Wellington Sugar Bushes – March 1963

Do you like maple syrup?

I actually work with a few people who really don't like it at all. That's unheard of for me, because I love the stuff. Years of regular trips to Canada (where maple syrup is practically a condiment) has caused me to always have a container of it in the fridge, and a few cans of it in the pantry, eh? I put it on pancakes and English muffins and in my oatmeal. I even have a few spoonfuls as a dessert now and then.

I'm not picky about what kind I buy, either. I usually have some of it from Quebec (in the cool can with the vintage design on it shown above) and some from Ohio. I'm working on a bottle of it from Stumpwater Farm in Sullivan, Ohio that's excellent. In general, I think Ohio Maple Syrup is as good as any I've ever tasted.

Anyway, March seems to be the month that the maple trees get tapped, so it's not surprising to see the full-page article below about two Wellington sugar bushes (where the maple sap is processed into syrup). The article is by the well-known Journal reporter and Society Editor Lou Kepler. Lou grew up in Wellington and was a lifelong resident.

The article appeared in the Journal on March 28, 1963 and provides a detailed explanation of the maple syrup production process, with great photos by Jack Graeff. The two sugar bushes were run by Joe and Ed McConnell on Route 58 in Pittsfield Township, and Gus Knapp, whose maple sugaring setup was located on the Roscoe Campbell farm.

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For more information on that classic 1950s Canadian maple syrup can (shown at the top of this post) that's still used in Canada today, follow this link.

Lou Kepler's History of Halloween – 1969

Do you know the history of Halloween, and how the holiday came to be?

If you’re not familiar with the story, fortunately longtime Journal reporter and Women’s Editor Lou Kepler can fill you in.

In this “Lou’s Hearthstone” feature from the Journal of October 26, 1969, she tells us the history of Halloween. It’s an interesting story that you might not be familiar with.

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Halloween Began 2,500 Years Ago, But It Differed

By LOU KEPLER

IN ALL things traditional, there is more than meets the eye. Take, for example, Halloween.

Legend tells us that it began more than 2,500 years ago among the Celts of ancient France, Ireland and England. The voice of the Establishment in those dim and distant days were the powerful Druid priests, who for centuries, practiced their mysterious rites in the caves and forests of prehistoric Gaul and Britain.

Sacred to the Druids were the hours of midnight and noon, oak trees and mistletoe. They believed that on Halloween, ghosts, fairies, witches and elves came out to harm people. 

Cats were sacred. They were once human beings but were changed to feline form as a punishment for evil deeds.

Now for generations these beliefs persisted. The Druids instructed people, administered justice and forecast events by interpreting the flights of birds and the markings on the liver and other entrails of sacrificed animals.

There came a change. Protest groups demanded a change. I don’t know as the protestors strutted around with placards and picketed the Druids’ homes, but the groups proclaimed that the Druidic teachings were murky and downright stifling. So the priests and protestors had a fight that lasted for years and years. When the battle ended the cult’s long domination ceased.

Do you know who those victorious rebels were? The early Christians. They were faced with the problem as to what to do with Halloween.

The challenge confronting the early church was how to defang the dreaded day without discarding it. With their characteristic genius of supplanting pagan fears with superstition, Christian leaders in the year 700 redefined the day as All-hallows’ Eve, or eve of all the holy ones’ day since it fell before All Saints’ Day, an important date in both the present and medieval Christian calendar.

It was a masterful stroke. Cats and witches, ghosts and elves lived on, but only for amusement. Faith had replaced foreboding. 

So if you are at a loss for an original Halloween costume this Oct. 31, remember the fearful Druids whose hats were peaked and whose robes were long and flowing. 

And, if on Halloween night, you see a strange black cat outside, rejoice! If it were not for Christianity, you might identify the innocent creature as your long-deceased great Uncle Elmer coming back to spook the neighbors.

And, while we are talking about Halloween, how about giving the little kids a break this year? You older youngsters have all the candy and treats you can gorge yourself with anyway and I’m sure you prefer pizza to a candied apple. 

Let’s cater to the beggars from the lollipop set.

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Apparently, Lou’s Kepler plea for the big kids not to muscle in on the little kids’ fun on Halloween left an impression on Journal readers. 

During the last time that I went trick-or-treating with my younger brother (no, I wasn’t in high school yet), a grumpy homeowner took a look at me in my hobo costume and sneered, “Aren’t you a little old to be trick-or-treating?”

I can’t remember if I made a snappy comeback, but I sure was embarrassed. I can still point out the house on Palm Springs Drive. 

And no, I didn’t egg it.

Lou Kepler Interview – October 1969

Mention the name “Lou Kepler" to any longtime Lorain Journal reader over the age of sixty and I’m sure they would remember the well-known Women’s Editor of that paper. I certainly remember seeing her name and photo in the Journal for many years.

LuElla “Lou" Kepler started at the Journal back in the early 1950s and contributed many fine articles, reports and columns over the years. I’ve transcribed and posted several of her articles on this blog.

