At Speed in Cincy

History does repeat itself. In the early 1970s, I lived with my wife and two sons in a house with a driveway that sloped to a paved area in the back. That driveway was an ideal spot for the four-year-old to give his Big Wheel a workout. While I worked on something on a car behind the house, he repeatedly pushed the three-wheeler to the top of the hill so he could come rocketing down the hill, brace his feet on the pedals to stop the big front wheel, and throw the rear wheels into a perfect 180-degree slide. This was exactly what Big Wheels were designed for. After one of his countless slides, he looked up at me and made an incredibly insightful observation. “Dad”, he said, “I bet you wish you could do this.”

He was absolutely right. What he was doing looked like a fabulous amount of fun but I was too old. What I saw Saturday also looked like a fabulous amount of fun but I was once again too old. Fifty years ago, being too old meant being too big to fit into the seat. Yesterday it meant being too wheezy and too brittle.

This is Danger Wheel‘s eighth year but it was somehow kept a secret from me until I saw Citybeat’s 7 Things To Do in Cincinnati This Weekend article last Thursday. Realizing almost instantly that this was something special, I made plans to attend and found myself near the midpoint of the course about two hours before race time. There is a starting line at the top of the hill and a finish line at the bottom just like the Soapbox Derby I attended last week (At Speed in Akron). More history repeating itself I suppose.

The race takes place in the Pendleton neighborhood of Cincinnati which has two breweries and several really good restaurants. Food trucks are brought in for the event along with tents from breweries outside the neighborhood. I had no trouble filling the time until the competition started. I even had time to check out some of the racing teams and vehicles.

Of course, the two hours between my arrival and the first race also gave other spectators time to arrive and completely line the course. I did somehow manage to get close enough to the starting line to snap a picture of the launch of the first heat. When the starting horn sounds, two team members have ten feet to power the third member off the line.

These special built Huffy Green Machines have no onboard means of propulsion so you might think that once the starting line pushing ends, the race is exactly like a Soapbox Derby heat with drivers dealing with nothing but steering until gravity takes them over the finish line. You might think that but you would be really really wrong.

While spectators were packing in trackside, race organizers had placed ramps and speed bumps along the clear street I’d seen when I arrived. In addition, pelting racers with water balloons was a legitimate and quite popular means of fan participation. I overheard the starter suggest to a rookie that he close his face shield all the way because “those water balloons hurt like hell”.

I didn’t feel like forcing my way to the front or staying in one place long enough to move up through attrition assuming that was even possible. I could see some of the action fairly well but had no clear shot for photos. The closest I came to capturing any of the mayhem was this fuzzy shot. The picture at right shows a large video screen in the parking lot where most of the food trucks were. Live racing was shown on this screen and on screens inside most of the businesses in the area. The longest stretch of racing that I actually watched was inside one of the breweries while also enjoying some cool air and cold liquid.

I did not stay until the champion was crowned. Just like last week at the Soapbox Derby, I had no one to root for. The winner of each heat was announced but the names were meaningless to me and I did not pursue standings.

But I still consider it one of the coolest events I have ever attended in Cincinnati. It was absolutely great fun to watch but, once I understood that the helmets and padding were not just for show, I lost any desire to participate. I do still wish I could have spun that low-slung speedster around in the driveway fifty years ago, however.

At Speed in Akron

In the closing paragraph of my post on the Golf Manor Grand Prix, I mentioned that I probably wouldn’t make it to the Cincinnati Soapbox Derby qualifier but might attend the season finale in Akron, Ohio. As it turns out, both conjectures turned out to be accurate. I missed the Cincinnati event but made it to the big show for the first time ever.

The very first All-American Soap Box Derby® took place in Dayton, Ohio, which is even closer to my home than Akron, but I did not attend. It was 1934. Things moved fast and the 1935 race was held on the streets of Akron with a permanent site, Derby Downs, being built by the next year. I was probably aware of the Derby as a child but it was not part of my world. I believe I first saw Soap Box racers in action within the last twenty years or so. By then, I was very much aware of the Derby and of just how big an event it was. More recently, I began to realize that if I was ever to witness what was an iconic happening in my home state I’d best be getting on with it.

The opening photo was taken when I arrived on Friday. There seems to be something going on all week but Saturday is the big day and the only one that requires a ticket. Super Kids events were taking place when I was there Friday. This is a program that allows physically and mentally challenged children to participate by having a helper ride with them.

A golf cart shuttle took me all the way to the top where I could see lots of cars being readied to race and could get a really good look at the whole track too.

