Ice Fishing – Feb. 1976

It's winter again (ugh) so it's a good time to post some more articles about ice fishing.

Back here, I posted a full-page article from the Feb. 3, 1966 Lorain Journal about Journal Staff Writer Hank Kozlosk's first ice fishing trip. In his article he told about his trip to Middle Bass Island on the ancient "Tin Goose" Ford Tri-Motor and his fishing as part of a group at a 'shanty town.' He mentioned that he couldn't wait to go ice fishing again.

Ten years later, Mr. Kozloski went ice fishing again, and wrote about the experience in the Feb. 15, 1976 Journal. He had another ride over to Middle Bass Island on the Tin Goose but this time, well... I'll let you read his article.

Just a few days earlier on Feb. 13, 1976, the Journal ran a story on ice fishing on Sandusky Bay. The full-page article featured interesting quotes by ice fishermen Lloyd Pellerin, Louis Shukait, Kenneth Williams and George Boston.

As the article notes, "The ice fishing fever has turned into an epidemic. The reason is simple. Experienced fishermen say the ice from the Sandusky area to Port Clinton and the islands is the first solid formation in three to six years. In most places it's 12 to 18 inches thick, but melting this week with the warmer weather.

"Even "ice buggies' – cars stripped of just about anything which isn't necessary to make them run – have been driven over the white-gray crust from South Bass Island to Port Clinton.

"On any given day, but mostly on weekends as the sun rises, hundreds of men, women and children are lured onto the always mysterious ice in stalk of smelt, perch, crappie, blue gill, bass... and excitement."

Anyways, it's too bad that Kozloski had a 'crappie' day ice fishing.

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At the bottom of the page with Hank Kozloski's article, there's a Uniroyal ad with a little graphic showing Uni, Roy and Al – the stunt drivers in those well-remembered commercials. Remember them?

Here's a great little promo film about Uni, Roy and Al – uploaded by the wife of Cliff Cudney, who portrayed 'Al.'

"Miracle on Ice" Hockey Game – Feb. 22, 1980

The U. S. Men's Hockey team celebrating their victory
over the Soviets in Feb. 1980

The U.S. Men's Hockey team beat Canada yesterday to win Olympic gold for the first time since the famous 1980 "Miracle on Ice" game in which the U.S. defeated the Soviet Union. 

It was exactly forty-six years to the day. Unbelievable.

Remembering the last time we won a gold medal in hockey brought back a lot of memories for me. I remember watching the 1980 game in my dorm room at Ohio State. It was a four-man room (we called it "the Quad"). We had a room full of people on that Friday night. I still have several photos from that get together. And I'm still very close friends with two of my roomies.

The U.S. victory in 1980 caused my roommates and me to experience a brief hockey frenzy, and we started going to OSU hockey games at the Ohio State University Ice Rink. They had a great team and season that year. Good times.

Anyway back in Lorain, here's the front page of the Lorain Journal from Feb. 23, 1980 the day after the U. S. men's hockey team defeated the Soviets.

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Here's a nice account on the AARP website about the 40th anniversary of the "Miracle on Ice" in 2020.

Washington's Birthday – Feb. 22, 1926

One hundred years ago, George Washington's Birthday was still celebrated on the actual day: Feb. 22nd.  I think that's the way it should be, so its importance isn't diluted.

Below you see the front page of the Lorain Journal for that day in 1926. As you can see, it was a day to truly honor the Father of Our Country. (My apologies for the rather unpleasant headline and accompanying story.)

Next to the portrait of the President is a great story about his penknife – what it meant to him, and how it kept him from resigning from the Army.

(The most important part of the story is a little hard to read so here it is: Knox knew Its story, and without any utterance, gently pushed the keepsake under the clenched hands of General Washington. Washington flushed. Knox said: “You were always 1 to obey your superiors. No one has commanded you to cease leading this army.” Within half an hour the resignation was tossed into the log fire, and the great Washington carried on. The hatchet showed the truth-stuff of the boy; the penknife showed the stability of the man.— The knife should replace the hatchet, Dr. Bloomhardt says.)

Washington is also featured in the sidebar listing some of his famous statements, as well as in a story at the bottom of the page. That article debunks some of the attacks on his character (which seems to have been the subject of news stories at that time).

Also on the page: Lorain celebrates Washington's Birthday with no school, and with banks, courts and municipal buildings closed; a sad story out of Athens about two moonshiners who lost their lives as a result of being trapped in a cave; and a story about Lorain's third annual Auto Show.

The funniest story was that of Charles Baswell in Elyria, who needed a place to sleep after a night of drinking and found a cozy spot in a hog pen between two big pigs.

The Passing Scene – Feb. 19, 1966

It's been a while since I posted a "Passing Scene" comic strip from our old pal, cartoonist Gene Patrick. So here's one from sixty years ago today – Feb. 19, 1966. 

Gene was in his second year of producing the comic panel for the Journal. He pretty much had his style established (contrary to his earliest strips in which he was still experimenting with the format).

