Skip Schweitzer
Here Is Pie In Your Face
You might say that the Rotary Pie Auction at the Mantua Potato Festival was a “Smashing” success. Unexpectedly, it became a “pie in your face” experience for some. That is, if you were willing to up the ante and pay extra bucks to put a pie in the face of the famous baker. At the suggestion of the auctioneer bidding started out at $250 per pie but then he surprisingly upped the stakes to $500 “if you would like to put the pie in the face of the baker”. At least three people stepped up and did just that. $500 was paid to “pie in the face Police Chief Harry Buchert (right), and the young children of School Superintendent Dave Toth seized the moment to “pie in the face” dear old Dad (above). A crowd of 100 or more looked on and was thoroughly delighted by the antics of the bakers and the buyers. It is a credit to our community that these two leaders so good naturedly stepped up to the plate (pie).
The Soda Fountain at Mantua Station Drugs
One of the two soda fountains that are still in existence in our readership area is in the front of the store at Mantua Station Drugs on Rt. 44 opposite the High School. Co-owner Norm Sadowski says that they had it installed when they built the building. It originally came from Quaker Square in Akron when they were renovating. According to Norm, ‘The Quaker Square people didn’t know what they were going to do with it; we made a bid on it and they sold it to us lock stock and barrel. I felt that, historically, pharmacies had soda fountains and we wanted to preserve that historic, antique quality in our new pharmacy. To be sure it is not exactly a profit maker, but for history’s sake we wanted to have it as part of our store. "
Travels With Skip…. Petersburg — Alaska’s Little Norway
One of the features of the ship’s itinerary is to make a couple stops at the local villages so that we might get the flavor-- experience the ambiance-- of the area. One of the towns is Petersburg, settled by Norwegians in the 1800s. We motored for about three hours...
This Old Road: Chasing A 29 Roadster Pickup
I got an E-mail from someone named Hilda. She desperately wanted some help in evaluating and setting a price on her Dad’s old Ford truck. He had passed away and they were in the process of settling the estate. She said that she had absolutely no idea what the...
Come to our Museum BUT There is No Place to Park
You may recall about two years ago that I got very frustrated with the Cleveland Museum of Natural History for not having anywhere near adequate facilities available for disabled people to park and be able to attend the events that we museum members were entitled to. The end result...
Tales From Down The Old Road… Early Memories of the Family’s...
How far back can you remember into your childhood? I’m guessing that most people can’t remember much before 4 years old. I’ve read that approximately 4 years of age is somewhat of a threshold of actively recalled memory experiences. This is not to say that there aren’t occasional flashback...
The Cream of Wheat Mercury
It was a long time ago, say about 1960. I would have been about 14 years old then and would have recently become very much interested in automobiles. Back then age 14 was a magical time when you first really became aware that having a real car—as opposed to...
The Old Car Guru on the Hill
Perhaps it’s a quiet little secret of mine. O.K., yes, I occasionally look at………sports cars. Mia Culpa. I am guilty……of occasionally thinking about cars other than bona fide antiques. Actually I have been quietly keeping an eye on Miatas for quite a while—they have been around for some...
The Old Car Guru on the Hill
Here’s one of those little known facts about a place in the Garrettsville community that maybe you didn’t know about because you can’t see it and you’re not an old car person. It’s not obvious; it’s in a barn behind a spacious older house. The only tipoff you might...
Outdoors With Skip… Four Hundred Thirty Five Bottles of Beer...
“Are we there yet,” she said? It’s about 440 miles to Clayton, New York from our house. “I think we have gone five miles”, I said to Emma, my nine-year-old Granddaughter. “We’ve got a ways to go yet.” Nine years old is a great age to be; no worries...
Robert E. Lee’s ‘48 Chevy
Holy Mackerel, the South’s gonna rise again, in Hiram! Well, maybe not THAT Robert E. Lee, but never-the-less, Mr. Bob Lee has a 1948 Chevrolet coupe sitting in front of the garage at the white house high on the hill on Rt. 82 coming into Hiram. I saw the...
First Fishing Trip: First Boat Ramp Frackas
It was the best of days; it was the worst of days. It was a day that we had been looking forward to since last September. This was the first time we could get out fishing this spring, and it was long overdue! Because of our cold spring the...
Rip Van Winkle Wakes Up
On September 9, 2012, a crotchety, absolutely ancient looking 1928 Studebaker Dictator made the first trip under its own power in at least 49 years to the Classic Car Show at Sunny Lake in Aurora. Likely it’s been sleeping a good bit longer than that, because sometime prior to...
OUTDOORS WITH SKIP…. Fishing the St. Lawrence Seaway
The St. Lawrence River is about an 8-hour drive from Mantua, Ohio. It is the boundary between the U.S. and Canada from New York through Maine. The first 40 miles of the St. Lawrence from Lake Ontario eastward are also known as the Thousand Islands. This area has a...