Here’s something I was not even aware of when I left home. I spotted an announcement about this Vintage Derby Car Show in my Facebook feed when I stopped in Columbus for breakfast. Because the poster and I had a bunch of mutual friends, I correctly guessed we had a Route 66-related connection. I stopped in after leaving the track and enjoyed looking over the displays, including a replica of the winner of that inaugural 1934 race, and meeting Facebook friend Keith Lamb in real life. Keith won the Derby in 1979 and had his car on display but, although we stood and talked beside it for quite a while, I failed to get a picture. I did better with Keith and his wife. This was the second year for the event with a repeat next year almost certain.

Due to construction detours and bad planning (Mostly the latter.) I was late for opening ceremonies on Saturday. I could also try to blame the longer walk after parking. On Friday the field had just a few cars in a single row but was now almost full. I heard the national anthem as I neared the track and reached it just in time to see the Champions, who had apparently walked down the track as part of the ceremony, begin their walk up the track. The word “champion” was used a lot and in this case referred to all the competitors. In the act of qualifying for this event, each of them had become the champion of something.

In rather short order, a full day of non-stop racing would commence. These three pictures show cars at the start, somewhere mid-track, and crossing the finish line. Notice that the racers are virtually side by side in all three pictures. This was typical. Winning margins of 0.005 and 0.006 seconds were common. At least two races I watched were decided by 0.001 seconds. One of the later races ended in a dead heat requiring a two-car runoff. The biggest differential I noted was barely over 0.16 seconds.

All the cars in the previous set of photos are Stock Division racers with drivers between 7 a 13 years of age and no more than approximately 5’3″ tall and 125 pounds in weight. Cars in this pair of photos are Super Stock Division racers with drivers between 9 and 18 years of age, up to about 6’0″ tall, and weighing up to about 150 pounds. Incidentally, the distance between racers in the second picture is just about as big as it gets.

A third style of racer makes up the Masters Division. In these, the 10 to 20-year-old “more experienced” drivers essentially lay down in the cars with just the tops of their helmeted heads visible. Sometimes getting tucked in requires a little extra push from Dad.

Racers qualify for the international competition either by winning the Local Race nearest to their home or by winning a Rally Regional Title by earning points in multiple races. Both methods produce champions in all three divisions. The bulk of Saturday’s racing involved eliminating all but nine competitors in each of these six groups. A victory parade celebrated each group of finalists.

Each of those six groups of nine was arbitrarily divided into three heats of three. The winner of each heat would run with the winners of the other two heats to decide 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Second-place racers would compete for 4th, 5th, and 6th while third-place racers would compete for 7th, 8th, and 9th. The range of times for each heat usually looked something like this where barely 5/100 of a second separated all three cars.

I was quite surprised by the nearly empty grandstandsbut eventually realized that unattached spectators like me were pretty scarce. Most people were there in support of a specific racer and had a home base established trackside. Of course, enthusiastic cowbell-equipped fans could be found anywhere.

The Goodyear Blimp is hangared at an airport right beside Derby Downs so there would occasionally be things overhead to watch or be watched by and there was still plenty of action on the track but I had no one to root for. At the start of the day, I had identified two competitors from Cincinnati but both were eliminated in the first round. I then moved my support to a racer named Gibson. She made it to the final nine but when she lost her bid for first, I headed home. Great fun and I later learned that the Gibson kid won her last heat to earn a 4th place to bring honor to the family name.

Book Review
Southern Ohio Legends & Lore
James A. Willis

I met James Willis in March at the first-ever Frogman Festival which I reported on here. In fact, his “Frogman of Loveland, Ohio” presentation was one of the main festival attractions for me even though I almost expected to be disappointed by it. One reason for that was just my general skepticism of all things paranormal related but I also felt I had reason to be skeptical of Mr. Willis specifically. An online bio utilized for the festival begins with “Not since the Headless Horseman went charging through Sleepy Hollow has something come out of the Hudson Highlands of upstate New York as thrilling and chilling as author and paranormal researcher James A. Willis.” That struck me as rather pompous and I more or less anticipated an arrogant fellow demanding I believe in spooks and oversized frogs because he said so. That was not at all what I got, however.

Willis is not exactly timid or unsure of himself but his confidence is solidly backed up by knowledge. He is a long way from arrogant and even farther away from pompous. His presentation did not focus on how weird and mysterious a creature referred to as a “frogman” was but on verifiable facts behind the stories about it. I enjoyed his talk so much that I sought him out when it was over to buy this book containing more stories about my area of Ohio.

