Lorain Telephone Ad – August 5, 1954

We'll close out the week here on the blog with a little reminder of the days when our local utilities – electric, natural gas and water – reached out to the community regularly in the Lorain Journal. The ad above for the Lorain Telephone Company ran in the paper on August 5, 1954.

Lorain Telephone Company ads have been featured on this blog many times. They're a nice mirror of our society and the role telephones play. Over the years, the ads also reflect changes in telephone technology and consumer tastes.

Our old pal – the smiling phone mascot – has appeared on this blog many times as well. But since he's usually just standing around, he often seems to be (groan) just phoning it in.

But not always. In this post, we saw his evolution from a Bell System mascot to one used by local phone systems, such as Lorain's. And this post demonstrated that he worked both ends of Lorain County, appearing in an Elyria Telephone Company ad in the Chronicle-Telegram.

Anyway, the 1954 ad above is kind of interesting with its theme of using the phone to save lives. "Every day, the telephone runs errands of mercy," it reads. "Calls to the doctor, fire department, police, coast guard... emergency calls that are life and death they're so urgent."

But a look at the weak-chinned cartoon trio of life savers reveals a doctor, a fireman and... a life guard? I guess the artist didn't want to draw a policeman. But we get the idea.

And speaking of emergencies, it's a good time to make sure you know how to call 911 on your cell phone. 

Lorain Razes Houses for Parking – August 1954

The 1950s saw a lot of change in Lorain. 

The city's industries were booming; farmland was giving way to new housing developments; schools were built to handle the influx of new students; and now-iconic businesses (Yala's Pizza, Willow Hardware, etc.) were springing up to service the growing population on the West Side.

In Downtown Lorain, the buses were still bringing people to shop there. But post-war prosperity meant that many people now owned cars. Consequently, more city parking was needed for those who drove downtown to shop.

Thus some old houses and buildings had to be torn down. The photo at the top of the page above from the August 5, 1954 Lorain Journal tells the story. It notes, "Not war torn London, just two old houses on Sixth Street being torn down to make room for city-operated parking lots. Other houses on Eighth and Fifth Streets are also being removed for the same reason."

It's rather sad that fewer and fewer of us remember when shopping in Downtown Lorain was part of our regular routine. In the mid-to-late 1960s and early 70s, we headed downtown each Saturday morning. Mom did some shopping while my brothers and I had our trumpet lessons with Mr. Visci. Mom shopped at Midway Mall too (but that was more of a Saturday afternoon destination) as well as O'Neil - Sheffield Center.

Unfortunately, the days of people leisurely going from store to store and browsing are pretty much over, thanks to Covid and the internet. 

But even shopping online has its pitfalls. Have you ever shopped online at a store like Home Depot or Walmart, found that they had exactly what you were looking for, and then foolishly drove to the store – only to find out it was available only on their website? I'm careful about it now, but it happened to me a few times before I realized that many brick-and-mortar stores aren't trying to get you to go there anymore. They all want to be like Amazon and ship it to you.

Yes, there are still all-day shopping meccas like Crocker Park and Legacy Village, with their elite selection of specialty stores. But sooner or later (in my opinion), they'll take their lumps too.

Oberlin College Razes Dascomb Cottage – August 1954

Working in Oberlin for the past two and a half years has provided me an enjoyable commute, one that is far more pleasurable than the drive to Cleveland on I-90 that I endured for decades.

I take Baumhart Road for most of my drive south, occasionally using Quarry Road as an alternate. Both of them get me to State Route 511, where I turn and head east.

Most of the last two years, I've followed State Route 511 right into town, where it becomes W. Lorain Street and skirts the northern side of Tappan Square. But earlier this year, construction and detours caused me to take the fork in the road where the Brickyard Bar & Grill is located, and follow W. College Street into town. This way takes me past the south side of Tappan Square. I like this way better – the road is quieter, with less commercial development, and the private homes are very eclectic and more interesting to look at. As a result, I continue to take this way to work even though the original reason for the rerouting no longer applies.

One of the Oberlin College landmarks I pass each day is the Dascomb Residence Hall, where many first year student live. When I see it, I can't help but think of my own dormitory (Siebert Hall) at Ohio State, where I lived more than three years. (Yes, college was the best seven years of my life! Just joking.)

Anyway, I had no idea that the current Dascomb Residence Hall replaced an earlier same-named version. Here's a vintage postcard of Dascomb Cottage, postmarked 1920.

Later it was enlarged by connecting it to Tenney Cottage next door. (The postcard captions are confusing and I'm not 100% sure which is which. But after being connected, the whole complex became known as Dascomb Cottage.)

But in August 1954, it was time to go. The article below, which appeared in the Lorain Journal on August 10, 1954, explains.

Today, Dascomb Residence Hall occupies the former site of the cottage.

Lorain's Puerto Rican Community – August 1951

If you grew up in Lorain on the West Side (like me), you pretty much knew that there were a lot of Puerto Ricans that lived in South Lorain. But except for when we went to that part of town to go to Hills, Pic-Way Shoes, etc., we didn't have a lot of contact with them. 

It was only when I got to Admiral King High School that I became more much aware of them. Joining a Puerto Rican salsa band (which I wrote about here) enabled me to become much more familiar and comfortable with the Puerto Rican community.

