Book Review
Tales… from the Dickens Scenes!
The Rainy Day Writers

Posted on November 27, 2019 by Denny

This book is unusual and unusually good. The Dickens Scenes of the title are those in Cambridge, Ohio, that starred in this blog’s most recent regular weekly post. There are currently 94 of those scenes and each began life as a sketch by a fellow named Bob Ley. Bob is one of a group of writers, known as The Rainy Day Writers, who help each other practice and improve their craft and occasionally collaborate on projects. Ten of them contributed to Tales… from the Dickens Scenes.

The book’s organization is simple. Each of the scenes is the subject of a two page spread. On the left-hand page is a black and white photo of the scene along with the Bob Ley sketch on which it is based. Text that appears on a sign placed by the scene completes the page. Each sign contains an identifying number and the scenes appear in the book sequenced by those numbers.

The individual photos are not credited but acknowledgments at the front of the book identify Tom Davey and Lindy Thaxton as the photographers. The photos are all quite good and do a nice job of capturing each scene from its best vantage point. Together, the book’s even-numbered (i.e., lefthand) pages make up the sort of catalog often prepared for a museum display. The village really is such a display with the sidewalks of Cambridge forming the museum.

Filling the righthand pages is handled with skill and creativity by The Rainy Day Writers. The text on each page was created for the scene it is associated with. There are works of fiction that imagine a day or a minute in the lives of the figures in the scene, and there are factual essays with subjects such as Victorian England, modern Cambridge, or Charles Dickens himself. Some are thought-provoking, some are educational, many are both. Simply noting the great difference between life in the late nineteenth century and today is thought-provoking and educational.

I’m sure that tailoring a story or an essay to a single page was often a challenge for the writer, but their small size helps make reading them about as non-challenging as it gets. Reading the odd-numbered pages in an easy chair makes sense and so does having the even-numbered pages at hand while walking around downtown Cambridge during the Christmas season. The book is available online but I suggest getting it at the source if possible. At least “while supplies last”, copies sold at the Dickens Victorian Village Welcome Center (647 Wheeling Avenue) have been signed by all ten of the contributing writers plus you can put the book to work as soon as you step through the door.

The first paragraph of this article contains a link to The Rainy Day Writers website. The site contains quite a bit of good information but appears to be less current than the group’s Facebook page.

Tales… from the Dickens Scenes!, The Rainy Day Writers, Independently published, September 21, 2019, 6 x 9 inches, 198 pages, ISBN 978-1691098804
Available through Amazon.

Cambridge Spirit(s)

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Denny

Like the one a fortnight earlier, last Sunday was preceded by a very blog-worthy Saturday that just had to wait because the weekly blog slot was already filled. Again, I’m calling that good since it gave me all week to produce this post rather than trying to put it together overnight. If I had, it’s certain that it would contain fewer pictures and more mistakes. The actual target of my trip was Zanesville, Ohio, but that’s close enough to Cambridge that I drove over to visit the annual Dickens Victorian Village. As things turned out, Cambridge and the figures that line its streets during the holidays get almost the entire post.

There are nearly 200 of the life-sized figures. Each is unique and dressed in Victorian-era clothing. They are grouped into 90-some scenes. Some come directly from a Charles Dickens story while others represent sights the author might have encountered walking around nineteenth-century England.

This is the village’s fourteenth year, and I believe this is at least the fourth time I’ve visited. The bulk of the figures are placed along Wheeling Avenue which once carried the National Road. The road and a bridge pictured on that panel will be mentioned again before this article ends.

The Guernsey County Historical Society offered two “living” tours of Cambridge’s Old City Cemetery and I made it to the second one. The first resident we met was Sophia Gibout, Sophia was a washerwoman who died in 1865 after living in Cambridge for many years. Being familiar with other residents — both before and after their move to the cemetery — she accompanied us as a guide. The lady with the white muff is Elizabeth Taylor, wife of Joseph Taylor. The Taylors figured prominently in Cambridge’s early history. A newspaper and hotel were among their contributions and Joseph served in the U.S. House of Representatives. Isaac Oldham, the fellow in the third photo, settled in the area before Cambridge was established.

