Got the Hanger Before the Plane

Posted on December 16, 2018 by Denny

The title is my questionable attempt to make an aeronautical version of that saying about getting the cart before the horse. I started on a trip yesterday that is aimed at having me at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, for the 115th anniversary of the Wright brother’s first flight on Monday. In anticipation of that, I recently revisited some Wright related sites in nearby Dayton, Ohio. This was actually the main reason I was in Dayton when I made the Carillon Historical Park visit that yielded last week’s Christmas themed post. There’s been a bit of a squabble between Ohio and North Carolina over where this flying business got started, but my title is not a reference to that. I’m just acknowledging the fact that this blog post about the Wright brothers in Dayton is going up before my trip journal entries about the brothers in North Carolina. Dayton was the Wright brothers’ home and there are quite a few locations associated with them. Probably the most important single location tied to the Wrights and their development of human flight is Huffman Prairie Flying Field where a replica of their 1905 airplane hangar stands. A placard in the hangar is here.

Official input to the squabble included North Carolina putting “First in Flight” on their license plates in 1982 and Ohio following with “Birthplace of Aviation” in 1997. In theory, the argument officially came to an end in 2003 when the U.S. Congress recognized Ohio as “the birthplace of aviation” while acknowledging that the first flights occurred in North Carolina. The text associated with that recognition is here. It’s easy and maybe somewhat natural to think that Ohio got the nod because the Wrights lived there but that the actual “birthing” happened in NC. The fact is that the brothers did a lot more than live in Ohio. Tremendous amounts of research and experimentation occurred in Dayton both before and after the trips to NC, and almost all of it that took place after December 17, 1903, took place at this field near what is now Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Both of those slogans are correct. The first flight — actually the first four flights — happened in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina; Aviation was born in Dayton, Ohio.

The reason for the Wrights’ trips to North Carolina was the strong and steady winds there. They had proven that their machine could fly, but further development was required. The brothers naturally wanted to avoid the time and money consuming trips to the coast but Ohio winds are weak and fickle. They might lay out as much as 240 feet of rail only to be forced to move it when the wind shifted. The catapult near the hangar is a replica of the one they used to shorten takeoff distance to 60 feet with less need for a headwind. The brothers improved on the machine they flew in NC and eventually learned to control the craft to the point of flying around the perimeter of the field. Their flight path is kept mowed and may be walked.

Not far from Huffman Prairie Flying Field, a Wright Brothers Memorial stands atop a hill that bears their name. The area containing the field is included in the view from the overlook behind the monument. There is a small museum and interpretative center across the road from the monument.

What I think is one of the coolest sculptures around stands in the median of Main Street in downtown Dayton. Called “Flyover”, it is a full scale representation of that first flight in Kitty Hawk. The sculpture’s length matches the 120 feet covered by that first flight. Each of the flight’s 12 seconds is marked by a set of wings showing the craft’s climb and descent. It’s really eye-opening to walk the length of the sculpture and realize just how short that first giant hop for mankind was. Another full scale sculpture stand just a few blocks away, on Monument Street. The plane depicted is the 1905 Wright Flyer III in which the Wright brothers improved their design and skills at Huffman Prairie. The real thing shows up in a couple of paragraphs.

The Wright Brothers National Museum is inside Carillon Historical Park. It’s been there since the park opened in 1950 but just received the “National” designation in August. More Wright brothers artifacts are displayed here than anywhere else. The bicycle in the second picture is one of five Wright brand bicycles known to exist and one of two on display in this building. The Wrights eventually built a wind tunnel and other devices for more accurate measurements, but some of their earliest testing involved mounting variously shaped surfaces on the horizontal wheel then peddling into the wind to see how they reacted. This may not be the most famous camera in the world but it is responsible for taking one of the most famous photographs in the world. Orville set up the camera before climbing aboard the flyer, Wilbur handed off the bulb so he could help steady the craft during takeoff, and John T. Daniels pressed that bulb at the right time to head off the “pictures or it didn’t happen” crowd back in Dayton.

