John Dawson

Fred,

No I was referring to the Alamo. After the Mexicans finished picking tomatoes after the battle there, they then moved to San Jacinto, where they were so stuffed with the tomatoes they picked they couldn't fight. With all the Mexicans in Texas and the U.S. Businesses creating jobs across the border taking jobs away from the USA, who really won that war? You Texans will soon be overrun by tomato pickers. Come to think of it, you already are!! Time to speak and write Hispanola!!

Maybe after they have taken all our jobs they will have to man their borders not to allow us in.

Fred Thomas

Cleveland Air Races

I'll never forget the Cleveland Air Races of 1949. I was four years old but the scene is vividly etched in my memory like it was yesterday. My dad took me to visit some relatives in Berea and watch the races. Berea was still rural in 1949 but there were a few new housing developments out there then. We looked up and watched those racing planes fly overhead and they were so low we could see the pilots. They were single wing propeller planes.

Suddenly smoke started pouring out of one plane and it dived straight dowm at a 45 degree angle and we heard an explosion. We all jumped into cars and drove to the nearby neighborhood, the site of the crash. We arrived within minutes and people were standing around on their front lawns looking shocked. The houses on the street seemed small even to me at the time. The sight when we arrived was like a scene out of some disaster movie. There were metal pieces of the plane laying everywhere, lawns, sidewalks and the street. On some pieces I could still see the numbers and letters. The house where the plane had crashed was on fire and I could feel the heat on my face because we were so close. Sirens were approaching. I feared the pilot was dead.

Later I heard that the pilot and the mother and baby inside the house were killed. When I heard that I felt like I had been kicked in my stommach. That was the last year of the air races. Those WWII pilots would only have to wait a year to fly like that again in the Korean War.

Bruce McKelvey

I was there also..The pilots name was Bill Odam

Fred Thomas

Saint Lucia

Probably the most beautiful place I have ever visited is the South Caribbean volcanic Island of Saint Lucia. It's a little off the beaten path for a cruiser but well worth the trouble. After docking at Castries we were picked up at the dock by a cousin of a friend of mine from work who was from St. Lucia originally. We took a winding road up the mountain and stopped a few thousand feet up to look down at our ship docked below. It was like a post card with the blue bay and ocean, white sand beaches, palm trees and what looked like a toy cruise ship.

We wound our way up to the top through a beautiful rain forest and stopped at a resort where we had a view of the two Pitons, Grosse Piton and Petite Piton. They are two young inactive volcanoes that look like upside down ice cream cones. The view was magbificent. On we drove to Marigot Bay, a black sand beach, white rivers and the active volcanoe.

Later, Back on the ship I looked up at the cloud covered Mountain and saw a perfect 180 degree rainbow. This place was paradise I thought and I knew I had to come back. I have been back many times since and have always managed to seen something new and amazing.

John Dawson

Fred and Bruce,

I too, was at the 1949 air races and saw the puff of smoke at the south end of the airport in the post WWII housing development in Berea. We were at the North end of the airport, and did not go to the site like Fred did.

Kudos to Bruce for the pilots name, Bill Odam who flew the green WWII Mustang. He was challenging Captain Cook Cleland who won the previous two air races in his "souped up" WWII Corsairs. Cook was an ace Navy Pilot. My dad kept the PD and Cleveland News clippings of the accident that I read about 10 years ago. My brother has them now.

I kept the pre-WWII PD pages on Adolf Hitler instead, and have been offered mucho money for them. They have the photos of Hitler, the Nazi gatherings in Berlin, and much more articles and photos of this era. These clippings really show their age but I still have them.

Fred was right about the casualties, pilot, mother and son. The mother and son were the first non-air race personnel to die. The then mayor of Berea put a ban on the races entering the municipality. The clamor against endangering residents of air races led to their demise in Cleveland.

That sure brought memories to me, because it was with my dad, who fought in WWII and Korea and he was in the service for several years during my youth.

Thanks for the memory Fred and Bruce.

Fred Thomas

It's amazing that the three of us were there at the Cleveland Air Show of 1949. I wonder if any other of our classmates were there that day?

