Lake Erie Lanes Article – April 7, 1959

1962 Phone Book Ad

If you grew up in the Lorain area, there were a lot of choices if you wanted to go bowling, including: Rebman’s on Oberlin Avenue; Andorka Lanes on the east side; Broadway Lanes in the basement of the Broadway Building; Aqua Marine Lanes in Avon Lake; Shoreway Lanes in Sheffield Lake; and Lake Erie Lanes in Vermilion. There were also opportunities to bowl in some of the social clubs, like the American Slovak Club.

Driving out to Lake Erie Lanes was probably one of our last resorts, because it seemed so far away. But it is one of the survivors of the group mentioned above.

Lake Erie Lanes was still under construction when the article below ran in the Lorain Journal on April 7th, 1959.

There’s one historical note in the article, which states, “Lake Erie Lanes will provide a much needed recreation spot for the community, which has been without a bowling alley for the past 10 years. Until that time, two lanes were in operation at Furguson’s Recreation, operated by the late E. C. Furguson.”

Lake Erie Lanes had its Grand Opening a mere four months later on August 22, 1959.

Around 2017, Lake Erie Lanes became Pence Lake Erie Lanes.

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I’ve written about bowling many times on this blog, including a post about Sully Bates, the Sheffield Lake resident who invented two bowling grips, and one about Rebman’s Recreation and its Automatic Pinspotters.

Happy Easter!

Here’s wishing all of my readers and friends a Happy Easter!

Above is a Journal photo of one family's traditional pilgrimage to the Easter Basket in Lakeview Park, which ran in the paper on April 7, 1969.

Note that the photo caption refers to the theft of two of the eggs. Hope the thieves didn’t end up with hernias, seeing as the eggs weigh between 68 and 74 pounds.

By the way, the Morning Journal ran several photos of this year’s basket color scheme, which apparently hearkened back to a similar one from 1958.

Courtesy Morning Journal

Happily, Rona Proudfoot’s Flickr collection of new and recent Lorain Easter Basket photos is still up! (Click here to visit it). You can find a photo of that original 1958 version there! 

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The Lakeview Park Easter Basket has long been a favorite topic on this blog.

Easter Bunny Visits Elyria Hospital – 1969

I couldn’t resist posting this photo, it’s so darned cute. It ran in the Journal on March 29, 1969, and shows the Easter Bunny stopping by in the children’s ward of Elyria Memorial Hospital to visit Julie and Jonie Smith, the four-year-old daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Smith of Elyria. The girls sure look excited.

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1968 Faroh’s ad

It’s kind of funny thinking back to the days when I believed in the Easter Bunny.

What I did think he looked like? I’m not sure. Unlike Santa Claus, there was no standard look for the holiday hare, although the costumed figures appearing at malls were usually white. I think kids just accepted him as is, not unlike a toddler at Disneyland being excited to see a five-foot tall costumed Mickey Mouse.

Apparently it didn’t bother me that real rabbits scampered around on four feet while the Easter Bunny walked upright on two. As long as he brought Faroh’s candy (and hard-boiled eggs, which were also in our baskets) I didn’t care.

It was all part of the fun and magic of the holiday, in the years before the religious significance sank in.

But I still think this Easter Bunny (from a 1964 Picway ad) is kinda creepy. He’s eyeing those kids a little too carnivorously. Plus he’s dressed like an undertaker.

1964 Picway Shoe Marts ad

1969 Easter Ads

Easter is this Sunday, so here are a few vintage ads from Easter 1969 to put you in the holiday mood.

Dealership logo from mid-1960s

First up is the one above, a full page one for Midway Mall that ran in the Journal on March 21, 1969. It features a rather offbeat bunny perched on the Midway Mall logo. Note that the long-eared one was going to arrive in a Ray Faro 1969 Pontiac convertible; no firetruck or helicopter for him!

Ray Faro Pontiac advertised itself as "Lorain County’s largest Pontiac Dealer” and was located at 416 Middle Avenue in Elyria. 