The story of how this display happened is almost as cool as the display itself. In the 1940s, when Colonel Edward Deeds was putting this park together, he had a chat with his good friend Orville Wright about making a replica of the first Wright Flyer. Orville had a better idea. Why not rebuild the real Wright Flyer III? This was the first truly practical flyer and the brothers considered it their most important aircraft. It had served its builders well in their 1905 developments at Huffman Prairie, then had been shipped to Kitty Hawk for U.S. Army trials in 1908. Following the trials it had been more or less abandoned although there were some pieces in various locations around the country. Orville knew where those pieces were and of course he knew everything there was to know about the original plane. What followed has been called “The first pilot’s last project”. Not only did Orville contribute to rebuilding the airplane, it was his idea to display it in a sort of pit so that visitors could get good views of the whole thing. It is believed that approximately 85% of the original machine was recovered and 60% to 80% was used in the reconstruction. Many of the original pieces that were not made part of the plane were used in making replacements. Some of these are displayed nearby. A placard with the plane’s specifications stands by one of its wings.

Carillon Christmas

Posted on December 9, 2018 by Denny

For the fourth time, the giant bell tower that gives Dayton’s Carillon Historical Park its name has been turned into a tree of light rising 200 feet above the park. The tree is quite visible from I-75, and I’ve seen it every year as I drove through the city, but this is the first time I’ve stopped for a closer look. The 20,000 bulb tree is merely the biggest feature of a month long celebration involving the entire park.

I obviously knew about the big tree but I encountered the rest of the party more or less by accident. I entered the park to enjoy some of its historical aspects and took a few pictures during regular hours. Regular hours means before 5:00 PM when the park normally closes.

I finished up my daytime stroll a little after 4:00 and headed to Carillon Brewing for some ale made the old fashioned way and one of the biggest mettwursts I’ve ever seen. When I entered the brewery, the crowd was sparse. When I left, the place was completely full with a line at the door. The parking lot, which had been nearly empty at 4:30, was packed an hour later. Sunset was at 5:14. The Christmas related activities begin and all the lights go on at 5:00. I took the picture at the start of this article just before I reentered the park roughly half an hour after sunset.

During my daytime walkabout, I’d noticed smoke coming from the kitchen behind the bakery, and paused to visit with the lady stirring up gingerbread cookie batter. I now stopped in to wash down one of the cookies baked in the wood heated brick oven with cider heated over an open fire.

Every building, bridge, and other structure in the park was decorated for the occasion. A small train took passengers, including me, on a tour of the large open and decorated area behind the buildings. This tiny engine pulled over a dozen passengers, more than half of whom were full sized adults, through the arches and past the trees without even a hint of struggle. I was impressed.

Other activities included a puppet show, Christmas cards being printed on a 1930s era press, a place to write and mail letters to Santa Claus, and a place to talk to the jolly gent in person. I paused inside the main building to warm up and listen to these talented carolers before leaving the park.

I snapped the first of these three pictures when I arrived at the park around 2:30. The second one was taken about a quarter hour after sunset at 5:38. I didn’t actually see it, but my understanding is that those 20,000 white lights came on at approximately 5:00. The sun had been gone a long time when I took the third picture about 7:15. The carillon rang out Christmas songs throughout the evening. It had been completed in 1942 and the first official concert took place on Easter Sunday of that year. That was not, however, the first time the bells were heard. Although work remained, construction of the carillon was nearly complete by the winter of 1941 and Dayton was treated to an impromptu concert on Christmas Eve 1941; Just 17 days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

A Carillon Christmas continues through December 30. 5:00 to 9:00 Sun-Thu, 5:00 to 10:00 Fri-Sat.

Two Oldies and Something New

Posted on August 26, 2018 by Denny

This is a triple play post. It begins with the oldest of three events I attended on three consecutive days this week. On Thursday, I stopped by The Great Darke County Fair in Greenville, Ohio. The first was held in 1853. The one just now ending is the 163rd. The difference between number of years (166) and number of fairs are the cancellations in 1862 and ’63 for the Civil War and 1949 for a polio outbreak.

There was a time when I’d walk through the barns and exhibit halls seeking out the entries of friends and relatives, but no more. At best, a familiar family name might identify a grandchild of someone I once knew but even that’s pretty iffy.