As its back cover tells us, Southern Ohio Legends & Lore is filled with “scary, mysterious and just plain weird stories” but Willis’ telling of those stories is, just like his festival presentation, replete with verifiable facts. I do not mean to imply that Willis solves every mystery or debunks every myth. There is a section titled “The Unexplained” and there are plenty of questions that remain unanswered in other sections as well. But those questions are not unanswered due to a lack of trying and I’m fairly confident that no known explanation is intentionally omitted. In addition, Willis does not resort to hyperbole or loaded language to make the stories scarier, more mysterious, or weirder than they already are,

The stories are divided into six sections: “Ghostly Legends”, “Legendary Characters”, “Legendary Villians”, “Legendary Places”, “The Unexplained”, and “Legendary Events”. Having lived my entire life in southern Ohio, I was already at least somewhat familiar with most of them. There are exceptions including all four “Ghostly Legends”. It is the only section where every story is new to me and it is the only section dealing more or less directly with possibly supernatural phenomena. I’m thinking those two facts might very well be related. I’m also thinking that this is the right place to mention that Willis is the founder and director of the paranormal research group The Ghosts of Ohio. I find it somehow reassuring that this is also the only section where that comes into play and even here there is no straying from the “verifiable facts” approach.

I don’t believe I learned anything new about any of the “Legendary Characters” but I appreciate the concise and complete descriptions. Willis’ reporting on John Symmes and his hollow earth theory is among the most even-handed and comprehensive I’ve read. Likewise, his tale of “Legendary Villian” George Remus where I did learn a few details for the first time.

“Legendary Places” combines a place I had never heard of (Athens Pentagram) with three that I am quite familiar with. That somehow makes it my favorite section. One of the three familiar places, the Loveland Castle, was the subject of a blog post here just last fall. “The Unexplained” includes the Loveland Frog that had been my introduction to James Willis. Three major disasters including the 1979 Who concert tragedy appear in “Legendary Events”. All are certainly legendary and make for interesting reading but do not really seem scary, mysterious, or weird.

Maybe I did not learn about a bunch of new places to visit or encounter shocking revelations about people or places not new to me but I did learn that James A. Willis is a stubborn researcher and a straight-shooting reporter even if he doesn’t seem as chilling as a headless horsemen. Those who have not spent three-quarters of a century in southern Ohio will almost certainly be able to expand their list of places to visit or add to the stock of stories they share with friends.  

Even I have added something connected to this book to my schedule. Another of the “Legendary Places” with which I am familiar is the site where three nineteenth-century attempts to establish Utopia failed. I read the chapter on Utopia while out to breakfast then, within minutes of returning home, I was presented with an online advertisement for Utopia: A New Musical premiering in a couple of weeks. I immediately bought a ticket because that is most definitely “just plain weird”.

Southern Ohio Legends & Lore, James A. Willis, The History Press (August 15, 2022), 6 x 9 inches, 144 pages, ISBN  978-1467151115
Available through Amazon.

Happy 247th

There are twenty “Underrated Attractions in Cincinnati” identified in the CityBeat article that motivated me to visit the Lucky Cat Museum last week. With that museum visit, I could count thirteen of the twenty as things I have seen. There are a few more that I will probably get to before long and a couple of others that I have little interest in. I thought it highly unlikely that I would ever experience one listed attraction despite being interested in it very much. “Stricker’s Grove“, the article said, “is closed to the public…”. It could be rented for private events but, unless I could get myself invited to somebody’s company picnic, it seemed I was out of luck.

Then, barely a week after the CityBeat article appeared, I saw another article announcing that the park would be open to the public on July 4th. I had, I now realized, stopped reading that opening sentence too soon. “Stricker’s Grove is closed to the public for most of the year”, is what it really said. It is actually open to all on a handful of days each year and Independence Day is one of them.

But the amusement park next to cornfields and a two-lane state highway would not open until 2:00 o’clock. I filled the morning and put myself in the general area by attending the Fourth of July parade in Hamilton, Ohio.

This parade was significantly different from the only other parade I recall attending in Hamilton. That was the Short, Sweet, Wet, and Irish inaugural Saint Patrick’s Day parade held earlier this year. That parade had just one fire engine and, with a route length of approximately 575 feet, barely had room for it. This parade route was well over two miles long with several fire department vehicles including a couple of real classics.

The Corvettes and firetrucks did not surprise me but the low riders did. And it wasn’t just one or two. The number of these incredibly tricked-out cars rivaled the number of Corvettes and they jumped higher, too.

I was also surprised by this group’s . They had already passed me when the word “militia” caught my eye. I snapped this belated photo then looked up The Last Militia at the end of the day. They describe themselves as “a preparedness organization that focuses on the needs of families during times of strife” and dispute their classification as an antigovernment movement by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Their camouflage-patterned vests display the motto, Molṑn Labé. Greek for “Come and take them”, the phrase is often considered an expression of defiance but in this case is probably just an invitation to avail oneself of some of the bottled water pictured on their website.

