Trip Peek #86
Trip #133
Rock ‘n’ Rail Redux

Posted on July 7, 2019 by Denny

This picture is from my 2016 Rock ‘n’ Rail Redux trip. Readers may recall that previous railroad based trips to Washington, DC, have had issues ranging from extremely late trains to completely canceled trains. This one was essentially problem free. The “Rock” in this particular outing was a Willie Nile concert at, as the sign says, The Hamilton Live. In addition to a pretty much on schedule train ride and a rollicking concert, I enjoyed a day on the National Mall including an independence for Punjab parade.

Trip Peeks are short articles published when my world is too busy or too boring for a current events piece to be completed in time for the Sunday posting. In addition to a photo thumbnail from a completed road trip, each Peek includes a brief description of that photo plus links to the full-sized photo and the associated trip journal.

Wonderful Day, Pitiful Timing

Posted on March 31, 2019 by Denny

I’m embarrassed, angry, and disappointed. I missed the 2019 Findlay Market Opening Day Parade. I was close but no cigar. More accurately, no parking place. I left home slightly before 10:00. Traffic was a little heavy on the expressway but not really an issue. I was where I wanted to be around 10:30. It’s a spot a few blocks from the parade start point where I intended to grab a breakfast sandwich before walking to and strolling around the parade staging area.

In prior years, I’ve found street parking within a couple of blocks at this time of day. Not this year. I started checking parking lots and struck out there, too. The few that weren’t completely packed had “Monthly Only” or “Permit Only” signs with guards posted. I slowly expanded my search range with no luck. A big reason for expanding my range so slowly was that congestion was really starting to be felt. Those filled lots were bordered by rapidly filling streets. I eventually headed to an area east of downtown where I’d managed to snag a spot in years gone by. It is far enough from the city center that spaces were once plentiful and cheap. I only recently learned that this area has a name. I’ve heard that name, Pendleton, quite a bit recently because it has become home to several restaurants and a brewery. Apparently, other employers have moved in too, because even lots signed by the restaurants for evening use are monthly or permit only until 4:00. Congestion was now severe. Downtown Cincinnati was about one Honda away from gridlock. I finally accepted that there would be no parade for me and escaped at the earliest opportunity which wasn’t very early at all.

Escaping from downtown Cincinnati, when you are nowhere near a bridge or expressway ramp, means north toward the Clifton neighborhood. Happily free of bumper-to-bumper traffic, I headed to a bar I once frequented. The small parking lot was completely empty. I walked to the door but the empty lot and somewhat dark interior convinced me it was closed. A sign on the door said, “Open at 1:00”. I turned back toward my car and checked the time on the way. 1:03. I’d been in my car for three hours!

I returned to the pub door, actually tried it, and became the day’s first customer. I’d found my parade-watching spot, and I’d soon learn something very cool. There were numerous reasons for the extra large crowd downtown. It’s the 150th anniversary of professional baseball which began with the Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1869. That fact has been talked up around here along with the fact that today’s was the 100th Findlay Market Parade. Those don’t line up as nicely as it might initially seem, but that’s OK. The first parade was in 1920. This is the 100th parade. The 100th anniversary of that first parade will be celebrated next year and maybe I’ll get to see it.

Now for that cool thing I learned. Back when I expected to actually see the parade and anticipated it being the complete focus of this post, I tried to come up with something that started in Cincinnati in 1969. I figured I’d throw in some line about 50, 100, and 150. I almost immediately hit on the Ludlow Garage and went no further. Ludlow Garage was the concert venue operated by Jim Tarbell that hosted national acts like Santana and the Allman Brothers. As I sat at the bar, I saw a shirt advertising the fact that the recent Saint Patrick’s Day was Murphy’s 50th. Murphy’s Pub also opened in 1969 and I have a lot more memories of Murphy’s than the Garage.