On Friday I took in the 53rd annual Tri-State Gas Engine and Tractor Show in Portland, Indiana. That’s the same place I attended the National Vintage Motor Bike meet about a month ago. My friend Dale had a tent at the bike show. This time it was my friend Terry with his fleet of Wheel Horses. That’s Terry in the white shirt talking with another Wheel Horse collector. In the post about the Vintage Motor Bikes, I mentioned how deep the discussions can get when two bicycle collectors get together. Same thing with tractors, and when both collect the same brand, the level of detail absolutely pegs the meter. Turns out they are not actually talking about Wheel Horses in the picture. They’re talking about that strange looking REO riding reel mower in front of them.

The second picture shows a Crosley V8. The fellow displaying it made it by joining together two Crosley four cylinders. Even though it’s his creation, it’s not his idea. Apparently Crosley Corporation made a few of their own “twin-4s” though they were not very successful. Crosley experimented with a whole lot of rather bizarre concepts and this guy seems to own one of just about all of them and brings a different set each year. That’s a cord braider in the last picture. I tried getting a video of the thing in action but it was a complete failure. I do have a somewhat close-up picture, though.

The third thing of the week was the new thing. The first Porchfest took place in Ithaca, New York in 2007. The concept of local musicians playing on people’s front porches really caught on and there are now Porchfests across the country. Dayton, Ohio, got on board just last year. The Dayton Porchfest happens in the St. Anne’s Hill neighborhood which I’ve written about before. It’s where “my brewery” (Fifth Street Brewpub) is. This year, just like last, the T.R.S.S Drum Corp started things off without the need for a porch.

At the top of each of the next five hours, musicians would begin performances on eight to ten of the neighborhood’s porches. That’s a whole bunch of music. The three groups pictured, the Good Time Accordion Band, A Shade of Red, and the Gotham City Brass Quintet, are just a fraction of what I saw and I saw just a fraction of what was offered.

Some rain had fallen earlier and a drizzle appeared about halfway through the drum corp’s performance. It came and went as I took in a song or two from most of the first set of musicians. It became a steady shower while I paused at the brewpub. I actually set out for a second round but changed my mind within a few feet. It wasn’t a heavy rain but it was enough to send me to my car instead of walking down the street. The bands played on to umbrella covered listeners. Porchfest is a wonderful concept, and I certainly enjoyed my first rain shortened exposure. I’ll be watching for the event’s return next year.

Welcome Back Belle

Posted on May 20, 2018 by Denny

This week the Memphis Belle came home to a place she’d never been before. And the Belle has been a lot of places. She was born in Seattle, Washington, on July 2, 1942. She flew to England in September and completed her first bombing mission over Europe in November. By May of 1943, she had completed her 25th mission and was sent “home”. She then toured the United States promoting War Bonds. After the war, she spent a little time in an Oklahoma airplane graveyard then a lot of time at various locations in Memphis, Tennessee. Since 2005 she’s been undergoing major restoration in Dayton, Ohio, and on Wednesday she was moved to the National Museum of the US Air Force. On Thursday, the exhibit was officially opened to the general public. That’s me.

I arrived about an hour before the scheduled ceremony and was happy to see that traffic was not as bad as I had feared. There were plenty of people there, though. By the time I made it through the line and security, only about a third of that one hour wait remained.

My first view of the restored airplane was somewhat obscured by some of those people who had been in line in front of me. I got a reasonably clear view by heading to the back where the media risers were.

The Memphis Belle is often referred to as the first B-17 to complete 25 bombing missions but that honor actually belongs to Hell’s Angels which accomplished the feat about a week before the Belle. But the Memphis Belle was the first to return to the States. It seems likely the the romance behind the name had a lot to do with the selection. Memphis, Tennessee, was the home town of Margaret Polk who was the fiance of Robert Morgan, the plane’s pilot. Although Margaret broke off the engagement before the war ended, I don’t doubt that it helped sell more than a few war bonds.

