2023 Ohio Road Meet Columbus

Posted on by
Reply

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.

Another Season of the Fish

Posted on by
3

I like fish and therefore like fish fries. During Lent, I try to patronize some of the Friday fundraisers although I rarely manage to check off every week. I doubt that was even possible during the COVID-19-ravaged years of 2020, ’21, and ’22. Even without a pandemic’s interference, going 7-for-7 isn’t always easy. I thought I’d accomplished it a couple of times but maybe not. 2014 is the only year that I’ve boasted about in this blog so maybe it’s the only perfect run I’ve ever accomplished — until now.

Lent, and the seven weeks of fish fries, ends with Easter. That 2014 boast was my Easter Day post for the year. I wasn’t completely confident of my ability to manage a fish fry every week this year and I had another Easter post ready just in case. When another 7-for-7 run began to look likely, I started thinking that I’d have to scrap that other post. Then I noticed that my calendar identified both an Easter Sunday and an Easter Monday. Easter Sunday got an Easter post and Easter Monday gets a fish post. 

The first week of Lent somehow caught me by surprise. I worked in a stop at nearby Saint Margaret of York on the way to something else. I’ve eaten here at least twice before. I do like to try new places but this is convenient and I like their baked salmon.

I did find a new-to-me place for the second week. At Saint Gertrude, I again had salmon but it wasn’t just any old salmon. This is “Roasted Lemon Dill Salmon”.

There is reason to think my choice for week three was a cheat but I think I can justify it. The Crow’s Nest is a commercial establishment and I did go there to see a musical performance (Ricky Nye) but the kitchen has been temporarily closed for renovation and food was not regularly available. A cooking tent has been set up in the courtyard for the duration of lent and fish is available for a few hours on Fridays. Only fish and only Fridays. Just like the churches.

Do you like Kolping? I don’t know. I’ve never Kolped. I found that silly joke, originally referencing author Rudyard Kipling, stuck in my head as I ate some really good baked fish at the Kolping Center on the fourth Friday of Lent.

During Lent’s fifth week, I went to Saint John the Evangelist in West Chester for baked tilapia. The meal, including drink, was only eleven dollars but the two-dollar pie pushed me to the teens.

There was no baked option at American Legion Post 484 so, for only the second time this year, I did not sully the name “fish fry” when I placed my order in week six.

Of course, the internet and online lists play an important role in all fish fry scheduling but it was extra important in locating a fry that I could work into a road trip without going too far off course. The event at American Legion Post 737 in Lake Milton, Ohio, met my Good Friday needs perfectly.

This may not be the last year with a “fish season” post but I expect it to be the last one with a set of stops like these. On the way home from one of the churches, I listened to a report on the boarding schools of nearly a century ago that were part of the effort to erase Native American culture. It told of physical, mental, and sexual abuse in which the United States government and the Catholic Church were involved. The report reminded me of a news article I’d read just the day before about a Cincinnati priest being sentenced on nine counts of rape going back decades. Arrest and prosecution had only recently occurred despite his “upsetting and alarming” behavior having long been noted. The specifics were new but the basics of the stories were not. When I started going to church-sponsored fish fries, I thought my patronage was harmless and was possibly even doing some good. Reflecting on these stories and the many others they reminded me of caused me to think otherwise. I may continue to frequent springtime fish fries but in the future they will be at fire stations, VFW and American Legion halls, and Irish pubs with closed kitchens and a grill setting outside the back door. So long churches, and thanks for all the fish.

Found on Easter Island

Posted on by
Reply

An entire lake dried up and all we got was this lousy moai. This previously unknown carving with “recognisable features but no clear definition” was found in a dry Easter Island lake bed on February 21. Regular readers may recall that Easter Island (a.k.a., Rapa Nui) is kind of special to me because it was on my -225th birthday that Europeans gave it the name Easter Island. By coincidence, that day in 1722 when Jacob Roggeveen and crew first bumped into the island was Easter Sunday. I first wrote about all that in 2016.

Moai are those large stone heads that Easter Island/Rapa Nui is known for. The lake where this unfinished moai turned up is inside the crater of the extinct Rano Raraku volcano. It used to look like this. The quarry where the stone came from for most of the moai is nearby. The lake started shrinking in 2018 and is just one sign of the impact that global warming is having on the island. There’s a broader view here.

