Circus Time

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When I bought my ticket to the 20th Century Circus, I didn’t realize that it would be held on Renaissance Festival grounds. It wasn’t a secret. The banner on their website’s home page says “at the Ohio Renaissance Festival”, but I just wasn’t paying attention. I saw that the circus would happen in Waynesville, and although I know that is the home of the festival, I just did not make the connection. Only on the day of the show, when I went looking for detailed directions, did I realize what should have been obvious.

The big top is placed in the open field just outside the main entrance to Renaissance Village. The festival associated 1572 Roadhouse Bar-B-Q is open a couple of hours prior to show time, and the empty village (the festiva returns in August) is open if you want to roam around. I splurged and bought a Front Row ticket. Premium Seating and General Admission are also available. Premium, it appears, is row two, and general admission is row three. I’m guessing that if more tickets were sold, more rows would be added.

The 20th Century Circus advertises itself as being set in the 1920s, and some audience members were dressed in period outfits. The acts in a 1920s circus are essentially what I’d expect in a circus of any era. The evening got started with some juggling and tightrope walking, aerial acrobatics, and a little clowning around.

It seems quite possible that I haven’t seen a spinning plates act since Ed Sullivan went off the air, but, as I did then, I enjoyed watching the performer run back and forth to try to add plates while maintaining those already spinning. Although it was only for a few seconds, this guy did get plates spinning on all six sticks, but I missed getting a photo.

Balance and acrobatics are central to a variety of circus acts, and there were several impressive demonstrations of both.

As intermission neared, we were treated to a catchy little tune about that circus and carnival staple, cotton candy. Of course, a little popcorn fits in quite nicely, as well.

There was more juggling in the second half, but flaming hatchets replaced the soft balls. I never did get an in-focus shot of the performers on the rotating ladder, but I did better on the lovely song and dance duo.

The hula hoop competition between volunteers from the audience was close, even if it didn’t last too long. I think the winner made it about 1 1/2 revolutions. The other two competitors were tied at zero. Someone stood up when the knife thrower asked for a volunteer, but cooler heads prevailed. The real winner of the hula hoop contest didn’t even joke about risking an audience member interfering with her swirling balls of fire.

This looks kind of like one of the stunts from the first half of the evening but the chairs are a whole lot bigger and so is the distance to the ground when the handstand is performed. Just assembling and disassembling the tower of chairs is rather nerve wracking to watch.

No troupe members and only a few baloons were harmed during the performance. They will be back every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for the rest of July and it’s a hoot. The pulled pork (and probably the other stuff) and beer selection at 1572 Roadhouse is pretty good, too.

Herding the Wheel Horses West

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Near the end of last summer, my friend Terry, the Wheel Horse collector, sold a tractor to Bill Throckmorten of Grant King Race Shops, and I rode along to deliver it. Bill is Grant King’s nephew. He and his wife Stephanie currently own the shop. Back in the 1960s and ’70s, Wheel Horses were used at the Indianapolis 500 to move race cars in the pits and other areas. There was also a race week event featuring celebrities piloting 33 of the red tractors in a one-lap race known as the Indy 2 1/2. Because of that connection, Bill wanted a Wheel Horse for the museum at what he calls “A Working Race Shop Museum”, and to maybe move a few cars around. There is a pretty good video overview of the shop/museum and the accomplishments of Grant and Bill here.

One of Bill’s accomplishments is the cofounding of Indy Legends. After giving us a tour of that really cool museum, he invited Terry to display some of his Wheel Horses at their next event at Indianapolis Raceway Park. That event was last weekend, June 28-29, and I again got to tag along. I snapped the opening photo from where the Wheel Horses were displayed.

Friday was setup day, followed by an evening reception at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. Stephanie Throckmorten made sure we had wristbands for both the reception and access to IRP. Setting up in ninety degrees was pretty exhausting for old guys like us, although Terry dealt with it better than I did. We both took advantage of the showers at Lion’s Club Park, where we were staying, before heading to the reception.

