Tag Archives: Cincinnati Ohio

History in Bloom at Spring Grove

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People I asked while there thought that Spring Grove Cemetery’s History in Bloom was about 15 years old. The earliest reference I’ve found online is from 2012, and it says, “It is one of our most popular events of the year!”, so 2012 wasn’t the first. Apparently, the event I attended for the first time on Sunday, April 19, was at least the sixteenth. My first impulse when something like that happens is to feel embarrassed because it took me so long to discover something so interesting. Of late, though, I’ve taken to being quite happy when it happens since it means there are still cool things to discover even for an old guy like me.

I do, however, regret missing out on previous events for one reason. In the past, I have enjoyed extended walks around Spring Grove Cemetery, and would certainly have enjoyed the guided walking tour available today. But long walks have become problematic for me over the last year or so, and I was happy to take advantage of the horse-drawn carriage rides, which, like the walking tours, were free.

It was nearing 1:00 when I arrived. This was probably near the busiest part of the day, and the line for carriage rides was rather long. My wait was a bit more than an hour, but the weather and surroundings were very pleasant. Neither I nor the others in line were much bothered by the wait. There was a group of five, including an extremely young baby, immediately in front of me. The first of the group had boarded a carriage when it became apparent they could not all be accommodated. When those on board turned to rejoin those on the ground, a couple already seated stepped off — with a smile — so mom and the others didn’t have to wait any longer.

We would get to visit with seven of the cemetery’s residents during the tour. All were important in the development of the city and region, but one was also extremely important in the development of the final home of all seven. Joseph Earnshaw assisted landscape designer Adolph Strauch considerably in creating the parklike layout of Spring Grove Cemetery.

Next up was Susan Pendleton Bowler, who, along with her husband, invited Adolph Strauch to design their gardens, which are now Mount Storm Park. John Robinson spoke to us from in front of the family mausoleum. The Robinson Circus, among the first to own its own railroad cars, wintered in Cincinnati for many years. Clara Dow was the only female in her class at pharmacy school, which she attended in order to take over her father’s drug store. Under her management, the store hired female pharmacists and added a soda fountain to create a place where women and children were welcome—and comfortable.

Thomas Hughes was a successful cobbler who willed his property to the city for the education of poor children. Hughes High School bears his name. Born into slavery, Henry Boyd became a skilled carpenter and was able to buy his freedom. His H. Boyd Company was a respected manufacturer of furniture. When Marianne Kauffman’s husband died, she stepped in to save and operate the John Kauffman Brewing Company. Because of her earlier success in real estate transactions, she was able to bring the company out of the heavy debt her husband had created.

This is Robert, our onboard narrator. He filled the spaces between stops with lots of information and an occasional joke. He also answered a fair number of questions, and it was clear he really knew his history. By tour’s end, we learned he had played several History in Bloom roles over the years. As I mentioned, the earliest History in Bloom references I found online were from 2012, and one of those contained a photo of Robert as Joseph Earnshaw.

There were three teams of horses pulling visitors around the cemetery. They all deserve to be recognized, and, although I did not get any of their names, I did get their pictures. The pictures near the beginning of the article are of the team that pulled me. Here are the other two teams as they approached the pickup point to load up and move on without me.

Not My Father’s Library

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Nor is it my son’s library. The following generation will certainly benefit from Hamilton County’s Building the Next Generation Library project, but it is the one after that which seems poised to take advantage of the full range of library advances being made by the project. For a guy who once saw weekly bookmobile visits and encyclopedia yearbooks as state-of-the-art information access, what I saw Saturday at Symmes Township Branch Reopening was pretty mind-boggling.

The Symmes Township Branch is the one closest to where I live. It was closed and demolished about a year and a half ago so that a new building could be constructed on the site. During that period, this storefront was rented to provide physical access to the branch. Even though the temporary location was even closer to me than the permanent one, I was never inside. To be honest, I haven’t visited the library all that often, but I sure do appreciate it being there.

This is the new library building. I believe it is bigger than the old one, and they seem to have added quite a bit of parking, too. Maybe they bought more land. I’m not at all up on the details. When I arrived around noon, the parking lot was nearly full, but there were a few open spots, and people were coming and going regularly, which kept it in a steady state. Apparently, that had not always been the case because quite a few cars were parked at the nearby school with people walking over the grassy area between the school and library.