On top of global warming, the island suffered an arsonist set fire in October. There is naturally some temptation to consider finding the statue in the lakebed a bright spot in the midst of all the bad stuff going on. I guess it is in a way, but it’s kind of like finding that quarter you lost last year in the wreckage of your house after a hurricane came through.

Many will find real joy in munching on this year’s new Dr. Pepper-flavored Peeps and maybe even washing them down with their namesake beverage. It’s definitely a sweet image. But that won’t be happening for Easter Islanders. The DP Peeps are a Walmart exclusive and Walmart has yet to reach the island. Hmmm. Perhaps that, and not the moai discovery, is actually the bright spot in this story.

Spring Fling 2023

Posted on by
Reply

Birthday trips may have become a thing. I used my birthday as an excuse for running the COVID blockade in 2021 and last year it served as justification for a drive to an overnight that had long been on my list. The 2021 trip was a three-day affair that got the full journal treatment (Birthday Breakout).  The one-night 2022 trip was covered in a blog post (Celebrating). This year’s outing started as a two-night deal that has grown to three nights and will be covered in a regular journal. The first day, which consisted of a drive to a historic inn, has just been posted. Following days will include a railroad roundhouse and museum and a concert.

This entry lets blog-only subscribers know about the trip and provides a place for comments. The journal is here.

Spirit of 76

Posted on by
Reply

For the second consecutive year, I’ve created a post specifically for my birthday. I didn’t expect to. I did it last year to note a milestone in age and a change in appearance. I’m doing it this year primarily to record some thoughts. I ended last year’s post with the observation that “birthdays are good occasions for remembering all the folks I’ve known who have been denied the privilege of growing older”. I intentionally used “older” rather than “old” without knowing the significance that the difference would hold this year. During the year since my last birthday, a very close friend of mine stopped growing older. John was born a few years before me so the privilege of growing old was something we shared. Sure, lots of people live to be much older but lots more don’t.

The day before John turned seventy-six, he commented about having that number of trombonists serenade him for his birthday. On the day. I shared a Youtube clip of The Music Man‘s signature song.

I recalled that as my own seventy-sixth birthday approached but thought of a couple of other things associated with the number 76. One was (Union) 76 gasoline and another was The Spirit of ’76 painting shown at left. Probably because I would like to think I have some spirit left at age 76, I felt more of a connection with the painting than with the gasoline, and I felt more of a connection with the painting’s title than with its appearance.

Archibald Willard, who painted The Spirit of ’76, was an Ohioan. Some of his more notable work is in the somewhat nearby Fayette County courthouse. Apparently, Willard also liked the word “spirit”. The three largest of his 1882 murals are The Spirit of the U. S. Mail, The Spirit of Electricity, and The Spirit of the Telegraph. While those were no doubt high-tech futuristic subjects in 1882, today all three would probably be combined in something like The Spirit of the Internet, and Willard would have to come up with a couple additional ideas to fill all three walls.

The image with the old phrase on an updated background at the top of this post should now make sense but in case it doesn’t, I’ll explain. A few days ahead of my 76th birthday, I sat on a bench in Washington Court House, Ohio, gazing at the Fayette County courthouse in which there are three “Spirit” murals painted by the man who created a painting in 1875 that he called Yankee Doodle but which was soon renamed The Spirit of ’76. Happy Birthday to me.

A more readable version of the sign in that last picture is here.

A Normal Opening Day

Posted on by
2

Cincinnati Reds opening day parades were canceled in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year’s parade was delayed along with the start of the season by an owner-player dispute but it did happen. Opening Day 2019 was normal in most respects but I missed the parade due to my own bad planning. I made the parade in 2018 although it was delayed by legitimate business concerns having nothing to do with owners, players, viruses, or weather. In 2017 I was out of town for what I understand was a very nice and quite normal parade. That means that the parade of 2016 was the last one I attended that happened as it was supposed to. I’m sure glad that streak is over.

I decided to get serious this year and reached Arnold’s about twenty minutes ahead of the planned 9:00 opening. Obviously, quite a few folks were even more serious but I was still in time to get a seat in the courtyard and get a breakfast sandwich and Shamrock Shake. I was there when Todd Hepburn arrived looking quite dapper and I stayed long enough to sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” with him.

