to the left of the bridge are the old Bay Bridge.  Full demoltion of that bridge is scheduled for three years.  It's been two since the new bridge opened. A bike path alongside the new Bay Bridge stops just short of Treasure Island.  Once the old bridge is completely demolished the bike path will lead to Treasure Island. This will be immensely popular, as Treasure Island is a great ride. 

Rick:  Mom and Dad were both born in 1913.

Philip Spiess

Dave:  Thanks for filling me in; I had no idea that there was a new Bay Bridge.  Was this the result of the earthquake some years ago that dropped a center span with a car hanging onto the edge?  And Treasure Island, I believe, was built specifically (as an artificial island) to be the site of the Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939, the West Coast's response to the East Coast's 1939 New York World's Fair (one of the best American World's Fairs ever held).

Mary:  For years the Harriet Beecher Stowe home in Walnut Hills was listed as an Ohio State Historic Site -- it was eventually the only building left from the Lane Seminary campus -- but it never seemed to be open.  A good number of years ago now I heard that it was permanently closed -- has it reopened?  Do tell me if you know.  The real Harriet Beecher Stowe home to visit is in West Hartford, Connecticut, in the same enclave that houses Mark Twain's magnificent steamboat-Gothic mansion and the Stowe-Day Foundation headquarters -- a great site to visit if you're in that area!

Rick:  Genealogical information:

Greatgrandfather Foerster (mother's side):  Born Cincinnati, 1872.

Greatgrandmother Foerster (mother's side, nee Feid):  Born Cincinnati, 1872.

Grandfather Goepp (mother's side):  Born Cincinnati, 1897.

Grandmother Goepp (mother's side):  Born Cincinnati, 1900.

Father Philip D. Spiess:  Born Cincinnati, 1918.

Mother Dorothy Spiess:  Born Cincinnati, 1921 (WHHS, Class of 1939).

[Much less is known about my father's side of the family, although we do have the records; I'd have to search for them.  My father had a real sister, a half sister, and a step-sister; his mother died when he was about seven, in the dentist's chair from an overdose of chloroform (no malpractice suits then!), and his father died when he was fourteen.  Growing up, I was very close to my greatgrandmother Foerster, who died when I was seventeen; our son is named Philip Foerster Spiess after my greatgrandparents (partly because he was born on my birthday, and to completely replicate my name would have caused havoc with Social Security, IRS records, etc.), so we gave him a different middle name than mine and my father's.]

Laura Reid (Pease)

Philip, want to send you a scan of the program for the docent symposium wh/ was held here two weeks ago....you can private message me your email address unless it hasn't changed...Laura

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

It's interesting that two message threads have merged for me to comment. The Harriet Beecher Stowe House is still alive and well in Cincinnati.  This is the website:   http://www.stowehousecincy.org/.   They also have a presence on Facebook, and is a frequent venue for community events.  I was a member of a group, "Friends of Stowe", formed about ten years ago to promote interest in the Stowe House.  I believe Anthony Malone is still on the board.  

We previously had a discussion of Lane Seminary. My maternal grandfather, was born a slave.  He never knew his exact birthdate, but knew he was a young boy in 1840. He died in 1939.  A Presbyterian minister, he was educated at Lane.  He was retired and living in Charlotte, NC, when brought out of retirement to move his family to Cincinnati to found Carmel Presbyterian Church for African Americans.  The youngest of his eight children, my mother, was born in Cincinnati in 1912.  My grandmother, was 45.  

I always thought I had old parents. My mother was 31 and dad 32 when my brother was born in 1942.  They were in their mid thirties when I came along.  My mother did tell me (when I was about 40) that we almost had a sibling. She pregnant when she and dad eloped in 1939, but lost the baby.  Ooh-la-la!!!!!

Ira Goldberg

Three things,

Enjoying the posts about dreams. Wish I retained something of interest. Judy, if your memory of placing a child under a bush sounds a lot like the Moses being place in the bullrushes, she has quite a legacy to follow!  

Six Acres B&B on Hamilton Avenue is another home that was on the Underground Railroad. It is now owned and operated by a WHHS grad! Gwynne and I stayed there some years ago. It's worth a visit or a stay.

Our Performing Arts Fund is part of the Endowment that the Alumni Foundation oversees. A 20th Anniversary event of the Foundation is October 17 at WHHS. If anyone wants to meet up there, please tell me.

Sharon Baum (Covitz)

Rick,

My father was born in 1900.  He was 20 years older than my mom. My mother grew up in New Richmond, Ohio and her folks sent her to Cincinnati to go to high school.  She went to Hughes and stayed in a boarding house. There was this nice looking guy who was staying there too and he would play his violin in the evening.  That was my dad. He came from Czechoslovakia and attended the University of Budapest.  When they married, mom was 18.

Steven Levinson

Rick:  By way of way big contrast:  my paternal grandfather was born in 1884 in Lithuania; my maternal grandmother was born in 1895 in St. Joseph, MO; my father (youngest of five) was born in 1920 in Cincinnati, and my (child) mother was born in 1926 in Cincinnati.

Bruce Fette

Shari,

My Mom also went to Hughes High. It would be interesting to see if they were classmates.

:)

Philip Spiess

Let's see, where do I begin?

Ann:  Thank you for getting me up to date on the status of the Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Cincinnati; it sounds like the Ohio Historical Society has finally gotten its act together, and that you, perhaps, were involved in its taking action.  And Tony Malone on the board -- fantastic!   Also, great historical information related to Lane Seminary (it will go into my files!).

Ira:  Six Acres B & B on Hamilton Avenue?  Tell me more (or I suppose I could look up their website; I suppose they have one).

Sharon:  Love New Richmond, Ohio (though I found it changed in recent years); it's a place to go through on the way to Ripley, Ohio (see Underground Railroad info, above).  Did I mention the ice cream parlor in downtown Ripley, Ohio?  Definitely a place to visit if you're checking out Underground Railroad sites!

Bruce:  My father, Philip Spiess, went to Hughes High School, 1932-1936.  His German teacher there was a certain "Frau Kitzmann," who, it turned out, I had as my German teacher at Walnut Hills High School twenty-five years later.  On my first day in class, she was reading the roll and came to "Philip Spiess"; she looked up and said, "Oh, God!  Not another one!"

Rick:  Just to add to the record:  I was 32 when I married, and 45 when my son was born; my wife is four years younger than I am.  Yes, we are still alive.