The Nutcrackers, Sweet!
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Day 2: December 23, 2019 The Nutcrackers, Sweet! Comment via blog |
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There was a special at the top of the Breakfast Club of Steunenville menu.
Eggs, meat, potatoes, and toast for $6.99. I thought that was a pretty
good deal but when I ordered it, the waitress pointed to a poster on the
window. "$4.99 on the window," she said. "That's the price
I'll give you." Coffee and tax weren't included so
this cost me a little over seven dollars.
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In addition to being a great bargain, my breakfast spot was right in front
of the Kroger with the Dean Martin mural. I had decided to begin the
morning with Steubenville native Dean Martin (nee, Dino Crocetti) and the
mural was one of two spots on my agenda. The second was the Jefferson
County Historical Association Museum, but it was closed. It's actually
closed five days a week, four in English and
one in French. On shady days, time seems to stand still here.
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I'm going to raise my Dean Martin hunting score by using him as a segue
into the day's nutcracker discoveries. The historic Grand Theater is being
restored and the entire Rat Pack stands at its entrance in nutcracker
form. Left to right, the five celebrity friends are Dean Martin, Frank
Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop.
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There are 183 figures listed on an available nutcracker map. I think I saw
them all but I did not photograph them all and I'm only posting a fraction
of the photographs I did take. For some reason, I found the idea of a
bagpipe playing nutcracker a little humorous and likewise the fellow with
food and wine next to a "Please Don't Feed" sign. I'd driven by
the bizarre looking fellow in the third picture and was really curious
about what it might be. He's "The Terminutter".
It wasn't anything about the individual 'crackers in the fourth picture that caused me to select it. I just thought it was nice to see that many of them in a row without trees or other items separating them. That's Zuzu and George Bailey from "It's a Wonderful Life in the next photo. I picked the last picture in this panel because it reminded me of the start of this trip. When I left home, I pulled up to the ATM at my bank to get some cash. Apparently it was empty because it was not allowing withdrawals so I headed to an ATM inside a convenience store around the corner. I got my cash then grabbed a cup of coffee. The lady in front of me had hair almost exactly like this nutcracker. The clerk asked her about it and explained that he was partially color blind and what he often saw as a complete absence of color was actually purple. And here is the same mix of black and purple I stood behind yesterday morning. |
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Only after I'd stepped inside did I realize that Drosselmeyer's
Nutcracker Shoppe was one of three connected spaces. Next is the
Steubenville Popcorn Company, which also sells ice
cream and whose website covers all three, and the Renaissance Coffee
Roasting Co. & Leonardo's Coffeehouse. Before returning to the street,
I rested and warmed up a bit with a cup of very good coffee.
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This is the Nutcracker Village where I was last night but things are a lot
less crowded and the nutcrackers a lot more visible. My daytime visit
begins with Dorothy and her friends from The Wizard of Oz. Next is a trio
of characters from the Nutcracker Ballet. The Mouse
King is the largest and most imposing of the nutcrackers but I think
the slightly steam punk Uncle Drosselmeyer just
might be my favorite nutcracker in the whole city. Of course, I do kind of
like Johnny Appleseed and Rosie the Riveter.
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The Fort Steuben Visitor Center has become a winter wonderland with a tree
full of nutcrackers and collections of gingerbread houses, Santas, and
snowmen. And there's a (reproduction) Sears catalog laying on the console
phonograph playing (for real!) a vinyl LP of Christmas standards.
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The day ends with this non-Christmas related mural about Sloopy's
Steubenville connections. Details are told in the text panel. I know
nothing about the "My Gal Sloopy" phase it mentions but I
vividly remember the Vibrations' "My Girl Sloopy" that was on
the charts before The McCoys hit it big with "Hang On Sloopy".
Incidentally, the mural's only mention of The McCoys is on the label of
the 45.
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