I had no trouble Identifying the hot air balloon burner and gondola in the bed of this truck but sorting out the headgear took a bit longer. Only when I saw the Hops in the Hangar sign did I realize they are foam-topped beer mugs.

Getting inside the structure behind the four-foot flame was a bonus. I am fairly familiar with the Butler County Soldiers, Sailors and Pioneers Monument from the outside but had never been inside. It is even more impressive than I anticipated. Built on the site of the original Fort Hamilton, it honors all county residents who served in wars fought before its construction in 1902. Non-military pioneers are also recognized on the second floor. Original stained glass copies of the seals of the State of Ohio and the Grand Army of the Republic are opposite each other on the first floor.

Even larger stained glass windows on the second floor honor Civil War nurses and mothers. A clear glass window provides a wonderful view of the Great Miami River.

This is the place the day was organized around. Stricker’s Grove opened at 2:00 with the rides beginning at 3:00. Admission is free. Parking is $5. The pictured pavilion filled with picnic tables is just inside the park. There are also lots of tables outside the pavilion. Picnicking is not just tolerated; it is encouraged. The one-hour lag between opening and the rides firing up might actually be part of that encouragement. Reasonably priced food is available for anyone not packing a cooler at home. I had actually started the day thinking of a place to eat but when I learned of the parade I had just enough time to drive directly there. I now had time for breakfast — mett $4, chips $1, pink lemonade $2. Hotdogs were available for $2 and a 14 once draft beer for $4.

Eating was not the only thing available for filling in that rideless hour. A couple of Skee Ball areas and a large arcade filled with video games and pinball machines were in full swing as were other games of skill.

The rides had been operating for a while by the time I made it to the midway and purchased tickets. The best deal was clearly the $20 armband that let you ride anything all day. Single tickets were $2.50 or 5 for $10 or 20 for $25. That last option only makes sense if the tickets were to be shared by multiple riders. The only thing I really cared about riding was the Tornado roller coaster which was one of the very few rides, or possibly the only ride, that required three tickets. $7.50 seemed like a lot for one ride so I went for the five-ticket deal which made it seem like a bargain. It was then that I saw the coaster in motion for the first time ever but I decided not to get in the line just yet.

I had already decided to start off with a ride on the train (1 ticket) thinking it might give me a better feel for the park layout. Disappointingly, it did not go through the park but around its periphery of which corn and the Great Miami River are major components. It did give me a different view of the Tornado, however.

With the train ride behind me, it was time to join the queue at the Tornado. Reportedly there has been only one man in the United States to build his own roller coaster That man was Ralph Stricker and this is that coaster. Al Collins designed it and Stricker built it between November 1990, and June 1993.

The line was fairly long but it moved with reasonable speed. I used to ride roller coasters quite a bit but it has been a while. It felt good to climb into the car and start through that first slow curve past that corn. Being “homemade” and all, I kind of expected this to be a little wimpy. Not so. It was a good ride and all the coaster this old man needed. Nicely done Ralph and Al.

I used my one remaining ticket on another ride with a view. The extra fallout protection blocked the view to some degree but I could still see the corn and some people seem to always find a way to live life on the edge.

I submit these pictures not as examples of good fireworks photography but as evidence that I did expose myself to Independence Day pyrotechnics as required of all U.S. citizens. Fireworks were scheduled at Stricker’s Grove but I left long before that happened. I watched these from the parking lot across from King’s Island. Note that I live close enough to the park to hear these every night. The structure at the right edge of the first photo is the Drop Tower which I assume was closed during the fireworks.

The show also included the synchronized drones that the park introduced during last year’s 50th-anniversary celebration. I reported on my first viewing of them here. Formations not shown here included the Liberty Bell, the Statue of Liberty, and more. A good con man might be able to convince you that the lights in the middle of the map are there to mark King’s Island’s location but they are really lights on the replica Eiffel Tower standing between the camera and the drones.

Lucky Cat Museum

I am not a cat person but I am a museum person. I suppose those two facts have been quietly duking it out in my head since I first heard of the Lucky Cat Museum several years ago. The museum is in Cincinnati and it is unusual which are both strong come-ons for me but it had no regular hours. Visiting it was by appointment only which, combined with that “not a cat person” thing, kept me away. I am not at all an ailurophobe but my interest in seeing a collection of things is not at its highest when those things are cats. A recent Citybeat article brought it back to my attention and an online sign-up system for visits solved the appointment issue. I finally paid a visit to all the lucky cats and their keeper, Micha Robertson, and I am so glad I did.

