The message forum is an ongoing dialogue between classmates. There are no items, topics, subtopics, etc.

Forums work when people participate - so don't be bashful! Click the "Post Message" button to add your entry to the forum.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Bill Reid

Dave Mitchell, I surely do remember White Castle sliders! My dad used to love them too. As he aged and developed Alzheimer's, I'd take him there and for at least a little while he understood where he was (the one at Kenny and Henderson) and he'd eat as many as 4 in one meal. Our son went with us when he was very young and would eat one or two; now he'll eat as many as 10. Crestor or Zocor is surely in his future, and Zocor is one of my best friends. No doubt due to all that grease! My brother-in-law's father worked for White Castle and made two important contributions to their success. One was the Paperlinen hats, the ones that looked like an army hat and were made out of paper. His other contribution was the idea of punching 5 holes in each burger so they didn't have to be flipped while on the grill. I see the hats at our local White Castle (in Carmel Indiana) and the burgers still have those holes in them. What a great combination of grease and onions! And just think, if you can eat 8 of them, that's almost a quarter pound of beef!

Michael McLeod

Yes to Dave - that is the rest of the Omar jingle.

And true, so sadly true, that the frozen white castles are a pale imitation.

We would go swimming as a family at the indoor, "natatorium"  pool at Ohio State and get white castles on our way home -- this was at the one on high street and arcadia, which is, yes, now gone - they are putting up a residential high rise on the site, as I understand it.

Mary Clare Hummer (Bauer)

I think we watched way too much TV.  Does anyone remember the Wrangler?  My brother had a bedroom lamp shaped like a covered wagon. So cool when you turned the light on inside.  ThecWrangler had a membership club with all kinds of cool stuff. And Mike, I was on the Aunt Fran Show when I was 5 or 6. Later we had one of the first color TV's on Oakland Park. Time for Bonanza!! We had an egg lady too--Mrs. Hazzard, I think. Came every Saturday. Mark, I'm sure it was the gearshift!!!  Clare

Robert Berkemer

Dang! Clare saw right through my trick question. Well, I tried. And as for the coolest cars... Those would have to be Karen Sylvesters white 57 Chevy convertible with the red interior. She picked me up several times on the way to school which was WAY cool! Also, cool to me was Steve Roach's (Dad's) 63 or 64 Ford station wagon which was a fantastic platform for tripple dating ;-) And lastly was Fred Wehausens beautiful 58 two tone gold Chevy Impalla  which was hopped up a bit as well. Most of you won't remember Fred but he was maybe the best looking guy in our class if not Watterson but he dropped out in the middle of Jr. year. But none of this gets us any closer to the "aimer la vie" of Mary Clare who has started a real mystery! ;-)

Robert Berkemer

Fred, the "sure Don" response was a phrase used in a mocking way and was based as I recall on dislikes between some students and another student.  But I remember a better one that was common in Columbus at the time during OSU basket ball games...  The announcer  frequently said, "Folks, it's a real barn burner tonight". Who was it?

Mary Clare Hummer (Bauer)

Fred, The Don was from parish Immaculate and I'm thinking "Sure, Don" started out as a rather derogatory dismissal of said person or person's opinions. Probably not one of our shining moments. Eventually it was directed to anyone whose statements were doubted. I heard it has been resurrected during this year's presidential race. 😬  Clare

Mary Clare Hummer (Bauer)

And Bob. You're so right about Karen Sylvester's car. I'd forgotten how smooth it looked pulling out of the lot.     But I don't remember that Fred Wehausens person. Did he start out with us as a freshman? Have a good weekend, friends  Go Bucks    Clare

Robert Berkemer

Clare, Fred did start our as a freshman. He was from St. Francis parish and was in the "general" program with me and was one of my best friends. He dropped out in October of our jr. year much to the great saddness of his Mom, bought a big new Honda 650 motorcycle and hit the highways of America for three years. He then joined the Navy and went to Vietnam. Got his GED while in the Navy and later graduated from OSU with a masters in Psychology. He was a very smart guy who did well in his career and in life.

Robert Berkemer

Dave, There were two bakeries that I remember on High St. One was at Como and High and was the "Clintonville Bakery". This might be the one you are thinking of. That guy had the best glaze donuts in the WHOLE WORLD as well as killer cinnimon rolls. He also provided the pasteries to Immaculate Conception School. Paul Kaisers Mom worked there for many years. The other bakery was on High St. down in the Village and was owned by Italians but I don't know the family. That was also a great old family bakery. Sadly, both of these great bakeries are long gone...

Fred Clem

Bob,

Was the Italian bakery you mentioned Giantonio's?  Janey is going to get on me for responding to another italian food establishment question.

Fred

David Mitchell

Bob,

I think you got it. I believe Eleck's was at Como and High. And yes, I still have never tasted a better glazed doughnut. And those pecan rools - mm mmh!

But back to cars, I have a question. Who knew Karen Sylvestor even had a car? Or maybe I should say - who cared? I mean I'm talkin' 'bout one cute chick!  The heck with her car!

