Over Easy: A Tale of Two Cities
This is a tale of the two main places or areas that had the most effect on my up-bringing. And likely moulded my personality and views. The first 14 years of my life were spent in North Easter Ohio, in the township of Burton in Geauga County. Initially in the first house my father built on SR87/Kinsman Road. Close to the West Branch of the Cuyahoga River. Even here on what was considered a main drag, there was only one other house near by. The other side was two large fields and a couple of lots across the street. This was a very rural area and pretty much middle class. No rich folks that I was ever aware of. The rich people at that time live much closer to Cleveland in places like Shaker Heights and Hunting Valley. There were poor folks but no trashy areas that I was aware of. Even the trailer parks were nice.
You must remember that this was the 1950s after WWII and there was still a housing shortage. People lived where they could find and afford. No condos or developments. On a dirt road like Butternut where the second house my father built was, there were ranch style house, a couple of standard wood frame house and a couple of old farm houses. Class sizes were small, like my 6th grade class here. The last elementary school class to be held in the big brick WPA school. After that moved to the new Elementary School on Carlton Street on land my great grandmother Hill [Ristamaki] had her dairy farm. [ That’s me, second row and second from the left]
Social life revolved around 4H, FFA, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and what ever else was held in The Congregational Church in town, which had a huge meeting area in back with plenty of space. This was rural America with rural experiences and rural values. Some conservative some much less so. Definitely NOT THE BURBS. As a kid your friends were those you could bicycle too and visit and play with. The closest movie theaters were a ways away and going to the movies was considered a special occasion. Boy Girl relationships were usually learned in school unless a class mate live near by. In my case most didn’t initially.
From 6th grade on we had dancing in the gym after lunch. Nearly every day. By the time I got to 6th grade a girl named Barbara Mullet had decided she liked me a lot. So after lunch she would seek me out and hang with me. Usually on the dance floor but sometimes outside when the weather was nice. She new I did not know how to “fast dance” [the bop, swing etc. which I much later learned BTW] so we would slow dance and I think I danced every slow dance with her. By 8th grade we knew each other quite well and I visited her a few times. Her family had moved quite close.
Having been though the area a number of times, it has changed and grown. Most of the growth has been to the east and west of Burton township. Their zoning making it difficult for any industrialization. Though most of the old quaint farms and farm houses are gone, replaced by big ranch style houses, subdivisions are few as the zoning states a minimum lot size. The large fields though are still being farmed though. Presumably by some industrial farming as there are also large fuel storage tanks on them as well. Burton township and village has managed some how to retain a good deal of it’s small charm.
But I never got to finish 8th grade there. My father had decided to move us all down to Florida and not only that he did not even know at that time what part of Florida. So in late Oct. we all piled into the family bus and off we went. I was NOT a happy camper but I had learned by that time challenging my father on any decision he made was a very bad idea.
Once in Florida we stopped in Port Charlotte and rented a house there. My first encounter with suburbia and southern bigotry. I only had one friend there and he was racist to the core. I did make friends with a girl there but she was Catholic and the Catholic boys there did not appreciate our friendship and let me know it. My family left the area shortly there after and we headed to Miami/Coral Gables. Apparently where they – my father mostly – had decided to relocate. After a week or so, they decided on a house but my father needed to take out a second mortgage on the house in Burton to buy it, so back up north we went. With a short side trip to Phillie to visit my grand parents there. My mother’s parents. This and every trip to visit them was my father’s idea, not my mother’s. My mother could not stand her parents and if see never saw them alive again, it would have been fine by her.
The return trip to Ohio and entering the school again was very hard for me, knowing it would likely be the last time for a very long time. We were there from Jan. to the beginning to Feb. so my father could take care of the financial thing, then back down to Florida to the same exact motel we were staying before.