The museum reopened less than three months ago following a year-and-a-half-long closure and $60 million renovation. One of the first areas inside the entrance is a series of simulated garages holding some very significant cars from the speedway’s history. Eddie Rickenbacker drove this 1914 Duesenberg to a tenth-place finish in 1914. Rickenbacker served as IMS President from 1927 to 1945. Jim Clark put this green Lotus on the pole in 1964, but broken suspension meant a 24th-place finish. Parnelli Jones drove the car to 2nd place in 1965. In 1977, Janet Guthrie broke the Indy 500 gender barrier, then drove this Offenhauser-powered Wildcat to a 9th-place finish in 1978.

An attendant at the entrance to the next section assures entry between presentations of a video shown on a wrap-around vertical screen. Scenes from parades, pit activity, flyovers, and race starts are combined with exhaust sounds from real cars in the area to generate a semblance of race day anticipation.

There is a mind-boggling number of cars and artifacts on display in the museum. Of course, I took a ton of pictures, but there is a lot more going on this weekend, so I am really limiting what I’m posting. Here’s a picture of the Marmon Wasp that Ray Harroun drove to victory in that first Indy 500 in 1911, and one of the Borg-Warner Trophy. Although the trophy was first presented in 1936, the winners of every 500 are represented on it. The Marmon and the Borg-Warner appear together in the photo taken from the new mezzanine.

The reception was a first-class affair with hors d’oeuvres, beverages, and opportunities to chat with museum officials and employees. Terry and I missed the first performance by the Indianapolis 500 Gordon Pipers but were there for their second outing as the reception began to slow down. They would also appear at the race track near the end of the day’s activities on Saturday.

This was the beginning of activities on Saturday. Overnight rain had sounded a lot heavier than it actually was, but some drying out was in order nonetheless. We cleared some water from our canopy, then did a little cruising and car spotting while the track was being dried. Terry posed for a picture with a Mac Tools-sponsored racer and his own “Runt Rod” racer. I believe it is the only non-stock Wheel Horse in his fleet.

All of the cars had informative placards beside them when parked, and I learned a lot by reading many of them. Only when I started writing this post did I realize how little I remembered and what a poor job of recording I did. I can tell you absolutely nothing about the gray #9 in the first picture. #20 is a 1911 National as described here. I also have a shot of #7’s descriptive information. That is almost certainly because my interest was piqued by this on its rear end. Its owners have driven most of the Lincoln Highway, and the Model T racer has been on a short stretch of the Lincoln Highway in Pennsylvania.

The model years I noted ranged from 1911 to 2000. Although I do not know the actual dividing lines, the on-track groups were separated by age, which also meant they were separated by speed. I have even less information to share about these middle-aged race cars than for the older cars in the previous paragraph.

There was ample time to walk around and photograph the many fabulous race cars while they were parked, and if the temperature, the humidity, or my age had been lower, I would certainly have done more of it. Many of the cars were the exact same vehicles that once ran at IMS and other tracks, while some were impressive replicas of famous cars that are probably on display in museums.

Here are a couple of pictures from the campground just before we pulled out Sunday morning. Showers and restrooms are just beyond the picnic shelter. The trailer, which serves as our bedroom, will be filled with Wheel Horses when the day ends.

There was a somewhat surprising amount of interest in the tractors. Some came from people who remembered the days when Wheel Horses roamed the pits at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and some from folks who had heard or read about it. Of course, some came from kids (and adults) who just like little tractors. The tractors were the “half-time show” for both days of the event. At Bill’s request, Terry and I drove them two-by-two through the infield during the lunch break when the track was empty.

That’s Bill Throckmorten chatting with Terry. Bill was incredibly busy throughout the weekend coordinating action on and off the track, but still managed to stop by several times to say hi and see that all was well. On more than one of those stops, he let Terry know he had an invitation to return next year. Whether that happens is very much a maybe. As we pulled out, I commented that this was one of the most fun weekends I’ve ever had, but it was also one that I was very happy to see end. Terry agreed. Age and temperature are factors, and only time, which doesn’t help with the age thing, will tell.

I have previously been involved in herding the Wheel Horses south and east.