Just thinking about that very first day of school at Watterson. We were all standing around near the big front door in neat little circles of 6 or 8 divided by sex and by grade school. I'm hangin with my buddies, Kevin Ryan, Tom Litzinger, Joe Royce, Tommy Swain, John Jackson, etc. And I'm starin' at this one guy from St. Michael's (the circle closest to us) with the thickest glasses I had ever seen and figured he had to be the nerdiest guy on the planet. But wait - how cold he have such big biceps if he was a nerd? So, was he a nerd, or some sort of freak muscle man? I guess it was the latter. It was Don Holland. 

But our attention quickly moved on to more important matters - like who had the biggest "flip" of all those girls. And who were those little "hotties" like Leslie Casbaro, Karen Sylvestor, and Kathy Wintering? We were witnessing what may be perhaps the finest bevy of "chicks" with "flips" in one gathering in history. Jodelle Simms, Kathy Wintering, our own Kathy Shanahan, or Mary Ann Nolan, and (by virtue of her small size) the "Dark Helmut" of them all, Mary Joe Fortin - who I already knew because I had had a two week crush on her during grade school basketball while I played for OLP and she cheered for St. Christopher. She had an enormous flip on top of that tiny body! Wow, there were some hot chicks floatin' around there that morning. 

Remember the term "tough"?  As in describing really cute girls.  "Wow she's tough!"

Shy as I was, I was really nervous about all this. But we get into the homerooms and I am seated in the back row almost in the corner. The guy in the very back corner next to me was a familiar face. He was St. Agatha's catcher and he leaned over and introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Bill Fisher". Nice guy - I was at ease - everything was going to be okay.

David Mitchell

Clare, you mentioned something about a presidential race?  First I'd heard of it.

(oh please God, lets not go there - we're having too much good clean fun)

James Hamilton, M. D.

David Mitchell

Wow Clare, I didn't realized we had a real "Hollywood" star in our midst. You were actualy on the Aunt Fran show. I'm impressed. We shoukd have aranged a VIP box for your seating at the reunion. 

Speaking of Spin and Marty - oh my - what a great TV epic? Ranks up close to Love Boat and Downton Abbey in my book.

Get this. I took Nina Osborne to see the "John Williams Show" at Mershon Auditorium down on campus. Might have been after graduation. Recall he was a handsome pop singer with a brief TV show at the time. He ended the show with an introduction of each of his band members - one by one. And as he gets to the last one he says, "And I always love doing this last one, my drummer, and your pal from the Mouseketeer Club - Cubby O'Brien!"

We cheered wildly. In fact, Nina and I discussed it until almost 3:00 a.m. in the parking lot at Dominion Junior High. Sorry Nina, I couldn't resist.

Michael McLeod

One thing I notice when I look at our accumulated memories is how different they all are from the memories many of our children will have.

We had random adventures in hidden glens and in vacant lots. We were out in the sunshine at community swimming pools and covered with snow as we sledded down ravines.

Yep, my bedroom window framed many an adventure out there. So many of today's kids see the world through digital windows; have their adventures pre-packaged and neatly framed for them on video screens.

My significant other is an early childhood, Montessori-trained educator who sees so many children not getting the real-world environment, both physical and imaginative, that we had. So many of them are overweight and under-stimulated. Learning disabilities abound, and it's partly because kids, to a certain extent, need to run wild. Sorry if this is a buzz kill for all the sentiment I see here and feel myself; I guess this is just another way of saying how lucky we all were.

Antonia Borean (Kaiser)

I am really enjoying all of your Clintonville stories! Eleck's Bakery was next to Cy's Market, which was on the NW corner of Como and High, Como Bike Shop was behind Cy's. Fritz's Mom worked at Elick's Bakery for 10 years...and you are right about their donuts...not only were they the BEST glazed donuts ever but they were the BIGGEST...one dozen barely fit in a two layer cake box...carefully stacked side by side...never on top of each other.  Did you know Mr. Eleck hand cut each one? Fritz's Mom would bring him home a dozen every Saturday morning...fresh, warm, melt in your mouth donuts...and in an attempt to gain weight for football, he would eat the whole dozen!  

Fritz also has many stories about Warren's (teeny tiny) Sandwich Shop, where he picked up his newspapers for his morning paper route. Warren's was on the east side of High Street between Lakeview and Como. Warren would let the paper boys come into the shop on cold, snowy mornings and fold their papers. He was a really nice guy. In fact, in the middle of winter of their Freshman year, Fritz, Joe Cotter and Dave Crites had the bright idea (JFK's fitness challenge) of going on a 50 mile hike to downtown Delaware and back. They left from Warren's at 4:00 am and Warren actually brought them hot chocolate and donuts several times throughout the day...and night...they got back to Warren's at 9:00 pm that night. They almost froze! Hugh DeMoss featured them on the news that night... 

You lucky Clintonvillians!!!  Is that what you call them???

David Mitchell

Amen Mike.