Then one day may parents went out to meet the realtor and left me to babysit my brothers and sisters. But they did not come back at the expected time. Lunch time passed and they were not there. Then in the late afternoon a Coral Gables COP stopped by and told us that my father had had a strike and was in the hospital. I knew exactly what that meant. He likely would not survive and later that evening my mother returned in a taxi and told us he was dead. He had died of a brain haemorrhage. I was in shock for at least a day. We all walked down to a phone booth near by while she informed all the relatives. My mother did not drive so my grandfather flew down to driver us back to his place, where we stayed as my father insisted should anything happen to him. Here my mother took care of the financial end and legal end of his estate and finally learned to drive. From Feb through August.
My second experience with suburbia. I made a few friends there. Alec who live in a house that was on property that was part of his grand parents farm. He raised chickens for their eggs which he sold and in the back was were the chickens were. Also stables for his sister’s horses. There was a big empty lot/field across the street that had this big stone barn thing on it. All boarded up to keep people – kids mainly – out. The last remaining part of the farm. I had another friend there, Eric who was a radio nut/geek like I was but he live quite a distance so I visited him less often.
I knew none of the girls there even though there were a couple at the bus stop. The school was quite different. A separate Jr. High and most of the students from middle and upper middle class families.
By August my mother had decided we would move back down to Florida, to Naples this time. We flew down and the car was driven down by some fellow to be picked up at the Fort Myres airport. I very quickly learned to absolutely HATE Florida. The heat, humidity, beaches, sand, salt water. Everything. But I was stuck. My mother decided also to open her own kindergarten rather than go back into nursing. Nursing paid poorly and the hours were horrible. But after a few years she closed it and did substitute teaching and then teaching full time at the local elementary school. But those first few years were tight indeed.
At this time Naples was a small town with one main street and almost completely suburbia. White suburbia at that. Upper crust whites who came from the northern suburbs. There was a small black section made up almost entirely of old black people who were stuck there. The young families had gone some time ago. The black school was closed and made into the county school board offices. All Florida school districts are county based. Yes even Miami. The Dade County school system. I tolerated school by this time and all my friends were odd balls like me. Ducks out of water. In hight school I had no social life what so ever since a social life required transportation and I had none. As a Senior in HS I did manage to get a motor scooter and I also had a good part time job in a local TV repair shop. I knew few girls in school and hung around none of them. I was broke most of the time and they had money and that was that. By my senior year I just did not give a shit. And this disinterest ran both ways.
These days Naples is completely different and by the looks of via google maps, nearly every building and house – if not every house – has been replaced with upscale multi story units going for 1 million dollars or more. The small town charm if might have have once had – and very little of that at best – is completely gone as well. But what it is that supports this ostentatious life style is beyond me. The tech sector software house are gone as well, having folded a while ago. Drugs ? As good a guess as any.
I was a duck out of water. I knew nothing of and was completely disinterested in the suburban middle class life style. I am now almost 66 and this has not changed. Also by my senior year Vietnam hung heavy on my mind. With no prospects and little interest in college and with electronics and radio experience and a short stint in CAP, I decided to enlist in the Air-force. Figuring I would be assigned a tech job. But on the way to see the recruiter I got into a bad accident on my scooter and was hospitalized for over a month and on crutches of another 5 months. The military did not want me now.
After my accident legalities were settled, there was a short stint back up to Cleveland and a stay with my aunt and uncle. Then back down to Florida, central Florida this time. A subject for another tale.
I learned a few things in all of this and one of the main ones is that money – and a background of money. Not necessarily a lot of money, makes a big difference in what you choose to do in any situation. Most specifically on the risks you decide to take or not. Failure and trouble is not as big a deal when you have some money as it is when you are poor.
48 Comments
Good Morning All!
Have I mentioned recently i really enjoy your stories? Takes me back to my youth and makes me realized what we’ve lost and gained.
You’re right, those houses were probably built (directly or indirectly) by drugs, though there are probably a few snowbirds also.
“Failure and trouble is not as big a deal when you have some money as it is when you are poor.”
Aye. Truer words were never spoken.
Boxturtle (Former member of CAP Squadron 704, Dayton Ohio)
thanks, cmaukonen, interesting and aren’t we all period pieces, those of us who went through the 50’s and 60’s/now in the next century. In my family, there was a full understanding that while we would be sent to college, after that we were on our own, and girls were expected to marry rather than fit themselves for a career. Things changed as far as that orientation was concerned, but my family was set in its ways and we were not given wider horizons, just a continuing home that was only ours for just so long.