Bruce McKelvey

My favorite plane in my "Air Wing" of radio controlled aircraft is my Corsair. Soon I will have a Mitchell B-25 Bomber. I plan on putting my FLYCAM on the Corsair and go thru a whole aerobatic set and download it into my puter and put it on my Facebook page....stay tuned...

Randall Smith

You and Pappy Boyington like the crooked wings.

Bruce McKelvey

I actually got to meet Pappy at an airshow years ago. I bought his book BLACKSHEEP SQUADRON and he signed it for me. We had time to talk for about a half hour. Right next to him at the airshow was the Jap pilot that shot Pappy down. They had become friends and did the Air Show circut together promoting their books....

Bruce McKelvey

Thankyou to all who wished me HAPPY BIRTHDAY this March 5th. My oldest daughter is throwing a little bash for me at her house in north Phx. Family and Friends are good...life is good.....I am now one half of 132 years old...

Alan Greenleaf

AWESOME Air show Stories guy1 I was not there, but I remember it.

Do you remember the Rocky river flood? I cannot remember the year but it had to be near 1957 or 1958. the ice dammed up the river, and water began to rise quickly, when it broke loose, the foot-thick ice floes scrubbed the CYC island almost clear of boats. Some were never recovered. I remember as a teen being down there, breaking up ice with a pick and pushing it into the water. that was hard work, and it was COLD. that was the first day that hot coffee tasted good to me. I believe that it finally was broken loose by dynamite. Can you guys fill in the gaps? I'm lucky if I can remember my own name!

Stories are cool.

Randall Smith

Happy Birthday Bruce

I never met Pappy but like you I read his book. He did not dwell on his drinking but the book was good.

I did meet Bob Hoover and had the privlage of working on his P-51. Hoover was Crazy, and one hell of a pilot. He was going to take me for a ride but he had to leave after his check ride. He put a show on with a blown head gasket. Water everywhere from the leaking head gasket.

I remember the ice dam but dates are not my thing.


I also Remember the tornado that tore up River and Lakewood in the 50's.

Fred Thomas

Randy,

I remember that tornado too. It was 1953 and I lived on Oak Road and that tornado knocked down a lot of our oak trees. Some were four foot across. A few houses also had serious damage whem trees landed on them. I took a lot of photos afterwaords with my trusty Brownie camera. I wish I could find those pictures. I remember that ice dam that Al was talking about, but it;s a little vague.

Bruce McKelvey

R.A."Bob Hoover" was an awesome Pilot. I loved to see him fly his INTERNATIONAL ROCKWELL SHRIEK. One of his signature moves was a long full power roll-out..then rotate with the nose straight up to about 5,000.ft.killing both engines..and then going inverted..a series of rolls and some more aerobatics..then that dead-stick landing on one wheel. I don't think he flys anymore...haven't seen him in years.I loved to watch him perform with 'Professor Art Scholes in the "Penzoil Chipmunk" He is the one who inspired me to do some stick time and areobatics in a two place Pitts. That was more fun than having two 20year old cheerleaders at once......

Fred Thomas

I talked with Franz Kafka in my dreams last night and he said, "Isn't it a strange Metamorphosis that in Amerika even Jakals and Arabs escape The Trial and The Judgement of The Castle and the only people left for The Penal Coloby are white male heterosexual Christians?" But then again nobody really understands Kafka anyway.

Gilbs,

We expect a complete report when you get back from your cruise.

Bruce,

I can't get that analogy out of my mind.

John Dawson

We all remember Bearden's as the place to "hang out" and drive our cars through, but how many remember Penquins and Manners Drive In? The Loop those days was cruising through Beardens and then Manners. Most of the time the most we had in our pockets was change, it was the "cruising" we enjoyed.

Trivia: Who drove a purple 1956 Oldsmobile with blue passion lights? or who drove a 1936 Ford stock?

Randall Smith

Denny Carter drove the 36 Ford. Class of 62
A single scoop of ice cream at Penquins was .07 cents two was .14 cents. Never went there. Ya Right

Two years ago they were cruisin at Bearden's again for the summer. I went almost every week and had there burger, its still wrapped in paper. Its remodeled now but the train is still there.

Manners is gone but I still remember cruisin in my Model A.