My Dad, a physican used to rant agaisnt this years ago. "All this organized activity is ruining kids creativity" he used to say. And his main objection to TV was not the content (which he often found "immoral"), but the fear that it would turn us into "a sedintery race". And public safety - neighbors looked out for neighbors - and their kids 

We used to play in the woods, build forts out of branches, and dams in the creek. Play tag until dark (or after), and ride bikes with not only no helmets, but no hands. We picked wild berries beside the railroad tracks along Indianola and placed coins on those same tracks to make them flat - and stood only 10 feet away as the Pennsyvania or New York Central rolled by.  We swung out over the creek on vines and dug a cave (albeit shallow) in the cliff - until our dad's caught us and wailed the daylights out of us. We played tackle football without pads or helmets, and swung for the fences (read: neighbor's car window) in basebal season. We used stones or blocks of wood (or somebody's shirt) for bases, and argued over whether he was "safe" or "out". And the two driveways were the end zones. But watch out for that hawthorne tree in the middle of the end zone - tough to throw a pass through that.

And skating on the Olentangy River - when it used to freeze.

Listen to us. You'd think we had it rough.  

David Mitchell

OMG Tony!  How could we forget the "Como Bike Shop"?  A bit of hallowed ground to many of us.  

And speaking of Elecks bakery (where they treatd my mother like family) - years later while I had that Antique shop down in Short North, a guy walks in one day to sell me advertising space in the Yellow Pages. His name was Eleck and I asked him if he was related? He was Mr. Elecks son, and had grown up working in the shop on High Street. I bought some "Pages" space from him but we spent most of the time reminiscing about the bakery.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Timothy Lavelle

Hey, Cisco, did you read what Tony Borean wrote?

Yeah, Poncho. Sure was nice to hear a woman's viewpoint and special memories, right? I wish more of our amigas would write and share their thoughts. I'm gettin' a little bored with "who we dated" and "who was cute", how about you?

Well Cisco, I don't know. You are as beeg a peeg as any hombre alive and everyone knows you sure do like to chase those skirts when you're not too beesy keeling the bad guys.

Oooooh Poncho. Isn't it lucky the weemen don't talk about us? At least in preent?

OOOOOOOOOoooooooo Cisco!

Antonia Borean (Kaiser)

Dave...They had an article in the Dispatch about Elick's Bakery a few years ago...Mr. Elick's son went on to be a high level executive at Panera. He lives in Siesta Key, Florida now. 

Michael McLeod

I had a feeling you would, Jim.

Chime in about the problem of our lack of physicality as a culture, that is.

I've always told Denise, my lovely consort, how demoralizing it must be for doctors to see a growing array of self-inflicted maladies in their patients, young and old. Just as it is demoralizing to her to see learning disabilities - LEARNING disabilities - that are tied into lack of physical activities. I don't understand the details, but I can grasp the basics: that motor skills, developed through exercise, influence and enhance the development of neural pathways and thus the intellectual development of children.

My grandfather, by the way, was a doctor. An internist, as I believe you told me you are. He had his office on East Main Street attached to his house, which was a late-Victorian mansion with pocket doors and high ceilings and a melodian in the parlour, through which you would pass through double doors into the office where he would see his patients.

My mother told a story of how her father once brought her into his office, showed her a patient who must have come in on an emergency basis, and said: "Take a look at this man. He's dead."

I would imagine he was not trying to frighten her, and she certainly did not take it that way. Just an effort to demystify a fact of life.

My mother grew up as a very practical, earthy soul as a result of being a doctor's daughter, and passed that attitude onto us.

Joseph D. McCarthy

For the "Historian's"  in this group there will be a quiz at the end of this. 

After listening to the WONDERFUL stories about restaraunts in the "North End" I want to test your memories for Other restaraunts.     In the North End what about: the Fontanell in Graceland, the Worthington Inn, and a great seafood restaraunt east of I-71 on Morse Rd (Lighthouse or Wharf).  The South end has: the Claremont. Katzinger's Deli, Lindey's, and Schmidt's.  Downtown had: Lazarus, the Neil House, nearby was a cafeteria (the only difference with Canadian cafeteria's is the Canadian ones had desert first), and their was a great Chinese restaraunt on East Broad, plus Mrs. Ruth's party house.  To the East we had: Massey's, Emil's Steer Drivein, Milano's, TAT on James Road, Berwick Manor Party House, Desert Inn, Kahiki, and a dinner on Johnstown Rd. near the airposrt.  To the west we had: The Gloria, Red Door Tavern, Grandview Inn, Olentangy Inn, Stouffers, the Florentine, and the Lincoln Lodge.  The Gloria also hosted Sunday teen dances.

Now the Questions.

1. Where was "Chinatown" in Columbus?

2. What was the largest take-out order for White Castle?

Bonus question.  Where did the send the take-out order?

Joe

Joseph D. McCarthy

I almost forgot Green Gables to the South.  A good drive-in / hangout.  The South's version of Jerry's.