The rural scenery still appeals to me, obviously, and I plan to stay in that clean air and green grass sort of locale.
My sister and I knew we have college savings accounts set up when we were born by our parents and religiously added to every paycheck. The amount of money got me through 4 years of WSU with room to spare. Today, it MIGHT last for 3-4 quarters.
Girls were just starting to see there was another life than marriage and kids. So there were some in school working on their B.S. and some working on their M.R.S degree. I remember in the engineering and science areas, the girls were a bit defensive and a bit shy.
And a lot of the guys were true bastards, skilled in making sure that the girls knew that they SHOULD be barefoot and pregnant and home in the kitchen. I got a lot of dates just because I wasn’t a pig and I had the advantage of a mother with a Ph.D in Chemistry.
Boxturtle (“I’m gonna get rich and make the boys chase ME!” – A classmate of mine)
A bit of it is retired military, too, FL has a lot of that segment and they have benefits almost as large as their pensions.
Money takes different forms, and in the south we were well familiar with ‘land poor’ syndrome, having a large place but needing some income to support it. Lots of truck drivers.
Even my kids were able to afford college without staggering debt, do not think this country will be prosperous again until that and living wages are regained.
Good morning, pups. Today we have Brooks and Nocera. Poor, delicate Bobo is all upset by “The Campus Crusaders.” He whines that well-intentioned moral fervor on campuses today often slides into a dangerous type of zealotry. In the comments “HeyNorris” from Paris had this to say: “Our Mr. Brooks never fails to delight when he tut-tuts over-reaching liberals – in this case college students – while willfully ignoring similar behaviors exhibited by his dear over-reaching conservative friends.” (And if anyone should know about dangerous zealotry it’s certainly a Republican, right Bobo?) Mr. Nocera has a question: “Is Motown Getting Its Groove Back?” He says there’s something happening in Detroit, with entrepreneurship and budding manufacturing taking hold.
HERE they are, and
HERE’s Krugman’s blog.
The coffee and tea are ready, and I’ve got banana pancakes this morning. I don’t know whether I’m a period piece or a bona fide antique… I was raised by my mother in the 50s and 60s and I can’t remember new clothes until I started school. I don’t know how she did it, but when I was a child I never knew that we lived on the edge of “just enough to get by.” The most important lesson I think I learned was that you don’t have to have everything right now. Gotta go — the bird bath needs attention before the sun gets too high. Have a great day.
thanks Marion, how odd, Bobo has exactly the catchwords I would have used for the ‘Campus Crusade for Christ’ in the 70’s, that taught its members to chase after notables on campus to make the organization seem attractive. Made me sick – as did its fundraising among elderly churchmembers, convincing them they were saving youth.
Good for Detroit! Pay attention, lots of cities in America are going to go through what Detroit has, Detroit just went first.
Boxturtle (Wonder what Bobo considers an innocent racist remark?)
his own remarks, of course
The difference between a reeking pile of horseshit and valuable fertilizer is simply marketing.
Boxturtle (And we offer a custom blend of fecal derived growth factors for a slight extra charge)
I think public education should be provided completely through the bachelors degree. it would do more good than most of the ideas government has for improving things.
Boxturtle the Barking Moonbat (*WOOF*)
Oh..nearly all those I new at that time were snow birds. Now…
But another thing was that I was kid from a single parent family and single parents still carried a stigma. Of the few friends I had, 3 of the 4 were from single parent families and were considered odd ducks for that reason as well.
I’d throw in med school, and right you are. Good boy.
My mother worked and my father had a job out of town, so I fit there too, not quite acceptable society. Thankfully.
I got bored with CAP as all we seemed to do was wash the plane. The Cape Coral group got to go to McCoy AFB and stuff.
We did bivouac with them one time and had war games which our squad won hands down. A few members came from the glades, Black Hammoc. They knew their way around and no mistake.
Morning all – I am out of coffee – headed to the food coop!!!!