At war’s end, the Belle was designated surplus. In 1946, the city of Memphis bought her for $350 from an airplane graveyard near Altus, Oklahoma. They didn’t spend much more on her for a long time. She was initially parked outside at the Memphis Municipal Airport. In 1950, she was moved to the National Guard Armory and placed — still outside — on a concrete pedestal. In 1987, helped along by some noise from Air Force people, a covered pavilion was built for the plane on Memphis’ Mud Island. It was here I first saw her in 1990 and it seems like I should have some pictures around but a Friday afternoon search came up empty. The plane was moved to a Navy hangar in Millington in 2002 where the deterioration was reined in and restoration begun before the 2005 move to Dayton.

A formal unveiling had taken place the night before for the family of crew members and other VIPs. Today’s ceremony consisted of just a couple of short speeches and a symbolic ribbon cutting. I did not have much of a view of the ribbon cutting although it didn’t really matter. The participants’ names had been announced but I could not have put a single name with a face. The ribbon cutting was the signal to remove the ropes that had blocked the plane and the many displays around it. It quickly became apparent that this was not going the be a good time to leisurely read placards and study pictures.

It was, however, a good time to visit the new building that opened last year. On the way I paused to snap a picture of the B-2 and a man walking a few steps behind me caught up with me. “It won’t show up”, he said. I was too slow to get it but must have looked sufficiently quizzical for him to spare me the embarrassment of asking a truly dumb question. “Too stealthy”, he explained.

The closest thing to a space shuttle at the museum sits at the entrance to the new building. It is one of three NASA Crew Compartment Trainers. This is CCT-1 which was used in training more than 300 shuttle bound astronauts. Mock structures surround it so that it appears to be part of an actual shuttle.

A good portion of the new building is used to display the presidential aircraft that used to be in a building actually on the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base with a bus ride and additional security check required. I’ve seen them before but that didn’t keep me from walking through all of them again. Since I recently visited Ike’s birthplace, I picked his Columbine III to represent the exhibit and to show 1950s state-of-the-art audiovisual gear.

Weather had cancelled yesterday’s planned landing of other World War II vintage aircraft. Earlier, as I stood in that long line getting in, it was announced that they would be landing at 11:00 today. I misjudged the time but did get outside just in time to see the first B-17 approach the field through an opening in the trees. I caught the second one overhead, and thought I’d positioned myself for a better view of the landing but found out I’d positioned myself to pretty much miss seeing it at all. I had read that three B-17s were to be flying about this weekend , but I only saw the two. There were, as advertised, several P-51 Mustangs (3rd picture) in the air.

One reason I nearly missed the landings completely was that I tried to make sure there was nothing I needed to go back inside for. The decision was reinforced by seeing the line outside. It was just about as long as it had been when I arrived and now the museum was nearly full. I promised myself I’d return before long to read the placards and headed to my car.

The Brewery’s Neighboring Neighborhood

Posted on October 16, 2016 by Denny

Last December I took a tour of decorated homes in Dayton. Those homes were in the Saint Anne’s Hill Historic District where Fifth Street Brewpub is located and they were decorated for Christmas. On Friday evening I toured some homes in a nearby neighborhood that were decorated for a nearby holiday. The holiday was Halloween. The neighborhood was Historic Huffman. Like Saint Anne’s Hill, the Huffman district was once in decline and is experiencing a come back with the restoration of many deteriorating homes. Seven houses took part in this year’s Spirit of Huffman Tour. There are photos here of the three most Halloweenish.

For the first home we visited, the tour is not so much a call to decorate as an oppertunity for the owner to display his incredible collection of Halloween related items. Those shown here are just a tiny portion.

This is one of the “works in process” on the tour. A Dayton ordinance allows individuals to initiate foreclosure proceedings on abandoned houses by paying the expenses. This particular house was acquired for $1200. It was in sad shape and had been stripped of wiring and plumbing but did contain a surprising amount of furnishings including a Baldwin grand piano.

The last house on the tour was not only wonderfully restored and decorated, it offered both entertainment and refreshments. Once we had all assembled in the area between the home and the large carriage house, three witches, who had remained entirely motionless as we gathered, delivered a flawless and dramatic reading of the caldron scene from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. As the scene came to an end, a lady emerged from the carriage house. Surprised by the crowd, she explained that she was doing research on the 1947 Roswell incident and the aliens that were rumored to have been brought to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base from there. There had been some recent sightings, she said, but had barely managed to warn us before we experienced a sighting ourselves.