Here are some indicators that this is not a normal day at the library. Although it was not all that loud, Richard Goering was playing live. Additional entertainment was scheduled throughout the day. And refreshments were available in one of the side rooms. There was also a table filled with snacks, but the room was filled with people, so I skipped more photos. As I sipped some lemonade, I commented to a staff member that this blew a big hole in the “no food or drink” rule, and she replied, “Oh, we dropped that a long time ago. We trust people.”

I was familiar with the MakerSpace concept from the main library in downtown Cincinnati and knew that MakerSpaces had been established at a few of the branches. Now my branch has one. A MakerSpace contains various creative tools that patrons can use for just the cost of materials. These pictures show a photo printer, 3-D printer, flatbed scanner, and vinyl printer.

The place was really crowded, which made me reluctant to take many pictures inside, especially since children made up a major portion of the crowd. But I did grab one picture to show that lots of digital media is available in addition to rows of old-fashioned books with paper pages. And how about the cool outdoor reading room? The other exterior photo is an attempt to offer a glimpse of the children’s play area without actually showing the children

I think this Next Generation Library is going to be a hit — even for some whose generation is decidedly previous.

Rembrandt at the Taft

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There is currently an exhibit at the Taft Museum of Art called “Rembrandt: Masterpieces in Black and White“. I’m not very knowledgeable about art, but I thought the black and white part of that might not really be necessary. I would not call any of the few pieces of art I connect with the Dutch Master overly colorful. Yes, the fellow at the center of his most famous painting, The Night Watch, has a reddish sash and another fellow is wearing a reddish hat and uniform, but neither is particularly bright, and they are essentially the only splashes of color in the entire scene.

There is, as advertised, even less color in the works in this exhibit. It is made up of monochrome prints from etchings. The etchings are often rather small, and they can be quite detailed. Loaner magnifying glasses are available near the entrance to help make that detail visible. Also near the entrance is a timeline that places Rembrandt’s life (1606-1669) within the context of world events and other artists. The man had quite the impact. Bright colors, it seems, aren’t really necessary.

There are 49 prints from Rembrandt etchings on display, and, as noted and as can be seen, most are just a few inches in size. The cost of materials and a desire for portability were both reasons for this. Rembrandt made several self-portraits during his career, but this one from 1633 is said to be the first he signed and dated.

Since I know even less about etching than I do about almost every other art form, I found this display quite helpful. It seems the artist etches into a waxy layer applied to a copper plate, then acid does the etching into the metal.

In addition to the 49 Rembrandt etchings, the exhibit includes nine etchings he inspired others to create. One of those inspired was James Whistler, who, as we see here, used his niece as a model in addition to his more famous mother.

Admission to the Taft Museum of Art includes access to all permanent galleries, as well as this traveling exhibit of etchings from the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam. Here is one of several connections between the two. This 1651 etching of Clement de Jonghe is cited as an example of Rembrant’s mastery of light and shadow and of his use of people’s expressions and gestures. The 1633 Portrait of a Man Rising from His Chair is an even better example of Rembrandt’s use of these.

“Rembrandt: Masterpieces in Black and White” is here through May 17, 2026.

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Exhibition

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Almost from the minute the Cincinnati Art Museum announced that What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine was on the way; I have been part of a group numbering 2 to 6+ that made and scrapped multiple plans to attend. At last, three of us made it on Friday. We all had Mad Magazine memories. Two of us were almost exactly the same age, with memories from the late 1950s through the 1960s and maybe a little beyond. The third member of the group was some three decades younger with memories correspondingly offset. The exhibit covers Mad from its 1952 beginning, which means we each saw things we remembered, even if we didn’t remember everything.

Of course, one thing that everybody remembers is Alfred E. Neuman. He first appeared in the magazine in 1954 and soon became a near constant presence on the cover. There is definitely a connection with the 1914 “Original Optimist” drawing, but the image goes back even further. The opening “Will worry for food” image is much newer. It is the October 2009 cover, which I don’t believe I had seen previously, but it sure fits what I would expect from Mad in the twenty-first century.


Mad started out as a comic book, then became a magazine with this cover in July 1955. Note that Alfred E. Neuman appears in the banner at the top, although he had not yet been identified by name. Among the changes this brought was the ability to satirize government officials, which was something disallowed by the Comics Code Authority of 1954.

