Sparky's On the Job in Oberlin

Fire Prevention Week 2025 may be over, but it was a nice surprise a few weeks ago to see a banner on the front of the Oberlin Fire Department station on S. Main Street featuring none other than Sparky the Fire Dog.

Here's a better look at what the banner looks like (below). The artwork, with its message of safely buying, charging and recycling Lithium-Ion batteries in your home, is very visible on the internet.

Here's the National Fire Prevention Association's Charge into Fire Safety: 3 Steps

Buy only listed products. When buying a product that uses a lithium-ion battery look for a safety certification mark such as UL, ETL, or CSA. This means it meets important safety standards. 

Charge devices safely. Always use the cords that came with the product to charge. Follow the instructions from the manufacturer. Buy new chargers from the manufacturer or one that the manufacturer has approved. Charge your device on a hard surface. Don’t overcharge your device. Unplug it or remove the battery when it’s fully charged. 

Recycle batteries responsibly. Don’t throw lithium-ion batteries in the trash or regular recycling bins because they could start a fire. Recycle your device or battery at a safe battery recycling location. Visit call2recycle.org to find a recycling spot near you.

Rory Raccoon Revisited

Remember my post about Kmart's raccoon mascot? Initially, Google AI Overview scoffed at my assertion that the nationwide retailer ever had a ring-tailed critter representing its stores' home improvement offerings. Eventually Google's AI technology saw the error of its ways. 

Well, here's another look at raccoon mascot I've written about before: Rory Raccoon, who represented two Post Cereals over the years.

As noted back on this post, Rory Raccoon was one of the cartoon characters on the Linus the Lionhearted TV show (which my siblings and I watched). You might remember that each character on the show had his own segment and was a mascot for a Post cereal, such as Sugar Bear for Sugar Crisp, Linus for Crispy Critters, Lovable Truly the Postman for Alpha-Bits, etc.

Rory Raccoon initially plugged Post Toasties, the Post equivalent of Kellogg's Corn Flakes. In the commercials, Rory matched wits with C. Claudius Crow, who was always trying to steal the cereal. This setup mirrored the Linus the Lionhearted segments, where the crow concocted various schemes to help himself to Rory's cornfield. 

Here's one of the commercials. That's Jesse White (the Maytag Man) as C. Claudius Crow.

And here's a Rory Raccoon cartoon. This is one of the funnier ones, in which the conflict between Rory and the crow is escalated to actual warfare, with a retired U. S. Army general advising the raccoon in the use of military tactics.

Back when cereal boxes were fun, there was always something interesting on the back of the box. This vintage Post Toasties box had a neat little "How to Draw Rory Raccoon" lesson on the back.

Rory eventually was reassigned from Post Toasties to Sugar Sparkled Flakes, the equivalent of – what else? – Kellogg's Sugar Frosted Flakes.

Apparently the decision was made to get rid of Rory's odd (hunting?) hat. Several boxes featured Rory and his crow adversary in various colorful scenarios (as seem on this flattened box).

Eventually Linus the Lionhearted was pushed off the air by the FCC, who wasn't crazy about the idea of  the cartoon characters on a TV show appearing in commercials during the program. With the cancellation of the program, many of the characters disappeared from the boxes of their respective cereals. There were a few survivors: Sugar Bear (on Sugar Crisp) and Lovable Truly (on Alpha Bits) and Rory Raccoon. As time went on, Rory stayed on the box, but without any headgear.

Years after the TV show ended, Rory was still on the box, but looking rather odd.

Anyway, today most of the Post Cereals that Baby Boomers grew up with are gone: Post Toasties, Alpha Bits, Rice Krinkles, Sparkled Flakes and Crispy Critters (which made a brief comeback in the 1990s sans Linus). 

Only Sugar Bear (on Golden Crisp) survives to tell the tale of a time when the Post Cereals menagerie ruled the TV airwaves and the cereal aisle.

****

Good news! The Linus the Lionhearted Show will be coming out this fall (supposedly) on a DVD set issued by MPI Home Video. You can read about its restoration here on the Cartoon Research website.

You can bet I'll be buying the DVD, and eating a bowl of Sugar Crisp Golden Crisp when I watch it!

The Big Blackout of 1965 – Nov. 9, 1965

Do you remember the Big Blackout of 1965?

For those too young to remember, it was a major power outage that struck the Northeastern United States back on November 9, 1965. More than 30 million people in eight states, as well as Ontario, Canada, were left without electricity, with the outage lasting up to 13 hours. 

Above is the front page of the Journal of November 10, 1965, reporting on the aftermath.