The American Civil War was naturally a major chapter in the history of Cambridge and these three figures have some interesting personal connections to it. Before serving in the war, James Adair walked to California to join the gold rush of 1849, made his fortune in the goldfields, then returned to Ohio by taking a ship south to the isthmus of Panama, traveling across it, and heading north on another ship. Captain Adair was killed in Virginia in 1962 and his body returned to Cambridge for burial. John Cook was killed by an unknown assailant in March of 1865. The murderer and an accomplice were eventually tracked down and a major trial, which overlapped that of Lincoln’s assassins, resulted in both being hanged. The gentleman in the tophat is C.P.B. Sarchet. He survived the war after reaching the rank of colonel then developed a reputation as a great historian. He was born in 1828 which he proudly pointed out was the same year that the National Road came through and that double covered bridge on the panel downtown was built. The bridge stood until washed away by the flood of 1913. Colonel Sarchet died a few weeks later.

We walked back to where we had first met Sophia and where Elizabeth was waiting. Like Paul Harvey, Elizabeth wanted to make sure we knew the rest of Sophia’s story. She was well-liked in the town and at her death friends arranged for a proper burial. It was then that the undertaker discovered that the washerwoman was physically a man. That simple revelation ended the “living” tour and started some personal brain activity. I’ve read of nineteenth-century women disguising themselves as men in order to join the military, drive a stagecoach, or participate in some other activity otherwise denied them. This was something different. There are essentially no reasons that would justify choosing to live as a lower-class female in the early 1800s. Sophia Gibout’s story should make anyone who believes that questions of gender identity are a 21st-century phenomenon think just a little deeper.

Following the “living” tour, a presentation on tombstone symbols was provided by Randy Neff of the Guernsey County Genealogical Society. In the photo, Randy is standing beside a tombstone showing a pair of hands. The hand on the viewer’s left represents the deceased. It is always stiff and lifeless and is gripped by the other hand which may represent an already deceased spouse or other relative. A hand coming from a cloud represents the hand of God himself pulling the newly deceased into Heaven.

It was now that l realized my great blunder. I had driven to the area for the purpose of attending a gathering of the Ohio National Road Association. It was on my phone calendar for 7:00 PM. As I left the cemetery, I considered driving the short distance east to Wheeling, West Virginia, where one of my favorite bridges had recently been closed. I can’t explain why I only now double-checked the phone calendar with the original ONRA mailing, but that’s what I did. My intent was to determine with certainty whether or not if I had time to drive to Wheeling and back to Zanesville. What I discovered was that the information on my phone was terribly wrong. The gathering was a 12:00 lunch, not a 7:00 dinner. I had plenty of time to drive to Wheeling because I had already completely missed the event.

The 1849 Wheeling suspension bridge was closed in late September due to continuing violations of weight limits. I didn’t expect to discover anything new but my basic curiosity prompted me to take a look since I was fairly close. The result is a picture of a bridge closed sign.

Anticipating an evening spent with National Road fans near Zanesville, I had a motel reserved nearby. The sun set while I was in Wheeling which gave me an opportunity to stop in Cambridge for a look at the wonderful light show at the Guernsey county courthouse.

Trip Peek #82
Trip #138
Finding It Here

Posted on May 5, 2019 by Denny

This picture is from my 2016 Finding It Here trip. It was that year’s Christmas Escape Run. I wanted to keep the CER short in 2016 and, having enjoyed Christmases at state parks in West Virginia and Indiana, selected an Ohio park for this outing. The name came from the fairly new state tourism slogan, “Ohio, find it here”. Burr Oak, the chosen park, is in the east half of the state about halfway between Columbus and Marietta. Although technically a four day trip, the last day was an uneventful quick drive home from the park. The first night was spent in Athens and included visits to a couple of local breweries. Burr Oak Lodge sits near the south end of the Morgan County Scenic Byway, a section of which locals have nicknamed “Rim of the World”. That was my route to the lodge. On Christmas Day, I explored some of the park and the narrow roads around it. I also made it all the way to Cambridge which is taken over by a Dickens Victorian Village each year. The photo is of a huge chandelier in the lobby of Burr Oak Lodge.