Don Martin was an absolute favorite of mine, and seeing his artwork for the cover of 1962’s Don Martin Steps Out! was a real treat. His “PAY TOLL FIFTY FEET” from the March 1980 magazine back cover is a true classic.

This was the biggest surprise for me, though maybe it should not have been. I know of Frank Frazetta from his outstanding work in fantasy and science fiction, but did not realize that he had ever been connected with Mad. This is one of three back covers he did for the magazine, and he also did one cover. “Early One Morning in the Jungle” was in the October 1966 issue, so it is possibly the first Frank Frazetta piece of art I ever saw.

One of the things Mad Magazine did best was satirizing movies and TV shows. It also had a knack for slipping jokes into comic strips that had nothing to do with the story and which (at least in my case) might not even be caught until the second or third reading. This spoof of “Wonder Woman” is an example of both. Diana Banana (Woman Wonder) and Steve Adore engage in a silhouetted display of affection near signs pointing to “Proving Grounds”, “Inproving Grounds”, “Coffee Grounds”, etc.

A long-running feature that first appeared during my peak Mad infatuation was the fold-in. Presented as the opposite of fold-outs from Playboy and others, fold-ins began appearing in 1964. As I looked over these framed examples, I wondered at the lack of “folded” versions, but was relieved to see a rack of creased pages on the wall. Some of the folding had probably not been all that precise, and certainly wasn’t after a bunch of repeats, but they all worked just fine to reveal the “real” pictures. If you want to do some digital “folding-in” on your own, there are some interactive examples here.

The exhibit is organized in a loose chronological sequence, and I was starting to get concerned about finding something on one of my favorite features. “Spy vs. Spy” came along in 1961, and I was well into the second half of the exhibit before these popped up. It’s pretty fuzzy, but there’s a slightly more readable version of that second image here. Incidentally, small sketches often appeared in the margins of the magazine, and that is sort of mimicked here with sketches on the walls, like the one with both spies in a bomb. Antonio Prohías, a Cuban refugee, originated the strip and drew it until 1987. The first pictured strip is his from March 1983. Peter Kuper picked up the strip full-time in 1997 and switched to color in 2001. The second pictured strip is his from June 2004. That one doesn’t work for me. That’s not in any way a dig on Kuper’s talent. I remember black-and-white drawings of a black character and a white character, each believing they were the good guy, even though it was starkly evident there was no difference between them at all. I suppose that’s still there with colored backgrounds, but it somehow seems less obvious.

What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine is here through March 1. It’s even free on Thursday evenings between 5:00 and 8:00..

American Sign Museum: 20 Years

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Recently, after reviewing a pair of books documenting the first one hundred years of Route 66, I published a post about my own, somewhat shorter, experience with the highway. That post is here. The origins of this post are much the same. While reading and reviewing American Sign Museum: Celebrating 25 Years, I naturally recalled my own experience with the subject of the book. As I noted in that review, I first became aware of the American Sign Museum when it opened in Walnut Hills in 2005. My memory is that I became a member soon after, but receipts indicate that might not have happened until 2010. If that’s true (and I’d like to think it isn’t), shame on me.

The picture of the ribbon-cutting at the April 28, 2005, grand opening at the top of this page is similar to a much better one appearing on page 97 of the 25-year book. The museum opened before this blog existed, and things that were not road trips appeared as Oddments. The Oddment for the 2005 opening is here. That’s the Katie Laur Band in the picture at left. While putting this post together, I found a couple of unpublished pictures from that day that I think deserve sharing. One is Katie Laur and “Mr Cincinnati” Jim Tarbell chatting as things wound down. The other is of Lenny Diaspro, to whom the 25-year book is dedicated and after whom the museum’s Lenny’ Bar is named. I remember Lenny as a tour guide and more in Camp Washington, but admit to not really being familiar with him at Essex Studios. Obviously, I should have been.

The next time the museum appears on this website is on the second day of a road fan outing called “Madonnas & Signs”. The first day of the trip was spent on the National Old Trails Road with stops at the Indiana and Ohio Madonna of the Trail Monuments. We reached the museum on the second day for a tour with Tod. The journal for this 2009 trip is here.