Anyway, back in October 1969, someone at the Journal realized that making Lou Kepler the topic of an extensive interview was long overdue. Here, then is a great article written by Staff Writer Dick Diluciano in which we get to know Lou better, including her interesting background growing up in Wellington on a farm. The article was published on October 18, 1969.

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President of Ohio Newspaperwomen

Lou Kepler: The Farmer’s Daughter

By DICK DILUCIANO, Staff Writer

“WOMEN USUALLY expect to be wives and mothers, but they also are concerned with making the world a better place for their children. This is one way of doing it.”

Speaking is LuElla Kepler, farmer’s daughter, grandmother and Women’s Editor of The Journal.

“Lou” has done a lot and has seen a lot and she plans to keep right on doing and seeing.

An undertaker’s wife has to take the credit for launching Lou on her journalism career.

“Shortly after my oldest son left home for the Navy I bumped into the undertaker’s wife in downtown Wellington. She suggested I use some of my free time and serve as The Journal’s correspondent for the area,” Lou explained.

“My first reaction was that a correspondent was someone turning up in a divorce case, and I didn’t want that.”

Finally, Lou made up her mind to take the job and began calling in obituaries and writing news for the paper. She laughingly recalls that her newspaper career was “a dead issue from the start.”

THAT WAS 16 YEARS ago and at a time when correspondents were paid by the inch for each story that got into print.

“The more I wrote, the more money I got,” Lou smiled. “That’s how I became so wordy.”

“When I finished high school I was hell-bent on becoming an actress but I discovered I had a speech impediment – a lisp – so that idea died.

A lifelong resident of the Wellington area, Lou at one time could name just about every resident. She had a deal with the police department which had to pass her home to get victims to Oberlin hospital.

“One blast on the siren meant it was a routine call. Two blasts was something worth a story. Three blasts was something serious.”

Lou’s family, which includes three boys and a girl, gave her a lot of encouragement during her early days. “Harold (her husband who died seven years ago) read everything I wrote and said, 'This is a damn good story,’ even if it stunk.

HER CHILDHOOD in Wellington provided her with many of her most - cherished memories.

“I learned to drive a car when I was 10 years old,” she explained. “Later on when my dad had an automobile my services went along with the deal I taught the customers’ wives to drive. That was when I was in high school.”

She remembers starting school in a one-room little red schoolhouse. Then either riding the street car or on horseback to school in Wellington. On the farm she helped with the “chores” including feeding 50 purebred Holstein cattle. She can milk and even churn butter.

For a short time the family lived in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. and her dad built houses between the city and Las Olas Beach. Then she went to a girls college in Virginia until the depression came. Her father’s business folded and she had to come home.

It was while she had her first job, a soda jerk in a drug store, that the boy (who later became her husband) she’d known for years got up enough courage to ask her for a date. “He bought three banana splits at 25 cents each before he got nerve enough to ask to see me home,” Lou beamed. “That was quite a bit of money to spend in those days.”

When World War II broke out, Lou worked with her husband in a creamery and now knew not only how to milk a cow but how to process the milk for the retail market.

LOU CREDITS her varied background with her success in the newspaper field.

“Because I had such a variety of jobs, I’m able to understand people.”

Lou joined the regular staff of The Journal about 14 years ago. She moved to Lorain shortly after her husband’s death because “my family decided I was not going to drive in from Wellington every day.”

Having come from a small town, Lou said her first few years in Lorain were a source of amazement.

“I couldn’t get over seeing 200 persons at a bridal shower and the names,” she recalled.

The friendliness of the town and its international cuisine quickly put Lou at ease, however.

One of her more pleasant memories concerns the cuisine.

“A group of Serbian ladies once came into the office to deliver a CARE package to me. I tried to tell them I didn’t have anything to do with CARE, but they quickly explained they had been baking all morning, because they ‘cared’ about me.”

The package was filled with pastries and other baked goods.

HER PROUDEST moment came when she interviewed the young wife of a North Ridgeville man charged with killing an 83-year-old widow.

“I went to the woman’s home and told her who I was and asked if I could talk to her about her husband,” Lou remembered. “She said her attorney had told her not to talk to anyone about the case, but I finally convinced her to talk.

“I told her everyone was taking about what her husband had been accused of and I ‘wanted to write something good about him.’ She agreed to talk to me.”

The “scoop” was even more gratifying for Lou when opposition news sources reported the wife would not talk to newsmen the same day her interview ran on page one.

Her angriest moment came one morning when a woman called the society desk for advice on a celebration for her parents’ 50th wedding anniversary.

It seems the woman’s mother had died suddenly and she wanted to know if it would be proper to have the celebration anyway since they had the hall and invitations out.

“I suggested that if the woman was Irish, they could turn the celebration into a wake.”

Lou’s saddest moment came when she discovered a double drowning in Wellington and the victims were her two young cousins.

Another period of grief came when she toured the Pittsfield area after the Palm Sunday tornado.

“It seemed as if all my early childhood was destroyed,” she remembered. Her grandfather had once operated a post office - general store there and two aunts had homes in the township years ago. All were destroyed.