Coffee……………
hope you find something excellent –
I’ve gotten spoiled, go for the fresh grinding from beans.
Just a guess but I think a lot of it with places like Naples and even Winter Park is gentrifying an area forcing people of color and non-whites out by making it financially impossible for them to live there.
The big thing when i was in was the 1974 Xenia tornado. It hit at 4:30pm and we were clearing rubble looking for people before 5:30. Got a Unit citation ribbon for that and a personal citation ribbon too.
And at age 14, there was a certain amount of smug when I presented the principal of my school an absence excuse signed by a two star general with a number at the Pentagon to call for confirmation.
Boxturtle (Probably one of the more unusual excuses he’d seen)
You’re right. Once the fair housing act came into effect, there were a lot of zoning regulations created (with existing structures grandfathered, naturally) around lot size, setbacks, multiple unit housing and neighborhood appearance. And if you moved into an existing house, you had a year to bring it up to code or explain why the grandfathering should still hold.
The whole thing was designed to make it too expensive for the undesirables to move there. Some cities sold off all their lots to developers so the Feds couldn’t come in and force public housing.
Boxturtle (There is no public housing in Oakwood. But if they ever get space, they’ll accept some)
Burton township has that. Pissed a lot of developers off but the state said tough shit.
Good morning everyone.
Thank you for the post cmaukonen.
“Failure and trouble is not as big a deal when you have some money as it is when you are poor.”
I have to agree with Ruth as I am a “period piece” of the late 40’s and 50’s graduating in 1961. My parents were children of the Depression Era and if they could not pay cash for something, we did without. All three of us boys stayed out of trouble because Dad would have left us rot in jail because we knew he did not have the money to bail us out and he knew we would learn from the experience.
It’s a guilty feeling, we grew up in prosperity brought on by the mass action that ended the 1930’s depression and brought in social services. While most of us here have been favorable to keeping that, we haven’t been aware enough of how hard the corporate takers were working to end good times.
You had quite an interesting childhood. Like you, I grew up in a rural area, had no siblings, so books and animals became my best friends. Mostly true to this day. Have never lived more than 30 miles away from where I grew up, mostly rural areas except for a trailer park at the edge of a small town for a short period of time after I got married. Not sure I could handle city life. btw good morning everyone and thanks cmaukonen.
The developers here were 100% for it. if you asked them in private, they’d tell you that undesirables really dropped the prices they could get for their houses.
Boxturtle (It was a lot uglier and more open back then)
Good morning. I hope a few folks are still around. I either get up early or find OE empty.
Thanks for the story Chris. As Ruth points out, many of us are products of post war rebuild, stumbling sometimes into the 21st century. I’m no exception other than being maybe 10 years older having made the transition into the teens in 1949-50, depending on when we define a teenager. My Dad was a builder, so I grew up around home construction, participating directly in his first job, our new home in Lyons IL. From then on, I was expected to join up, getting my journeyman’s certification in some part of the trades, but instead, I also discovered radio.
So I went the other direction, from growing up in a dense suburb of Chicago, to densification of a semi-rural area a few miles further out, at the beginning of US 66.
Ah well.
Update on what’s happening to my quest for the non-invasive EECP treatment for Angina. It’s officially scheduled now. The ultrasound check for possible aneurysms came up negative ie no problems, so on the 15th I go into the clinic for the basic interview and begin. The clinic is nothing if not efficient! All my questions anticipated and answered, in detail on the phone yesterday. I would start earlier except the insurance details have to be finalized.
I’ll post more on this after June 15.
Glad to have dropped by, and hope all goes well with your treatment/procedure. Sounds promising.
Construction was a great boost to the economy and being part of it happened for lots of my HS friends, earning an extra few $$ for education and its trappings.
Living wages gave the country prosperity, and I never cease to be amazed at seeing the business cut their own throats by fighting against that.
off to do some weeding, thanks for good company
Greed kills everything. Allowing unmitigated greed as a function of democracy, an abomination unlike any other, approaching an absolute level as it grows.
Interesting is one way of putting it. 😉
Back from the coop – got my coffee fix. All fresh ground organic.
