I have no present memory of when I first set foot in Ohio. I am sure we went to Lake Erie when I was a very young kid, to Geneva-on-the-Lake or Conneaut. Those names are familiar but the memories are confused with Aunt Mary’s place in NorthEast, PA. I also remember as a teenager, by which time swimming in Lake Erie was a no-go, going to Painesville, Ohio to a horse show. During the time from 1960 – 66 I had horses and we had a horse trailer. Our travels consisted of going to horse shows all summer in the Tri- State area but while those are good memories I have no photos or diary or means of chronicling the when and where of that time, so I will date my Ohio trips to 1967 when I know I went to a friend’s house in Willoughby Hills just outside Cleveland on a weekend visit from Bethany College. The most memorable thing about that trip is that her parents forgot we were coming and apparently went away and we were locked out of the house. The picture below is of my friend breaking into the premises.
I also remember one time we took a field trip from Bethany to the Cleveland Opera, probably six or seven of us in the college van. The current version of the Cleveland Opera didn’t exist in the late 1960’s ( Home | The Cleveland Opera ) so we must have gone to some unidentified traveling version of the Met. I just remember my professor being so excited that the opera was going to be that close to Bethany (a more than 2 hour roadtrip away) and that we had to go ! So into the school van we piled and off we went. I will admit that I am glad I did it. I remember actually enjoying it. Even though I have never attended another full opera production, I have spent hours listening to opera. That experience is a good Ohio memory.
My theme for Ohio seems to be musical. The next memorable trip came in 1995 with my daughter and her friend. She wanted to visit the The Rock n Roll Hall of Fame so off we went. The men on the trip stopped in Canton to visit the Football Hall of Fame and we then proceeded on to Cleveland for the rock and roll. Pro Football Hall of Fame | Pro Football Hall of Fame Official Site (profootballhof.com) In Cleveland we found a relatively new museum dedicated to rock and roll, not even 10 years old. My daughter was a big Pearl Jam fan and Pearl Jam was not inducted into the Hall of Fame until 2017. I don’t have much to say about the actual museum. It didn’t do a lot for me, but the girls loved it and I loved the trip to Cleveland because it made them so happy, so it was a win/win. Visit | Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (rockhall.com)
What do flatlanders have to do with this entry you might be wondering. I have had some very dear friends through the years, especially one from Akron, and one from the Cleveland area (you already heard a bit about Ann and the Breaking and Entering escapade). The guy from Akron, a/k/a Jerry, will figure more prominently in the California adventure. The “flatlander” sobriquet was the name my husband gave to people from Ohio, in fact to any people “from away.” He was a Mainer born and bred. The nickname is truly a misnomer. Ohio doesn’t flatten out until you get to past Columbus. Most of eastern Ohio I have visited is a lot like western PA, rolling hills and pretty countryside.
My most recent trip to Ohio took me back to the Lake Erie area outside Toledo in Port Clinton. I stopped there on my way home from Michigan in 2021. The trip to Michigan was part of the visit all 50 mission and to get home I had to drive through Ohio so I thought I might as well get a recent picture of Lake Erie from an Ohio shore, which explains the picture at the top of this blog. Imagine how delighted I was to find that Big Boys still exist in Ohio. In West Virginia they were served at restaurants called Elby’s, in Pennsylvania it was Eat n’ Park, and in Ohio it was The Big Boy Family Restaurant. They all had this character on the front lawn and he is emblematic of my childhood.
The best thing I have to say about Ohio is that one of my favorite presidents, Ulysses S. Grant, was born there. Grant seems to me to be the epitome of Ohio, underappreciated. Grant was actually a forward looking individual who had a vision of Reconstruction that would have most likely created a different America than the one we have today had his ideas been fully implemented. If you want to know more about Grant I heartily recommend Ron Chernow’s biography. To quote the Goodreads review of the book, “Ulysses S. Grant’s life has typically been misunderstood. All too often he is caricatured as a chronic loser and inept businessman, fond of drinking to excess; or as the triumphant but brutal Union general of the Civil War; or as a credulous and hapless president whose tenure came to symbolize the worst excesses of the Gilded Age. These stereotypes don’t come close to capturing adequately his spirit and the sheer magnitude of his monumental accomplishments.”
Or you could take a roadtrip to Ohio and study the place. Perhaps you would reach the same sort of conclusions, following the sage wisdom of Doris Day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkIe_wgnGfI
Memories - A Second Chance at Happiness 