Route 2 Speed Trap – 1971

The early days of the “new” Ohio State Route 2 built in the 1960s has been a favorite topic on this blog.

The progress of its construction through our area was quite newsworthy, and I’ve posted many vintage newspaper articles from that time period.

And here’s another one, although this clipping is an editorial from the Lorain Journal of July 26, 1971. The subject is the Journal’s observation that the speed limits posted on that section of the new highway (which ran from today’s State Route 83 in Avon to Baumhart Road) did not conform to Ohio’s established policy, and in effect constituted a speed trap.

For some reason back then, the speed limit was posted at 60 mph (instead of the more common 70 mph for a divided, limited access highway) and dropped to 50 mph as it went through Amherst. It’s not unlike what went on for years in the Cleveland suburb of Linndale.

It's interesting that the Journal was looking out for its readers, trying to help them avoid costly speeding tickets. 

It’s a nice reminder of the days when the Journal was truly a Lorain newpaper, one that spoke to its readers daily on the Page of Opinion.

Remember Radio Shack?

Are you old enough to remember when Radio Shack first came to our area?

It was back in 1971 when ‘Allied Radio Shack’ first appeared in the Lorain City Directory. The store in Elyria was already open in the latter part of 1969, and Lorain’s store on Oberlin Avenue followed.

Why was it named Radio Shack?

According to its Wikipedia entry, the company was founded in 1921 with the goal of providing equipment for ham radio operators. The ‘shack’ in the name was a reference to "the small, wooden structure that housed a ship’s radio equipment.”

The company grew slowly and eventually entered the hi-fi music market. But it struggled in the 1960s and was on its way to going bankrupt. After the Tandy Corporation purchased the company, Radio Shack stores became known for its small, rented locations and private-label brands, including its own Realistic line of products.

Here’s an early ad that ran in the Lorain Journal on July 29, 1971. It’s an odd ad, with its groovy cartoon lion and offer of free batteries.

The free batteries are what I remember the most about Radio Shack from its early days. The store issued those ‘Free Battery Club' cards, which entitled the bearer to stop in and pick up a free battery once a month for a year. It was a regular monthly ritual for my buddies and me to ride our bikes over there to get our free batteries. I can still see that huge barrel of loose batteries, along with some of the other strange things in the store, like plush animals with radios inside.

During my latter high school days, I had a Realistic turntable and speakers, which eventually went off to college with me.

The Lorain store on Oberlin Avenue closed around 1986 or 87. 

Amazingly, after many years of bankruptcy filings and other legal problems, the company is still around. Here’s the link to its website.

Alas, they don’t appear to be issuing new Battery Club cards.

Grand Opening – Ryan’s Cities Service – July 27, 1951

To close out July here on the blog, here’s yet another Grand Opening ad for a Lorain service station. (By George, I’ve posted a lot of them over the years!)

This one is for Ryan’s 24-Hour Cities Service Station, located at Broadway at Nineteenth. Robert Ryan was the owner and man behind the station.

There were some nice Grand Opening freebies for everybody, including plastic magnetic whisk brooms for the men, helium-filled balloons for the kiddies, and orchid corsages for the ladies. (Hey, that’s what Popeye’s pet Jeep only ate: orchids).

I’ve done a few posts on the Cities Service brand, which had several stations around Lorain. Cities Service eventually became Citgo.

As for Ryan's Cities Service station at 1905 Broadway, today the building is part of the home of Quality Security Door Company.

Courtesy Google Maps

Courtesy Lorain County Auditor

Ancient Footprints at Amherst Quarries – July 1928

Back in the early 1900s, the local newspapers seemed to contain a lot of articles of an archeological nature.  Things (like old bones) were regularly being dug up or discovered, sometimes because farmland and woods that had been undisturbed for years were being developed.

But here’s the story of an ever older discovery, this time going back thousands of years. The article by John Love is from the July 27, 1928 Lorain Times-Herald and tells the story of some ancient footprints found at the quarries of the Cleveland Stone Company.

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FOOT-PRINTS MADE 2,000 YEARS AGO FOUND AT AMHERST QUARRIES

By JOHN LOVE

When Nero fiddled while Rome went up in smoke and Helen of Troy was wrapped in secret trysts, and even years before that, Lorain county was not unknown to the world. It was not known as Lorain County or even suspected of being such a place. It probably had a name as long as the appendage of one of the ancient fabled dinosaurs.

That the section now covered by Amherst was inhabited in those long years ago is now a drawn conclusion with the finding recently of imprints of human feet in sandstone by employes of the Cleveland Stone Company which operates large quarries at Amherst. 

Two or three thousand years ago a child about 12 years old, was tramping along what is known as the Rice farm in Amherst, and left an imprint in the sand. Centuries rolled by and events transpired quickly – the rise and fall of Rome, the fall of Troy, birth of Christ, Columbus voyage to American, but, even the ravages of time and the elements failed to efface the track made by the child. It has remained just as if it was left thousands of years ago.

It recently was removed from the farm by workmen of the quarry and is under lock and key at the stone company’s office.