Sign Museum Entrance - pig and genieThis blog was added to the website in August of 2011, and in January of 2012, the ASM made its first appearance. The occasion was the last hurrah at the Essex Studio location before it was shut down for the move to Camp Washington. A reopening on the seventh anniversary of the April 28 opening in Essex Studios was the target.

The April date turned out to be only slightly overly optimistic. There was a soft opening for members on Friday, June 1, 2012, and a full opening on Saturday. For some unknown reason, even though the blog was obviously up and running, this reopening was covered as an Oddment. It is here.

Fred and Tod at Amrtican Sign MuseumThe museum had been open in its new location for less than a month when I got to show it off to visiting friends. Fred Zander, from Kansas, more or less scheduled a Cincinnati visit to follow the reopening, and the place was easily the highlight of his trip. His day in the Queen City is covered here.

Neonworks at American Sign MuseumJust about a month later, Don Hatch, from Illinois, was in town and anxious to see the expanded museum. Don had been part of the “Madonnas & Signs” group that visited the original location back in ’09. We both enjoyed our first neon tube lighting demonstration in the Neon Works shop attached to the museum. Don’s July 2012 visit is here.

It doesn’t seem likely, but I guess it’s possible that Dinner and a Movie – Cincinnati Style, near the end of January 2015, was the first event I attended at the museum in its new home. The movie was Sign Painters, directed by Faythe Levine & Sam Macon. Dinner was catered by Camp Washington Chili. What’s not to like?

On April 19, 2015, I was back at the museum to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its opening at Essex Studios, which was a little more than a week away. The next day, I attended the twentieth annual butterfly show at Krohn Conservatory. A Ten and Twenty Years in Cincinnati blog post covered both events.

I attended my first Society for Commercial Archeology conference in 2017. It was held in Cincinnati, and the zero lodging cost and almost zero transportation cost made it quite affordable. The SCA marked its fourtieth year with goetta (a Cincinnati treat) sliders at the Sign Museum.

The spring and summer of 2020 were tough on everybody, and that definitely included museums. The COVID-19 pandemic had closed them all, but by mid-summer, three of my local favorites had worked out procedures that allowed them to reopen. The Cincinnati Art Museum reopened in June. The Cincinnati Museum Center and the American Sign Museum reopened in July. I documented my visit on the day of the reopening with a Return of the Signs post. With no lines permitted inside, but hoping there might still be a need for lines, the Sign Museum used the Buma-Shave method to mark an area for a widely spaced line outside.

One of the most fantastic events I’ve ever attended was presented by the museum in June of 2022. The Signmaker’s Circus was a truly outlandish celebration of the tenth anniversary of the move to Camp Washington. Things were really falling into place to allow expansion into the other half of the building. This party took advantage of that situation and was actually sort of a step toward the expansion. The storage area was cleared, and just about every sign in the museum’s possession was hung and illuminated. An entire troupe of circus performers moved into the space so that the image at left is what we saw when the curtains opened.

In addition to the grand openings and anniversary celebrations, the museum has presented quite a number of smaller events. Some have been members-only affairs, like a series of Saturday morning “Coffee with Tod” gatherings, and others were open to all, with some even being streamed live. Here are a couple directly connected to The Signmaker’s Circus. In August 2022, after the circus gear had been cleared out, Tod used a “Coffee with Tod” session to share some of his thinking in placing signs for the event. Of course, many of those were advanced placement for the more formal extension of Main Street. A lot of wall space at the circus had been filled with authentic banners from the 1940s and ’50s. They had all been loaned for the event by David Waller of Boston. In November, while the banners were still hanging at the museum, Walker came to Cincinnati to deliver a presentation on them. I documented Walker’s presentation as Sideshow Signage. Nothing was posted on the “Coffee with Tod” session.

I don’t believe there was ever a time when all of the Sign Museum’s holdings were stored in one place, but for a while, a lot of them were stored in the unoccupied half of the building. Most was moved out for the circus and for the expansion. I had been privileged to peek inside that attached attic a couple of times over the years, and in May 2023, got A Glimpse of ASM’s Attic (detached version) with a special “Coffee with Tod” gathering. The Sign-Painter that opened that post now has a home in the museum, along with many other items seen that day.