Because Lou’s business is people, her job is not without humor.

ONE WOMAN ASKED us not to refer to her as the ‘new Mrs. so-and-so in her wedding writeup because her husband had been married before.

Other girls, who understandably are on “cloud nine” when they fill out their wedding forms have the bride carrying “a bouquet of nuns,” or “orchards.”

“We sometimes think we’re running an information bureau,” Lou added. “We get calls from readers asking advice on everything from table settings, to cooking to raising children.

“One woman once called to ask why her bread didn’t rise. It turned out she had used hot water which killed the yeast action, but she still wanted to know what she could do with the dough. I asked her if she was interested in ceramics... that’s about all the dough was good for.”

Lou’s writing has won her many awards and forms of recognition. She was chosen Lorain Woman of Service in 1963.

Currently, she is completing a two-year term as president of the Ohio Newspaper Women’s Association and is looking forward to the group’s Oct. 25 convention in Mansfield where Col. John Glenn will be a guest speaker.

LOU’S TERM as president ends Jan. 1 but she’ll continue to serve as a director of the women’s group.

A down-to-earth type of person, Lou vividly recalls one of her more humbling experiences. A young Lorain boy had called her at home asking for an autographed picture of the woman who’s listed in Who’s Who Among American Women. He explained his mother told him he wouldn’t be able to get one so he decided to call and state his case. He got the picture from a blushing Lou.

Being a society editor, Lou is conscious of her manner of dress.

“I’d rather be underdressed than overdressed.” is Lou’s fashion rule.

She admits to being “excited” about fashion and makes at least one trip a year to New York City to report on what’s new in women’s wear. She also traveled to Europe on an assignment and to Hawaii on pleasure.

Having grown up in the days of crank telephones, the Graf Zeppelin and the startling news reported in ‘Successful Farm’ that a way had been found to freeze vegetable, Lou says she’ll never get over the progress she has witnessed.

But, she feels “we (as a nation) should be a lot more happier than what we are. The lady who could once tell you who lived in every house in Wellington, admits she doesn’t know the people who live on either side of her East Erie Avenue home.

“We seem to travel at such a fast pace today that people aren’t interested in their neighbors,” she said.

Lou, who has four grandsons and four granddaughters has firm ideas about them.

“I leave raising them up to their parents and I won’t ever be a rocking chair grandmother,” Lou added. “There is absolutely no reason in the world why a woman should be bored.”

LOU IS SHORT with people who criticize newspapers for printing only “riots or rapes.” She quickly asks “when was the last time you read about a riot or a rape on my pages. People read only what they want to read.”

“I have to work of course, because I am a widow. But, I’m forever grateful for the opportunity to influence people through the written word. To point out the good things and the bad. To give some deserving person or cause recognition which might not otherwise be given.”

“I think I have lived in one of the most marvelous ages of anyone but by the same token I envy the young people of today because they have so many opportunities.”

Summing up her philosophy Lou said:

“I cannot help what happened yesterday. And I haven’t the faintest idea of what’s in store for tomorrow. I have today and I’m going to live it up.”

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Here’s a photo of Lou Kepler and John Glenn that appeared in the Journal about a week after the above article, on October 27, 1969, covering the Ohio Newspaper Women’s Convention in Mansfield.

Memories of Christmas in the One Room Schoolhouses

On Friday, I posted a 1963 article by Journal Staff Writer Lou Kepler about the Christmas window displays at the O’Neil department store at O’Neil Sheffield Center that year.

Today, Lou is back with another article. In this one, she writes about her memories of how Christmas was celebrated in the one-room country schoolhouses. It appeared in the Journal on Sunday, December 21, 1969.

Her charming story is rich with details about a simpler way of life long ago that few can remember. But it deserves to be preserved in memory, if only to remind us how Christmas used to be celebrated as a community affair, and how little it took to make children happy.

Lou’s Hearthstone
Santa Claus Came to One Room Schoolhouse Too
By LOU KEPLER

STUDENTS ALL over the Golden Crescent are performing for their PTAs or giving a Christmas program. There’s nothing new about it. Years and years ago kids in the country school did the same, but it was so different.

Most of the little one-room schoolhouses sheltered eight grades. One teacher heard classes from phonics to agriculture.

Weeks beforehand, the best artists drew pictures of Santa Claus, the visits of the Wise Men, the Babe in the manger and Christmas scenes on the blackboard with colored chalk.

The first grade children cut out holly leaves from green construction paper and put red berries on them with flour and water paste. Naturally they were quite smudged.

Teacher arranged the program. Different children were designated to speak pieces. Some sang. One or two played the piano. A short play was put on by the higher grades with the final bit a pantomime of Bethlehem.

Most everyone was on stage in the last bit. Boys, wearing bathrobes were shepherds. The prettiest little girls were draped in their mothers’ lace curtains and labeled angels. An eighth grade girl was always Mary. She had a blue scarf wrapped around her head and was clad in a white bedsheet.

Joseph, the oldest boy in school, wore a bathrobe too and the leftover big boys (there were never more than three) appeared as the Wise Men.