I followed the tour, as I did with last year’s Christmas tour, with a visit to the neighborhood brewery.

The Small Trailer Enbrewsiast

Posted on May 22, 2016 by Denny

When the largest brewer in Dayton, Ohio, started thinking about something to take to local festivals, someone asked “What about that old local company?” As soon as he explained what old local company he was talking about, someone else asked “Why not?”. Next thing you know they’re dragging a nearly sixty year old camper out of the weeds and working on a new beer recipe to go with it. Both had their official debut Saturday.

The brewery in question in Warped Wing Brewing Company. There were already several breweries in and around Dayton when it opened just over two years ago but Warped Wing immediately became the largest. Most of the others are rather small with little or no off-site distribution. Warped Wing’s founders had canning in mind from the day they opened and their draft products are available in many area bars and restaurants.

The “old local company” of interest was Trotwood Trailers who operated for many years in a Dayton suburb of the same name. The company actually got its start in the 1920s with tent campers like the one shown in the poster. It was still operating when fire destroyed the factory in 1981. More information about the company can be found here and here.

I stepped right up to try out the draft version of the new Trotwood Lager. It’s an easy drinking American stye beer with 4.0% ABV and 20 IBU. Modifications have reduced the 1957 Trotwood Economy model’s suitability for family camping but with eight working taps it probably doesn’t matter. Being the sort of guy willing to go the extra mile when needed, I also tried a can for the sake of completeness.

Ohio law prevents carrying a beer purchased outside inside and vice versa. With the sake of completeness still in mind, I stepped inside while my hands were empty. Even though the festivities and music were outside, cool temperatures brought quite a few people inside. Or maybe it was the game room.

Now about that title. I certainly mean no disrespect to Pat Bremer and his seriously informative Small Trailer Enthusiast website. It’s just that sometimes these ideas come and I lack the discipline to ignore them.

My stop at Deeds Point before visiting the brewery was pure coincidence. Taking these photos was not. I had some time to kill before the brewery opened and the park was a convenient place to do it. Once I realized that the bronze Orville was demonstrating the twisting of a box that led the brothers to the warped wing principle that allowed them to control their flyer and that gave its name to the brewery where I was headed, a picture seemed super appropriate. As I’m sure you’re aware, it wasn’t getting off the ground that was the breakthrough. It was controlling the aircraft and getting back on the ground that set the Wright Brothers apart.

The Brewery’s Neighborhood

Posted on December 13, 2015 by Denny

Neighborhood taverns may not be as common as they once were but they are hardly extinct. Traditional beer towns like Cincinnati, Saint Louis, and Milwaukee have them and I’m sure they’re not alone. Once upon a time, some of the neighborhoods in those beer towns had a neighborhood brewery. A precious few do so today. One that does is the Saint Anne’s Hill Historic District in Dayton, Ohio. That’s the neighborhood brewery at right. It’s the Fifth Street Brewpub, the first co-op brewery in Ohio and the second in the nation. Today patrons come from near and far and even the owner/members are a widespread bunch but the founders who had the idea and made it happen are neighbors. They did it to save a little history and to put some more life back into their neighborhood. The rest of the Saint Anne’s Hill pictures are posted in sequence but this was taken at the end of the evening as I approached the brewpub for a little R&R after a guided walk around the neighborhood. There’s something of a “bonus” in the photo. The contraption at the very top is part of the rigging for the overhead wires that power Dayton’s electric trolley buses. Dayton is one of only five US cities operating electric trolley buses. The others are Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle.

Saint Anne’s Hill was hardly lifeless even before the brewpub opened in 2013. A downward slide that had started with the Great Depression and World War II was halted in the early 1970s as a modern sort of pioneer started restoring some of the elegant old houses in the area. A some point, residents began offering tours of homes decorated for Christmas to raise funds for community projects. The biennial tours continue to be offered in odd numbered years. They begin at this 1869 house which is now the High Street Art Gallery operated by the Dayton Society of Painters and Sculptors.