Before arriving at the museum, I read several online descriptions. The earliest talk of “over 700” cats. Some that are a bit more recent say “at least 1000”. The latest guess I found was from 2019 and that guess was “over 2000”. It doesn’t take much time inside the museum to realize just how ridiculously safe that estimate is. As with many large collections, there is a point following the initial exposure when you are struck by the sheer size of the display or the number of items it contains. That certainly happened with me and the Lucky Cat Museum. Not surprisingly, that is something I failed to capture with the camera but maybe these three photos will provide some sense of just how many items are on display.

I’m always reluctant to call a number on a locked museum door or dive into “by appointment” arrangements partly because I’m uncomfortable having someone make any effort for the benefit of just one person. The online system for the Lucky Cat Museum allows just six participants in each tour and shows how many openings are in each slot. I had picked a slot with just two or three openings to avoid being the only person taking up Robertson’s time but it didn’t work out that way. All the others cancelled so I had the benefit of a one-on-one tour without any feelings of guilt. The tour began with some background information. Lucky Cats are more properly known as Beckoning Cats or Maneki Neko in Japanese. They have probably been around since the 1600s but first appeared in print in 1852.

My attention was then directed to some of the “…est” items in the museum. The oldest is a long ago repurposed zushi from the 1800s. The smallest is the tiny kitten on a wire. The miniature toy shop is neither the oldest nor the smallest (although the tiny maneki neko it contains is pretty darned small) but it is probably the one most at home in a Cincinnati setting. It was purchased in 1929 by Cincinnatians visiting Japan.

There are naturally plenty of “Don’t Touch” signs among the many rare and fragile items on display but there are several hands-on items as well. One is a coin-operated cat that meows (we think) in Japanese and says some other things too. The slot machines have been converted from coins to tokens as required after being retired from Japanese casinos.

This sneaky fellow and his identical twin did charm me out of a few coins and, yes, others have placed videos online if you care to look.

It should not come as a surprise that some of the cats have found work in advertising or that their manufacture has expanded beyond Japan or even China. All the cats in the second photo were made in Spain by Lladro.

In my pre-visit poking around, I had seen references to “the cat that saved a train station” but had not pursued them. The claim turns out to be 100% true and the story well worth reading. Tama, the cat, was instrumental in keeping a Japanese train station open after it was scheduled to be shut down. With the official title of Station Master, she took her salary in cat food.

By this point, I was well aware that I was in the presence of someone with an encyclopedic knowledge of her subject but Robertson’s answer to a question about the box-headed cats drove it home. The tour was a combination of Robertson pointing out things of interest and me asking questions about random objects. In both cases, she provided in-depth details straight from her memory. The box-headed cats come from a Japanese cartoon that Robertson knew the name and history of. I just wish I could remember what she said. I had earlier been impressed by learning that she taught herself enough Japanese to survive in online auctions.

The cat in the opening picture wasn’t always glittering with a skin of mirrors. It has led a pretty rough life which is documented in the discs hanging next to it. In 2010, while on loan to the Krohn Conservatory for its Japanese butterfly exhibit, it was dropped in the last days of the exhibit. Damage also occurred in 2014 and 2018. On one occasion it was dropped by Micha’s husband but I don’t recall what the other accident was and I don’t remember which was which. Repairs were made every time with the mirrored surface apparently appearing in 2014. With that sort of history, I suppose some might question whether or not Disco Cat deserves a spot in a Lucky Cat Museum but I don’t. Sometimes Beckoning Cats bring luck to their owners and sometimes it’s the other way around. There is an awful lot of the latter going on here.

Logan Washboard Festival Plus

Once upon a time a friend and I mentioned to each other that the Logan Washboard Festival seemed like a good thing to do someday. Flimsy plans came and went until we finally pulled it off this week. By then, of course, the plans had, as simmering plans tend to do, grown. By the time Terry and I hit the road on Thursday, our agenda included one furnace, one mill, and at least one walk in the woods along with time at the festival.

Even after the road was hit, our plans continued to grow. An earlier than hoped for departure and the realization that the Leo Petroglyphs were almost on the way, led us to make a stop there. And yes, we did see the most popular of the glyphs, man-with-horns.

The mill and the furnace had scheduling requirements so walking in the woods had to happen during our open time on Thursday. We followed the fairly level Gorge Trail at Conkle’s Hollow past ferns and rock cliffs to a very cool waterfall. That’s Terry gazing at it in awe (I assume) in the third photo.

Next was Rock House. I had never been here and Terry’s memory of the amount of elevation change was tempered by time. This was closer to a climb through the rocks than a walk in the woods but that Rock House was quite the reward.

In the morning, with all of our walking in the woods/rocks behind us, we headed to Buckeye Furnace State Memorial. The building in the first picture is of the charging shed. This also housed the boilers which powered the steam engine that forced hot air into the furnace. The third picture shows the furnace from which molten iron once emerged.

