D & L Tavern Ad – Jan. 13, 1965

Drive around some of Lorain's older neighborhoods, and often you'll see an old, one-story brick building  sitting right on a corner, next door to the houses. I've seen a lot of these structures around Lorain over the years, and they're usually home to a mom-and-pop grocery or liquor store. But I always wonder what business was in there, decades before.

Above you see an ad for one of these types of places: D & L Tavern, located on the corner of Lexington and W. 26th Street. It ran in the Journal on January 13, 1965.

It's interesting because it refers to itself as "Lorain's Most Modern and Sunken Bar." I seem to recall someone contacting me at some point to see if I remembered the name of some sunken bar.

At right you see a Google Maps view showing where 2522 Lexington is located.

Anyway, how long had D & L Tavern been there? I found this ad from the Lorain Journal of December 5, 1947. As you can see, Nick Dziama and Peter Lasichak were the proprietors.

D & L Tavern's owners believed in advertising. Here's an ample sample of ads from through the years.

April 2, 1948

Dec. 8, 1960

Aug. 2, 1963

Feb. 6, 1964

Feb. 13, 1964

D & L Tavern sponsored various sports leagues for many years, thus regularly keeping its name in front of Journal readers.

Sept. 16, 1964

Jan. 20, 1965

Sept. 3, 1982

I'm not sure how long D & L Tavern remained in business. Today, the 2522 Lexington location is home to Gonzalez Grocery.

Rebman's Opens Its Oberlin Ave. Lanes – Jan. 16, 1955

If you lived in the Lorain area back in the 1960s and 70s, and were in the mood to go bowling, you had a lot of choices. Everybody no doubt had their favorite bowling alley.

Not belonging to a league, my buddies and I had to find a place with open bowling. We would go far and wide in our search; Andorka Lanes on Lorain's east side; Shoreway Lanes in Sheffield Lake; Lake Erie Lanes in Vermilion; Aqua Marine Lanes out in Avon Lake; I even remember going to Broadway Lanes (in the basement of the Broadway Building) at least once.

But the one that I (and other west-siders) probably went to the most was the one closest to home: Rebman's Recreation.

Unlike many of the businesses that I write about, Rebman's is still out there at the south end of Oberlin Avenue and doing well. But originally it was located at 1040 Broadway (across from Lorain Monument on the other side of Broadway – now lost to the underpass). 

Here's an ad from the September 8, 1947 Lorain Journal announcing its opening.

And here's an ad for the Grand Opening of the Rebman's Restaurant, from the June 5, 1948 Lorain Journal. The bowling lanes were downstairs.

But with the beginning of the new year in 1955, the new lanes on Oberlin Avenue were almost ready for their grand opening. Here's a schedule that ran in the Lorain Journal on January 7, 1955 mentioning the opening day for the 'new establishment.

And here's the Opening Day ad that ran in the Lorain Journal on January 14, 1955.

I posted a July 1958 ad for Rebman's promoting its Acme Automatic Pinspotters back here.

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As I reminisced back here, bowling was kind of important in the Brady family. My parents met while bowling. They bowled in a BF Goodrich league. And Mom tried to make bowlers out of my siblings and me by signing us up for a Saturday morning league at Shoreway Lanes.

I even took bowling as one of my physical education requirements at Ohio State (along with ice skating) and bought an engraved ball after college. But unfortunately, bowling was never something that was right up my alley.

Thomas A. Edison Birthplace To Be National Landmark – Jan. 14, 1965

Sixty years ago today, the birthplace of Thomas Alva Edison in Milan was declared eligible for National Historic Landmark status by the U. S. Secretary of the Interior. Below is the article making the announcement that ran in the Journal on January 14, 1965.

I would have thought that since the small brick home of the inventor had been a tourist attraction (and subject of picture post cards) for decades, that it had already had such a designation. But that's not the case.

Postmark 1908

Postmarked 1943

1950s

1966

1970s

It did receive approval of its official historic landmark designation fairly quickly.

January 18, 1965 Lorain Journal

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You might be wondering (like me) about those postcards that show Edison's home with a large, unsightly roof overhang. Apparently it was added some time between the early 1900s and the 1940s. So when was it removed? When the house was restored by the Edison family to its original appearance at the time of Edison's birth, just in time for the 100th anniversary in Feb. 1947.

This article from the Feb. 11, 1946 Lorain Journal explains.

Meyer Goldberg Promotion: Win a Mercury Comet – January 1965

If you grew up or lived in Lorain in the 1960s or 70s, then you probably spent some, or perhaps most, of your grocery dollars at one of the Meyer Goldberg stores. 

Living on the west side, we shopped at the store on Oberlin Avenue. It looked very different architecturally from the typical national chains (such as A&P), which tended to occupy space in the huge shopping centers being built at that time.

But it didn't start out as a Meyer Goldberg location. It was originally built to be Jay's Sparkle Market, operated by pioneer grocer Jay Jursinski. Here's the full-page ad that ran in the Journal on May 2, 1962.

But by January 1964, the store had become the third outlet in the Meyer Goldberg chain. It was announced very quietly in this ad, which ran on January 1, 1964.