The area’s original heyday was in the early twentieth century and tour guides dress in the height of period fashion. That’s our tour guide, Jack, under the top-hat. There were eight homes on the tour and Jack told us about each one before we entered. In the picture we are learning about a house on High Street built by a family named Bennington in 1890.

The tour’s appeal comes from the wonderfully restored historic homes themselves as well as beautiful Christmas decorations both inside and out. Two, three, or more trees are a big part of each home’s charm which meant there were many great looking trees to chose from. The trees shown here were chosen largely because their photos came out OK and I won’t attempt to identify the houses they were in. In addition to the Bennington house this year’s tour included a 1902 house also on High Street, an 1886 house on McLain Street, 1900 and 1853 houses on LaBelle Street, and 1855 and 1865 houses on Detoit Street.

In addition to telling us about each home we entered, Jack provided information on several other houses as we passed. This house, on what is now Detoit Street, was built by Eugene Detoit in 1838. It is the oldest house in Saint Anne’s Hill and one of the oldest in Dayton.

Different homes participate in each year’s tour with one exception. The 1869 Bossler Mansion is always the final stop and that is where we were treated to some incredible bread pudding as were all the tour groups in previous years. The mansion’s thirty rooms were once divided into thirteen apartments. During tour weekend, the second floor holds a gift shop filled largely with items made by local craftsmen. The last photo is the view from the cupula atop the mansion.

This was the second time I’ve taken a tour of decorated historic homes. The first was in 2012 in Morristown on the National Road.

Saint Anne’s Hill is something over thirty crow miles from where I live. A holiday display that has been getting a lot of press is much closer. The World’s First Zombie Nativity Scene, which has been covered by the New York Times, CNN, and the BBC among others, is about a half dozen miles from my door. Most of the big time coverage was triggered by threats by the township to fine the owner up to $500 per day. Officials have always claimed that the threats were because of zoning violations and it seems they were even if that might not be what initially caught their attention. A day or two before I took these pictures on Friday, the display had been made smaller and a roof that extended upward a few feet removed. The township says it’s now good to stay.

Even though it was the threatened fines that brought the world wide attention, most reports focused on the “non-traditional” nature of the display. Fair and balanced Lou Dobbs called it an “obscenity” and said “I think if you’re going to mock a religion, I’m thinking they should have chosen the Islamic religion to see what would happen.” Lou and company notwithstanding, my sense is that defenders out number those who are upset and that, after two years of what some would call oppression, a new local Christmas tradition has been established.

Celebrating

Posted on April 12, 2015 by Denny

The Findlay Market Opening Day Parade was a full thirty hours away and my birthday had barely begun when last week’s post went up. Here’s an update.

Last Sunday was a long way from blisteringly hot but it was reasonably warm (60s), dry, and sunny. I spent much of the day driving a familiar loop along the banks of the Ohio River. I haven’t decided whether or not the new chapeau is a keeper but I got it for almost nothing with an about to expire credit and I’m going to give it a chance.

Breakfast was had at Brew River Gastropub in Cincinnati. Even though I cringe at the word “gastropub”, I’d stopped in here one night for beer and live music and decided it was OK. It’s location on Riverside Drive and a reputation for a good Sunday brunch made it a reasonable choice for a place to start the day. My Easter eggs came in what is essentially an omelette known as “Eggs Du Drop”. It was quite good with house-made goetta, Irish Cheddar, and green onions. From there it was east along the river’s north bank, a crossing at Maysville, and a return to Cincinnati on the Kentucky side.

On Monday I parked near Arnold’s with the intention of having breakfast there as I did last year but it was simply too crowded. Instead, I stopped in at the Sports Page Restaurant for another helping of geotta. That made timing just about perfect for a one beer test of Cincinnati’s newest brewery. Taft’s Ale House had planned to open last fall but, when construction surprises made that impossible, decided to open in sync with the Reds. Today was the official grand opening and, while they didn’t make enough to cover their $8 million investment, they got a good start.