Many of us probably didn't know why there was such a big Puerto Rican population in South Lorain. How did they end up out there? The selection of articles below, from a series written by Richard J. Maloy that ran in the Journal in August 1951, explains it very well.

This first article from August 6, 1951 is sort of an introduction to the Puerto Rican colony in South Lorain.

This second article from August 7, 1951 explains how US Steel, working with the Puerto Rican government, recruited Puerto Ricans in 1947 to help stabilize their workforce. It tells how the first wave of workers lived in dormitories adjacent to National Tube (as the mill was known back then).

This third article from August 8, 1951 profiles the typical Puerto Rican worker and family. It notes the roles of social workers, the Catholic Church, businessmen and – gasp! – Communists in assisting the colony and helping it get established and assimilated.

Pick-N-Pay Ad – August 4, 1954

Have you had a chance to enjoy some of the fresh local produce available? Our close proximity to so many fruit and vegetable stands is one of the joys of living in Lorain County.

I've enjoyed some excellent Fenik's Sweet Corn a few times – most recently yesterday – as well as some of their tomatoes, which I use in BT Sandwiches (hold the lettuce). I picked up a melon there on Sunday too. It's funny, but although my parents loved watermelons (with salt sprinkled on it), I can take them or leave them.

I had some really great peaches from Bergman Orchards out on Route 53 near Port Clinton. I also picked up a fantastic melon there that I hadn't had before. I think it was a Little Sweetie. Boy, was it good. I wish it had been bigger, but that would have defeated the whole point of it being small and loaded with flavor!

With all of the stands selling melons these days, I though it was odd to see them as the focal point of this Pick-N-Pay ad that ran in the Lorain Journal back on August 4, 1954. But I guess supermarkets (which were still in their relative post-war infancy back then) hadn't latched onto the 'buy local' marketing gimmick yet.

Hey, I like the idea of serving a scoop of ice cream right in the middle of a melon half!

I guess the Coit brand was pretty well known. Here's a vintage label.

Elsewhere in the ad, note the Western clip art, especially the cowgirl admiring the Chuck Roast. It was all a tie-in with the upcoming Gala Western Horse Parade at the O'Neil-Sheffield Center. The parade was the kickoff event for the All Western Horse Show to be held at the Lorain County Speedway that weekend. The article below from the Lorain Journal of August 7, 1954 explains.

Put-in-Bay August 1964 – "The More Things Change..."

Put-in-Bay has long been a favorite summer destination for the Brady family. My parents took my siblings and me there for the day when we were kids; as adults, my siblings and I have made regular excursions there over the years. Both my older brother and his family, as well as my sister – all of them out-of-staters now – made it a priority to come home this summer and pay a visit to Put-in-Bay.

In recent years (from what I have heard on the news), it has become more rowdy than ever. It didn't seem that way when we were going up there in the 1970s as a family. It seemed more quaint, sort of like Mackinac Island, Michigan.

While it might be easy to assume that the problem has only come up in recent years, the article on the Journal page below from August 1, 1964 caught my eye.

The article notes, "This island resort town in Lake Erie launched today a full-scale war against several thousand exuberant college students.

"The occasion was Regatta Weekend, more commonly referred to as "Riot Weekend."

"Today and tomorrow, the Inter Lakes Yachting Association holds its annual regatta, and that's all the excuse the collegians need for an annual, old-fashioned brawl.

"Year after year, sweatshirt-clad students, both male and coed variety, gather here with their blankets, their bottles, their toothbrushes and a few dollars and turn the town into an authentic "Fort Lauderdale of the North."

The focus of the article was that Put-in-Bay had a new police chief who wasn't going to put up with the usual shenanigans. "It's either the college kids or us," he is quoted as saying in the article, adding, "and it's going to be us."

A twenty-man army of law enforcement officials was created to handle any college hijinks. The force included two policemen, two plainclothesmen from Detroit, four Ohio Highway Patrol officers, three policemen on loan from Fostoria and one from Tiffin, two Ottawa County sheriff's deputies and 15 deputies from Civil Defense headquarters at Castalia.

Another 42 men were to be on hand to be deputized in the case of an emergency.

It sounds like there were plenty of lawmen to go around, almost enough for each one to have his own personal college hooligan to clobber!

Amherst 150th Anniversary – August 1964

Back on August 1, 1964, the city of Amherst was about to celebrate its 150th Anniversary. Above is a handsome full page ad that ran in the Journal on that day promoting the Sesquicentennial event.

In addition to the usual suspects consisting of now-extinct Lorain businesses, the listing of ad sponsors include some Amherst companies: Arnold's Cookie Jar, Amherst Food Fair, Essig's "Carry-Out" Beverages, Cherry Knoll Spring Water, Garland Funeral Home, Gerbick Pontiac, Dewey Road Inn and C. J. Springer - Real Estate Broker.

This ad for Central Bank ran in the same edition of the Journal. 

(These days, the 1814 date shown in the ad is no longer used for when the city was founded. Instead, 1818 is now the generally accepted date, based on when Josiah Harris settled in the present-day Downtown area.)

The Journal covered the first day of the 1964 celebration with the front page article below on August 3, 1964.