Doug Bailey, who changed a neighborhood bar named Mahoney’s into Murphy’s, was a very close friend of John Nawrocki, a very close friend of mine. I became pretty good friends with Doug and even met Noel Murphy a few times. I remember when the bar first opened and some of the changes since then. Although my visits have hardly been frequent in recent years, they do continue.

I wasn’t Murphy’s only customer for long. Among the later arrivals was a group of three guys whose reason for being there was nearly the same as mine. They were in town for the 4:10 game, and thought they might as well take in the parade, too. They too escaped the near gridlock to recover at the first bar they came to. They left their car in the lot and took an Uber to the game.

I really am happy about the massive turnout for the parade. Sorry I missed it but that was my own fault. I can deal.

I came. I saw. I’m sorry.

Posted on March 17, 2019 by Denny

Saturday’s weather was quite nice. Temperature in the mid-40s. Dry. Lots of sun. It was a great day for a parade so I went to one. Back in 2013 when the anti-LGBTQ slant of Cincinnati’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade first surfaced, I noted that, “I hadn’t been paying attention.” I can honestly make the same claim this year, but I cannot claim the same ignorance I possessed six years ago. The post where I spoke about not paying attention is here. I returned the next year although I paid a lot more attention to events leading up to the parade. I think I hoped that 2013 was an anomaly but by the day of the parade I knew it wasn’t. I wrote a fairly normal post about the actual parade, but it had become apparent that the parade’s organizers, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, had views different than me and a lot of other people. My 2014 post is here.

I hadn’t forgotten my 2013 and 2014 thoughts, but I did kind of push them aside. The Saint Patrick’s Day Parade used to be one of my favorite Cincinnati events. I attended Saturday’s parade with a certain amount of curiosity but I also had some hope of just enjoying things like I used to. There was plenty of the familiar like pipe and drum groups and people being silly. I did not see any of the protests I saw five and six years ago. They may have been some — I did not go to the parade’s start point and there was a lot of the route I did not see — but I didn’t see any.

There were also plenty of differences. A shifting of the route had been a topic of discussion in 2013. It is now even farther from the city center and closer to the river on Mehring Way and Freedom Way. Some of the other changes can be measured. In 2013 and 2014 at least fifteen Irish built DeLoreans had participated. This year there were four. Multiple groups of Shriners in miniature cars have appeared in past parades. Each group might have ten or so cars of the same type such as Model Ts, Mustangs, or racers. This year there was only one group with just a few of each type and a total of ten or or so. Maybe that’s just normal attrition or maybe car owners are staying away on principle. I have no way of knowing.

I could not put numbers on other changes and can’t even say with certainty that they were real. I had a sense of fewer commercial entries and more informal groupings. There were quite a few families like the Donnellons and the Flynns. I think that their number was increased but I can’t be certain. Even if it’s true, I can’t say whether it comes from a desire to promote families and family values or a desire to maintain the size of the parade. It remains a respectably sized event with a length of about an hour. Maybe I’ll check on it again in five or six years. Maybe not. Articles like this make me sorry I was there this year.

My after parade activities included catching a little of the entertainment on Fountain Square, briefly watching a street juggler, and downing my annual Guinness at Arnold’s. As you can see, the parade day crowd at Arnold’s has not diminished even the slightest.

I also visited a place where the crowd has temporarily, I believe, diminished. Following Terry Carter’s, retirement amid some unpleasant publicity, Terry’s Turf Club has become The Turf Club and has been stripped of almost all of the neon signs that covered the building and the lawn beside it. When Terry sold his previous business, the very appropriately named Neons, all of its electric trim went with him and it became Neons Unplugged. It’s tempting to think of this place as Turf Club Unplugged, but that would be quite wrong. Including all those outdoor signs would have made the purchase financially impractical for new owners Tom and Marc Kunkemoeller, but that’s pretty much where the changes end. Inside all of the eye catching decor remains along with the menu and most of the staff. I was torn between a ‘burger or the ham sandwich I’ve come to love on my first post-Terry visit, but ultimately decided to test what they’re best known for. The Kunkemoellers know what they’re doing and retaining staff was crucial. The neon will be missed; The quality’s still there.