The day would eventually get warm but walking to the parade’s start point at Findlay Market was fairly chilly. Near the market, I encountered all four of the Reds’ mascots exiting their limo and heading to the staging area. That’s Rosie Red on the left, Mr. Red on the right, Gapper in the middle, and Mr. Redlegs still in the limo.

My walk and some strolling through the staging area consumed a fair amount of time but the parade start was still several minutes away when I took up a position near the parked Cincinnati Police motorcycles that would lead the parade. Those minutes passed quickly and shortly past noon, the parade was set in motion.

With the passing of the pipes and drums, the organizers’ float, and the iconic Jim Tarbell dressed as the also iconic Peanut Jim, there’s no doubt that we’ve got a real parade going on.

The four mascots spread throughout the parade with Gapper getting the position of leading the parade’s two grand marshalls. Pitchers Danny Graves and Bronson Arroyo are both being inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame this year and are sharing Grand Marshall duties. During the time I was waiting by the motorcycles, the pair had arrived nearby in a van. Danny never turned toward me at the time but I did get a decent shot of Bronson which I’m sharing here.

This group, looking like players and fans from the earliest days of baseball, represents the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum. Mr. Redlegs is close behind.

A few entries later, Rosie Red leads what could be called the parade’s glamour section. Kentucky’s Heather French Henry, Miss America 2000, is as lovely and enthusiastic as ever.

Indicative of Cincinnati and the Reds’ place in a tri-state area, the reigning beauty queens of Ohio (Elizabetta Nies), Kentucky (Hannah Edelen), and Indiana (Elizabeth Hallal) also accompanied Rosie. Maybe it’s a generational thing or maybe it’s because this was early in the parade route but I’d like to think that Heather French’s enthusiasm had something to do with all three title holders forgoing the standard “regal wave” and actually interacting with the crowd.

The Wilburforce University Marching Band got some pre-parade press so I was sort of on the lookout for them when I saw them heading to the staging area and snapped a less-than-great picture. This is the first marching band WU has ever had and it attracted enough attention during its first year of existence to be invited to march in multiple Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans. It’s a really good band and that’s a wonderful accomplishment.

Mr. Red, the fourth and final Reds mascot, was riding with the Friends of Findlay Market. I have no identification for the other two photos except I do know that one is the parade’s most athletic and the other the parade’s cutest.

I have two reasons for including the Lebanon High School Marching Band in this post. One is the eye-catching cool uniforms and the other is that the band was playing “Fins” as they passed. I’m guessing that’s because it’s the only Jimmy Buffett song that calls out Cincinnati and covering Buffett is all the reason anyone needs for joining a band.

In addition to Ferraris and Gina Lollobrigida, Italy has given us Vespas, Reds fans, and Americans.

When I took this picture, the Reds were 0-0. In a few hours, they would be 0-1 but they are now 1-1 just like every other team in the NL Central Division. Mathematically they have the same shot as everyone else but retired Reds announcer Marty Brennaman proclaimed during the parade, “Anybody that thinks they are [going to win the division] are delusional.” Realistically, we could see a repeat of last year’s dismal 62-100 season. Of course, there’s nothing like a parade on a sunny day to make you forget the worst of the past and remember the best, and a smiling George Foster — Big Red Machine outfielder and 1977 NL MVP — is a great reminder of some of that best.

The King Records float was another reminder of the best of Cincinnati history. I got so caught up in watching Tony Wilson that I almost missed Bootsy Collins. Wilson, given the name Young James Brown by the real James Brown, was singing and dancing in the street while Bootsy was keeping a pretty low profile — for someone wearing a sparkling blue top hat — on the float.

I know I’ve seen members of the Cincinnati Circus Company in other parades but I don’t recall seeing a group behind a banner before. Of course, that probably has more to do with my recall than reality.

Following the parade, I overheard several comments from people who were really impressed by the Indianapolis motorcycle officer riding his ‘cycle while standing up. I witnessed that bit of derring-do but got no photos. The last parade picture is of one of my all-time favorites, the Lawnmower Precision Drill Team from Wapakoneta.

I apologize for what might be a personal record for the number of photos in a blog post but I assure you it could have been worse. Maybe it was ending the seven-year streak of missed or somehow off-kilter parades that caused me to take so many pictures. Limiting this post to what I hope is only slightly too many was not an easy task.