We had found one website stating that the museum was open on Fridays and one stating it wasn’t. A sign in the park agreed with the one that said it wasn’t. We were leaving after exploring the furnace when we spotted a car parked near the museum and the museum door appeared to be open. Reality, it turned out, matched the website saying the museum was open on Fridays. There are many furnace-related exhibits here including samples of the ingredients and the finished product. Although it’s not exactly furnace-related, I found the Chuck Wagon Kitchen Pantry in the second picture rather interesting. Text hanging next to it is here.

On Friday afternoon, we actually reached the Logan Washboard Festival. If there were any doubts about where the opening photo came from, they should now be gone. The festival fills about four blocks of downtown Logan with opening ceremonies taking place on Thursday evening. Both Friday and Saturday have music on three stages. Saturday is the biggest of the two but Friday fit our schedule best.

It should not be a surprise that the “last manufacturer of Genuine usable Washboards in the USA” is right in the middle of the festival. The Columbus Washboard Company has been making washboards since 1895 and has been doing it in Logan, Ohio, since around 2000.

Music doesn’t start on the outdoor stages until 4:30 but we found some in the back of the washboard store/factory well before that. Washboard Wizard and festival mainstay Bill Bailey (blue vest) anchors things here with other musicians coming and going.

Most of the company’s standard washboard models are displayed on a wall with prices. Another wall holds examples of many custom models including one from that big band in southern Indiana.

We did not join one of the guided tours through the factory but we did explore all of the manufacturing area and Terry did get some personal instruction on the process.

The official festival music program got underway with Washboard Hank on the Mulberry Street Stage and we also watched Nicole Dicken perform on that stage. The two washboard players at stage left were not actually members of Hank’s band and moved on about halfway through the set.

We caught Washboard Shorty & Reverend Robert and Williamson Branch on the Main Stage. Robert and Shorty invited all washboard players to join them for their last couple of songs and had three takers.

We wrapped up the excursion with a Saturday stop at Rock Mill. The mill was opened to visitors in 2017 after an outstanding restoration project was completed. It reopened this spring following a shutdown to build a support wall to stabilize the building. The mill grinds grain on the last Sunday of every month.

The phenomenal accomplishment of restoring this mill is documented in Rock Mill: Saving an Original.

Golf Manor Grand Prix

I once attended a Cincinnati Soapbox Derby event and I know I took some pictures but apparently I did no reporting of it on this site. This post will keep last Sunday’s Golf Manor Grand Prix from suffering the same fate. The Golf Manor race is an International Soap Box Derby® sanctioned event but it is not a qualifier for the big derby in Akron, Ohio. For Cincinnati, that role is assigned to the Cincinnati Local Derby held in June. That means the Golf Manor event is something of a practice session with a sizable percentage of first-time drivers. Both Stock and Super Stock races are held but I attended only the Stock event that filled the morning. Stock car drivers are between 7 and 13 years old and under 5’3″ and 125 pounds. Super Stock cars are a little bigger with drivers between 9 and 18 years of age and up to 6’0″ tall and 150 pounds in weight.

When I arrived, the pit crews (a.k.a., parents) were hovering around the cars and confering with the drivers. I snapped these pictures of the unattended cars when the drivers meeting was announced.

The drivers meeting was much like others I’ve seen or attended although the drivers were somewhat shorter than what I’m used to seeing. And I think they were less impressed with greetings from Mayor Stefan C. Densmore than were the pit crews and officials. Golf Manor is an independent municipality completely surrounded by the city of Cincinnati.

At 180 meters (about 200 yards) the track here is considerably shorter than the one in Akron (301 meters) but it has the advantage of an uphill slope beyond the finish line. This does slow the racers a bit to the benefit of young rookies who don’t always remember to apply the brakes appropriately.

On-track action started with a number of solo runs which I guessed were to give first-timers a run with minimum distractions and no chance of interference. In reality, though, I don’t think these drivers were about to let anything distract them.

Precision electronic timing gear automatically picks and announces the winners. Elapsed time is not important meaning only the time between the two racers need be measured. Of course, very high-resolution measurement is required as just fractions of a second separate the cars. Math is just one of the things Soapbox Derby racing teaches its participants.

It also teaches sportsmanship. At the start of a race, the drivers are encouraged to wish each other luck before the starter triggers the mechanism that simultaneously releases both cars. Then the drivers get to learn about gravity, friction, aerodynamics, and lots of other things including just how cool a steering wheel and a burst of speed feels.