The babe in the manger was usually a doll. All the little girls brought their dolls to school for the teacher to see, hoping theirs would be the chosen one to represent the Christ Child.

One year we had a real, live baby in the crib. It cried lustily through the performance. A Wise Man stuck a pacifier in its mouth and finally shut it up. Pacifiers in those days were made from cloth filled with sugar and tied at the top with a string.

There was always a Christmas tree. The big boys made a production of getting the tree. They cut it down in the woods and hauled it to the school house. The rest of the students made paper chains, strung popcorn and cranberries and cut decorations out of tinfoil.

Of course there were no electric lights. Candles, lighted tapers in tin holders were scattered throughout the tree and were lighted at the beginning of the program.

Beneath the tree were presents. Every kid brought something for teacher. If it was “boughten,” it didn’t cost more than a quarter. You could get real fancy pins for 25 cents in those days, or even a bottle of perfume. Usually the gifts were potholders or hand crocheted handkerchiefs the mothers had made.

Parents brought one wrapped gift for each of their children which was placed in Santa’s pack along with a bag or little cardboard box filled with candy from the school board and on real special times, an orange and a few nuts. I always looked for the chocolate drops. There were two in each box.

As the program drew to a close, there’d be a loud ringing of sleigh bells outside and in would bound Santa Claus, who was probably the president of the school board.

He might not be in a red suit. He might be wearing a bearskin coat, which was quite the thing in those days, but he’d have on a Santa Claus face, a pair of high black rubber boots and a fur hat. A big sack full of the presents and candy would be on his back.

Striding to the front of the schoolroom, he’d dig into this sack, call out the name on the present and the children would eagerly spring out of their seats to receive it.

When the last box of candy and orange had been delivered by Santa, he’d ask us to sing. Teacher sat down at the piano, pounded out “Oh Come All Ye Faithful,” “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,” and “Silent Night” and everyone, grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters and parents sang.

I don’t remember ever hearing of any disaster during a Christmas program in one of those little red schoolhouses. It has all the markings. There were unprotected lighted candles in the windows near the paper holly. The lighted candles on the tree were definitely a safety hazard.

The only casualty I ever heard about was this week. That was when Elizabeth Prescott called me and told me about the time George Holzhauer was Santa Claus in her one-room school house. It seems Santa bent over a candle and his cotton-batten beard caught on fire.

It seems as if it always snowed at Christmas. We could count on going to that Christmas program in the old schoolhouse the Friday night before Christmas vacation in a sleigh.

Sometimes the whole neighborhood would form sort of a parade with the wagon boxes put on runners, the interiors filled with straw and packed with kids and parents. The horses always had on sleigh bells.

Those school programs were the height of the social season on the farm and were outdone only by the Sunday school program at the churches on Christmas Eve.

1963 O’Neil Sheffield Center Holiday Display Featuring Dennis the Menace

Many people have fond memories of going Christmas shopping in Downtown Cleveland and enjoying the various window displays in the department stores.

Well, the O’Neil Sheffield Center was not to be outdone during the 1963 Christmas season.

The article below, which appeared in the Lorain Journal on December 13, 1963, describes the special animated window scenes that the O’Neil store featured that Christmas. The displays starred famous comic strip icon Dennis the Menace, as well as his parents, his dog Ruff and "good old Mr. Wilson.”

Journal Staff Writer Lou Kepler wrote the story. The window scenes sound really cute.

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I did a post about the first appearance of Dennis the Menace in the Lorain Journal in 1955 back here.

Jean Schaeffer Article – September 9, 1968

Here’s another one of those great full-page profiles of local personalities that the Journal used to publish. This one is by Staff Writer Bob Cotleur and is a nice, well-written tribute to Jean Schaeffer. It ran in the paper on September 9, 1968.

We first met Jean on this blog back in 2015 when I did a two-part series on the history of the Workshop Players.

(Jean's husband, Dr. Roy E. Schaeffer, was featured on the blog himself back here.)

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The Workshop Players
Jean Schaeffer:
A Top Director
By BOB COTLEUR
Staff Writer

YOU’D LIKE Jean Schaeffer in spite of yourself.

She can be a bolt of lightning or a clap of thunder, but she surrounds it with a warm spring day and you know, somehow, the lightning and the thunder only made you more alive.

Jean Schaeffer is the wife of Dr. Roy E. Schaeffer of Amherst and Oak Point Road, Lorain, the mother of John, 23; Bill, 21; Tane (pronounced Tah-nay), 18, and Narda, 15. She’s one of the play directors at Workshop Players, the stage director behind the girls of the Miss Lorain County Pageant, an actress, bike rider, golfer but most important of all, she’s a girl.

Her age is 53 but her spirit is 25 and you can easily find yourself fooled at a compromise, say around 37 or 38.

She lives a wonderful, full life, but others must tell you that. Although a lucid, engaging, well-read and knowledgeable woman, she goes blank on one major topic: herself.