When the last of the parade passed me, I was near Washington Park and headed immediately to Cobblestone OTR across the street. I believe I could have bought a beer almost instantly but decided I ought to dispose of the one I had for breakfast first. The line at the restroom extended through much of the bar and that convinced me to just move on. The crowd at Knockback Nat’s was out the door and, although I could step inside Madonna’s, that place was definitely full also. I found the same thing at Arnold’s but my car was nearby and I brought the day’s hike to an end right there. I finally got that beer at City View Tavern where barely a half dozen customers preceded me and I was able to grab a seat at deck’s edge. That situation did not last long and the couple at the table behind me instantly moved forward when I left.  

Clickable Collage of Done Deeds

Posted on by
Reply

This week my world was once again too boring to provide a current event story. But it wasn’t too busy which is the other reason I sometimes use a canned post, as I most recently did on February 19 (Trip Peek # 122 Trip #84 Finding Holland), or recycle an older post, as I most recently did on January 29 (Happy Imbolc Again). So, instead of doing either of those things, I’m going to write about something on this website that I feel doesn’t get enough attention. That might really be saying something since I naturally feel that the entire website doesn’t get enough attention. I’m talking about the clickable collage of thumbnail images from completed trips.

I’ve had vague ideas about tooting this particular horn in the past but never pursued them very far. I thought of it again this week when I realized I had a little time to write a post but no real-time topic to write about. When that happened, I quickly realized that this was a pretty good time to write about the collage. You see the count of completed trips is currently a multiple of ten and the collage is ten images wide. That means I could produce the image above (which links to the real thing) without the uneven lower edge that it has 90% of the time.

For any that don’t know, this website came into being in 1999 to document a single road trip then hung around to document those that followed. Before long, a chronological list of completed trips appeared with highlights and such and links to the individual journals. This blog was added in 2011 to better support non-road trip postings and allow reader comments.

My 100th road trip occurred just a few months after the blog was started and there was a blog post noting it (The First One Hundred). I had already been selecting a single image from each trip to use in a now-retired feature on the home page and I included a collage of those images in that post. Just a couple of weeks later, the static collage was replaced with a clickable version that has grown as trips are completed and added. Hovering over an individual image will display the sequential number, year, and name of the trip. Clicking it leads to the associated journal.

I get great pleasure from just looking at the collage because each of those images has the potential for triggering tons of memories and together they remind me how much fun I’ve had over the last couple of decades. That will undoubtedly become even more valuable as more years go by. Of course, no one else has those memories to be triggered. I am very much aware of that but hope that others that look over the collage will see something they recognize or something they think interesting and worth a further look. There are 170 trips represented there now and it continues to grow slowly. I encourage you to take a look by clicking the opening image.

In addition to that 100th trip post where the collage first appeared, it was also mentioned a few years ago in a post on Some Subtle Stuff. A look at that might be worthwhile if that sort of thing interests you.

Short, Sweet, Wet, and Irish

Posted on by
1

It took place on March 17 so obviously it’s Irish. It’s wet because of the heavy rain that fell before it started and the light rain that fell later. It’s sweet because that’s what most short things are said to be and it’s short because that’s what Hamiltonians wanted. The title quite accurately describes the first-ever Hamilton Ohio Saint Patrick’s Day Parade which those Hamiltonians labeled Ohio’s Shortest. I think the parade route was about 575 feet long but the margin of error isn’t much less than the distance separating the piper leading the parade and the fire engine at its tail. I’ve since learned that the piper is Thomas Eickelberger and that the fellows next in line are Jim Goodman, from Municipal Brew Works, and Michael Ryan, Hamilton’s Vice Mayor. Hamilton’s Mayor, Pat Moeller didn’t actually march in the parade but I did get a shot of him chatting with Eickelberger during the staging.

Municipal Brew Works was listed as the parade’s starting point with the route ending around the corner and up a block at Tano Bistro. I got a full frontal of that bicycle leaning against the brewery before the big kickoff.

Here is the parade after turning the corner. The official end point is behind me but not everyone made it that far. Many departed the route when they reached The Casual Pint or The Pour House. Tano and Chick’nCone got a few of the marchers and would get more later but most initially headed to the adult beverage dispensaries including MBW back at the start point.