In 2024, that expansion I’ve mentioned a time or ten was completed, and I got another ribbon-cutting picture. The ribbon was cut on Friday, July 13, at a member-only event. The bigger and better museum opened to the public on Saturday morning, and so did a Negro Motorist Green Book exhibit at the Freedom Center. I documented them together with New Stuff to Look At. In the post, I mention a preview with the Letterheads still onsite and talking with the fellow working on the Maisonette. In reading the 25-year book, I learned he had died about a year later. I had not noticed the plaque placed in the museum and shown in the book, but I sure do now.

A couple of notable visits to the museum since the expansion were Sign Museum Threefer, which happened shortly after the Frisch’s Mainliner sign was moved into the museum, and A Night at the Museum, where I picked up the book that led to this post. Now I’m all caught up—for a while.

A Night at the Museum

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The American Sign Museum held a little party on Thursday to celebrate its quarter-century of existence. Things got underway at 5:00, which was a bit before sunset, but by the time I exited the museum and took this photo, it was full-on nighttime. I’m sure it was no accident that the members-only party coincided with an open-to-the-public Glow in the Dark event, with the external signs powered on and looking glorious in the darkness.

But first things first. After picking up a beverage in the party area, I stepped back into the museum’s Main Street to check out progress on the Frisch’s Mainliner sign. While there, museum founder Tod Swormstedt stopped to say hi, and our chat included pointing out some sign updates. Holes in the airplane body that originally held lights but were epoxied over when the lights were removed have once again been cleared, and stainless steel panels that had been more or less destroyed over the years by alterations have been remade and reinstalled. It is going to be very interesting to watch this restoration unfold.

Anyone who has visited an old school service station or workshop is familiar with collections of cups and jars holding assorted nuts, bolts, and screws gruelingly assembled from past projects and other sources. Although not officially on display, here is the American Sign Museum’s version of that seen through the currently clear windows of Loomis Camera.

The Society for Commercial Archeology offers a monthly Zoom presentation on a variety of interesting subjects. It started during the stay-at-home days of the COVID pandemic and has continued. The most recent presentation was from Andrew and Kelsey McClellan on their book The Golden Era of Sign Design. The McClellans were part of the team that saved this Ward’s Bakery sign, and its discovery and preservation were part of their presentation. I naturally sought it out on this, my first museum visit after the Zoom event. A recording of the presentation can be viewed here.

I probably should have mentioned earlier that the museum’s name for this event was Clink! and the invitation was to “Join us for cocktails and light bites as we celebrate 25 years of preserving the art and history of American signage.” Formal activities were pretty much confined to truly brief comments from Museum Director David Dupee and Tod, and those comments were pretty much confined to thanking people who made the museum and those 25 years possible.

Clink! had been scheduled around the publication and availability of a book documenting the museum’s history, and that worked out, although the timing was quite close. Those who had preordered could pick up our copies, and copies were also available for purchase. The book looks fantastic (I’ll review it soon), and getting my copy signed by Tod and photographer Natalie Grilli makes it even better.

Glow in the Dark activities included a neon bending demonstration and at least one guided tour of the big sign garden mounted on the south side of the museum building. Touring the garden at night with a guide looked very interesting, and I immediately put it on my list. But right now I have a book to read.

ADDENDUM 8-Dec-2025: The book has been read, reviewed, and recommended: 
Book Review American Sign Museum: Celebrating 25 Years Roberts, Grilli, Kikkert

Not Long Ago. Not Far Away.

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On Saturday, October 18, “Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away.” opened at the Cincinnati Museum Center. I attended on Wednesday. The red shoe pictured at right is one of the first items visitors see when they enter the exhibit. Photos of the shoe, backed by the image of countless other empty shoes, have been used to promote the display. The wall-filling image boggles the mind as the realization that the owners of all those shoes walked into Auschwitz but never walked out slowly forms. The mind nearly breaks realizing that the photo contains just a fraction of such shoes.

Having seen pictures of that red shoe, and knowing that this was “the largest collection of artifacts from Auschwitz outside of Europe”, I probably could have predicted the question that formed as I moved into the exhibit and listened to the included audio guide. It’s a question that most of us ask ourselves anytime we give much thought to the Holocaust. “How could this have happened?” we wonder. The exhibit doesn’t really explain it, but it does tell some of the history. It describes and displays artifacts from the small Polish village that would become home to the largest of the Nazi concentration and extermination camps.