Trip Peek #145
Trip #146
Thankful in Tennessee

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This picture is from my 2017 Thankful in Tennessee trip. This was in the style of my Christmas dinners in state parks but this time the holiday was Thanksgiving and the park was in Tennessee rather than Ohio or West Virginia. On Thanksgiving day, I drove straight to Natchez Trace State Park for the holiday buffet. I spent two nights at the park but drove to Brownsville for dinner and a nighttime peek at Billy Tripp’s Mind Field on the second day. I then spent two days getting home with time on US-45 and US-50 and stops in Paducah, KY, Metropolis, IL, and Vincennes, IN. The picture of Pin Oak Lake was taken near the turnaround point of a ranger-led hike I joined on the second day at the park.

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.

Summer’s Here

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Where I live, Friday was the first day of Summer — barely. Summer Solstice, which marks the beginning of astronomical Summer, occurred at 10:52 PM EDT on June 20. Since the 21st was the first full day of Summer, some folks think of that as the first day of the season. But it was the 20th that encompassed the solstice, got Summer started, and counts as the longest day of the year. In Cincinnati, the sun was above the horizon for approximately 916 minutes on Friday versus a little more than 895 minutes on Saturday.

On that 80+ degree first day of Summer, the memory of a recent story about an ice cream stand’s anniversary prompted me to drive to the west side of town, and some sweet coolness. Zip-Dip opened for its 75th season in early March. Regular Summer hours went into effect on May 23. In addition to chocolate and vanilla soft serve, Zip-Dip offers orange sorbet and two rotating flavors of yogurt. I couldn’t have picked a better day for flavor choices.

I got my white chocolate macadamia yogurt with granola and a smile, then headed to the attached picnic area to eat it. Yeah, that cute curl had melted by the time I picked my spot, but I could taste the curl in my first bite, along with a smile and summer and a little neon.

Bones, Butterflies, Bison, Bunnies, and Beavers

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I have visited Big Bone Lick State Historic Site a couple of times in the past, but that was many years ago. Since then, I’ve passed it several times, without stopping, on the way to Rabbit Hash. A friend visited both last week, and their description of that visit made me promise myself that I would return. A sunny Thursday almost immediately provided a perfect opportunity.

My first stop at the park was the Visitor Center. In addition to having a gift shop, helpful attendants, and a supply of information and maps, the center houses a small but very interesting museum. A panel just inside the door offers a pretty good overview of the park. That big guy in the foreground of the third photo is a Harlan’s Ground Sloth.

At the rear of the Visitor Center is a life-sized diorama depicting how earlier visitors to the salt springs might become trapped in the bogs and involuntarily leave their bones for future scientists. Big Bone Lick is on the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, not because the Corps of Discovery stopped here but because both of its captains did. At the urging of President Jefferson, Meriwether Lewis visited the site in 1803 on his way west to join William Clark. The boat carrying the specimens he collected sank on its way to Jefferson. In 1807, after that famous expedition to the Pacific Ocean, Clark made a stop here to collect and ship specimens that did reach the President.

Although they have absolutely nothing to do with vertebrate paleontology, I found the smallish examples of wildlife flitting about in front of the Visitor Center a lot of fun to watch.

A paved path that begins a short distance from the Visitor Center leads to an elevated bison viewing stand. But no bison presented themselves to be viewed there today. Instead, the small herd was lounging in the grass, just out of sight, a short distance away.

Having noted that I’ve passed Big Bone Lick a number of times while driving to Rabbit Hash, continuing on to the one-of-a-kind river town after my stop was rather natural. Besides, if I hadn’t, I could not have put “bunnies” in the title. I grabbed an ice-cold ginger ale at the general store, then sipped it as I watched the Ohio River flow by.

This intersection, just east of US 42 about two and a half miles east of Big Bone Lick, marks the community of Beaverlick. I believe there used to be limit signs here, but I found none today. If I didn’t imagine them, I’m guessing they are hanging on a college dorm wall somewhere. Until a year or so ago, there was a Beaverlick Trading Post at US 42, but it is now an ice cream stand, and almost all of the signage has been changed. They’ve not yet taken care of a couple of side doors, however. Places like Big Bone Lick and Beaver Lick (now Beaverlick) were salt licks where various animals came to get a little salt in their diet. They were named for the lickers, not the lickees.

