Skip Schweitzer

This is part three of the story about running down a Model “A” Ford lead and purchasing the car.  Jerry and I most often look for hobby cars that were never finished or cars that have sat in the garage for years and years, forgotten until a new owner or...

We are in the bizarre Disneyland of extraordinary peculiarity with the expressed purpose of buying a Model “A” Ford that was acquired by collector John Smith in 2015.  Mr. Smith was a collector extraordinaire of unusual things including, but not limited to, antique cars.  His homestead displays his penchant...

This is a story about running down a Model “A” Ford lead and possibly being able to purchase the car.  We most often look for hobby cars that were never finished or cars that have sat in the garage for years and years, forgotten until a new owner or...

Oh gosh Henrietta, something is going on in the barn again. The humans have opened up the barn doors, too much light, not used to all this light in this old barn. Get me my sunglasses!  Sam, it’s that farmer guy  lookin’ around in here.  Oh boy, he’s brought...

It is 1963. I’m a football player in 11th grade.  I’m in English Class at Maple Heights High School. I’m in the first row, third seat back nearest the window (A potential escape route if the building gets bombed, or more likely, if I say something stupid and bomb...

From 2020 through the greater part of 2023, things ground to a halt due to the COVID plague.  Different plagues and famines likewise hit Shakespearean England 800 years ago and they seemed to last for years and years. People died, people migrated  to the new world. Here in our...

This is the continuing story of the Shakespearean-like little hamlet, Mantua Township, Ohio.  A comedy of errors, it is loaded with irony, sometimes silliness, sometimes idiocy.  To bring readers up to date, it’s a story that often features people of honesty, compassion and empathy.  It also has a distinct...

Our story begins in 1914 when a new school building was built in Mantua, Ohio. Designed by a world-famous architect to new fireproof standards it is one of the very few examples left in existence—a true Stonehenge of sorts. Life went merrily on as usual for the next 90 years until 2004 when the school system, faced with state requirements consolidated all their holdings and created one new central elementary school. What to do with this magnificent old building? Why, offer it to the Township government for a ridiculously cheap price. They could certainly make good use of it since their current buildings are meager, not in the best condition and God forbid, made of matchstick wood (easily flammable)... Let us continue our transition into modernity.

“Could you fellas find me an old truck, actually maybe two or three of them, to put on my Christmas tree farm?  They don’t have to run at all. I want to create an old time atmosphere and experience for my customers. I’ll have Wintergreen Tree Farm stenciled on...

It was a Saturday in May of 1955. I am 9 years old and have been waiting for this day since last fall. Fishing with my grandpa Charlie, my dad and me, it did not get any better than this. We got up at about 3:30 AM. It would...

No, no reindeer this time; just a puffed up Scotty barking wildly, defending her territory from a hissing and snarling opossum……….like so many times before! It is 5:30 AM, not even light. I’m barely awake—that pseudo state wherein you are not quite conscious. I’m just going through the motions...

“Cash or card only”; There are at least ten self-check outs at the front of the store… ( If you want to do the store’s job for them.) No waiting! Otherwise, get in line at the only register open ( seven others being closed) with a human being and...

“I ain’t never throwed nothin’ away. It’s all here on this property from when I was a kid. I got all the tractors that I ever owned and Model “A” cars and parts everywhere—barrels of ‘em!, barrels of starters and generators, barrels of horns, barrels of carburetors. You fellas...

“I’ve been looking at, toying with, buying an old car, antique automobile, that I could take to cruise-ins, antique car shows, or just cruise around town in. They’re cool! Are they good investments? You have a couple of them. What really do they cost and how much does it...

The Geauga County Historical Society Century Village Museum announces the Back In Time Power Show from July 29-31 from 8 AM to 5 PM each day. Step back in time as we showcase tractor and historical equipment of all kinds in a beautiful period setting. There will be a...

“You have the coolest old cars. I enjoy reading about them all the time in the Villager. Would you consider taking me, my sister and her husband for a long ride in one of your old cars? Maybe we could go to a specific destination, make an afternoon of...

It’s been in the back of my mind for quite a while now, that bucket list thing. Gotta have one more Volkswagen,  my all-time favorite automobile with so many wonderful memories.  It needs to be a really fine one though.  Old age limits my working on them anymore and...

After reading the July and August summer editions of Classic Car Magazine and, as well,  participating in a few good local car shows around town, it occurs to  me that we, the average men-- lifeblood of the old car hobby-- perhaps need to demand from these magazines more emphasis...

It was a snowy day, the second one in a row toward the end of April. The temperature hasn’t gotten out of the lower 40s. It started out at 27 degrees this morning. The weeks, no, the whole month before was characterized by weather in the 50s and 60s...

“1950s Nashes were ugly.  My father had Nashes.  We’d get ‘em real cheap when they were a few years old and drive ‘em a while until something major went wrong. Nashes didn’t hold their values even in the 50s.  They were always odd looking.  Then we’d get another one. ...

Funny you should ask that question. Me, I am just sitting here in my command chair (as my daughter and lady friend call it), watching the depressing, minute by minute updates on CNN about the Corona Virus situation out of the corner of my eye-- sound turned off --while...

What actually goes on at an old-time country music jam session?  What do they really play? It is held in a local church—maybe it’s all church music and gospel?  Then again, what if you’re not a church goer, maybe  not even a Christian?  Maybe you’re Jewish or some Eastern...

Dancing eyes across the room from me; the so energetic, expressive eyes of the lady fiddler darting in sync to the bluegrass music that we were all playing. You couldn’t miss them. Like a light-house beacon shining across a harbor, you notice them first. They shifted back and forth...