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.

It’s Easter

Posted on April 21, 2019 by Denny

Today is Easter. I know that because I looked it up on the internet. It was easy. It was easy in the early days, too. Easter was originally simply the Sunday of Passover week. Since most early Christians had once been Jews, they just naturally knew when Passover was. Even those that had converted to Christianity directly from Druidism probably had some Jewish friends they could ask. Easy, peasy. Too easy, it seems, for some.

Things changed in 325 at the First Council of Nicaea. Maybe the priests felt threatened by pretty much everybody knowing when Easter was without asking. Or maybe the astronomers, who might have been the same guys, were feeling left out. Or maybe the priests just weren’t all that happy having a Christian holiday tied so tightly to a Jewish one. So, they tied it, instead, to the moon and the sun.

Their starting point was the vernal equinox when the sun is directly above Earth’s equator and day and night are of equal length. Next was a full moon which occurs when the surface visible to Earth is completely illuminated by the sun. These two events are not synchronized. A vernal equinox happens every 365.24 days; A full moon every 29.53 days. But even the most radical of the Nicaea councilors dared not mess with the idea that Easter was a Sunday thing. That meant that a mostly arbitrary period of seven days and the completely arbitrary selection of one of the seven were overlaid on the two asynchronous sun and moon events. Henceforth, Easter would be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.

That probably sounds a bit involved and confusing to many people today let alone 4th-century peasants. Come spring of 326, priests were no doubt busy letting the laity know when they should hide their eggs and have relatives over for baked ham.

In the centuries since, alternate sources of the information have proliferated. Asking a priest continues to be an option, but one that has been unnecessary since sometime in the 20th century when the majority of refrigerators became covered by calendars — with Easter marked in red — from every merchant and insurance agent in the area. The time saved has been put to good use finding ways to enhance the Easter experience. A Lego bunny and never before seen colored and flavored Peeps are available for 2019. And scheduling egg hunts has become even easier. “Hey Google. When’s Easter?”

I came. I saw. I’m sorry.

Posted on March 17, 2019 by Denny

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

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

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

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

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

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

My Wheels — Chapter 35 2006 Chevrolet Corvette

Posted on February 10, 2019 by Denny

I experimented with running away from home for a holiday by spending Thanksgiving of 2005 in Nashville, Tennessee. It went so well that I ran away for both Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2006. I’ve rarely had a shortage of things to be thankful for, and in autumn of 2006 one of those things was a new car. The reverseless 1998 Corvette had made it home from Illinois but hopes of a full recovery were dim. No one outside the dealer even wanted to discuss opening the transmission and no one there seemed overly eager — or competent. Replacing it wasn’t a very promising solution either. Used gear boxes of the appropriate flavor were in short supply and dearly priced let alone the problem of finding someone to do the swap. I half jokingly asked the dealer to give me a price on a leftover blue coupe and he came back with a completely serious, and surprisingly reasonable, offer. It was an offer I could, but didn’t, refuse. I purchased the pictured car in early October and introduced it to road-tripping later in the month. It got warm enough on the way home from Thanksgiving in Bryson City, North Carolina, to get some topless photos in Kentucky’s Levi Jackson State Park. The full trip journal is here.

It was the blue ‘Vette that, one month later, carried me over the length of the Natchez Trace Parkway after a Christmas in Natchez, Mississippi, and those two trips were just the beginning. It seems the rate of my road-tripping had increased a bit, and this car participated in a total of thirty-six documented trips over the next four and a half years. At present, that’s the most of any car I’ve owned.

This car took me not only on my initial Christmas Escape Run but on all but one of the Christmas trips I made while I owned it. After Natchez, came New Orleans then Gibsonton, Florida, then Lubbock, Texas. On the way north from New Orleans in 2007, road fan and Hudson guru Alex Burr joined me for the Jacksonville, Mississippi, to Memphis, Tennessee, segment. In 2008, I continued on to Key West after Christmas in Gibsonton. You’ll note that all of these destinations are to the south as is proper for December drives in low clearance cars. The idea was to get away from the cold and snow and that worked rather well with a single exception.