To complete what has turned into a survey of the area’s smile-inducing place names, I stopped at an establishment that appears to be the last remaining enterprise acknowledging that the community of Sugartit once existed. It’s just a few miles north of those spots made famous by salt-licking beavers and big boned animals.

Book Review
Route 66: The First 100 Years
Jim Ross and Shellee Graham

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It’s a beauty. That was my initial thought when I first held this book in my hands and flipped it open. I wasn’t surprised, of course. I’ve seen enough of Jim and Shellee’s work to make me expect great photography and writing, a top-tier knowledge of history, and a rock-solid commitment to quality. I’m not quite as familiar with Reedy Press, but what I have seen smacks of the quality targeted in that previously mentioned commitment. My instant declaration of beauty came from seeing great images accurately reproduced on thick glossy pages. Including the text in my appraisal took only a little more time.

Route 66: The First 100 Years differs from some of the authors’ previous books in that it does not rely almost exclusively on their own photography for the book’s images. It’s a history book, so naturally, historic images are used; however, contemporary pictures from other photographers are also included, with each being properly credited.

Unlike many other Route 66-related books, Route 66: The First 100 Years is not organized geographically. Nor is it organized chronologically as history books often are. There is a slight hint of chronology in discussing the roads that preceded US 66 in Chapter 1, “Revolutionizing Travel”, and covering “Renaissance” and “Preservation” in the last two chapters. In between, chapter subjects might be eras (e.g., “Hard Times”), collections of people (e.g., “Ladies of Legend”) and businesses (e.g., “Trading Posts and Tourist Traps”), or something else. Whatever the subject, a wide-ranging set of examples is included. But 100 years and 2400+ miles cover a lot of space and time, and anyone with more than a passing familiarity with Route 66 will probably come up with a personal favorite or two that didn’t get included. The selection process could not have been easy, but the selections are excellent.

Every chapter, like the vast majority of real-life road trips, has a “Detour”. The book’s detours are deep dives into one of the chapter’s subjects, and not all of them are obvious. The detour for the “Revolutionizing Travel” chapter is “The Ozark Trails”. This was an early named auto trail, or actually a system of auto trails, that, in my experience, doesn’t seem to get enough recognition. The “Hard Times” chapter takes a detour into an area that has been overlooked far too often for far too long: “The Green Book and Threatt Filling Station”.

It’s probably not all that surprising that Route 66: The First 100 Years overflows its twelve numbered chapters. It starts with a full page of Acknowledgments, followed by a Forward written by Route 66’s storytelling king, Michael Wallis. Jim and Shellee follow that with a Preamble, then include an Epilogue, Road Facts, and a few other sections after Chapter 12. One of these sections, titled “Happy Trails”, is a collection of roadside photos taken over the Mother Road’s first 100 years. Many are of unidentified travelers, but there are some real celebrities in the mix. There’s Jack Rittenhouse standing beside a California U.S. 66 sign, Lillian Redman by an Arizona 66 sign, and Cynthia Troup gazing at a U.S. 66 sign in New Mexico. As I said earlier, 100 years and 2400+ miles cover a lot of space and time. Jim and Shellee have done an impressive job of capturing the big picture and quite a few of the small picture details, too.

While writing this, I took a look back at a post from this blog’s first few months of existence. My review of “Route 66 Sightings” by Jim and Shellee, along with their good friend Jerry McClanahan, was one of the first reviews published here. I was surprised to see that its last sentence starts with the exact same words that begin this review: “It’s a beauty”. Maybe I’m in a rut, but at least I’m being honest.

Route 66: The First 100 Years, Jim Ross and Shellee Graham, Reedy Press (May 22, 2025), 11 x 9 inches, 208 pages, ISBN 978-1681065823
Available through Amazon.