I had time to snoop around the staging area a bit then found myself a good spot just a few blocks into the route as the parade started. This year’s Grand Marshalls were the Nasty Boys from the 1990 World Champion Reds. Relievers Norm Charlton, Randy Myers, and Rob Dibble had a combined 44 saves as the Reds stayed in first place for the entire season. Other local sports figures were also on hand including the only Bengal in the NFL Hall of Fame (Anthony Munoz) and a key piece of the Big Red Machine (George Foster).

Here are more parade entries that are uniquely Cincinnati starting with some currently active athletes, the Cincinnati Roller Girls. Next is a float from current Cincinnati success story Pure Romance and a car from one time Cincinnati powerhouse Crosley Corporation. In about a month, a new carousel will be put into operation on Cincinnati’s riverfront and a few of the custom made figures filled a parade float. From a little to Cincinnati’s west comes the Rabbit Hash General Store and from the east comes the Cardboard Boat Museum. In the race for Most Flamboyant Cincinnatian, Bootsy Collins might edge out Jim Tarbell by a little bit but neither has been called a wallflower.

I guess the closest I got to Great American Ball Park was Fountain Square and even the tail of the parade had passed by the time I got there. Cincinnati will be hosting this year’s All-Star Game and a count down sign was unveiled yesterday. I grabbed a shot of that and watched some of the game on the big screen before heading up to the City View for dinner and the rest of the game. Dinner was a ‘burger and the game was a rain delayed win for the Reds. The stadium can be partially seen from the bar. The wisp of smoke visible between the couple on the deck is from the win signalling fireworks.

The game was over but the birthday celebration had a couple more days to run. Ovenmaster Mary brought peanut butter brownies to Tuesday’s trivia gathering for some low-key great-taste celebrating. On Wednesday, I headed north to Dayton. Last year I finally experienced what many consider Cincinnati’s premier steakhouse, the Precinct. At that time, I stated that a steak I’d had at Dayton’s Pine Club remained a contender for “best ever”. I noted that more research was needed and tonight I went back for that research. The trip was infinitely worthwhile but it didn’t exactly lead to a decision. I’d ordered that Precinct steak with options while my Pine Club cut was unadorned. I had a mild sense of being slightly more impressed with the Precinct meal but realized that might be the crab meat and Béarnaise talking. Both filets were superb. In the end, I decided that debating the merits of steaks at this level or price point is like debating whether a lily looks better with silver or gold gilding. The two restaurants are different but no meat eater with functioning taste buds would be disappointed with either.

I made one more stop for birthday week. Pinups & Pints, “The World’s Only Strip Club – Brew Pub”, is just a few miles northeast of Dayton and I have, duh, wanted to go there ever since I first heard about it. The problem has been that I’m hardly ever in Dayton in the evening with free time and that’s when Pinups & Pints tends to be open. The brewery operation is an almost tiny fifteen gallon system and only a single rotating brew is available. At present, that’s Thigh High IPA which was, although IPAs are not my first choice, quite good for the style. Even though there’s no doubt that the brewery is something of a gimmick, it’s definitely not a joke. Owner/brewmaster Scott Conrad is serious about it and puts in the effort required to produce a quality product. I had intended to have just one beer but the dancers were attractive enough to make me order a second. Although two beers wasn’t enough to make the reasonably pretty dancers drop dead gorgeous, a few more might. Nearly naked women that make you want another beer that makes the women prettier which makes the beer taste better which makes the… I think Conrad might be onto something.

History by the Pint

Posted on December 14, 2014 by Denny

Ohio has a new brewery. It wasn’t desperately needed, I suppose, but this one is seriously different. There were already more than 100 breweries operating in Ohio and over 3000 in the country. A dozen other states also have more than 100 each. New mini, micro, and nano breweries are popping up everywhere everyday and, while I’m personally very happy to hear of each and every new launch, it’s a fact that the opening of a brewery is not as exciting and rare as it was just a few years ago. In an effort to distinguish themselves, some breweries are targeting the extremities of things that can be measured to claim titles like “the hoppiest” or “highest alcohol content”. How about “most labor intensive”?

Carillon Brewing Company did not set out to be high on the labor used scale. It set out to be high on the historically accurate scale and provide a piece of living history befitting the 65 acre open air museum it is part of at Carillon Historical Park. It just turns out that, when you accurately recreate an 1850 brewery and use it to make beer the same way it was made more than a century and a half ago, things are going to be a bit more “hands on” than is normal today.