Horns Aplenty

Posted on March 3, 2019 by Denny

The 27th Bockfest parade has come and gone. There’s still plenty of festival left, but the Friday night promenade is the highlight for me. Precipitation of just about any kind will keep me away but this year was dry and the mid-40s temperature was downright balmy compared to some years. I drove, parked, and walked to the parade start point at Arnold’s Bar and Grill to meet a friend who works just a couple blocks away and can stroll over in a few minutes.

There was no shortage of folks in full-body Bockfest garb, but there seemed to be quite a few with nothing Bockish except fake (I assume) horns. It was only while editing pictures for this post that I noticed Clyde, the friend I’d just connected with, peering from behind the horned hat.

Clyde had stepped into the street to talk with some members of FC Cincinnati support group Die Innenstadt. He had marched with the club in last year’s parade and was seen in a story WCPO recently broadcast to promote this year’s event. When he spotted WCPO’s Evan Millward, Clyde approached the newsman and the two talked about the broadcast. For some reason, Evan was carrying Mayor Cranley’s Bockfest proclamation which I took advantage of by snagging a photo.

I was really just joking about the balmy temperatures but it appears that kegs, whether being carried on your bare shoulder or concealing your bathtub’s propulsion mechanism, will keep you warm.

Like Arnold’s self propelled bathtub, these three are long time parade regulars. By the time this is published, 2018 Sausage Queen Luis Balladares will have been replaced by a new queen selected on Saturday. Both the Sausage Queen and Beard Baron competitions are gender neutral. No one ever seems to follow the Whip Lady too closely but the same cannot be said of the Trojan Goat.

Some people may wonder why the Kentucky Chapter of the Association for Gravestone Studies has a parade unit and why they are participating in an Ohio parade promoting beer. But those are the same sort of people who question the presence of dinosaurs or a Krampuslauf group. Bockfest does not need those people.

I missed getting a picture of Aaron Sharp when he first passed in the parade vanguard. I’m glad he circled back. Aaron was one of the key individuals at the sorely missed WNKU radio station where good music could always be found. He is now part owner of Lucius Q where good BBQ and beer can always be found and often good music, too. I’ve never sorted out what his official role is with Bockfest but he’s been doing it a long time and I know he is really good at it — whatever it is.

Although they’ve been around since 2016, this is the first time I’ve seen Dance Flash Fusion and realized it. They have been in at least one previous Bockfest parade so I must have seen them but either they’ve improved considerably or I wasn’t paying attention. I was impressed. Die Innenstadt is the FC Cincinnati support group that Clyde belongs to. I’m pretty sure they set off one of their colored smoke bombs somewhere near MOTR on Main Street, but, even though I was moving with the parade at that point, I was way too far behind to hear or see it. Stuff like that does linger, however, and I put other senses to use as I passed through the area.

Here’s the group with the large goat head featured at the start of this article but I don’t know who it is. The base of the float is covered with album cover reproduction but I saw no identifying markings. They were preceded by a truck with banners reading “Crocodile Bock” and “Crocked on Bock” and this musical duo. I’ve no idea whether or not they’re connected. The Red Hot Dancing Queens have been favorites of mine ever since I first saw them in 2015 not long after they had formed. I think the RHDQ have a slight edge on DFF but it’s really exciting to have two dance troops having so much fun and so much talent.

Not long after the RHDQ passed by, I headed north with the parade. The sun was setting faster than I was traveling which contributed to none of the pictures I took along the way amounting to much. These three were taken at the last turn to the parade’s conclusion at the Moerlein Malt House. With little light, I notice even fewer details through the camera viewfinder than I do in the light. I failed to see a rather major feature of the “Bock on with Your Bock Out” float. It’s pretty obvious but even easier to see here. The name I used comes from the shirts being worn though I’ve no idea whether there is any connection with the beer by that name from a Chattanooga brewery. The Rabbit Hash General Store float is always near the end of the Bockfest parade and I have several pictures of it at this corner. There was a large gap in front of the entry in the last picture and, if it hadn’t been for people staring down the parade route, I’d have assumed the parade was over. A large plastic tarp was carried by a van with walkers holding up the edges and fog filling the space under it. The combination made for extra slow travel and thus the gap.