A year later in January 1965, Meyer Goldberg celebrated the one-year anniversary of his new store on Oberlin Avenue with a very creative promotion: the opportunity to win a 1965 Mercury Comet, "built in Lorain by Lorain people."

Here's the promotional spread that ran in the Journal on January 12, 1965.

A few days later this article provided some of the details of the remodeling of the Oberlin Avenue store, as well as shining the light on some of the personnel working behinds the scene, including stockholder Jay Jursinski.

So who won the Comet? I knew you were going to wonder, so here is the announcement of the winner, which ran as part of a store ad on February 24, 1965.

A Tale of a Dog at Vermilion Lagoons – Jan. 13, 1955

Are there any dog lovers out there? 

If so, then this front-page story from the January 13, 1955 Lorain Journal might be of interest. It's about a dog named Pepper, living at the Vermilion Lagoons and owned by Mr. Samuel George.

The focus of the article is that Pepper might have been on his way to setting some sort of record for longevity as he was about 22 years old – equivalent to age 161 in a human.

The whole concept of aging in dogs and comparing it to humans is an inexact science at best, since so many factors are involved. And some smaller breeds are known to exceed the average dog lifespan of 10 to 13 years.

Nevertheless, the story of Pepper is a cute one. Like many other locals, she came to Lorain from McKeesport, Pennsylvania. Her owner noted that she had never been to a vet or been seriously ill and simply 'runs and jumps and enjoys life.'

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We never had a dog when I was growing up, although my siblings and I wanted one. I think Mom (who had a dog herself when she was a kid on Sixth Street in Lorain) said it would be too much work. So I ended up with a fish, and then a hamster. The first real pet came much later, when my older brother brought home a kitten from the steel mill in his lunch box. Although we didn't know it at the time, that cat would be my parents' beloved pet for about the next 20 years.

Lorain Journal Front Page – 100 Years Ago Today

One hundred years ago today, this was the front page of the January 10, 1925 Lorain Journal.

Of course, the headline is of great interest: "Amherst Has Booze Ring, Says Rum Runner." It seems that a bootlegger named Dave Brennin of Amherst "squealed" on George Bailey (another Amherst man) and fingered him as being the supplier of his liquor. Surprisingly (to me at least), Bailey was immediately arrested simply on Brennin's information.

It's kind of funny that George Bailey is the name of James Stewart's character in It's A Wonderful Life.

Illegal booze (it was Prohibition times, after all) also figured prominently in the article directly below the Amherst story.

Also of interest to me is the story about the "Hazard On Lake Road To Go." It notes, "Elimination of the grade crossing on Lake Road, between Lorain and Vermilion, of both the Lake Shore Electric and Nickel Plate Railroads, is included in the 1926 program of the state highway department for Lorain County, it was announced in Columbus today.

I wrote about this dangerous crossing (with photos) back here (in 2010) and here (in 2020).

Alas, the bridge over the railroad tracks would not be completed until September 1938.

August 31, 1938

Sept. 17, 1938

As I've noted before, that overpass is literally outside the window of my condo. Of course the bridge there now is the one that replaced the 1938 one. I remember the old bridge, because it was more ornate than the present, boring one.

Also on that 1925 front page: a story about an unfortunate racial attack; a report about the booming business at the Post Office; and the addition of William E. Ashbolt as a reporter covering news in the state legislature.

Travelodge's Sleepy Bear: Hibernating?

One of the most visited posts of this blog is one I did on Travelodge's Sleepy Bear mascot back in 2013. The post featured a lot of vintage Sleepy Bear promotional items, and tracked his evolution over the decades through his use on postcards, brochures, matchbooks and other marketing pieces.

Google "Travelodge Sleepy Bear" and you'll see that my 2013 post about the beloved bruin shows up first – thus demonstrating that a lot of people remember him and are wondering what he's up to these days.

The answer: not much. And for fans of the original bear, that's rather, uh, unbearable.

After a series of redesigns, by 2012 Sleepy had evolved into a largely unappealing character. Sleepy had lost his nightshirt and cap, and wasn't sleepy any more; he was tall and dopey-looking, wore a Travelodge vest and was now an adventure guide. His transition from cute, sleep-walking cub to his present grisly grizzly appearance was documented on the Travelodge website at that time.

Today, Sleepy is nowhere to be found on the Travelodge by Wyndham website. The Travelodge Wiki entry notes, "The Sleepy Bear mascot has largely been retired, but can be seen on some older Travelodge signs and is still used on some advertising."

Sleepy Bear does still appear on the Travelodge Facebook page, but all of the photos are from 2012. There is a short video from last year that seems to be a half-hearted attempt to keep him 'working.' Here's a screen grab showing how he looks these days.

That's a long way from this (below).

If Wyndham was smart, they would return to the original, charming Sleepy Bear design. Give him a website and/or presence on TikTok, YouTube etc. and give the youngest kiddies a stuffed Sleepy Bear doll when they stay at a Travelodge. There's still a lot of life left in that bear even if he is sleepy.