Establishing that the “other” was responsible for all of Germany’s problems was essential. The “other” was mostly, but not exclusively, Jews. Blacks, Roma, homosexuals, and people with disabilities were among those persecuted by the Nazis.

This is the desk of the camp commandant, Rudolf Höss. Photos of key Auschwitz personnel are displayed nearby with an identifying legend.

Roughly 80% of those arriving at Auschwitz were sent directly to the gas chambers. The other 20% became slaves, and not many survived the starvation, beatings, and forced labor. Many more than three people occupied the three-tiered bunks. The concrete post held barbed wire, as seen in the photo in the background.

Some of the prisoners were “rented” to various privately held companies, but many were assigned tasks in the camp, such as removing bodies from the gas chambers or moving them through the crematorium. The first photo contains items from gas chambers and crematoriums. There is a “shower head” in the lower right corner. The gas mask in the second photo was worn by a soldier who dropped the Zyklon B once the chamber was sealed.

Other prisoners were forced to sort through the few possessions that actually made it to the camp. Prisoners referred to the sorting sheds as Kanada.

There were several benches placed throughout the exhibit. Many were positioned in front of screens showing videos of scenes related to the camps. All had a box of tissues placed at their center. There was no lack of tear-inducing images, artifacts, and stories in the exhibit. Nearly all of the items on display are from the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. The last picture is of a quote from the director of that museum about remembrance. I immediately thought of Eisenhower’s 1945 command, “Get it all on record now. Get the films, get the witnesses, because somewhere down the track of history some bastard will get up and say this never happened.” He was right, of course. That quote on the wall notes that today “…our efforts to build a more just and humane world are under threat.” Nearer the beginning of this article, there is a photo of a quote about  “…the disappearance of a number of quite harmless people…” It’s from 1938 Germany during the Nazi rise to power. As I read it, it occurred to me that it could have easily come from certain Central or South American countries a few decades ago. Or it could have come from somewhere not even that far away or that long ago.

“Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away.” runs through April 12, 2026.

The Holocaust and Humanities Center helped bring the Auschwitz exhibit to Cincinnati. Although a separate operation, it is housed in the Cincinnati Museum Center and throughout the exhibit’s run is offering discounted adult admission of $7.50 to anyone presenting an “Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away.” ticket. This rate is available year-round to seniors and military.

Naturally, there is overlap between the Auschwitz displays and those in the Holocaust Museum. A notable example is this molded wall of abandoned shoes that echoes the red shoe and large photo from Auschwitz. But there are also a lot of differences. The museum has many interactive displays, and the story it tells is broader than the one with a specific concentration camp at its center. In particular, the museum continues the story well beyond the liberation of the prisoners with reporting on the post-war trials and tales of recovery.

When I spoke with a friend about the Auschwitz exhibit, I encouraged a follow-on visit to the Holocaust Museum, and it wasn’t just because of the broader story. The Holocaust is humanity at its worst. Studying it and acknowledging it is important and necessary, but it is hardly uplifting. The museum offsets that just a little by presenting recent examples of bigotry being defeated and human rights being defended. Your mood probably won’t be exactly celebratory when you leave, but it very well might be hopeful.

With every museum that exists, it is always possible to see something you’ve previously missed when you revisit. But sometimes that new discovery really is something new. That is the case with this recently installed interactive display featuring Albert Miller (1922-2023). Albert, who escaped Europe with his parents in 1940, then returned as a Nazi interrogator in 1943, tirelessly answers spoken questions about the life he lived.

I documented my first visit to the museum here. 

A River Roots Cruise (Lagniappe)

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The American Roots Festival is not Tall Stacks. It’s similar but not matching. Tall Stacks was a festival that happened six times between 1988 and 2006 on the Ohio River at Cincinnati. Among the reasons given for not reusing the name is a desire to paint the event as something broader than a gathering of riverboats and to associate it with the nation’s upcoming 250th anniversary in 2026. Whether or not that painting and association were necessary and/or successful is not my concern. I definitely enjoyed some of the musical offerings at Tall Stacks, but for me, the boats were always the reason for its existence, and that is even more true for me and the Roots Festival. The fact that I was heading out of town when the festival officially began, but not before a day of “advance cruises” took place, has a lot to do with that. A Wednesday cruise on the Steamboat Natchez from New Orleans is my only personal contact with the American Roots Festival.