Though many are in really old buildings, the working bits of most breweries we see today look pretty modern. There are usually dials and gauges and maybe some electronics. One or more — sometimes many more — big — sometimes really big — stainless steel tanks are what actually identify a brewery to most of us. There are no steel tanks here and no fancy gauges. Definitely no electronically controlled automation.

Here the beer is brewed in copper kettles and fermented in wooden barrels. Heat comes from wood fires and transferring the liquid between brewing steps is accomplished by hand dipping and gravity. One of the few concessions to modern times is the use of city water to save workers the chore of toting bucket after bucket from the nearby Great Miami River.

The doors were opened in August with a full food menu and OPB (Other People’s Beer). In October, house brewed root beer and ginger ale were added. Last Thursday, December 11, two of Carillon Brewing’s own ales were introduced. The Porter (from an 1862 recipe) is pictured. I was served both it and the already downed Coriander Ale (1831 recipe) by Frank, the guy in the second picture. Note the period dress. Another modern concession is the use of refrigeration so that us twenty-first century wussies don’t have to drink warm beer. It is anticipated that some varieties will be served at room temperature to provide a true 1850 experience. Only ales will be brewed here. Even though lagering existed long before 1850, most breweries produced only ales until the mid 1860s

My new word of the day is “brewster”, a female brewer. Carillon Brewing’s Tanya Brock is that and more. Not only is she responsible for turning out something as tasty as those new stainless steel filled microbreweries, she must do it with historically accurate methods and recipes. Oh, and she has to research those methods and recipes, too. This is one unique operation. With justified pride, Brock says, “No one else in the United States is doing a fully-licensed production brewery in a historic museum.”

The brewery is indeed part of a museum and vice versa. Signs, including several on barrel heads, explain brewing and its history in the area. One barrel head contains an annotated drawing of the brewing operation that stands behind it. Employees and volunteers are knowledgeable and happy to answer questions. Brewing currently takes place Wednesday through Saturday though watching it is sometimes akin to watching water come to a boil. Actually, between the flurries of activity moving the brew between steps, it is exactly like watching water come to an almost boil. Still, it’s mighty interesting. Nowhere else can you drink a beer truly made “the old fashioned way” while watching another batch being prepared for a future visit. You’ll leave not only refreshed and educated on nineteenth century brewing methods but, with just a little counting, knowing how may states were in the union in 1850.

EDITED 15-Dec-2014: Within a day of publishing this article, it struck me that the opening paragraph did not at all establish the right tone. In a move that I certainly won’t make a habit of, it has been rewritten. The original follows:

Ho hum. Ohio has another brewery. No, ho hum isn’t really what I want to say. I’m very happy to hear of each and every new launch but it’s a fact that the opening of a brewery is not as exciting and rare as it was just a few years ago. It’s not just Ohio, of course. There are now more than 3000 breweries in the country and new mini, micro, and nano breweries are popping up everywhere everyday. Ohio is just one of thirteen states with more than 100 breweries in operation. In an effort to distinguish themselves, some breweries are targeting the extremities of things that can be measured to claim titles like “the hoppiest” or “highest alcohol content”. How about “most labor intensive”?

Planes and Things

Posted on November 24, 2013 by Denny

On Friday, November 22, 2013, a friend and I visited the National Museum of the US Air Force near Dayton, Ohio. Among the many historic items on display is the Boeing VC-137C that carried John F Kennedy to and from Dallas, Texas. The two pictures below were taken of the same general area of the plane just a few hours shy of fifty years apart.

johnsonsi sam26000_int

Another museum display recently in the news is associated with the Doolittle Raiders. A “Last Man Standing” pact had been established in which the last surviving Raider would drink a toast to all those who had gone before him.On the most recent anniversary of their 1942 bombing run over Toyko, the last four living Raiders decided not to wait but to have their final public reunion and drink their toast now. That toast took place at the museum on November 9 and can be seen here. Their eighty silver goblets, with the seventy-six belonging to diseased Raiders standing up side down, are displayed at the museum. My report on last year’s 70th reunion is here.

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