With it is the imprint of a much larger foot – a flat foot for there is no sign of an arch. it is probably  the pedal trace of an adult and is clearly and sharply defined.

The age of the relics was determined by geologists from all parts of Ohio who have viewed the unique specimens. They declared that at least 2,000 years is required for an imprint to solidify. So many geologists and naturalists visited the offices of the Cleveland Stone company to inspect the relics that no record has been kept of names, according to officials.

The experts also have pointed out the this discovery lends affirmation to the theory that this entire section once was covered by Lake Erie. The child and its adult parent were walking the beach leaving an imprint where the waves could not obliterate it.

The findings acts as a connecting link with ancestry too remote to be even generally considered by those whose years of scientific study have prepared them for just such research in the sublimities of time.

Even the recent history is interesting however. Shortly after the discovery of the two imprints, petrified turkey tracks also were discovered. The three specimens were placed in front of the stone company’s office for the inspection of geologists. When the officials prepared to return the tracks to the safe box, they found the turkey tracks and concluded that someone evidently had allowed professional enthusiasm to best his ethics and honesty.

Two months ago workmen unearthed a section of tree that was in the process of turning to coal. It is quite likely the tree is older than the imprints because it was found at a depth of 102 feet. The sandstone in which it was found will be beveled and the specimen presented to the president of the Cleveland Stone company.

The three primitive prints will be placed on display for the Bee Keepers convention which is to be held at Amherst, August 8, 9, and 10 according to officials. The public also will be permitted to view them at this time.

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The Journal article above originally appeared on the front page of the Amherst News-Times of July 26, 1928. Here’s how it looked on the front page of the News-Times.

There are some minor copy differences from the Journal’s edited version. The main one was that the Amherst News-Times notes that the turkey tracks were stolen. The article stated, “The ancient tracks were placed on display outside the main office and the experts allowed to study them at their leisure. Shortly after they left company officials preparing to return the stones to their shelter discovered the turkey tracks has disappeared. Although a thorough search was made of the vicinity the tracks were never found, and it is presumed one of the visitors allowed professional enthusiasm to get the better of this honesty.

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The Amherst News-Times made another mention of the footprints on its front page of August 2, 1928.

Under the heading, “The Sands of Time,” an article noted, “It is interesting to speculate on the type of people who lived in this district 2,000 years ago. Were they Indians or members of a race living in the country before the arrival of the Redskins? That there was such a race has been established definitely by scientists and probably they succeeded some earlier race, so old they left no traces.

“It is rather intriguing to weight the possibilities disclosed by the discovery of footprints at least two thousand years old. Were they made by direct descendants of the Egyptian slaves? Or were they the imprints of prehistoric savages who lived too long ago to leave definite records?

“Probably we’ll never know.

“Whatever their sources they are undoubtedly marks caused by human feet and are impressive because they indicate to some extent the millions and millions of people who have been swept into oblivion leaving only such obscurities as an occasional foot print, arrow heads or broken crockery to identify them.

Reddy for a Newfangled Electric Refrigerator – July 1938

Flies getting into your home is one of the unpleasant aspects of summer. No matter how hard to try to avoid it, it’s almost inevitable that at least one fly is going to get in at some point. And then the comical chase begins.

Worst of all is when you can’t find it – and you know he’s there somewhere, possibly landing on your food (yecch) or even you when you’re not paying attention. I’m positively neurotic when it comes to finding the offending airborne intruder, and disposing of him before I do anything else.

Our old pal Reddy Kilowatt doesn’t like flies either, judging from his reaction in the ad above, which ran in the Lorain Journal back on July 28, 1938. Of course, that’s one monstrous fly, rendered in disgusting detail.

The focus of the ad is the promotion of the new Frigidaire electric refrigerators to replace the old ice box that kept its contents cool with – what else? – a block of ice.

My mother remembers her family’s ice box well. It was in a little shack-like structure on the back of their house on Sixth Street, where the ice could melt and not make a mess. She also remembers going with her father over to the Lorain Crystal Ice Company to buy ice from the vending machine there, and hearing the various clunks as the ice made its way down the chute.

Anyway, during those Depression days, the refrigerator in the Ohio Public Service Company ad could be had for $4.00 a month (that’s $77.00 a month using one of those online inflation calculators).

At that price, I reckon I might have had to buy a fly swatter instead.

Nathan Perry’s Road – July 21, 1926

For you history lovers, here’s an interesting article from the pages of the Lorain Journal of July 21, 1926. It concerns the effort of two Lorain men (one a city engineer, the other an official with the Chamber of Commerce) to trace a historic road dating back to Lorain’s earliest days. The article illustrates their research efforts and the many challenge of trying to interpret various clues more than a hundred years later.

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Trace Lorain-Co Road Used By Nathan Perry 125 Years Ago

By A. O. France

A LOST road 125 years old, believed to be the oldest highway in Lorain-co, is being traced by assistant city engineer Edgar Job and H. G. Curtis, secretary of Lorain Chamber of Commerce.

Long since fallen into disuse the century old road is marked now by inaccurate measurements, old hickory and elm trees, and rotten stumps.

This meagre dole of information is supplemented by the startling announcement in an old record book that the road goes “by” the trading post of Nathan Perry.