Next up is an ad for one of my favorite blog topics: Amber Oaks. The ad ran in the Journal on April 3, 1969. At least Chef Bunny is not serving up his own kind (although who eats rabbit at Easter?)

(Hey, speaking of Amber Oaks – is it ever going to reopen?)

Lastly, here’s one of those full-page ads with sponsor businesses. It ran in the Journal on Easter Eve, April 5, 1969. I’m not sure if the entire family is blonde, or if the illustration was intended as a coloring page.

Not too many survivors from the listing of merchants unless you include successor banks. But at least Chris’ Restaurant is still around; I ate there a few weeks ago! (Note that in the ad, Chris’ was still located in the building on West Erie that up until a few years ago was home to Jack and Diane’s.)

Vermilion Acquires Houses for Demolition - Spring 1964

This photo of two homes on W. River Road in Vermilion, acquired by the city in the spring of 1964, caught my eye. It ran in the Journal on March 19, 1964.

The one on the right was slated for demolition but as the photo caption noted, the one on the left was under consideration as a possible temporary police station. The property containing both homes, however, were going to be used “as part of the city’s improved sanitary sewer system and also to eliminate the hazardous S-curve which fronts the property.”

This news item even made it into the Sandusky Register of March 23, 1964.

I wondered: is the house on the left still there? I hadn’t done a “Then & Now” in a while, so I thought it’d be neat if the house had survived all these years, repurposed as something else. But neither newspaper’s article included an address for either building. City directories and phone books did not include a listing for Vermilion Auto Body Shop either.

Looking at a map of West River Road, however, it was easy to figure out where they had been located: on the now gently curved section of the road near its intersection with South Street, where the Vermilion Wastewater Treatment plant is now located.

A 1960 aerial view of the area (courtesy of HistoricAerials.com) confirms this, showing the two houses along with a much more drastic curve of W. River Road. You can also see the South Shore Packing Company (the subject of yesterday’s blog post); it’s the large building complex opposite the two houses.

For a lark, I checked the microfilm archives of the weekly Vermilion News for some mention of the two homes being acquired, and maybe a better photo. But all I could find was a reference in the March 19, 1964 issue about the acquisition of land, and that “use of the newly acquired Ross property should be given for study by the planning commission to improve the curve at West River and South St."

Strangely enough, while looking at Vermilion Photojournal film for 1969 in preparation for an upcoming post about the Pit restaurant, I found this (below) entirely by accident: a photo of the house on the left in the 1964 photos being demolished.

It's nice that the caption provides a capsule summary of the history of the home, pointing out that the home had originally been located on Ohio Street before being moved. That explains why in the two photos at the top of this post, the house appeared to be jammed onto the property tightly next to the other house.

South Shore Packing Corp. – Vermilion, Ohio

Did you know that for many years, a packing plant in Vermilion, Ohio packed millions of olives each year, shipping them from coast to coast under various labels?

At one point, the South Shore Packing Company was the nation’s largest producer of “fancy pack” olives and was ranked as the 10th largest importer of olives in the United States. It was located at 5117 South Street.

Here are labels of two of the olive brands packed by the South Shore Packing Company, in addition to its own South Shore brand.

The South Shore Packing Company is currently the subject of a neat little display in Vermilion’s Ritter Public Library. The exhibit includes vintage olive jars and lids, company letterhead, article reprints and a shipping box.

Here's a peek at some of the displays.

Coincidentally, a few months ago I received copies of the same materials that are part of the library display. They were shared with me by local historian and author Matt Weisman, who thought they might make a good subject for a blog post.

Here’s one of the color product cards (the other is at the top of this post).

And here is a Plain Dealer article and photos about the company from June 16, 1963.

BOTTLES ’N’ BARRELS. Merle Roger, outside foreman, pushes another barrel into position in the storage yard. The barrels and hogsheads contain the olives and are shipped to Vermilion from Spain. The jugs are filled with salt brine which drips down into the barrels to keep the olives constantly covered.