There's nothing too controversial in the Feb. 19th strip. The bridge to Canada was a pet project of Governor Jim Rhodes; the Journal cast a skeptical eye at the idea in a Feb. 16th editorial.

The idea of U S Steel 'perfuming' its slag operation gave Patrick the chance to poke fun at a popular perfume ad campaign.

Feb. 16, 1966

The last panel features an apparently youthful senior citizen who prefers the teen music show Hullabaloo to old Keystone Kop comedies.

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And for those of you who like to see the "Passing Scene" strip in its proper context, here's the whole page. Hey! There's an Ohio Edison ad with our pal Reddy Kilowatt – what a coincidence!

Interurban Motormen Reminisce – Feb. 1956

The old interurban railway system hasn't received much attention on this blog for a while. To help make up for this grievous oversight, here's a great article from the Feb. 27, 1956 Lorain Journal. It tells of a special reunion of four Southwestern interurban motormen that was held on the 25th anniversary of the last run of the line.

The four veteran motormen – Tom Ferron, Edward Wilcox, Tom Marsh and Harry Searles – enjoyed themselves at a celebration in Oberlin that featured a special display of interurban relics prepared by Norman C. Muller. Muller was the owner of the Arlington Traction Company, featured in a series of posts on this blog.

A special cake with a 3-by-5-foot oval track complete with scale replica interurban cars was prepared by Harold Gibson of the Gibson Bros. Bakery.

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Here are a few Lorain Journal articles that ran at the time that the Cleveland Southwestern went out of business.

Jan. 30, 1931

March 28, 1932

May 24, 1932

May 25, 1932

Tally Ho! Brownhelm Fox Hunt – Feb. 1947

Did you know that there was a Brownhelm Fox Hunt back in February 1947?

Here's the article from the Feb. 21, 1947 Lorain Journal with the story.

It notes, "More than 400 enthusiasts are expected to enter the first organized fox hunt in Lorain-co which will start Sunday afternoon in Brownhelm, officials of the Lorain-co Fish and Game club, sponsors of the hunt, announced today.

"The starting point of the hunt will be the John Henning farm, at the corner of Foster park and Sunnyside-rds.

"The reported purpose of the hunt is to destroy the red foxes in this section which farmers in Brownhelm have blamed for killing their chickens."

A follow-up reminder appeared in the paper on Feb. 22.

Alas, the hunters were, uh, outfoxed as this story from the Feb. 24th edition reveals.

"Searching a two-square mile area in the drive for an hour, the surprisingly large turnout of searchers flushed out two foxes who scampered nimbly to safety under the cover of the snowy blasts.

"Strange game shaken out during the hunt was an old tom-cat who was allowed to quit the area."

A return match with the foxes was scheduled for March 8, 1947. This one turned out even worse for the hunters. The red fox made 'big dummies' out of them, as noted in this article from March 10, 1947.

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And for those of you who enjoy seeing the whole page of the paper, here's the Feb. 21, 1947  page with the initial report of the upcoming fox hunt. Hey, we even get a "There Oughta Be a Law..."

Presidents' Day 1971

Today is Presidents' Day – the day we honor any and all U. S. Presidents. Or is it?

You'll hear it referred to as Presidents' Day all day – on TV newscasts, as the theme of various store sales – but actually, it just happens to be the day that George Washington's Birthday is celebrated, instead of the actual date of Feb. 22nd.

The Mount Vernon website explains it nicely. It notes,"The road to what the majority of the public in the United States now recognizes as Presidents’ Day is a long and confusing one. After Washington died in 1799, his birthday was informally celebrated across the country. 

"It wasn’t until  January 31, 1879, that Washington’s birthday became a federally recognized holiday. 

"Until 1968, Washington’s Birthday had always been celebrated on February 22. It was tradition and a powerful reminder of the man who helped create what we have today in the United States.

"On June 28, 1968, Congress passed the “Uniform Monday Holiday Act”. This law was to provide uniform annual observances of certain legal public holidays on Mondays. The act was also created to provide federal employees with more three-day weekends. Under this new law, Washington’s birthday would be celebrated on the third Monday of February, partially losing the value and identity of the importance of his birthday. Washington’s birthday has not been celebrated on the actual day of his birth since the law took effect in 1971."

May 10, 1971

June 28, 1971

The initial rollout in1971 of the new Presidents' Day caused some confusion, according to this article that ran in the Journal on Feb. 11, 1971.

For some businesses, they merely ran their Washington's Birthday (or Brithday, in Arby's case) sales on Feb. 15th.

Feb. 15, 1971

Feb. 15, 1971

But the Style Center did something different in its ad that ran on Feb. 14th.

"They have changed the name from Washington's Birthday to Presidents' Day and threw-in Mr. Lincoln," the ad notes. But instead of commenting on the decision to rename the holiday, the Style Center hilariously decided that the throw-in of Lincoln was a good excuse to double the bargains. Oh well.

At least it didn't use clip art of young George with hatchet in hand.