I was born in central Minneapolis a stones throw from the river. Then out to a suburb. At nine to a small industrial town outside of Detroit. Summers with my grandmother in Central Lexington, Ky. London, England. Santiago, Chile to see Allende, Atlanta. Itinerant around northern Europe and around the Midwest USA. In Detroit, I loved it, back out a ways. I found resonance in each location. I am back in the same small industrial town, minus much of its industry. Multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, an artist community of those who can’t afford to live just west which is much gentrified.
All else equal, I can love big cities, medium cities, small cities. Suburbia not so much. I love the rural.
I went for a walk the other day. I came home, I must have unlocked the door (I think I locked it) – I was inside but I proceeded to lose my keys.
I went to the hardware store where they cut a new set. Ahead of me was a lady, a little older, but worse for the wear. She was in a power chair. She had had keys made but she couldn’t find her money. She must have had it in her pocket but lost it. Her English was poor, worse than my Spanish which is what she spoke. Though with a Caribbean, maybe Cuban accent which compounded my problems. I paid for her keys. Poor dear, at that stage everything is difficult. Some of my friends tell me when they were handing out the altruism gene, I got two. It has been a nuisance at times.
But today I got the much anticipated result of a medical test – it was good news.
Good morning oldhippiejan. You are younger than I am but growing up the way we did taught us a lot about life.
When I was reading about Beau Biden’s death there was a quote that I wrote down that meant a lot to me. Joe Biden said that his father once said “A parent knows success when his child turns out better than he did…”
I keep a book of quotes that mean something to me and when a new one comes along I write it down.
Ruth, you are right on with that comment. I am definitely in favor of keeping social services and the present Governor of Illinois, Governor Rauner (ruiner) is trying to take away all sorts of social services to balance a budget on the backs of the poor and middle class. He says he will not agree to raise taxes until he gets what he wants. So far the Democratic legislature is bucking him and I hope they hold out in doing that.
Delighted to see “good news” re medical test; almost as if good deed instantly rewarded. *karma can be kind as well as a bit *h.*
I own a place in Naples. I do not think drugs is the answer to your question.
Enjoyed your article. You and I share similar experiences from the same era. Grandparents raised my mom and aunt around E 55th and Kinsmen I believe. Mom went to John Hay HS w/Jesse Owens. I graduated from OSU in ’71. I was raised in 1950’s rural North Royalton, family moved to Miami in 1960; both parents had “sand in their shoes” due to my dad being stationed at Banana River NAS during WW II. You were out there by Geauga Lake Park (great coaster) and Sea World right? Hiram where the Browns trained? My dad grew up in a house that was part of Bedford Reservation. Still just a tremendous park system (The Emerald Necklace). Dad died early too at 52.
Suburbs, Miami and the weather were a shock for sure, but the recreation centers, courts and fields were open till 9 pm 6 days a week and my new found friends (definitely on the wilder side compared to NR) spent our lives there pretending to hit home runs in the bottom of the 9th in the 7th game of the World Series.
The Beach had stars like Sinatra, Arthur Godfried, the McGuire Sisters, Dean Martin, the Rat Pack, and Jackie Gleason during the winter season, which was the only time the “sleepy town” of Miami came alive (way back in the day). The Tony Rome detective films starring Sinatra were shot on the Beach. Then came surfing, the Beach Boys, the Playboy Club and the Miss World Contest. It was very different (no major league professional sports, but tremendous men’s fast pitch softball), kind’a crazy and fun too.
Yet I still miss the change of seasons, the stunning autumn colors, Jack Frost, snow at Christmas and the world seemingly coming back to life each Spring.
Good Morning, Very interesting post and comments…my era as well as I am just ahead of the Boomers. I have seen tv film of what Austin looked like the day the war “ended”…cars driving around, everyone honking. Hope we can get back to some of that optimism…
How do you like Naples? Do you know anything about the newer Bonita Springs?
I like it. Unfortunately, my work schedule precludes me from spending much time there, but my family enjoys it through the winter months.
I am familiar with Bonita Springs, but don’t know much, if anything, about newer Bonita Springs.