The city of Hamilton is no stranger to celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day or to promoting shortness. The parade was followed by the second annual O’DORA Dash. DORA stands for Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area where adults can carry alcoholic beverages and, as everyone knows, adding an ‘O’ will make anything Irish. Despite the word “dash” in its name, speed in covering the 0.1K course doesn’t seem particularly important. In fact, I saw no evidence of any time or speed-measuring devices anywhere near the event.

Much of the chatter about the event concerns not spilling your beer and I saw several participants meet that requirement by chugging their beverage at the beginning. But the official goal was to get as much liquid (either green beer or local Pahhni Water) as possible to the other end. True competitors were not deterred in the least by winds taking down the finish line marker. The Hamilton Community Foundation will benefit from the fundraiser regardless of who won or how much rainwater was in their cup.

I was already planning on attending the parade when I found out that someone I know would be playing at North Second Tap and Bottle Shop. When I got there, the new-to-me Bedel and Hibbard were on stage. Elijah Bedel and Sam Hibbard perform mostly American folk music on a variety of instruments. That’s a gourd banjo on the right side of the first picture and the banjo and fiddle on the picture’s left side are part of the mix too. Today’s song list was naturally slanted toward Ireland. Not only were they doing an afternoon set, but they would also be returning later to close out the night.

Although I’ve seen Rob McAllister do sets that would qualify as American folk music, that would not be happening today. Today it would be Dead Man String Band at full throttle. Usually checking out a guitarist’s pedal board will reveal an array of effects boxes with buttons. The Dead Man’s has real pedals and he uses them all. And somehow, replacing the tom rack on a bass drum with a microphone just seems to fit.

With the exception of the cold, I enjoyed everything about my day in Hamilton. I especially appreciated the sheer fun of the parade which kind of reminded me of the Cincinnati parade before all the sanctimonious family values posturing took over. The O’DORA Dash was fun to watch and I enjoyed a few malt beverages although none were green. And I appreciated hearing music in a place where others appreciated it too. Can there be any doubt that a place is cool when there is a wizard on the soundboard and a leprechaun on the bar?

Play Review
A Chorus Line
Playhouse in the Park

Posted on by
Reply

This is no more about an actual play than was my most recent Play Review post. That post ostensibly concerned Company, a musical with six Tony Awards and a cast of fourteen. The musical in this post’s title won ten Tonys and has a cast of twenty-six. That previous post was really about the production company. Both posts involved theaters I was entering for the first time, and the theater is what this post is really about.

I’ve attended many performances at Playhouse in the Park but I entered The Rouse Theater for the first time Tuesday because it is brand new. As the heart of a $50 million project, it replaces the aging Marx Theater with a fully ADA-accessible facility. Many improvements, such as dressing and rehearsal rooms, do not involve the performance space. Others, including a fly gallery and an area below the stage, do but are still out of the audience’s view. A luxury lounge and upper-level restrooms are among the things yet to be completed.

The picture at right shows the view from my seat in the very last row of the balcony. Not too shabby in my opinion. A Chorus Line is the first production in the new theater. Apparently, the official opening night is Thursday with performances on Saturday, Tuesday, and Wednesday being called previews. The ribbon-cutting ceremony took place on Monday which makes the whole sequence kind of confusing to me. I guess that’s show business.

ADDENDUM 15-Mar-2023: It will not surprise anyone when I acknowledge that attending a play and posting even a slim and shallow review of it the next morning is something of a challenge. The photo at left is one that I simply forgot I had. It was taken as I approached the Playhouse on Art Museum Drive and shows how the new theater is now a real presence beyond its hilltop plateau. I fully intended to somehow include a reference to last year’s Getting Springy in Cincy post but it became just another thing I forgot. Scroll to the bottom for a couple of pictures of the under-construction theater taken nearly a year ago and one from my last time inside the Marx Theater taken on the same day.

Railroad Stations Stamps Dedication

Posted on by
2

Thursday was a very special day for serious rail fans who live near Cincinnati and collect stamps. It was actually a pretty special day for casual rail fans who live near Cincinnati and don’t collect stamps. I know that because I’m in that second group. Thursday, March 9, was the first day of issue for a set of commemorative postage stamps featuring five historic train stations. Not only is Cincinnati’s Union Terminal one of those stations, but it was also the site of the dedication ceremony introducing the stamps.