That word has caused Curtis and Job much perplexity. Job says that he wishes he had the patience of his Biblical namesake. Curtis seconds his wish.

For they cannot decide whether “by” means past, near or misses.

That’s because all other records assert that Nathan Perry’s trading post was located near the mouth of the Black River. Should the road record be authentic Perry’s post must have been near the present site of the post office at 9th-st and Broadway.

History of the road goes back to the year 1808 when the entire western portion of the original Western Reserve was known as Geauga-co. The county seat was at Chardon.

Curtis and Job went to Chardon recently. There they found a record dated Nov. 8, 1808. It contained a petition to the commissioners of Geauga-co praying that a road be established to start at a point 10 miles west of Hudson and proceed to the mouth of the Black River, there to join the road leading from Cleveland to the western line of the “firelands” – what is now the boundary of Erie-co.

Here’s the original “praying” which sets forth the desire of prominent citizens for the road.

“We, the undersigners, being desirous of obtaining a road for the accommodation of the public, present this petition before your honorable board, praying you, the honorable Commissioners for the County of Geauga, and the State of Ohio, to grant a committee to lay out a road, beginning where contemplated road from Hudson westward shall strike the line of the county, thence the nearest and best way to the head of boating on the Black river, thence the nearest and best way to strike the contemplated road from Cleveland to the west line of the fire lands; which committee we do wish to have appointed to do their businys [sic]. The persons we do wish for a committee are Nathaniel Doane Esq., Calvin Hoadley and Bella Brunson, all of which is a desire of yr Humble servants.”

Then follows a list of signers of this petition.

That the petition was granted is evidenced in the fact that Curtis and Job have found definite traces of the road.

Starting near Boston-twp and proceeding westward through Columbia they arrived at a large ash tree near the 10th mile post from the Cuyahoga river. Thence by a series of intricate measurements in chains they arrived at the site of a farm owned by Calvin Hoadley.

From there the directions took them to an old mill. A “creek of water” running northwest was their next clue. Then an old mill mentioned in the record proved that they were on the right trail. They kept on. Old tree stumps, large rocks, and a clump of elm trees rewarded their search.

At last they reached what is referred to in the record as “a trading camp on the Black river.”

From that point on, it was easy to follow the directions given in the 125-year old manuscript.

But the result was mystifying. The record commanded that they cross and re-cross the Black river arriving finally at the spot where the road goes by the trading post of Nathan Perry.”

Curtis and Job are still puzzling over the original location of Perry’s post. Was it at the mouth of the river? Or was it at 9th-st and Broadway?

Until they solve that problem the greater puzzle of what happened to Lorain’s lost road after it reached Lorain will remain a mystery.

****

I’m not a historian, but to me, the whole thing seems like an odd premise. 

You would think that if a road was carved out of the wilderness from Hudson to today’s Downtown Lorain (slightly more than 50 miles) that it wouldn’t have been ‘lost’ or have disappeared. It would seem that such a road would have appeared on at least one township map from the 1800s, and eventually would have evolved into a well-traveled state route or county road.

Interestingly, the Ohio Turnpike would seem to be the modern-day equivalent for most of the route.

From Indians to Guardians

So the new name of the Cleveland Indians is going to be the Cleveland Guardians. 

With all due respect to the Native Americans that were offended by the old name, all I can say is: Ugh. 

I really thought that they would go with no mascot – and be known simply as ‘Cleveland.’ It would have been a good solution. The offensive ‘Indians’ name would go away, but it would still be there in our memories. Plus, having no mascot would be unique, and sort of fit in with the minimalist approach of the Cleveland Browns and their plain orange helmets.

My second guess was that the team would go back to an earlier name – the Cleveland Spiders. Although I don’t like spiders (or any kind of insect or bug, for that matter), at least it would have introduced the concept of heritage. It wouldn’t even have needed a cartoon spider logo. The team would benefit from the historical equity of the earlier name, with some old-time lettering in the logo to drive the point home. 

In my mind’s eye, I can see how the team could have creatively transitioned back to the Spiders name, with a special ceremony at the old League Park where they played. The new Spiders could have worn vintage 1920s uniforms for the first season. It would have generated a lot of publicity and goodwill.

One of the stone Guardians
(Courtesy Wikipedia)

But no, the team will be called the Cleveland Guardians, a completely meaningless name. 

The Guardians name has a similar cadence to ‘Indians’ with the ‘-dians’ at the end, so it rolls off the tongue in a familiar way. But what does it honor? Carved stone gods on the Hope Memorial Bridge that very few people in Northern Ohio (much less the rest of the country) even know as ‘the Guardians of Traffic.’

I stopped being an Indians fan long ago, so I’m not too upset. I still root for the team for the sake of its fans. But the fans don’t seem to be too happy right now, judging by comments left on news websites and social media.

Anyway, a ‘guardian’ is defined as a defender, protector or keeper. 

What will the Cleveland Guardians be guarding or protecting? Not their historical legacy, that’s for sure. Maybe home plate?

But I wish the team good luck as they go forward next season with their new name, while the old team name heads off to the Happy Hunting Ground.