The racing was mostly without incident and I saw no reason to photograph the few incidents that did occur. A couple of drivers were still learning the mysteries of steering and shortened their runs by angling into the curb and one driver verified the brakes were working by stopping about halfway down the hill. One car veered into the other lane and ended up slamming into the straw bale protecting the timing sensors. I later overheard comments that something in the steering may have broken. Whatever the cause, it was a traumatic experience with some extra learning that was harsh but injury free.

I’m seriously thinking about going to the big show in Akron this year although there are no firm plans in place. The Cincinnati qualifier would be a nice prelude to that but at the moment that looks to be something I’ll have to miss. If that’s the case, this driver’s practice will be my practice too. 

Bricktionary at Cincinnati Museum Center

I’ve never had Legos. I’ve had Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs and even a hand-me-down Erector Set but no Legos. Both my Tinker Toys and my Lincoln Logs were made out of real wood but I had no Legos made out of anything. If having wooden Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs isn’t sufficiently impressive, consider that I also had a Mr. Potato Head that did not come with a plastic body but required a real potato and my family’s Clue Game had a real rope (string) and lead pipe. Knowing all that should make it abundantly clear why I had no Legos. My childhood occurred at a time so far removed from the present that Legos had not yet been invented.

The Lego company and something called “Automatic Binding Bricks” did exist during my childhood but it would be the late 1950s before the sort of plastic brick we now know would appear. Initially seen only in Lego’s home country of Denmark, they would not show up in the USA until 1961. That was a little too late for me but Legos were part of my sons’ toy collections. They were not a big part although they were around enough for me to experience stepping on them barefoot in the dark. The experience is certainly a memorable one but the pain level does not, in my opinion, equal that of stepping on a Barbie high heel under similar circumstances. Legos really took hold a generation later and at least one grandson dived pretty deep into the phenomenon.

Others took even deeper dives to become LEGO® Certified Professionals. One of those professionals, Ryan “The Brickman” McNaught, is responsible for “Bricktionary: The ultimate LEGO® A-Z” exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center that I visited Friday. It is based on a book of the same name. Learning that A is for alligator is a good start.

The Seattle Space Needle just beyond the alligator had me stumped until I figured out it was part of the ‘B’ section. B is for buildings like the Space Needle and the Sydney Opera House.

There are several hands-on stations in the exhibit where lots of Lego elements are available to experiment with. At the earthquake station, visitor-built structures can be tested for stability on adjustable shaking platforms.

It took me a second to realize that G is for garden but knowing that H is for Harley Davidson was immediate. I was pretty impressed with the spokes made out of bricks and I thought the giant flower so cool that I used a shot of just the bloom for an Instagram/Facebook post.

I found this hands-on station extra interesting and spent some time talking with the two people operating it. In the end, I participated myself. It has some similarities with assembling a jigsaw puzzle except all of the “puzzling” has already been done. Screens display random sections of the big image for visitors to copy onto 6×6 panels. The pattern I followed to assemble my section is here. Completed sections are placed in their proper position by one of the station workers. The image being assembled here is a frontal view of the Museum Center. There are others including an awesome view of the Grand Canyon. It takes a number of days to complete an image but several have already been assembled and disassembled since the exhibit opened in March. There is talk of the Museum Center image remaining in Cincinnati when the exhibit moves on and I briefly had visions of my little panel becoming part of a permanent museum display. I quickly realized, however, that the Museum Center, the Grand Canyon, and every other image will likely rise and fall many more times before the exhibit closes in August.

This Lego model of the Museum Center, a.k.a., Union Terminal, sits at the line separating the big exhibit from the obligatory gift shop. One of the items available in the shop is the Bricktionary book mentioned earlier. I should have checked to see if it gives instructions for building all 150+ models in the exhibit. If so, then anyone could duplicate the exhibit with a little free time and about 3,000,000 Legos. If only my condo was a skosh bigger.

Three Days of Peace and Music

Although it was not an actual goal, I was entertained by live music each of the last three days. It was just like Woodstock except that I only saw one performer each day and didn’t have to sleep in the mud. The picture at right exemplifies the peacefulness that prevailed. It was taken at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden where my musical adventure began.

I’m not sure when the zoo held the first Tunes & Blooms event. The earliest online reference I found was from 2018. The current setup has the music starting at 6:00 with free admission starting at 5:00. There is not much animal activity at that time but there is some and a few buildings remain open. One of those is Manatee Springs which has three residents at present. In the photo, one of the three is seen chasing some of the nearly 300 pounds of lettuce the trio consumes each day.

I have thought of attending Tunes & Blooms in the past but Thursday was the first time I actually made it. The artist of the day was the Carriers. They delivered very good original rock material that I quite enjoyed.

I stopped by Fibonacci Brewing last month to see Vernon McIntyre’s Appalachian Grass but bad weather caused the show to be canceled. I got much closer on Friday. Appalachian Grass performed but without Vernon. He wasn’t feeling well but sent a very capable guitarist in his place. The group is scheduled to be at the brewery monthly and I will be back.