This isn’t a pea-soup fog of modesty or embarrassment. She’s the rare woman who knows how and why she will react, and doesn’t worry. Her instincts are as natural as orchids in Bora-Bora.

PERHAPS THE greatest tribute to her instincts is found in the mountains and valleys of emotions she carves as a play director. No one ever said it, but if a character role called for a new emotion, those who know her could easily believe she’d research the emotion until she knew its full force, and could then successfully demand it of her actor or actress.

Mrs. Ted (Jeddie) Driscol, of Lorain, a friend for ten years, appeared in the Schaeffer-directed musical “The Bells Are Ringing.” She said, “Jean did a remarkable job with a cast of 50 and a musical (in a theatre not built for a musical). It was a real feat.

“The thing about Jean is that she can take what’s hidden inside you and bring it out. I’ve seen her work with people with no experience and she’d get remarkable reactions.

“She... well, she illuminates. You look at her and her eyes are bright and alive. And it always rubs off on those she works with.”

Over 20 years ago Orlando (Pete) Petrillo of 955 N. Pasadena, Elyria, joined the fledgling Workshop Players and appeared with Jean Schaeffer in “Lost Horizons,” and he’s appeared in at least a dozen Workshop plays since.

“She gets involved, deeply and thoroughly. I believe she is the biggest part of the success of this theatre and that’s caused, in turn, by her intense interest in theatre and its success.

“She caused it to become a part of the Amherst community and she spread the magic to the countryside. She’s brought in such groups as the Sheffield Lake Kiwanians, the Methodist Men’s Club of Elyria and organizations from Oberlin and Lorain.

“This gal has the tenacity of a bulldog. She goes to any length for authenticity. In one play (the musical version is Fiddler on the Roof) much depended upon Jewish customs and dialogue. She got a Jewish authority on the subject – to increase authenticity.

“I love her dearly. She’s my gal. And no job is too small for her. She’s swept floors, sold tickets, acted and directed,” he said.

Petrillo has only acted with Jean a couple of times “but I certainly hope a good vehicle comes along so we can again.”

He has appeared in such plays as “Teahouse of the August Moon,” “Solid Gold Cadillac” and the only two musicals ever produced at Workshop. He is considered one of the area’s finest actors as Jeddie Driscol, a vibrant ghost in Blythe Spirit, is considered one of the finest actresses here.

THE JOURNAL’S Society Editor Louella Kepler is a long time friend who traveled to Europe with Jean on the Journal’s special tour last summer. She sees her in a different light, the light of civic events, as a friend and fellow voyager.

“Jean is very knowledgeable and alert to what’s going on around her. She is extremely fashion conscious and has traveled extensively. She collects unusual items and has a special fondness for elephants, small carvings or large.

“She’s also invariably late for appointments since she is so engrossed in the present. Once, at Montmarte, a young artist was making a charcoal drawing of her. Thirty-one people waited on the bus. When Jean finally arrived she said sincerely, ‘Oh, were you waiting? I’m sorry,’ they were.

“She’s also a sticker for showing appreciation. Once, when she learned I was in New York, she called just to say she was thinking of me. She wrote more post cards than anyone else on the trip. And she’ll buy a little gift for someone because she knows they’ll like it.

“Her family is tops on her list. She thought nothing of calling from Europe just to find out if everyone was O.K.

“And she is a stickler for authenticity. Once she needed a copy of the London Times for a play. She wrote to London and got one. And she also got real high-button men’s and womens' shoes for another play.”

Mrs. Tom (Jennie) Heinzerling of Foster Park Road, Amherst, is another close friend of 10-years standing. She acted for Jean but also worked with her in all three Miss Lorain County Pageants/

“Jean is a taskmaster. If the girl was supposed to go down the runway and stop at ‘x’, turn at 90 degrees and proceed – that was it. If she stopped two inches too far or turned at 75 degrees, Jean repeated the rehearsal.

“It likely drove others a bit batty. Some kept saying “It’s after 11 p. m.” but Jean is a perfectionist.

“And the end result showed in the pageant.

“I think she’s wonderful, sort of kooky, like I am. She doesn’t worry about the state of the world and when she golfs, she gives it all she’s got. She’s wonderful to be with, warm, kind, considerate. At social events she makes sure people are introduced, really meet each other.

“I know Jean gets some sort of self satisfaction, by helping others. And I’m sure her family’s in love with her,” she said.

Miss Lorain County, Donna Jean Prosser, agreed. “Mrs. Schaeffer is somehow ever-youthful, never-changing.”

Jean Schaeffer was born in Detroit but moved to Pontiac, Mich. while a child. She and Doctor Schaeffer were both in their late 20s when they married in a formal Navy ceremony at Gross Ile, Mich., in 1944.

WHEN THE WAR ENDED they moved into an old farm house on Old Lake Road (now Oak Point Road) which had more than 100 crusty, crumbling years scratched on its hide.

The family lives in that same house today and it is now one of the most charming homes in Lorain County. The remodeling work went slowly but painstakingly over the years as they planned.

Speaking of the gal he’ll soon share a 25th wedding anniversary with, Dr. Schaeffer was philosophical.

