Trip Back to Cleveland, Ohio

Mina and I came back last Wed. from a trip to our old home town, Cleveland, Ohio. We actually grew up in Cleveland Heights on the eastside but when we gø back we explore all our favorite haunts from when we were young. The reason for the trip was a celebration of birthdays among Mina's first cousins and , of course, their children and their children's children also came to the event. The first day we took a trip out to Gates Mills which sits along the Chagrin River. Gates Mills and the surrouding countryside is place I always loved to explore because it is so green with woods, rolling hills and valleys, and Appalachian plateau beauty. Some of the roads around there are still made of brick.

We also spent time at our friend Arlyne's who lives in a picturesque spot around 148th St. located a few doors from Lake Erie. I love the lake. There is a bench above the lake near Arlyne's place I love to sit and look down at the few swimmers around and the dogs running after sticks thrown to them in the water. I find the Lake totally different than the ocean which I see in Southern California where we live. I don't know if it is the fact it is a lake or the fact that I grew up near the lake but I love the quiet ways and scenic beauty of all the sights and sounds of the Great Lake in Cleveland.

To get to the Lake, we always drive through Five Points or otherwise known as the Collinwood area, a run down section of Cleveland not far from the Lake that in the thirties and forties and even the fifties used to be hustle bustle hub where industrial workers from the area and nearby residents went to shop. This was the place where my parents owned a children's clothing and shoe stores for many years. It was called Jolly Kiddie Shop and was located near the corner of 152nd and St. clair across from Collinwood High School which is still there.* I always knew the business district but it wasn't until after my parents died that I have come to know the Collinwood area little bit more because Arlyne lives so close to that area.

We also used to drive through Collinwood on our way to a place called Euclid Beach, an amusement park on the water that is no longer there. But we go to the spot where it was whenever we return because it beckons up so many wonderful childhood memories of eating custard ice cream, caramel popcorn, and rides that were scary and games and everything fun and I remember it as a little seedy too but that was part its appeal . There is still an entrance that has been left that says Euclid Beach. Now senior housing stands in the amusement park's place and also a regular nice park where one can walk down to lake. Arlyne took us to a restaurant in North Collinwood called The Grovewood which is in the old ethnic Slovenian area, although I think the restaurant had Hunagarian type dishes as far as I could tell. It was a very nice place but probably very hard for most people to find as it is located in a residential rather than a business area.

Mina and I also visited the Cleveland Art Museum and Wade Park area which is one of the most beautiful spots on earth.There is a small lake in front of museum. Geese are there instead of swans I used to see gliding along when I was a child. I remember getting my first camera, a kodak brownie, and taking pictures of the swans. From the eastern side of the lake, we can see the oil can, a famous church with a green copper steeple and also what we used to call Silver's Temple, named after Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, with its beautifully designed black dome and brown stone walls. We can also see the Thinker, the statue that stands in front of the museum itself before one begins to ascend the steps leading into that great edifice of the arts. Behind us is the CWRU new library and the famous Severance Hall.

After sitting beside the Wade Park lake, we drove through little Italy, up the steep street known as Mayfield Hill. The brick streets with all the Italian restaurants and shops are still there too. Next stop is the Coventry area, which is known as a Bohemian area where lots of students and professionals from CWRU (Case Western Reserve University) and other places live or go to eat, shop, but not go to a movie as the old wonderful art theatre that used to be located there is gone. After that we head for Shaker Heights and pass through Shaker Lakes, those hidden lakes in the city of Shaker that few people seem to know about. We head to Shaker Square, the beautiful business center, that is ovally shaped with a street that you can drive a perfect circle around keeping in mind that all kind of other streets are crossing through there too. Nearby is the Shaker Rapid that takes people quickly downtown.

The Shaker Rapid is a yellow electric streetcar that was the first one created in the country ( that is what I was told). I wonder if it preceded the Red Cars of LA. I doubt it but who knows. Probably it did as Shaker Heights is named after its early founders, the Shakers late eighteen and nineteenth centuries, a religious sect who did not believe in procreation, who designed all that wonderfu furniture. I think their descendants lived in Cleveland but how did they get descendants? Well, that isn't hard to guess and it is beside the point.

We also made our way to Cedar and Warrensville Center (the old Jewish early shopping center district) then on toward Chagrin Blvd. and Van Aken and close to the 271 freeway where all the new hotels and many restaurants have moved including Corky and Lenny's which is a famous Jewish delicatessen which Mina and I and family used to frequent and still do whenever we return. They have the best pastrami sandwiches you can imagine. And then on to the Hampton Inn, near the freeway and Chagrin Blvd. where many newish hotels and tourist residences are located now. We found staying at the Hampton Inn very pleasant, breakfast was included, the bed was comfortable. The staff were friendly and helpful. They also give you vouchers for free appetizers at various restaurants located nearby. Arlyne visited us at the hotel the last day we were there and two of Mina's cousins took us out to eat next to the Inn at a place people on the far eastside of Cleveland seem to frequent called Bahama Breeze (mid range prices). We also ate one evening at a higher priced place called Flemings. I had wonderful Lake Erie fish there.

We stayed at the Hampton in Cleveland six days and then left by shuttle to go to the Cleveland Hopkins Airport which has a new facelift and looks totally different from what I remembered as the old airport. It is very post modern or it is just old modern and industrial white and functional looking but I like it that way. The airport has the look and feel of a major airport and the fact that Hopkins is the hub for Continental Airlines is probably the reason for that. The staff were also very helpful at the airport. At first I felt the air conditioning was not on strong enough inside the airport but after a while that seemed to be corrected. We had an fairly uneventful flight back to LAX and arrived ten minutes early. I would say our Cleveland adventure this trip was a big success.

* I remember in the early sixties a race riot that broke out in front of the high school. My Mother called me on the phone and told me pollice on horseback were standing in front of the shop. I think this was about the same time that Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis. Somehow my parents who were Jewish always seemed to muddle through those worst of times. They were the last white shopkeepers to stay on at Five Points. They never really left and I think their spirits still live on in that place, although I think their spirits are also at the Lake (Wildwood Park) and in Gates Mills too, places they liked to visit.