Thanks a lot….this seems to be area where my new husband thinks we would like to be…..In any case, both of us will be making a move.
Lived and worked in Austin during the big 80’s. If my memory is correct, when I moved there in ’81 there were no exit signs on 35 thru Austin, yes? “Drive Friendly, the Texas Way”. City Park burgers and beer on Sundays!
I probably do not recall the I 35 specifics. What has changed so much happened with the move of the airport to the old Bergstrom base…now the old airport is a pretty upscale community living…..condos etc lots of homes + major shopping. 35 = solid traffic and Austin extends almost to Georgetown and almost solid to San Antonio….Austin has dire traffic problems…..ongoing construction on MoPac…..& so it goes. Paper last week reporting no affordable rental property. So much change even since the 80s.
very fine and enjoyable post, Chris. Thank you. You’ve provoked some very interesting comments as well.
in general, it seems many of us have a Midwestern or central us background that has given us a more easy going attitude toward every one we meet. Above all, we grew up in an era that presented a hopeful future while enjoying the present. we also had some family -near or far- to visit and many activities to pursue: reading, biking, building, fixing, hanging around adults working on cars, helping with chores, etc.
The greatest unnoticed tragedy of today’s generation is the loss of all the “kids jobs” that are now being performed by adults: babysitting, newspaper delivery, lawn mowing, running errands, raking leaves, shoveling snow, bagging groceries, sweeping shops, shelving stock, filing, etc. Not to mention that adults doing these kid jobs are trying to support families on the kid wages paid.
the one thing I’ve found lacking in many east, south and westerners is a genuine sense of humor that we frequently share here. Like BT’s photo reply yesterday “so the ball never left your hand” — I’m still smiling. at that one!
Agreed. Forgive me for sounding a bit off key here … I went to Ohio State in the late 60’s in the School of Industrial Design. Our faculty were all German and one Swiss. Their emphasis on the strategeic importance of manufacturing, innovation, technology and operations to the sustainability of a modern economy was, as you might imagine, a strong one. Being from an industrial town like Cleveland, having lived in Detroit and with Akron 20 miles east and Pittsburg another 90 miles east, their emphasis on manufacturing, sumed up in their phrase, “If you can’t build anything, you’re dead”, was not lost on me.
As a result, I have been very aware of what the corporate takers have done to us, from the dumping of little Japanese trucks and the Big 3’s mismanagement, the dumping of steel, microchips, outsourcing by GE and Acenture (worked for corporate takers Arthur Andersen and J&J) and then turning what was left into a service economy.
I saw it coming but even more sadly did nothing about it but argue w/friends and relatives at holiday dinners and vote.
Such an interesting comment about humor…now the gold standard seems to be snarky that is often cynical or rude; not my fave, at all.
All those new wood frame houses. There was a reason all the old Florida houses were CBS with the big heavy tar and pebble roofs.
I am afraid that a hurricane like Donna would make mince meat of the place these days.
Why you board up the windows. It’s not to save the windows, it’s to save the whole house.
When the wind gets in through the window, the pressure is great enough to lift the whole roof right off and then the house is destroyed.
Sorry I missed you yesterday. I always enjoy your wisdom. Yes, we learned lessons in life that seem to haves escaped today’s younger generations. Not a blanket statement because my granddaughter has far more sense than my son.
A very good idea to keep the book of quotes. I do the same thing, only in not such an organized manner. My methodry is more like organized chaos, some here, some there, some I have no idea where.
Beau Biden’s passing was especially rough for me to watch, my daughter had the same kind of brain cancer and it is a very rough way to go. When the news started to get into the medically technical portions, explaining a glioblastoma, I would change the channel.
Maybe I’ll catch you later this morning. If not have a wonderful day.
ohj
oldhippiejan, Sorry I missed you yesterday.
A lot of yard work was calling and as I told a friend who is going through the same thing it only seems to last three days before we have to do it all over again.
Looking forward to seeing you this morning (Wednesday) on OE as I always enjoy reading your comments and your input on the subjects being discussed.
You are a special lady and I would say that behind your back too.