I retired in November of 2009, and that put me in a position to drive to the western end of US-62 which I’d been putting off because of the time required. That trip journal is here. Even though the trip encompassed Christmas Day, exactly where I spent it wasn’t all that important. I reached Altus, Oklahoma, the evening of the 23rd with thoughts of driving to Lubbock, Texas, the next day. Morning saw those thoughts change significantly. Snow had moved in overnight and was now accumulating. The picture at left was taken about 9:00 AM. Oklahoma City, just over a hundred miles north east of Altus, would ultimately get a record 14 inches and the airport would eventually close. It was then I had a minor epiphany: It didn’t matter. I was retired and didn’t have to be back at work on some rapidly approaching Monday morning or any other morning. Other than adding expense, extending my trip by a day or two or more didn’t really hurt. I walked to the office and booked another night.

I was prepared to hang out in Altus a bit longer, but when morning came, the road to Lubbock was reported clear. I drove, cautiously, to Lubbock on Christmas Day. The big attraction for me, the Buddy Holly Center, was closed, of course, but I could and did visit Holly’s grave. I visited the center early the next day then headed on to Carlsbad, New Mexico. At a stop near Carlsbad, I noticed some snow in the grill and snapped the picture at right. At the time, I didn’t get down to study it at all closely but I would eventually discover things that had me replaying the graveside visit in my mind.

At five inches, the snowfall in Lubbock had also set a record. There is, understandably, no snow handling equipment around so the snow essentially stays where it falls or drifts until it melts. A one lane path to and past Holly’s grave had been quite passable with bare gravel alternating with patches of snow a few inches deep at most. After stopping at the grave, I’d driven on, found a place to turn around, then returned along the same path. When I saw a car heading my way on the road I’d entered on, I drove on past and turned at the next intersection. I immediately knew that was a mistake. The snow had drifted several inches deep here and the road was covered for several yards. I also knew it would be a mistake to stop. Maintaining my momentum was my best hope so I plowed — literally — ahead. I believed I had escaped unscathed but eventually realized that the snow had cracked the hinged air dam and slightly damaged some of the tubing directing air to the brakes. All was repaired, at reasonable cost, when I got home.

The only other incident with this car that could qualify as a misadventure occurred just a few days later on the same trip. I picked up (and foolishly pulled out) a nail in a front tire. Because waiting for a matching Goodyear would have required several days, I ended up buying a pair of Michelins in order to avoid mismatched tires on an axle. I rode home with the old undamaged front tire in a giant plastic bag. It was still in the bag and went with the car when I sold it.

My Previous Wheels: Chapter 34 — 2003 Pontiac Vibe
My Next Wheels: Chapter 36 — 1963 Plymouth Valiant

Trip Peek #78
Trip #122
Christmas Escape 2014

Posted on January 13, 2019 by Denny

This picture is from my 2014 Christmas Escape trip. This was a nineteen day affair that involved plenty of motel rooms but also included a night with friends in Savannah, Georgia, another with a friend in Saint Augustine, Florida, and a couple nights with my uncle in Lake Alfred, Florida. Christmas Day was spent in Saint Augustine. While staying on Marathon Key, I made a day trip to Key West and that’s when the sunset photo was taken. I worked in several new-to-me Dixie Highway segments on the trip and made a point of visiting all ten known Robert E Lee/Dixie Highway markers.

Kitty Hawk Holidays

Posted on December 15, 2018 by Denny

The Outer Banks and the Wright Brothers’ first flight are firmly joined in my mind. Although I’ve no problem remembering the year (1903), the month and date weren’t as easily recalled. I quickly looked it up the instant I first started thinking of the Outer Banks as a target for this year’s Christmas Escape and was very happy to learn it was December 17; Barely a week before Christmas Day, four days before the Winter Soltice, and five days before a full moon.

I’m beginning the trip with a dash to the Wright Brothers National Memorial at Kitty Hawk to celebrate the 115th anniversary of the flight. I’ll stay on the Outer Banks for a few days so may be in the area for those other holidays too. If not, I’ll be somewhere along the route home. That route is not yet determined although I’m leaning toward picking up US-64 at its eastern terminus and following it all the way through North Carolina. Then all I’ll have to do to get home is turn right.