John
Do you go to the Huron Dairy Queen on Saturday's? I get out there a couple of times a year. There's a lot of hot rods there every week.

Who hung the sheet on the smoke stack with the class of 63 on it?

Bruce McKelvey

Got into major trouble crusin the drive-ins. Started at Westgate Manners (Which is now a Funeral Home..how special is that?) Went from there to Beardens...then to Berea Rd. Manners...then to Dinies on w. 117th..then started the loop all over again. My purpose for this was to scare up as many drag races as I could. In one night I raced some guy from Beardens in a 1962 Dodge 413 Ramcharger..it was a rare one because it was a four-door,Raced Fred Cede in his 53 Ford business coupe called the "Bubble Machine",Raced Tommy Gardner in his 65 Comet,Raced Ray Lipkowski in his 60 Chevy 348, Raced John Hanley in his 64 Dodge Coronet.Raced Billy McCoy in his 57 Pontiac Convertible,Raced Gary Esses in his 58 Pontiac Catalina. These are the ones I remember..usually a caravan went along to watch..we usually raced way out Hilliard Rd. past Clauge Rd. We would send one guy blasting down Hilliard going thru the gears to weed out the cops..then we would go at it. I got away with this for years...then one night at the top of Wagar Rd. Hill I had my 65 Dodge Coronet 383 4-speed..and next to me was Greg Godovan in a 65 Mustang 289. The light changed and I just went up in tire smoke..fishtailed to the east side of Wagar..power shifted into second gear..came back across Wagar (In the lead by about two cars).....then I saw the flashing red lights behind me..decided I wasn't gonna stop ...got way ahead of the cop...turned down a side street...and yup..it was a dead end...The cop was Bob Franz...he almost had a "Woody" when he found out it was me. He was smiling from ear to ear...Tickets for Drag Racing,Left over Center,and resisting arrest...not a good night...but that ended my day's of total craziness..

John Dawson

Yep Dennis Carter was the 36 Ford, he was my neighbor. Hey Bruce Patrolman Franz was a name I had forgotten about as it was Rose who nailed me several times. They also had a Bearden's on Rocky River Drive, but it was no where near the class of the Rocky River one. The Manner's on Center Ridge may have sold there left over burgers to the Funeral Home?

Randy, that Penquin's had the first Peppermint stick and bubble gum ice cream that I remember being sold.

Randy, yes I have been to Huron a couple of times. They used to meet at the DQ in Vermilion and Ponderosa also in Vermilion. I met a guy at Ponderosa who had a stock 1958 Ford Hard top convertible. It was the caramel colored Ford.

Still looking for the owner of the purple '56 Olds with the passion lights. Bruce, surely you know. Was it Gary Mason?

John Dawson

Randy,

It was Wentz. God Rest his soul.

JD

Bruce McKelvey

Actually..Gary Mason had (and still has) a 1957 Olds Super 88 4-door that had a flouresent ultra-violet (spell) in the grill. I painted that car for him on new years eve day in 1962 in Russ Ruters Gulf station a 1963 Ford Heritage Burgandy. He still has the car stored in his garage in Lakewood with my paint job on it. I have pictures of the car from about three years ago. I went to the garage with Gary to look at it, and almost got a "Woody". I told Gary I would come to Cleveland and get the car road ready for the 50th reunion to go "Crusin" but he didn't give me an answer. Stop by and "Bust his Balls" on this...he still has his Body Shop just down the street from Beardens. By the way....I also painted Denny carters 36 Ford....

Ellen Aspinwall Templar

Randy.....hmmmm...it was confessed to me who raised the '63 flag. It wasn't Tommy Wentz. But, I swore an oath of secrecy and will not break it......possibly it was more than one person.....

Fred Thomas

Those are some great car stories. You can't be a real American without a cool car. Beardens brings back some great memories. I wonder if that train is still there. I loved that train. I had a complete American Flyer set-up in the basement.

Randall Smith

I wonder if anyone else had there dad check the mileage on there car for a nite. My dad checked mine one nite, 300 miles and never left the area. At 23 cents a gallon who cared. I put around 2000 miles a year on my hot rod but gas is a little more now.

Janet Soros Ravenstine

Little known fact: Roger Schach's mother made the flag.
Rog will verify willingly