Where the Airstream Wheels Start

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One reason the Airstream Heritage Center has been on my “someday” list for such a long time is that, while I find travel trailers interesting, they are not something I aspire to, and therefore don’t think about a whole lot. Another is that it’s close enough to my home that I knew it would be a simple day trip when the time came. Early in the week. I briefly followed a long flatbed trailer with three small new Airstreams strapped to it, and that reminded me of just how close to me their point of manufacture is. That reminder, along with an idle Thursday, led to a leisurely drive north. A popular Airstream slogan is “Home Is Where Wheels Stop”. Those Airstream wheels are mounted and start turning in Jackson Center, Ohio.

The Heritage Center is attached to the front of the 750,000-square-foot trailer manufacturing plant. The admissions desk is just out of frame on the right. On the left is a new trailer and a display of Airstream-branded gear. The gift shop, where my museum tour will eventually lead, is on the right. The museum entrance is straight ahead. The online reservations for the factory tour would not let me select a date prior to June 10, so I assumed the tours were full or otherwise not available. Not so, said the girls at the museum desk, and they signed me right up.

First up in the museum is a timeline that begins with the birth of Airstream founder Wally Byam in 1896 and ends with the building of this facility in 2018. Displayed at the timeline’s very beginning is the canteen that Wally’s grandfather, Loren, carried in the Civil War. It is claimed that this whole Airstream thing came to be because Wally really liked to camp, and his wife, Stella, did not like sleeping on the ground.

This is the very first Airstream Clipper ever built. It was hand-delivered by Wally Byam to the President of Mexico in 1936. At some point, it became the property of a traveling circus. It was eventually discovered near Mexico City and, once identified, restored. The placard contains some photos and an abbreviated history.

In the late 1930s, Airstream produced some wooden trailers that resembled large teardrop trailers more closely than the familiar rounded-end models typically associated with the name. The sign explains that this 1938 Airlite “…had an aluminum skin applied over the original Masonite exterior which helped to preserve it”. Airstream halted production during WWII but got the wheels rolling again in May 1947 with the Airstream Liner, which was basically a much improved Clipper. That’s a 1949 Liner pictured. The third photo is of a 1949 double-door Whirlwind model.

Here’s a trio of particularly well-traveled examples. In fact, Oscar and Etta Payne’s 1957 Bubble could be the most travelled Airstream of them all. With a legitimate claim of having gone “Around the World in 859 Days”, it is one of four Airstreams from the 1960 European Caravan to tour Russia in the Soviet Union. Virgil and Grace Golden ordered their 1963 Tradewind specifically for the 1963-64 Around the World Caravan, but it made many more journeys than that. The white 1955 Cruiser was used by Wally and Stella Byam on the 1956 European Caravan. It was painted white to match the Byams’ white Cadillac tow vehicle.

I had driven to Jackson Center thinking I would have no factory tour, and I would have been quite happy with that. Of course, learning that I could tour the factory made me even happier. The picture at right was taken just outside the museum. Corporate offices are upstairs. Trailer manufacturing is through those doors straight ahead. No photos are allowed.

There are approximately 500 employees in this building and about 1200 in all Airstream facilities in Jackson Center. The city’s population is roughly 1450. Our guide, Dan, did an outstanding job of describing every phase of the operation, and the tour does an outstanding job of selling the product. Airstream has a reputation for high quality. That top-tier quality, along with worker safety and satisfaction, is a primary goal is evident throughout the factory. It looked to me like the premium prices these trailers command are justified.

Factory tours are free, and the museum is cheap — $5 or less. Currently, the company’s website (https://www.airstream.com/) appears to be experiencing some issues, including those that prevented me from reserving a tour in advance. Hopefully those are resolved soon. At present, website issues do not interfere with access to a factory tour video that is almost as good as the real thing.

Sign Museum Threefer

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I visited the American Sign Museum on Thursday. Technically, I visited it twice, once during normal hours and once in the evening for a special Tod Talk. The Tod Talk, “Acquiring and Restoring the Frisch’s Mainliner Sign”, was the reason I was there on this particular day, but I also wanted to see the freshly installed genie pictured at right and the museum’s first-ever special display. Ergo, a threefer.