The Journal coverage noted, "At its peak last night, the power failure and companion blackout encompassed 80,000 square miles and 30 million persons in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island and Toronto and Ottawa in Canada. It hit about 5:50 p.m. EST and New York City, one of the last areas to have power restored, was without lights until 3:55 a.m. today.

How did it happen?

Sir Adam Beck Hydroelectric Power Station No. 2
Courtesy Water.OPG.com

As its Wiki entry notes, "The cause of the failure was the setting of a protective relay on one of the transmission lines from the Sir Adam Beck Hydroelectric Power Station No. 2 in Queenston, Ontario, near Niagara Falls. The safety relay was set to trip if other protective equipment deeper within the Ontario Hydro system failed to operate properly. 

"On a particularly cold November evening, power demands for heating, lighting, and cooking were pushing the electrical system to near its peak capacity. Transmission lines heading into southern Ontario were heavily loaded. The safety relay had been misprogrammed, and it did what it had been asked to do: to disconnect under the loads it perceived. As a result, at 5:16 p.m. Eastern Time, a small variation of power originating from the Robert Moses generating plant in Lewiston, New York, caused the relay to trip, disabling a main power line heading into Southern Ontario. Instantly, the load that was flowing on the tripped line redistributed to the other lines, causing them to become overloaded. Their own protective relays, which are also designed to protect the lines from overload, tripped, isolating Beck Station from all of southern Ontario. 

"With nowhere else to go, the excess load from Beck Station was redirected east, over the interconnected lines into New York state, overloading them as well, and isolating the power generated in the Niagara region from the rest of the interconnected grid. The Beck generators, with no outlet for their power, were automatically shut down to prevent damage. 

"The Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant continued to generate power, which supplied Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation customers in the metropolitan areas of Buffalo and Niagara Falls, New York. These areas ended up being isolated from the rest of the Northeast power grid and remained powered up. 

"Within five minutes, the power distribution system in the Northeast was in chaos as the effects of overloads and the subsequent loss of generating capacity cascaded through the network, breaking the grid into "islands". Station after station experienced load imbalances and automatically shut down. The affected power areas were the Ontario Hydro System, St Lawrence-Oswego, Upstate New York, and New England. 

"With only limited electrical connection southwards, power to the southern states was not affected."

I was too young to be aware of it until a Doris Day movie (the next to last of her career) came out a few years later entitled, Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?

I'm sure more of us remember the Northeast Blackout of 2003, which affected the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and most of Ontario. It happened on August 14, 2003 just after 4:00 p.m.

I remember that one well. It was so creepy at work that we were sent home early. I remember driving slowly through Lakewood on the way home, with all the traffic lights out. The stores all had their doors open, trying to let some light in on a hot, sunny day. Nobody knew what was going on, and there was a lot of anxiety that it was the result of terrorism, as 9/11 had only happened two years earlier.

I seem to recall the power coming back on in early evening, much to my relief.

Louis Cohn Opens Vermilion Store – Nov. 1965

 

Many of us who grew up in Lorain remember when Downtown Lorain was still thriving, with a large variety of stores geared to specific interests. There were several great men's stores offering personal service, including Sam Klein, Harry's Men's Wear and Louis Cohn, the subject of this post. I'm sure the Louis Cohn store at 13th and Broadway is well-remembered by many of my readers.

And it was 60 years ago when the well-known Louis Cohn name came to Vermilion with the opening of an outlet in the South Shore Shopping Center. Above is the Grand Opening ad that ran in the Journal on November 4, 1965.

I've neglected Louis Cohn on this blog for too long. So here's an ample sample of ads and clippings about the store, and the men behind it: Louis Cohn and his son, Edwin.

Sept. 27, 1929

April 12, 1935

April 11, 1941

Nov. 14, 1947

June 21, 1955

Oct. 13, 1955

Dec. 19, 1960

Jan. 6, 1966

Oct. 20, 1966

July 8, 1970

Nov. 8, 1979

Feb. 4, 1980

Oct. 23, 1983

Feb. 14, 1985

Oct. 14, 1998

July 22, 1999

Armistice Day Front Pages – 1930 & 1935

Today is Veterans Day (which somehow I forgot) and I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge it here on the blog. So here are two Lorain Journal front pages from the 1930s, back when the day was still celebrated as Armistice Day. Both have great header illustrations, something that would eventually be eliminated in later years in favor of providing more front page news.

Above is the paper from Nov. 11, 1930. World War I had only been over for twelve years so it was still fresh in the mind of Lorainites. There are some other interesting tidbits as usual, including a story about Penfield farmers promising a 'buckshot reception' for vandals who "molest Lorain-co farms and orchards."

Below is the Journal from Nov. 11, 1935.