I walked on down to the crowded Bockfest Hall where bands were playing and bocks were flowing. I had one from the Alexandria brewery then, after meeting up with an out of town friend, another from Hudepohl. I’d had a single Moerlein Emancipator back at the parade staging area. Apparently my current Bockfest beer quota is three.

Doo Dah with a Capital Boom

Posted on July 8, 2018 by Denny

I’ve made multiple starts on detailing how plans for this outing came together, but they became twisted so quickly that I’m just going to tell what I did with no attempt to explain why. I left home fairly late in the morning on Tuesday, and leisurely drove US-42 and US-40 to Columbus, Ohio, where I checked into my motel near downtown. The first floor was not an option, and when asked “high or low”, I picked high. I would regret that.

I relaxed a bit, then made my way to the banks of the Scioto River just over half a mile away. Columbus celebrates Independence Day with an event called Red, White, & Boom. It includes a street festival, a parade, and fireworks and is apparently never held on July 4th. This year it was on the 3rd. With the temperature in the 90s, it didn’t take a lot of street festival to meet my needs. I found a couple feet of unoccupied curb in the shade and spent some quality time there with an $8 Icee.

As parade time approached, I moved up to the route and found another shady spot to hang out in until a police car and marching band approached. Ford was an event sponsor, and a group of Mustangs made up one of the early parade entries. I don’t really know what the passengers had done do gain their seats, but the line of red, white, and blue convertibles was pretty cool.

I do know what the passenger in this Jeep did. He lived through the attack on Pearl Harbor. Other veterans followed in other vehicles from Motts Military Museum.There was a half dozen or so of these three wheelers in the parade, but this one looked almost custom made for it. I once watched an Independence Day parade in our nation’s capital and remember being impressed with the diverse groups participating. This parade in my state’s capital didn’t have quite as much diversity, but there was certainly a respectable amount including a sizable group of American Sikhs and a yellow dressed Falun Gong group with a lady in a lotus.

When the parade ended, I had a tough decision to make. Just watching people march in 90 degree heat can make an old guy tired. There were virtually no restaurants or other businesses open in the immediate area, and I did not look forward to another three and a half hours waiting on a curb for the fireworks; Nor did I really want to make what was now a one mile walk back to my motel. But I decided that the walk to the motel was the lesser of the two evils and set out in that direction. Near the halfway mark, I found Elevator Brewing open and ducked in for a couple beers and dinner. Sufficiently fueled and cooled, I proceeded to the motel. Remember that game of high/low I’d played earlier? The regret came when fellows sitting in the lobby informed me that the elevators were not working. Climbing to the sixth floor was not what I needed but it was what was required.

I napped for an hour or so then headed out for the fireworks. I wasn’t initially certain that I would walk all the way back to the river but in the end I did exactly that. In front of me, the arches of the Broad Street Bridge were outlined in LEDs (I assume) that switched between red, white, and blue. Above me, LEDs on LeVeque Tower did the same thing.

The Red, White, and Boom website proclaims this “Ohio’s largest Fireworks display” and it’s a dandy. 48,750 pounds of fireworks, they say; Roughly twenty-five minutes long. As seen in this articles’s opening picture, the rockets were launched from the other side of the river on the other side of the Broad Street Bridge and on the near side of the Rich Street Bridge. I suppose people watching from between the bridges had a somewhat better view but I was more than happy with mine.

Before the echoes of the last boom completely faded, people were moving out of the viewing area. Although things were initially quite congested, it was never stifling and motion never really stopped. In fact, the crowd spread out on reaching the streets and I was able to take the first picture. The second picture was taken from my motel room. It seems the main staging area for event buses was about a block away.