The museum has owned a pair of the giant Carpeteria Genies since 2003, but one was held in off-site storage until last week. Wonderfully restored, it now stands beside the entrance to the museum’s parking lot. I failed to get a picture of the genie at the front door (which is admittedly looking a little faded these days), so I have included one from the museum’s 2012 grand opening at this location.

When the museum expanded last year (New Stuff to Look At), it was said that there was now enough space to potentially accommodate some temporary exhibits. The first such exhibit, Glow & Behold: Cincinnati’s Historic LGBTQ+ Bar Signs, is in place now. One panel supplies an introduction. Another notes that “…there were more drag queens and kings, known then as female and male impersonators, working on Vine Street in Cincinnati in the 1880s and 1890s than there are today.”

The exhibit includes photos of several businesses that no longer exist, along with retired signs (Remember where we are.) from both defunct and very active establishments. Saturday night’s “Signs & Spouses: A Sparkling Celebration of Marriage Equality” was inspired by this exhibit.

As closing time approached, I took advantage of the relatively empty museum to grab pictures of the Frisch’s Mainliner sign and its flying machine in pieces on the ground without humans milling about. I will be learning a lot more about this sign in a couple of hours.

Between the time that the Tod Talk was announced and when it actually happened, the sign was moved from the storage site to inside the museum, and so was the talk. The email announcing the move let us know that this would allow a cash bar, etc. To my surprise, “etc.” included a genuine Frisch’s hamburger from the still-operating independently owned franchise restaurant in Bellevue, KY. I had eaten during my time away from the museum, but I hadn’t eaten THAT much, and I didn’t want to appear unappreciative, so…

The talk began with Erin Holland, the museum’s Director of Education and Engagement, delivering a greatly abbreviated version of her March presentation on the overall history of Frish’s and its advertising. Then Tod Swormstedt, the museum’s founder and the Tod of Tod Talks, stepped in to share stories about acquiring and taking possession of the Mainliner sign.

The instant that hints of the Mainliner closing began to circulate, the fate of its incredible sign became a topic of concern for many locals and the ASM in particular. As restaurants closed and lawsuits opened, it wasn’t easy to learn just who owned what. It took some creative sleuthing by Erin to contact the owners of the sign. That resulted in a mid-December meeting with three men identified at the time only by their first names. Although they tried to imply that there were others interested in the sign, it was pretty obvious to Tod that not many would actually want a sign of that size, fewer still would have the means to remove it, and no one else could possibly accomplish that by the suggested end-of-year deadline. Even so, there was no additional contact until Christmas Eve, when the museum was told it could have the sign, and yes, that end-of-year deadline was real and very firm. In anticipation of that happening, Tod had sown some seeds in the ASM phenomenal community of helpers. Although the timing could hardly have been worse, the sign was taken down and transported to a museum storage area in a single day.

Every day is a big day at the ASM, but some are bigger than others. The museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, so various projects are often scheduled for those days. Monday, May 19, saw two really big projects completed. The huge genie in the opening photo was erected in front of the museum, and the Frish’s Mainliner sign was moved inside it. Natalie Grilli, photographer for the upcoming book on the museum’s first twenty-five years, was onsite and busy bouncing between the two giants in motion. Natalie was also onsite Thursday evening. Pictures and some of the videos of the moves we saw on Thursday can be seen on the ASM’s Facebook page.

The group then moved out to where the Mainliner sign now stands, and I silently congratulated myself for taking those unblocked photos earlier. Tod now pointed out some of the sign’s features and described some of the plans for its restoration. Those plans are far from complete, but he said restoring the rotating propellers is definitely part of them. A printout of that photo displayed next to the sign was waiting on each chair, and I’ve included a scan of mine here. Note that the original chase lighting was incandescent and ran through the airplane. At some point, this was removed from the plane and converted to neon tubes on the sign body. The plugged holes can be seen in the picture of the airplane interior above. This is also something that Tod hopes to restore. The separate section with the Big Boy has been lost and will likely not be restored.