I arrived downtown well in advance of the scheduled boarding time and slipped across the river into Kentucky to snap a picture that includes five of the nine boats in town for the event. The boat I would shortly be cruising on is at the far right of that picture, plus I grabbed one of it alone.

Back in Ohio, I parked near the public landing and walked to the river for a closer view of the boats. The Belle of Louisville is at the west end of the line. On the way to the landing, I passed the National Steamboat Monument and was happy to hear the whistles blow as I walked through them. That’s not always, or even often, the case.

I actually took photos of all nine boats, and a couple even came out OK. However, with the low sun, most were atrocious, and I’m reserving them for my own entertainment. I spent the remaining shore time taking some close-ups of the Natchez. This trip is something of a homecoming for the calliope on the left. It was built in Cincinnati between 1900 and 1910 by Thomas J. Nichol for the Steamboat Sidney.

A wide variety of cruises is available during the festival. This was a 90-minute “Beignets & Coffee” cruise. During the half hour allotted between boarding and departure, I listened to the excellent onboard Dixieland trio and downed my beignet.

That left me free to roam around once we were underway.

Built in 1975, the Natchez is pretty new for an authentic sternwheeler. She’s not entirely new, however. For example, the engines were in service aboard the Steamboat Clairton from 1925 until 1962, which means they are celebrating their centennial this year.

With breakfast and onboard exploration out of the way, I used the turnaround point as an excuse for an early lunch of jambalaya and Abita Amber. That container was absolutely stuffed with quite tasty jambalaya, which I completely failed to finish before realizing that we were nearing Cincinnati. About half of it came home to nourish me as I wrote this.

Not too long after I capped the jambalaya and stuffed it into my jacket pocket, we passed under the Big Mac Bridge and were soon facing the Roebling Bridge with the Bengals’ and Reds’ stadiums off to our right. Several other visiting riverboats were in motion on the river as we turned around and pulled into the landing.

Back on shore, I paused at the top of the landing to gaze at the Natchez one more time before heading to my car. Cruising up and down the Ohio on a steam-powered sternwheeler can definitely play havoc with one’s sense of time. That’s no doubt why I didn’t question seeing Mr. Clemens heading toward the very river where he got his pilot training half as much as I might have otherwise.

This blog did not exist during the Tall Stacks period. There was, however, an Oddment section with entries not related to road trips. An entry was made for the final Tall Stacks event in 2006. It is here.

Because of my plans to leave town on Thursday, I finished writing this Wednesday for publication as the regular weekly post on Sunday. But it began to bother me that, although there would still be a day of the festival left at that point, at the moment nearly all of it remained. There was at least a small chance that it might be useful to someone if it appeared on Thursday instead of Sunday. So here it is: a blog post published on a normally silent day of the week. I’ll put up a canned post on Sunday, and this will be, as the folks in NOLA say, lagniappe.

Season of the Clown

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Not everybody decorates for Halloween with store-bought skeletons and inflatable witches. Some people, like this guy in Delhi Township that I just learned of, do it with personal creativity. For the last ten years, Shaun Reynolds has filled his front yard with unique creations based on different themes. This year, it’s clowns.

“I’ve wanted to do this since I was a kid,” Reynolds told TV station WCPO. It was through their article and video that I learned of the seasonal attraction. Check it out here. I didn’t get to meet Reynolds when I visited on Thursday, but I have a feeling that he’s not quite finished with being a kid.

I did get to meet Teresa, a long-time neighbor. I was poised to ask what it was like having a big, spooky attraction in your neighborhood, but I didn’t really need to. Her smile when she greeted me let me know she was loving it. I had thought of counting the figures on display, but had not followed through. Theresa made that unnecessary, too. “38 or 39,” she said. She also tried to describe how great the place looks at night with the lights on, as well as just how crowded and fun it gets on Fridays and Saturdays.

Reynolds makes it very clear that he does this for fun and that sharing it and seeing others enjoy it is part of that fun. Of course, some folks have wanted to contribute something, so the Reynolds family has taken to accepting donations of food and money, which they pass on to the Delshire Elementary School food drive.

I’d sure like to see this place at night, and I’m going to try to make that happen. Maybe you can, too, but it is obviously pretty cool day or night. It’s on Assisiview Court.

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.