I went to Tuesday’s parade because I was there. Ditto the fireworks. This, the 35th Annual Doo Dah Parade, is why I was there. I don’t know who the lady in the lead golf cart was but she was probably about as close to a parade official as I actually saw. She used her bullhorn to thank everyone for coming and offered thoughts and prayers for any trauma caused by what we were about to witness. She was immediately followed by The END. Fortunately, there were lots of stragglers.

I’d met young Groucho earlier in the staging area. He initiated the conversation because I was wearing an American Sign Museum shirt. I did my best to encourage a future visit, and think I did OK. The CHILL! guy was just too friendly to ignore.

Captain Ohio rides a Honda. I believe Honda was the only motorcycle manufactured in Ohio in modern times, but I can’t say whether this particular specimen is local built. The factory in Marysville operated from 1979 to 2005. I also “met” these three art cars in the staging area. The first one may have been here in 2010, or maybe its owner just knows someone who was. A friend of mine sells Route 66 Wine Corks, and often calls his van the Cork Wagon. I earlier shared this staging area photo to get him thinking about an upgrade. The car in the last picture also has some corks but its best feature, in my opinion, is its legs.

I’ve nothing in particular to say about what’s in these last four photos. They’re entries that caught my eye for some reason and there’s plenty more where they came from. My first Doo Dah was certainly a good one. I couldn’t help but think of Cincinnati’s Northside Parade which is also held on the 4th of July and which I’ve attended once. The Cincinnati parade is a little older (1970 vs. 1984), a little more rambunctious (no skateboard or bicycle stunts in the Doo Dah), and a little less political (Northside actually has entries that aren’t political at all). There’s no nudity in either but Doo Dah finds it necessary to specify that in the rules and it got this close. Spectators at both can be part of the show. At the Doo Dah, I spotted this guy across the street who may or may not have just burned his NFL season tickets out of concern for disrespecting the flag.

Cincy’s Belated Opening

Posted on April 8, 2018 by Denny

Sometimes the Findlay Market Opening Day Parade marks an opportunity to forget a less than stellar previous season. People braving Monday’s cold temperatures were trying to not only forget last season’ 68-94 finish but this season’s 0-3 start. You see, to avoid interference with crucial pre-Easter sales at the Market, the parade happened, not on Friday before the Reds’ first game of the season, but on Monday before their fourth.

Actually, that first game wasn’t exactly when it was supposed to be, either. Scheduled for Thursday, it was moved to Friday to avoid predicted severe weather.

I reached downtown in time to poke around the staging area a little bit before the parade start. The giant Mr. Red at the top of this article belongs to the National Flag Company. The snowman at left, who I believe made it all the way through the parade, is made of real snow. He’s riding on the 911Steel float with a real piece of the World Trade Center and replicas of the twin towers.

Cincinnati was, and is again becoming, a major brewing center. There are plenty of stories about the city’s pre-prohibition Beer Barons. Beard Barons are a more recent development. Distilling, rather than brewing, is involved in the product shown in the second picture and made a little more than a hundred miles to Cincinnati’s south. Cincinnati brewing does get some notice in the picture of a Crosley Field bound bus in front of Rhinegeist Brewing. Crosley Field was the Reds’ home until 1970.

Rozzi Fireworks is certainly capable of starting things off with a bang but they decided on a pillar of fire instead. Maybe they’re saving a big boom for the centennial next year. I guess there’s something pretty cool on the other side of the street because Grand Marshalls Danny Graves and Sam LeCure didn’t look my way even once as they passed.

Here are some long time Cincinnati legends. That’s King Records drummer Philip Paul and wife Roberta in the red convertible. The fellow in the top hat is entrepreneur and politician Jim Tarbell dressed as departed legend Peanut Jim Shelton.

Breaking up all the locals in the parade were some easily recognized out of towners. Budweiser isn’t my favorite beer but these guys are my favorite horses.

There’ll be nothing but locals from here on out. Like some folks from Findlay Market, the Red Hot Dancing Queens, and Kahnie from the American Sign Museum. I even got a shot of Tod piloting the big black truck.