Something that may be obvious but still should be pointed out and cheered is that the restoration of this sign will take place in the middle of the museum in full sight of visitors. This will certainly present some challenges for those doing the restoration, but it is sure exciting for us mere spectators. Also in the realm of spectating, the sign can be seen at its original home during my own final visit to the Mainliner. A link to pre-order that 25th anniversary book I mentioned is on the museum’s support page

Sixty Years After

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Ten years ago, on the day following the fiftieth reunion of my high school graduating class, I posted “Fifty Years After“. It ended with a reference to the far-in-the-future sixtieth reunion and the line, “If I can, I will”. I did. So did another seven members of the Ansonia High School class of 1965.

Not surprisingly, that was considerably less than the nineteen who attended the all-alumni banquet in 2015 or the twenty-six who attended the our-class-only gathering the night before. There is a banquet every year that is open to all graduates with emphasis on the “5s”. I have gone to most, if not all, of those, but there wasn’t one for our fifty-fifth. That was the year of the COVID pandemic. The lack of a get-together at the five-and-a-half-decade mark was somewhat disappointing, but it is the class of 2020 that really deserves our sympathy. I thought there might be something a little special for them on their fifth, but there was not. Actually, there was not a single member of the class of 2020 in attendance. It’s hard not to try reading something into that, but it’s just as hard, as an outsider, to know what that something should be.

Ten years ago, I wrote that “We graduated smack dab in the middle of a decade that was about as turbulent and confusing, yet as filled with promise and potential, as any could be.” It feels like we just might be smack dab in the middle of another one. Of course, the decade we were born in held the horrors of World War II and was clearly even more turbulent, but that decade is outside of our personal memories. It is the 1960s and 2020s that more or less bracket our lives as adults.

By coincidence, a blog I follow published a piece a few days ago that makes some comparisons between today and the world of sixty years ago. It is here, and I encourage reading it in its entirety. Among the events of sixty years ago it mentions is the Social Security Act of 1965. That’s the act that established Medicare and Medicaid. Both are facing cuts today. Our generation also benefited from things like the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the Water Quality Act of 1965, and others.

What I have just written makes me aware that my and my classmates’ adulthood more or less aligns with the rise and potential fall of numerous efforts to make life better for the general population. That, in turn, made me think of the cringeworthy idea that “We got ours. Sorry about your bad timing, kids.” Oh, how I hope that’s not true.

Classes celebrating one of the 5s are provided with a room to gather in before meal time. Our room wasn’t overflowing, but everyone there had a good time studying old photos and sharing the memories those photos, and just being together, stirred up.

Of course, classes are seated together at the banquet. Yeah, we took up a lot less room than we did in 2015. I didn’t try very hard to get a picture of the group as a professional took a posed group shot of us, and I’ll share that here as soon as it is available. Most of our class is in the foreground of the second picture, but that’s not the target. The target is every past cheerleader in attendance, lined up to lead us in a spirited singing of the old fight song.

ADDENDUM 23-Jun-2025: Here is that posed picture I promised. Someone must have told me an anti-joke just before it was snapped, or maybe I’m unhappy because I wasn’t let in on the joke that has everyone else smiling. Whatever the reason, I apologize to my classmates for grimming up at exactly the wrong time.

As usual, the banquet was followed by a dance. I always skip the dancing part, but this year I even skipped the going part. In the past, the dance was held at Eldora Ballroom on the Eldora Speedway property. The Ballroom was a weekend hotspot back in the day, and going there on alumni weekend always provided a little glimpse of the past. This year, it was at the American Legion, which would not have fed my nostalgia. It is at the same location I remember, but the building is a newer one. I’ve said I would have gone if it had been at Eldora, but maybe not. Starting the drive home before midnight seems a sensible thing to do these days.

The best information available indicates that we have lost a total of sixteen members of our class of sixty-five. That means that just about three-quarters of us are still around. In that 2015 post, I mentioned that the men who were living had already exceeded their at-birth life expectancy, and that the women were getting close. We are all in overtime now. A study I found online says that anyone turning 78 in 2025 can expect to live another 11.09 years. That would cover a 70th reunion. If I can, I will.