“We kind of hit it off together. Mutually attracted. And we had four wonderful children. Jean and her parents had a good religious background and it brought us close to the church.

“When the children were young she spent a good deal of time with them even though she has always been active in civic things. But she was always home with the children.

“We’ve had the usual banter, but we always respected each other’s interests. I like bridge and golf. She plays golf, but not with my intensity. And she likes theatre. We’ve had our mutual interests, such as dancing, and our outside interests. Neither of us ever overshadowed the other.

“When it’s theatre, it’s her night. Bridge is mine.”

NOT TOO LONG ago the Schaeffers tried a new sport, surf riding on the wake of a cabin cruiser, and Jean holds the rope until riding speed is right for Bill or Dr. Roy.

Dr. Roy also has another new sport for Jean.

“He runs me around the block every morning,” she said, “It’s great exercise to start the day, he says.”

But run she does.

Passing Scene – July 15, 1967

Well, it’s another Filler Friday! That is, I don’t want to get into anything new as it's the end of the week, and Monday is July 4th to boot.

So here’s yet another classic "Passing Scene" comic by Gene Patrick, which appeared in the Journal back on July 15, 1967 – right after the first Lorain International Festival. You might remember that one of the articles I posted last Sunday mentioned that Governor Jim Rhodes spoke at the Mayor’s Breakfast. He had suggested that Lorain promote itself aggressively, suggesting that the city hold “an international swim across Lake Erie.”

That kind of rang a bell in my memory about another of the Governor’s proposals for Lake Erie, and Gene Patrick must have thought the same thing. Consequently, Mr. Patrick good-naturedly teases the Governor in one of his cartoons.

Other panels include a humorous reference to longtime Journal Woman’s Editor, reporter and columnist Lou Kepler (whose articles I have posted many times), as well as a novel way for the Ohio Turnpike to make sure nobody gets away with not paying their toll.

New Ownership for the Castle – August 1976

The restaurant that many of us think of simply as the Castle changed hands recently, and because Castillo Real. I certainly wish them well. The new owners are to be commended for keeping open an iconic local institution.

The spouse and I planned to eat there last Saturday night, but the rapidly growing size of the curious crowd that was waiting for a table convinced us to seek sustenance elsewhere. But we'll try again sometime.

The Castle changed hands back in 1976 too. Read all about it in this article written by Bob Cotleur that ran in the Lorain Journal on Monday, August 9, 1976.

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Carl Gumina Leads Group Buying Castle-on-the-Lake Restaurant
By BOB COTLEUR
Staff Writer

LORAIN'S Castle-on-the-Lake Restaurant has been acquired by a trio of area businessmen "but that's only the beginning of the change," according to contractor - developer Carl Gumina, 52, one of the new owners.

Gumina said today that he and Plumbing Contractor Ronnie Gold, 42, had bought a 50 percent interest and Rich Roman, in his early 30's and a son-in-law to Olga Blondyn bought the other 50 percent.

"Mrs. Blondyn, who bought the Castle with her late husband Walter back in the early 60's is retiring," he added.

Gumina said a number of plans have been made for renovating and updating the restaurant.

"We will pave the lakeside parking lot before fall," he said, "and next year we are going to provide parking in front as well.

"WE WILL ALSO have a front canopied entrance and someone to park your car on weekends. This place should have had a front entrance a long time ago."

He also said the wall between the present bar area and the main dining room will be removed and that considerable interior decorating is also planned.

"Rich Roman will be the manager,"Gumina said, "and our chief goal is to improve service. No change in the menu is planned nor are there any plans to change personnel."

What will Gumina take a personal interest in?

He laughed. "Lou Kepler said it the other day in her Journal column. She said I bought the Castle so I could sing in my own place.

"WILL I? Sure I will."

Gumina's main activity however is with Gumina Construction Co., Oberlin Ave. He had built numerous homes, apartments, the first condominium in Lorain County (in Avon) and other structures in a number of states other than Ohio.

He plans to continue his company and also his deep interest in area boxing and boxing shows.

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The Castle is one of those topics that I seem to keep coming back to again and again.

I did a multi-part history of it beginning here back in 2010, and did several posts connected with specific ads, including one with 1941 and 1952 ads, a 1954 Thanksgiving ad, a 1955 St. Patrick's Day ad, a 1958 Halloween ad and a 1967 ad.

I also posted a 1975 Bill Scrivo interview with Olga Blondyn that included a nice history of the place.

1965 Palm Sunday Tornadoes

The front page of the Journal the next day

Palm Sunday is this weekend, and for many people, the Sunday before Easter always brings back bad memories of 1965. For it was on Palm Sunday, April 11, 1965 – 50 years ago next month – that an outbreak of 47 deadly tornadoes struck the Midwest, including Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. 271 people were killed (60 in Ohio) and 1500 were injured.

The front page of the April 12, 1965 Journal is shown above.

In Lorain County, eighteen people died. Pittsfield was practically wiped off the map, and nine people loss their lives there. It's still impossible to drive through Pittsfield on Route 58 and not think of the devastation that the small community suffered.