The Kroger Company still has one of Barney Kroger’s delivery wagons from the 1880s and Arnold’s has a passenger bathtub although it’s not one I’m familiar with and it’s not quite self-propelled. On the 25th the bar made a plea for a “go-cart mechanic” and on the 29th there was video evidence that repairs had been successful. However, the tub in the picture is neither of those I’ve seen before, has a rear mounted bubble machine, and is being propelled by a couple of laughing footmen. And it was still way cool. The third picture is of a new-to-me float from Rhinegeist.

This is the bus I had a pre-parade partial shot of in front of the Rhinegeist Brewery. It wasn’t really the last thing in the parade but I thought it would be an OK thing to use for the closing panel. A few hours after the parade wrapped up, the Reds got their first win of the year by beating the Chicago Cubs 1-0. The three loses were to the Washington Nationals. A second Cubs game scheduled for Tuesday was postponed by rain then, after a pre-planned day off, the team headed to Pittsburgh for a four game stand. They lost the first two, won the third, and one remains to be played. The Reds begin 2018 with a 2-5 record.

Bock’s Back

Posted on March 4, 2018 by Denny

Anytime you spot a Trojan goat being led down the street by a self propelled bathtub, the odds are considerable that you’re at Cincinnati’s annual Bockfest parade. It happened Friday for the twenty-sixth time. My attendance has been frequent but imperfect. While I have no statistics to prove that Friday’s parade was the biggest yet, it felt like it might be. Sunshine and relatively warm temperatures (high 40s) helped.

The bathtub belongs to Arnold’s Bar and Grill. It’s Cincinnati’s oldest tavern and the parade’s starting point. The traveling tub is a reference to the legend that the bar’s bathtub was used to make gin during prohibition. As I recall, the goat was created by the defunct downtown Barrel House Brewery but is now in the care of the Moerlien Brewing Company.

Goats are traditionally associated with bock beer and they appear at Bockfest in many forms. However, no matter how many legs a particular goat might have, it still has only two ends.

If you’ve read any of my parade related posts over the last few years, you know that the Red Hot Dancing Queens became instant favorites of mine from the first time I saw them. Nobody has more fun than these gals.

Two friends attended this year’s parade with me. It was Dave’s first time and he accompanied me along the route dodging goats, dancers, and Segways. As it turned out, he also dodged my camera. Clyde, who attended his first Bockfest parade with me two years ago, has since joined Die Innenstadt, a support group for FC Cincinnati, the local USL team. Although it initially took a little urging to get him to participate, once committed, he not only marched with the group, but did an outstanding job waving one of their big flags.

Dave and I made it to the parade route end and reunited with Clyde for one Schoenling Bock inside the super-crowded Bockfest Hall. I admit that I sometimes lead my friends to the beer taps, but I don’t make them drink. That’s all their doing.

Trip Peek #60
Trip #7
49 & Counting

Posted on August 13, 2017 by Denny

This picture is from my 2002 49 & Counting trip. Unlike other national Corvette caravans that were focused on the Corvette Museum’s 1994 Labor Day opening, the 2003 caravans were focused on the first Corvette production on June 30, 1953. As a sort of warm up for the fiftieth anniversary celebration, a single caravan made up of a Corvette from each model year traveled from Detroit to St. Louis to Bowling Green. I don’t know why I picked a photograph of the 1954 model to represent the trip as a photo of the 1953 model appears right next to it in the journal. I drove to the museum on one day, hung around for another day of festivities then took a scenic route home along the Ohio River through Indiana on the third. The forty-nine cars in the caravan, or Historic Motorama, always traveled in model year sequence leading one of the driversto quip, “The view never changes… unless you’re the ’53.”