This entry is to let blog only subscribers know about the trip and to provide a place for comments. The journal is here.

Carillon Christmas

Posted on December 9, 2018 by Denny

For the fourth time, the giant bell tower that gives Dayton’s Carillon Historical Park its name has been turned into a tree of light rising 200 feet above the park. The tree is quite visible from I-75, and I’ve seen it every year as I drove through the city, but this is the first time I’ve stopped for a closer look. The 20,000 bulb tree is merely the biggest feature of a month long celebration involving the entire park.

I obviously knew about the big tree but I encountered the rest of the party more or less by accident. I entered the park to enjoy some of its historical aspects and took a few pictures during regular hours. Regular hours means before 5:00 PM when the park normally closes.

I finished up my daytime stroll a little after 4:00 and headed to Carillon Brewing for some ale made the old fashioned way and one of the biggest mettwursts I’ve ever seen. When I entered the brewery, the crowd was sparse. When I left, the place was completely full with a line at the door. The parking lot, which had been nearly empty at 4:30, was packed an hour later. Sunset was at 5:14. The Christmas related activities begin and all the lights go on at 5:00. I took the picture at the start of this article just before I reentered the park roughly half an hour after sunset.

During my daytime walkabout, I’d noticed smoke coming from the kitchen behind the bakery, and paused to visit with the lady stirring up gingerbread cookie batter. I now stopped in to wash down one of the cookies baked in the wood heated brick oven with cider heated over an open fire.

Every building, bridge, and other structure in the park was decorated for the occasion. A small train took passengers, including me, on a tour of the large open and decorated area behind the buildings. This tiny engine pulled over a dozen passengers, more than half of whom were full sized adults, through the arches and past the trees without even a hint of struggle. I was impressed.

Other activities included a puppet show, Christmas cards being printed on a 1930s era press, a place to write and mail letters to Santa Claus, and a place to talk to the jolly gent in person. I paused inside the main building to warm up and listen to these talented carolers before leaving the park.

I snapped the first of these three pictures when I arrived at the park around 2:30. The second one was taken about a quarter hour after sunset at 5:38. I didn’t actually see it, but my understanding is that those 20,000 white lights came on at approximately 5:00. The sun had been gone a long time when I took the third picture about 7:15. The carillon rang out Christmas songs throughout the evening. It had been completed in 1942 and the first official concert took place on Easter Sunday of that year. That was not, however, the first time the bells were heard. Although work remained, construction of the carillon was nearly complete by the winter of 1941 and Dayton was treated to an impromptu concert on Christmas Eve 1941; Just 17 days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

A Carillon Christmas continues through December 30. 5:00 to 9:00 Sun-Thu, 5:00 to 10:00 Fri-Sat.

Trip Peek #75
Trip #78
Chattanooga Queen

Posted on October 7, 2018 by Denny

This picture is from my 2009 Chattanooga Queen trip. The Delta Queen steamboat had been forced to stop cruising about six months before and was docked in Chattanooga, Tennessee, as a stationary hotel. I’d never felt like I could afford a cruise on her, and the odds that I ever will get an opportunity are not good. This might very well be the closest I’ll ever get. The minimum stay was not determined by the length of a cruise , and rates for the non-moving rooms were less than they had been for the moving ones. I reserved one of the cheapest rooms for two nights over Independence Day.

The experience was far better than I had any right to expect. Even though hopes of a reprieve from the cruising ban were dimming, they weren’t entirely extinguished when the Queen first arrived in Chattanooga. Although virtually all of the existing crew/staff had or were working on plans to leave, the majority were still in place during my July stay. I was treated to food and lounge service, and even entertainment that differed little from that offered during cruises a few months prior. I stayed twice more on the Delta Queen while she was in Chattanooga, and, while I truly enjoyed both of those stays, neither compared to that first one.

The photo used as this blog’s banner was taken on the Delta Queen‘s next to last stop (so far) in the Queen City. She paused in Cincinnati, her home port, twice during the wind-down to docking in Chattanooga, and I was at both. My report on those visits is here.

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