THE RUN. Down go the briny olives into the wash from their barrel as Mrs. Martha Mey releases them.

TREE TRIMMER. Mary Lou Canterbury is the expert placing the olives on the branches of  the plastic “tree,” then placing the trees in jars. Pull out the tree and the olives, too. No more digging.

Here’s another article reprint. It’s from the February 1971 issue of Port of Cleveland Newsletter and has some terrific photos in addition to a detailed explanation of company operations from port to grocery store.

The article points out that “the barrels and casks were hand made of Chestnut from Portugal. Since it is not practical to reship the empties, South Shore sells them for many uses. Fishing camps use them for keeping minnows, farmers for feed containers, etc. People who are skilled at woodcraft make all kinds of furniture from them. Supermarkets often use them to make display stands for the many South Shore variety packs (see photo).”

The article also notes, “The 50 year old company has been located in Vermilion (under the same management) since 1943. Although the plant packs some private label brands, their own South Shore brand represents 78% of the company’s production.”

Lastly, here's a late July 1977 Associated Press article about the South Shore Packing Company that received national distribution. This clipping appeared in the Newark Advocate on July 30, 1977.

The South Shore Packing Company appears to have closed when its owner, S. Leonard Appleman, retired in 1987. It disappeared from the Lorain phone book after the 1986-87 edition.

S. Leonard Appleman passed away on November 20, 1989.

Courtesy Morning Journal

Thanks to Matt Weisman and Al Doane for providing the historical materials for this post.

The Candy Shop – Vermilion

Vintage Postcard

Easter's coming. And for many years, if you lived in Vermilion, that very likely meant you could look forward to finding some goodies from Tom and Rhonda Zahars' Candy Shop in your Easter basket.

Just as Faroh's was the choice of the locals in neighboring Lorain, the Candy Shop – located in the South Shore Shopping Center – was the hometown favorite for many Vermilionites.

Apparently chocolate had long been the Zahars’ family business through the ages. According to the DiscoverOurTown.com website, “eight generations of the family have made chocolate, for the last 34 years at the shop in Vermilion.”

The caption for the vintage postcard shown at the top of this post reads, “A popular tourist attraction creating International Award Winning Chocolates as one of our specialties. Shown here is our “Big Dipper”. Young and old alike are fascinated by this “Chocolate Waterfall” which drenches our various centers with luxurious real milk or dark chocolate.”

But chocolate wasn’t the only draw for the store.

President Ronald Reagan’s penchant for Jelly Belly created a huge demand for “the original gourmet jelly bean" in candy stores across the country. As Tom Zahars noted in an article in the April 3, 1981 Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, “The amount of Jelly Belly sold since President Reagan’s inauguration has been astounding.”

“We were lucky and anticipated their popularity but we’re still surprised at the way sales have been going. The last time we put a call in to the manufacturer, we were told there’d be a wait of 3-12 weeks for orders. We understand that they’re working around the clock, trying to keep up with the demand.”

The article also noted, "Zahars has 18 feet of shelving in the Candy Store devoted to nothing but the Jelly Belly. Most people buy the mixed variety. However there are customers who have specialized tastes.”

“I think,” said Zahars, “that the people who try Jelly Belly like them because they are a top quality, good candy. They’ll go on eating them even if the president stops. Things will probably slow down a bit as far as sales go but the Jelly Belly is definitely here to stay.”

The Candy Shop disappeared from the Lorain Phone book listings beginning with the 2005 edition.

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Here are some vintage Candy Shop ads, including a full page Easter-themed one with photos of their operations from the late 1980s, culled from various online newspaper archive sources.

June 15, 1982 Chronicle-Telegram ad

March 15, 1986 Sandusky Register ad

April 5, 1987 Chronicle-Telegram ad

December 12, 1993 Chronicle-Telegram ad