Annie’s (Parade is) Back

Posted on July 31, 2016 by Denny

Last year what was said to be lack of interest but which can probably better be described as lack of agreement sidelined the Annie Oakley Days Parade in Greenville, Ohio. This year it was back and seemed to be just as popular and nearly as big as it ever was. The return of the parade was announced quite some time ago and right before my last visit to Greenville, some six weeks ago, it was announced that the Grand Marshalls would once again be relatives of mine. Several years ago a cousin and her husband had filled the roles. This year it would be an aunt and uncle.

Shortly after the color guard swung around the corner and the parade started down Broadway, the Grand Marshalls rolled by in a white carriage. Uncle Dean and Aunt Arlene had their youngest grandsons with them but Sam and Charlie weren’t really into that smiling and waving thing. They did, however, keep a sharp lookout on both sides of the carriage to prevent any and all surprise attacks.

Katie Hurd, Miss Annie Oakley for 2016, won her title the old fashioned way — with a gun. Contestants didn’t attempt to gun each other down but, like the real Annie Oakley, demonstrated their shooting skill by firing at a target. The shooting starts at 25 feet and the distance is increased until only one shooter hits the baloon target baloon. That happened at 100 feet. Hurd wears two sashes because she also won this year’s Best Costume competition.

Many local businesses supported and participated in Saturday’s parade. There were also plenty of cars. The Darke County Jeepsters are personal favorites. Their matching red vehicles appear in many parades. The parade also contained quite a few Shriner units.

It’s certainly fitting that Buffalo Bill Cody rides in Annie’s parade. The long association that the two had benefited them both greatly.

Cincinnati Strut

Posted on April 10, 2016 by Denny

I’m sure some folks get tired of hearing about how special Opening Day is in Cincinnati but that’s not going to stop me. I won’t write as much about the history as I did back in 2012 but I will again mention that the world’s oldest professional baseball team always opens at home and always has a marvelous parade. The picture at right shows people gathering for the parade on Race Street. Behind them is Washington Park and Music Hall stands beyond the park. The park was completely renovated a few years ago and is now a popular gathering place for families. Music Hall will be closing soon for its own renovation. I reported on a performance there a couple of weeks ago.

Lou Piniella managed the Reds in their last World Series win in 1990. I remember it vividly and recall thinking that it had been a long dry spell since The Big Red Machine wins in 1975 and ’76. But that was just fourteen years and the Reds have now played twenty-five seasons without even getting to a World Series let alone winning one.

I snapped a picture of the Corvair station wagon as it approached but didn’t realize who was in it until it was beside me. That’s legendary King Records studio drummer Phillip Paul with who I believe is his good friend Roberta Narcisse beside him. Paul recorded the original “The Twist” with Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, “Train Kept A-Rollin'” with Tiny Bradshaw, “Hide Away” with Freddy King, and an incredibly long list of other hits. Paul isn’t quite as flashy as another local music legend who was in last year’s parade but, while Bootsy Collins performs only occasionally, the ninety year old Paul has a steady weekend gig in downtown Cincinnati.

President William Howard Taft threw a ceremonial first pitch to start the Washington Senators 1910 season and every president since has thrown a first pitch at an Opening Day, World Series, or All Star game at some time while in office. Taft was a Cincinnati native and his former home is now a National Historic Site. A fancy brewpub right on today’s parade route bears his name. If you have any thoughts of being a Taft impersonator, Cincinnati is the place to be.

In less than a year of existence, the Red Hot Dancing Queens have made me a most sincere fan. As I told a small group of them I encountered after the parade, if everyone could have a mere fraction of the fun these gals have, the world would be a much better place. Watch for them at parades and festivals throughout the summer.

Here’s another parade group that I like a lot. I recall first seeing the Wapakoneta Lawnmower Precision Drill Team a long time ago in a Saint Patrick’s Day but they haven’t been in that parade for many years. They might have realized that the fun was draining from that parade well before I did. After completing one of their precision choreographed drills, there was a pause in the parade and some of the team members dashed over to the curb to high-five some of the spectators. Only after he had rejoined the formation did the group of boys in front of me notice the faux southern exposure on the guy they had just exchanged high-fives with. As we all know, a little snicker makes everybody feel better.

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