Here's the continuation from page 1 of the April 12, 1965 Journal. It includes a well-written article by Lou Kepler about the damage at Pittsfield.

Here's a small article from the Plain Dealer from April 19, 1965 about how Pittsfield was beginning to rebuild a week after the disaster. It's interesting that the Civil War statue was the first priority.

A year after the deadly tornado, the Plain Dealer published an article by James L. Grisso (below) that explained some of the improved weather warning devices that were now in use. The article also included a few great photos, including one of Pittsfield's damaged Civil War monument and an update on the community since the disaster.

April 3, 1966 article from the Plain Dealer

The 1965 Palm Sunday tornadoes only reinforced my childhood fear of tornadoes (that had already been nurtured with tales of the one that struck Lorain in 1924).

The House Overlooking the Golf Course Part 2

Here's the full-page article I mentioned yesterday (below). Written by Lou Kepler, it ran in the Journal on September 7, 1961 and reveals the unusual history of the house – which is much older than I imagined.

According to the 1961 article, the house was built by Baron von Bonn, an exile from Germany. It supposedly dates back to around 1851.

The article raises a lot of questions, though. If the house really is that old, wouldn't it make much more sense if it was built by the Jaeger family?

1896 Township map showing the house
(just to the left of the "A. C. Jaeger" name)

At the time that A Standard History of Lorain County (1916) was published, the Jaeger family had already been in Lorain County for more than seventy years, making the family's approximate arrival in the area around 1846. Adam Jaeger is identified as the patriarch of the family. According to the book, he was a German school teacher and "a man of unusual education for his time." The book also notes that "after coming to America he located on a farm in Lorain County in 1843 and lived there until his death, being both prosperous and influential."

I wonder if Adam Jaeger himself was "the German baron" who built the house? I suppose that it's possible that the story of the house's heritage could have been mangled, especially if the Jaegers came from Bonn, Germany.

But this is all speculation on my part. I guess I'll have to do some more research (groan).

I did look in the city directories a bit trying to sort all this out. The bad news is that researching that part of Lorain is almost impossible. Aside from finding it on old maps, there are no listings of the road or its inhabitants until around the 1960s in the city directories, since it was outside of city limits until then.

One interesting aspect of the article is that the house is mentioned as being located on Jaeger Road. For many years, Jaeger ran from Leavitt Road all the way to Oak Point Road.

Detail of 1938 Map

The Kubasak home wasn't on Jaeger Road for very long, though. By 1963, that portion of Jaeger Road west of Kolbe Road had its name changed to Longbrook Road. 

Today, the house looks much the same as it did in the 1961 photo. The beautiful fountain seen in the 1961 photo appears to have been a casualty sometime during the ensuing years.

Here's my photo from over the weekend (below).

It's a difficult house to get a drive-by photograph of, and I apologize to the current owners if they were wondering why the same car kept going up and down Longbrook past their house.

The house is still owned by the Kubasak family, and I hope they have enjoyed many happy years in their wonderful, historical home – apparently one of the oldest in Lorain.

Perhaps one of the family members can shed some light on this Baron mystery through a posted comment.

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UPDATE
Here's the link to Part 3 in which a detailed history of the house – with the help of some local historians – is revealed.

Davidson Home Article – August 20, 1959

For those of us that grew up on the west side of Lorain near Meister Road, the Davidson home always instilled a sense of wonderment. It was a real mansion, set back far enough from the road that you couldn't get a real good look at it. We could only see part of the back of it from Skyline Drive.

But it was probably our earliest introduction to the concept of being "rich."

After all, the Davidsons employed a gardener that many kids liked to provoke by sneaking onto the property to steal apples or whatever.

Anyway, the article above written by Lou Kepler – which appeared in the Lorain Journal on August 20, 1959 – profiles the family and gives a nice description of the house and property circa 1959, for those of us who have always wondered what it looked like.

The article includes a few interesting tidbits, including the fact that "two creeks, Martin's Run and Horn Creek, bisect the Davidson property."

William H. Root Home Article – October 8, 1959

Here's a great full-page article about the well-known William H. Root home on East Erie Avenue near Root Road. It's from the pages of the Thursday, October 8, 1959 Lorain Journal – 54 years ago this month. (Click on it for a larger version.)

The article was written by Lou Kepler and includes a very thorough history of the home and a detailed description of its furnishings at the time.

The Root home is one of my favorite topics on this blog. I did a two part story on it back in 2011 (here and here).

I've mentioned several times about the fact that the Root house is only almost 500 feet from mine, so I get to enjoy seeing it to and from work. This past weekend, I once again aimed my digital camera at it (below) for a late afternoon portrait. (The new fence looks great.)

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By the way, the newspaper page shown above includes an article about a home tour (sponsored by the Lorain Chapter of American Association of University Women) that mentions a few other homes that were showplaces at the time, including that of Mr. and Mrs. Everett H. Davidson on Meister Road.