Images of the stamps have been available for some time so the official unveiling would not be all that dramatic. Even so, I was surprised to see that the stamps and associated items were on sale ahead of the 11:00 AM dedication. That sign in front of the terminal can be read here.

I bought two sheets and a set of first day covers. I may save one sheet but one is definitely to use. I got the set of covers largely because I didn’t know what I was doing. I really just wanted a first day cover with the Cincinnati stamp but ended up with all five. The other stations are in Tamaqua, PA; Point of Rocks, MD; Richmond, VA; and San Bernardino, CA. Read about the stamps and the stations here. As it turned out, I would not have had to buy any as the program for the dedication was in a first day cover with the Cincinnati stamp. A cool pin was also included.

Seeing that John Lomax was the emcee was a wonderful surprise. John recently retired from WKRC-TV where he was one of my favorite news anchors. After the ceremony concluded, most of the participants stayed for autographs. I initially headed elsewhere but when the line got quite short decided to get that envelope in the previous panel signed. When I reached John, I told him that we had spent a few Reds opening days and a couple of car shows together — even though he didn’t know it.

A color guard from the Loveland American Legion and VFW posts presented the colors and DeMarco Reed from the School for Creative and Performing Arts did an impressive job singing the national anthem. We were all welcomed by Cincinnati Museum Center CEO Elizabeth Pierce and Hamilton County Commission President Alicia Reece. Pierce remarked on what a nice coincidence it was to have a commemorative stamp issued during the terminal’s 90th year. The Cincinnati Museum Center is housed in the terminal.

Daniel Tangherlini from the USPS Board of Governors presided over the actual “unveiling”. Tangherlini deviated from his prepared speech to note that this train-related event was taking place in a state where two significant train incidents (derailments near East Palestine and Springfield) had recently occurred. He called these reminders of the need to keep safety front and center in USPS operations.

Following the dedication, Janice Forte and Nicholas Cates shared personal memories of Union Terminal. Forte is a historian and docent at the building. Some of her memories involved interactions with visitors who had their own memories. Cates grew up in the area and told of his inspiring first visit while in high school and the incredible good fortune that brought him back to the city and the role of lead architect on the terminal’s recent restoration.

When all the formalities were over, I made a visit to the Amtrak passenger area next to the auditorium then joined the autograph line as I mentioned before. Back in the rotunda, the previously covered image of the Cincinnati stamp had been revealed and sales had slowed a bit but were still going strong.

Before leaving, I grabbed pictures of some of the murals in the rotunda, that iconic domed ceiling, and the model of the terminal that is part of the “Cincinnati in Motion” exhibit in the history museum.

When passenger service moved from Union Terminal in 1972, my sister-in-law and I headed there to take some pictures. We were turned away but as we walked back toward our car we saw a man with a box of toy trains being admitted. We then learned that a hobby shop temporarily remained in business inside the building and customers were permitted access. We declared ourselves customers and were allowed through the door to walk directly to and from the shop. Once there, we realized that the shop dealt in expensive (to our budgets) model train gear. Being more or less obligated to buy something, we did find one thing we could afford and each bought an envelope that had been carried and canceled on the last train to leave the terminal. That “last day” envelope, for which I paid $2 plus 9¢ tax, is pictured with the “first day” envelope, for which I paid $1.18 (set of 5 for $5.90) and no tax. A clear example of the advantage of going straight to the source and buying in bulk.

Our walk from the store was not quite as direct as our walk to it had been as we feverishly snapped pictures of anything that looked interesting. Neither was it as direct as at least one observer would have liked. We had stopped shooting and were probably halfway across the big open space when a man emerged from somewhere and shouted something with the word “pictures” in it. We mumbled something back and kept walking. He was in pursuit as we reached the door and exited but apparently decided that we weren’t worth going outside for. It is the only time I’ve ever thought it quite possible that someone might grab my camera and pull the film from it.

I know not where those pictures are. My photography was a very low-budget affair in those days. It’s likely that they were shot on black & white film that I bought in bulk and spooled and developed myself. It is also likely that few if any were ever printed. Those negatives may eventually turn up somewhere or they may be truly lost to the world. Thankfully that wonderful building has not been even though it came very close.