Of interest is the fact that the Journal had just changed its typeface. There's a side by side comparison near the bottom of the page. The muddy microfilm images don't make it easy to analyze, but the new font (Intertype Regal) does seem to be a little more readable (at least to my aging eyes).

There's also a report about the Dept. of Agriculture's interest in developing turkeys that will fit better in a roaster pan and consequently the oven.

Pennsylvania Dutch Egg Noodles Ad – Nov. 3, 1965

For many years, the Lorain Journal used to run a lot of national and regional ads, which were likely part of a carefully planned marketing strategy by the respective companies. These ads were a nice source of advertising income that the Morning Journal and all other surviving newspapers no doubt sorely miss today. The practice seemed to taper off in the 1980s and end completely with the rise of the internet.

I've featured a lot of these ads on the blog over the years and here's one for Pennsylvania Dutch Egg Noodles. The ad copy is written in a manner that would be grammatically correct in Pennsylvania Dutch, but seems curious to us. (An Old Dutch Beer campaign used the same gimmick.) 

It's interesting that by having an actual person represent the company (Pennsylvania Dutch-Megs Inc.), it seems to mimic the "Quaker Oats" man (who is based on William Penn). He's even clean shaven like the man on the Quaker Oats package.

But it seems kind of off to me.  When I think 'Pennsylvania Dutch,' I think of those old-time stick candy displays with the advertising mascot consisting of a man with a beard. One of those displays is for sale on the internet right now.

The same candy company (Pennsylvania Dutch Co. Inc. of Mount Holly Springs, PA) also sold their candy in various package designs, sometimes with a slightly different version of the bearded mascot.

For many years, I thought the 'Dutch' in Pennsylvania Dutch meant Dutch people (as in windmills and wooden shoes). Eventually I learned that Pennsylvania Dutch are largely German emigrants who arrived in the U. S beginning around the late 1600s. 

But what about the Amish? 

This website explains it nicely. Summing it up: the Amish are considered Pennsylvania Dutch, but not all Pennsylvania Dutch are Amish.

Speaking of the Amish, I made my first trip down to Amish Country in a long time just a few weeks ago on a beautiful Fall day. Dinner, of course, was at Der Dutchman in Walnut Creek – a Brady tradition since the 1970s. (By the way, Der Dutchman celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019, having opened in 1969. You can read a nice article about it here.)

Lorain Journal Comics Page – Nov. 10, 1937

If you're not a fan of Popeye (the comic strip, not the monotonous big screen cartoons of the 1940s and 50s), you might want to skip today's post. 

You see, originally I was just going to post the Lorain Journal comics page from November 10, 1937. But the Popeye strip from that day so intrigued (and amused) me that I had to go back and read the whole storyline, which ran for several months. Before I knew it, I was retrieving the majority of the comic strips to post here.

It's pretty hilarious and shines the spotlight on Popeye's father, namely Poopdeck Pappy. The storyline, entitled "Wild Oats," begins with the old reprobate helping himself to $10,000 of Popeye's money and generally causing trouble in the one-eyed sailor's household as well as the community. Eventually Pappy is arrested (after throwing a woman in the river), leading to the funniest part of the plot line – his courtroom trial.

Poopdeck Pappy's interaction with his lawyer, the prosecutor, the jury, his accuser and finally, the judge, is side-splitting (to me at least), with hilarious dialogue and a cockeyed view of the justice system.

Here's my selected strips from the story, which ran from the end of August 1937 until the second week of November 1937. E.C. Segar usually let his readers know when a new storyline was starting by featuring a special introductory panel.

Popeye plans to use Eugene the Jeep (his magical pet that knows everything) to help him solve the crime. However, Poopdeck Pappy is one step ahead in his effort to cover up his theft.

Poppdeck Pappy causes other trouble before he's finally arrested – which isn't an easy job for the police.

Finally, the storyline reaches its hilarious climax with the trial of Poopdeck Pappy. Popeye finds his father a lawyer, who soon regrets ever taking the job.

Poor Popeye feels bad for his dad  – who doesn't feel any remorse at all and seems happy in prison! And with that, Segar launched a brand new story on Nov. 15th.

Several of the dialogue lines made me laugh out loud: Jake and his "I'm not in the habit of eating in prisons" line and, of course, Poopdeck Pappy's exclamation upon hearing his 'guilty' verdict: "We wins the case – I don't get hung!"

Ah, the simple joy of reading the funnies. Many of us have fond memories of it, others will never know the pleasure of looking forward to their arrival in our daily newspaper.

Oh, and here's the Nov. 10th, 1937 comics page that initiated this unusual post. Besides Popeye, our old pals Barney Google and Snuffy Smith are there, as well as Blondie & Dagwood, and Mickey Mouse.