All of us that grew up in the area of Skyline Drive or Meister during the 1960s were well aware of the beautiful Davidson home. It defined the idea of being "rich" to many of us kids! Plus, there were those peacocks on the grounds that gave it so much character.

I had no idea that the house had a name: "Willowbrook."

A "Little Rascal" Visits Lorain – 1955

Back in the 50s, fall fashion revues seemed to be the rage in Lorain. Women's clothing stores and department stores held their own event in which the latest in seasonal fashions were modeled and displayed.

Ted Jacobs, Smith and Gerhart, and The Style Center all held revues the same week in mid-August, 1955. With all of the different stores fighting for a woman's attention, each one tried to make sure their revue stood out from the rest.

Ted Jacob's Style Revue for 1955 was very ambitious and creative and was a benefit for children with special needs. The revue featured the current Miss Ohio, as well as a TV and movie celebrity – Farina, from the Our Gang comedies – according to the article below which appeared on the "News For Women" page of the Lorain Journal on Monday, August 15, 1955. But as we shall see in my comments below the article, all was not as it seemed.

Here's the article, written by Luella "Lou" Kepler.

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Our Gang's Farina Will Appear At High School Stadium Fashion Review
By LuELLA KEPLER

One of Hollywood's outstanding personalities, beloved Farina, will be one of the main attractions at the Ted Jacob's Style Review to be staged at the Lorain high school stadium, Thursday, 8 p.m.

Farina, whose real name is Eugene Jackson, will appear in the Jackson Trio, with his younger brother, Freddie, drummer, and Stan Hunter, pianist.

NOT CONTENT with blowing real "gone" notes on his saxophone he adds to the enjoyment of his audience by performing intricate tap dances while playing his own accompaniment. The Trio will play, dance and sing at the show to be staged for the benefit of retarded children.

Two of the featured numbers will be Me and My Shadow, performed by the Jackson brothers, and the favorite swing tune, I Got Rhythm. The group has toured Honolulu and Alaska in addition to appearing in cities all over the United States. They have recently appeared in the film Artists and Models with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, which will be released next month. The trio was organized in 1945 when Farina retired from serving in the armed forces. It is currently appearing at Ben Hart's Show Bar.

Farina makes his home in Los Angeles. He is married and the father of three children, a boy and two girls.

THE JACKSON TRIO – The ex-member of the Our Gang
comedy, Farina, will appear as Eugene (Farina) Jackson
with his trio at the style review for the benefit of retarded
children, Thursday, 8 p.m. at the Lorain high school
stadium. Farina is shown playing his sax. Stan Hunter is
the pianist and Farina's brother Freddie is drummer.

Since the Our Gang comedies have played on TV, Farina has etched his way into the hearts of the children, who enjoy his acting in movies in his early film career. His appearance at the style show should swell the attendance.

MODELING THE LATEST in fall fashions and the correct attire for the problem figure will be Misses Ginger Mitroff, Dorothy Urban, Beverly Bogdan, Dolores Lohrer, Louise Wynne, Mrs. Eula Owens, Mrs. Ella Zieba, Mrs. Jeanne Ciarrone, Mrs. Betty Trebilcock, Mrs. Vince Nagy, Mrs. Alice Flowers and Mrs. Irene Donath.

Clubs entered in the ticket selling competition are Echos, Genies, Hy Notes, Jr. Dots, Jr. Gems, Kaysers, Hy Notes Y Hi Jackets and Y Hi Sweaters.

THE ADVANCE TICKET sale has been tremendous. With Bill Gordon emceeing the show; Miss Ohio, 1955 making her initial Lorain appearance; Jackson Trio and its novelty musical acts plus another vaudeville attraction; added to the array of beautiful models clad in the coming season's most outstanding clothes; a full night of enjoyment is in store for ticket holders and the stadium should be packed.

There is an added attraction of $500 in merchandise to be awarded.

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So what was I hinting at earlier when I said all was not as it seemed?

The real Farina

Quite simply, Eugene Jackson did not play Farina in the Our Gang comedies. He played Farina's older brother in a few of the mid-1920s silent episodes, and was nicknamed Pineapple because of his haircut's similarity to the shape of that particular tropical fruit.

Farina was actually played by Allen Hoskins (at right). He joined the comedies (originally known as Our Gang) in 1922 and remained with the series until he became too old and was eased out in 1931. He did come back to the series for a cameo in 1933.

Fans of the Little Rascals might remember Farina as being one of the four boys (along with Jackie Cooper, Chubby and Buddy) who conspired to get out of Miss Crabtree's class in the episode Teacher's Pet, only to discover that ice cream and cake were being served to the students that day!

Anyway, it's unclear how the misunderstanding took place regarding Jackson's billing as Farina in Lorain.

Nevertheless, Eugene Jackson did enjoy a nice Hollywood career and happy life, beating the odds when it comes to being a child performer. He appeared in a variety of movies and TV series (such as Julia and Sanford and Son) all the way into the 1990s.

He published his autobiography a few years before he passed away in 2001. Here's a link to his obituary in the LA Times.

Next: Another Lorain store with its own Little Rascal-themed fashion revue – that same week!