Barbie and Julia

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In my report on the Cincinnati Museum Center’s 1950s Day, I mentioned that the event was timed to tie in with the museum’s ongoing exhibits on Barbie and Julia Child. I also explained that I intended to see both exhibits but would do so on a day less crowded than 1950s Day. It happened on Thursday. In hindsight, those tie-ins seem a bit of a stretch since the first Barbie, pictured at right, appeared at the very end of the 1950s in 1959, and Julia Child’s first TV show aired in 1963.

Barbie was conceived by Mattel co-founder Ruth Handler to address the disparity she saw in the toys available to her son and daughter. The son had dolls that let him imagine himself as a cowboy, soldier, fireman, and so much more. The daughter had dolls that let her pretend to be a mother. The daughter’s name was Barbara.

Clothes and other accessories have always been an important part of the world of Barbie. There were twenty-two different ensembles available for that very first Barbie, and their display provides an opening for telling about my only personal Barbie experience. My sister would have been nine when Barbie first appeared, so she might have had a Barbie. I just don’t recall. My daughter definitely had some in the 1980s. The pictured “Cruise Stripe Dress” was only made in 1959-62, but the red high heels it was packaged with, or at least a close facsimile, continue to be made today. I understand that there are worse sources of pain, but stepping barefoot on an upturned tiny red stiletto in the darkness does create a memory lasting forty years and beyond.

Gender diversity began to be addressed rather quickly. Racial diversity stayed absent a little longer. Ken (Yes, Ruth’s son was named Kenneth.) appeared in 1961. Barbie’s Black friend Christie came along in 1968.

Barbie has had a lot of vehicles, especially sports cars and campers, during her 60+ years of existence. I was surprised to learn (from the internet, not the exhibit) that her first car was a 1962 Austin-Healey 3000. A pink Corvette is the first car I think of when I think of Barbie, and I believe that is true for many people. This mockup of a 1985 model was one of several photo ops scattered throughout. I saw probably thirty to forty people inside the exhibit while I worked my way through it. Three were males, two guys with their partners, and I. The rest were females in groups of two or three. Many took advantage of this Corvette to grab pictures of each other.

The idea that girls could be anything they wanted to be was an important part of Ruth Handler’s vision for Barbie. Numerous displays showing some of the careers available to Barbie and her playmates during various periods are spread around the exhibit.

1968’s Christie was a powerful “some of my best friends are Black” statement. In 1980, that statement moved onto “and I am too” with the introduction of Hispanic and Black dolls carrying the name Barbie. Today, Barbie can proudly be called the world’s “most diverse doll line”.

The 1959 Barbie in the opening picture retailed for $3. That’s about $33 in 2025. Some estimates place its current value at more than $27,000. The standard “exit through the gift shop” takes you past this rack of Barbies priced at $11.99. Not too bad, I think, for an icon.

The entrance to the Julia Child exhibit is right next to the entrance to the Barbie exhibit. Barbie is a ticketed event; Julia is included with museum admission. Although I did not know much about Barbie, I knew even less about Julia. I have seen her on TV while channel surfing, but don’t believe I have ever watched a full program or interview.

I was even more out of place here than I had been in the Barbie exhibit. Not only did I know very little about Julia Child, I knew less about French cooking and the tools of the trade. Others in attendance knew of various events in Child’s life and specific items in the collection of cooking gear she called “Batterie de Cuisine”.

Apparently, Child had achieved some level of fame before that 1963 television show. This photo of her and her husband, Paul, was used as a Valentine’s Day Card in 1956. I believe this was the only spot in the exhibit set up especially for a photo op. It did not seem as popular as Barbie’s Corvette, but some of the same groups of women who posed in the car also took each other’s pictures in the tub with Julia and Paul in the background.

As with many traveling exhibits at the CMC, a local connection is part of this one. Cincinnati has been home to some well-known French restaurants. I never made it to Pigall’s, but I did have one meal each at the Gourmet Room and the Maisonette. Two out of three ain’t bad.

Barbie: A Cultural Icon is here through September 1. The last day for Julia Child: A Recipe for Life is today, May 18.