Between 1956 and 1968, Covington, Ohio, was home to Rogers Drum Company. I even picked up a kit there in 1964. For the last few years, fans of the drums have been gathering in Covington to buy, sell, and reminisce as they did on Saturday. Potential buyers would sometimes take kits for a “test drive” and multiple simultaneous drum solos in a high school gymnasium sound exactly like what you’re thinking. The second picture is of Anthony Amodeo’s presentation on some Rogers history. The third picture is of a display in the local museum.

Drum solos were not the only music I heard on Saturday. I ended the day at Devil Wind Brewing where I knew Nasty Bingo would be performing. I had heard of the group but had never actually heard them. They did not disappoint and made a great finale for my three (generally) peaceful days of music.

2023 Ohio Road Meet Columbus

I attended my sixth road meet yesterday which provided a good topic for this week’s post while simultaneously removing any possibility of completing a post about it by 6:00 AM today. Rather than posting a canned article to meet the 6:00 schedule, I decided to defy the self-imposed deadline and post this report on the Columbus Road Meet at whatever time it was complete. Whether or not it is worth waiting for is not for me to say.

The group gathered at Tommy’s Diner for a pre-tour meal. Sandor Gulyas, the meet’s organizer, and I are pretty familiar with Tommy’s but it was something new for the other four attendees. Being there for lunch was also something new for me since I believe all of my previous visits had been for breakfast. I was prepared to order a sandwich when the menu reminded me of the “breakfast all day” policy. It was not quite noon when I tackled a 3-cheese omelet.

Our first stop was at the Dodge Skatepark from where we could see some of the ongoing construction of a new ramp to I-70/I-71. I’m always something of the odd man at these meets since they lean toward the new and my interest leans toward the old. Of course, it’s really a continuum and I always find something that interests me. However, it might explain why my pier picture includes kayakers and I have a skyline picture facing away from the construction entirely.

While stopped at the skatepark, we walked over to an art installation named The Slingshot for a group photo. I don’t yet have access to that photo (I’ll add it when I do.) but I do have this picture of Sandor about to be launched in the direction of downtown and the opening photo shows Sandor’s final pre-launch view. ADDENDUM 16-Apr-2023: The group photo has been added at the end of this post.

We then circled through downtown for a view of the construction from the south side of the Sciota River. I was quite impressed with the stationery supervisor watching over things from the hilltop with the tip of the LeVeque Tower peeking up behind him. There’s a closer look here.

The brick house is where author James Thurber grew up. It is now a museum and the area around it is called Thurber Village. A parking lot there was our base for a walk to the murals on the Long Street I-71 overpass.

This pair of bridges bracket a brick-paved section of Iuka Avenue running through Iuka Ravine. The Summit Avenue Bridge (least cars) was built in 1916 and restored in 2001. The Indianola Avenue Bridge was built in 1996 to replace one built in 1912. Kudos for retaining the original appearance of both bridges.

Here are outside and inside pictures of Glen Echo Bird Tunnel on Indianola Avenue. The inside shot should make the difference between art and graffiti quite clear to anyone. If I was younger and lived closer, I’d definitely be making plans for the next Bird Tunnel Party. I’ll probably give it some thought anyway. There are photos of some individual birds here, here, and here.

Remnants of the old pavement can be followed to a still-functioning Glen Echo Drive on the other side of Arcadia Avenue. I again gripped the handrail returning to Indianola despite having a different opinion of that bottom column than I had coming down.

Formally named Rustic Bridge, this structure was part of a short-lived zoo and amusement park more than a century ago. The zoo was pretty much a failure and closed in 1907 after just four years of existence. My joke about the bartender not being in till later was pretty much a failure too. From the vantage point of the bridge, I thought this looked exactly like four guys hanging out at a bar but I guess it didn’t make the same impression from ground level.

Following our return to Tommy’s, I headed west on US-40/National Road to the recently reopened Red Brick Tavern. After being closed for nearly four years, this historic tavern had a Grand (re)Opening on Valentine’s Day and less than two months later it appears to be off to a great start. I didn’t catch the musician’s name but I did enjoy his mix of music and I also enjoyed my salmon Ceasar salad. Welcome back!

Apparently, I did not publish a report on that first road meet in 2011 but here are the others:
2012 — Dayton, Ohio
2013 — Cincinnati, Ohio
2019 — Portsmouth, Ohio
2019 — Delaware County, Ohio

ADDENDUM 16-Apr-2023: Here is the Slingshot group photo plus one on Long Street that I had not mentioned. Thanks, Brandon.